Fieldwork among Pastoral Nomads and in Sedentary Communities of Iran

In: Iranian studies, Band 37, Heft 4, S. 613-621

Abstract

Even as a high school student in Luristan I was interested in folklore, in recording folk tales, songs, and poems, and in the various customs of the different peoples of Iran. When I returned from the United States in 1974 with a Ph.D. in anthropology and started to teach at what then was Pahlavi University (now Shiraz University), I realized that my professional interest amounted to a scholarly mission, given the fact that so few anthropologists were active in Iran and how much there was to record ethnographically. As I like to travel (mostly by car so as to have easy and spontaneous access to locations of interest) and to interact with people, I have taken my work to many places. I have no problems making contacts or communicating with people of all walks of life, although gender is, of course, an issue. As a rule, I work on projects where I do not have to interact privately with women, or else where I can rely on the services of a female assistant.