Suchergebnisse

AbstractThe traditional ecological adaptation of the herder-horticulturists of South Iran represents a distinct pattern of subsistence and a different type of adaptation. Being neither pastoral nomads nor sedentary agriculturists, their economy is maintained by a combination of herding (mainly goats) and cultivation of semi-wild orchards and rose bushes on the high altitudes, without the use of irrigation. This study is predominantly based on the field-work materials recorded during several years in the late 1980s.

AbstractThe article is a brief examination of the beliefs in supernatural and the relevant practice among the Baharvand (Bahārvand) of Lorestān (Luristān) and the Basseri (Bāser ī) of Fārs provinces prior to the Islamic Revolution in Iran. Most of the previous research on this subject at that time failed to note the existence of such beliefs and practices among the Iranian pastoral nomads, mainly because supernaturalism was explained in terms of readily observable phenomena. The author, however, intends to show that supernaturalism has always been a constant element of the spiritual life of the pastoral societies of Iran.

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.