نشریه مطالعات مردم شناختی
سال سوم شماره 3 (پیاپی 7، پاییز 1399)

Happiness and lifestyle as two semantic concepts in different domains of human life over history have received considerable attention in the contemporary world. These two concepts have formed a branch of interdisciplinary studies involving all humanities including psychology, sociology, philosophy, law, economics, anthropology, and cultural studies. In this article, based on an analytical and theoretical introduction about relationships between happiness and lifestyle, I will first analyze the concept of happiness from a cultural approach and then characterize the aspects and features of the culture of happiness. I will also investigate the concept of lifestyle and briefly illustrate its relationships with happiness. In this article which is majorly based on my lived experience, I have emphasized the historical and social context of Iranianschr('39') life to comprehend their lifestyle.

Emotions have been the focus of anthropology for a very long time. In psychological and psychoanalytical anthropology, even in the phenomenological outlooks with naturalistic attitude, affections have been considered as a universal matter. This means that emotions can definitely be released through different social and cultural elements, which causes them to have the same foundations from society to society. Considering biological bases for emotions, naturalists create concepts for collective reason and materialistic facts, in order to make them recognizable in neurological and hormonal mechanisms. But from anthropological viewpoint, emotions like happiness are considered as cultural constructions. These cultural patterns affect people in a way that they often try to work on their emotions in order to cultivate those emotions that they think they should express at a particular time and place in society. The culture semantic network that determines our emotional approaches, thoughts and behaviors, is not usually obvious enough. This network generates both facilities and limitations which cause the people to internalize a cultural coherence and unconsciously present it in their perceptions, thoughts and behaviors. The ambiguity of this semantic network creates this delusion for people that their emotions and perceptions towards different issues are individual. This ambiguity becomes clear when the cultural differences of societies are examined through a comparison mechanism. When we compare our sense of happiness with another’s sense of happiness, it becomes clear that what we perceive is not necessarily natural and can change according to socioeconomic and cultural conditions. Social, economic and cultural capitals, can also determine the happiness circumstance of a society, based on specific elements.

Happiness is a state of mind that cannot be studied without considering personchr('39')s cultural and social conditions. In fact, happiness is rooted in society and culture; increasing the happiness of the people, is an indicator and criterion of a good and healthy society. Happiness is one of the main elements in any culture, in other words, the most important factor in the happiness of a society lies in the culture of that society. Satisfaction and happiness in the lives of people whose culture has more joyful elements is more than people whose culture is independent of these elements. Indeed, happiness is a fundamental element of the beliefs and popular culture of the people of Mazandaran. In this article, we are looking at what are these elements and cultural aspects of happiness? And the status and importance of the traditional culture of happiness and how to maintain it.

This Article intended to scrutinize the meanings of ritual happiness as one of the momentous concerns and salient parts of happiness culture among Iranian children. In order to elucidate the importance of happiness culture in society, in addition to a review on the meaning of ritual happiness in some particular rituals such as Gereh Goushu, Houmbaba, Shah Andazi, Sadey, games and then, two samples of state polices related to Iranian children are considered. This article strongly suggests new Polices of happiness for children in Iran.

One of the issues that have been disputed during recent decades includes discursive clashes and disputes over the culture of happiness in Iran and its controversial connections to formal culture and system of norms. To response to this question from anthropological standpoint, firstly cultural resources of happiness should be recognized in Iran. Then the relationship between culture of happiness -as a phenomenon closer to emotional pole- with the normative pole of the society should be examined and its forms including polyphony, liminality and dialogic are to be described. As such, the key features of Iranchr('39')s happiness culture such as polyphonic, diversity and dialogical attributes should be discussed more. This approach will come to help us to define and determine how happiness culture in Iran comes to view as a polyphonic form tied to cultural diversity. To reduce discursive clashes, this should be known as one of those important steps that will be taken toward cultural polices in Iran.

The old civilization and cultural diversity have made Mazandaran Province the cradle and the suitable place for holding tens of local and folkloric festivals, and the center for joyful, identity-building, and motivating programs as well. Due to its strategic nature in the process of economy and culture of this country, this province plays a key role in local development and restoring happiness in the society tired of hard-working and life. This research is aiming to identify local and folkloric festivals of Mazandaran with the approach of creating happiness in the provincial broadcasting network. The statistics population at the first phase of the research (qualitative research) included the officials (elites) in charge of holding the local and folkloric festivals in Mazandaran Province in 2018. The statistics population at the second phase was all visitors to the local and folkloric festivals in Mazandaran Province in 2018 among them 384 persons were regarded as the statistical samples based on Krejcie and Morgan Table 2001. Data were collected after transforming the interviews of the elites into written forms and extracting related codes and categorizing them, and a questionnaire was designed with closed answers. Computer software SPSS 23 was used for analyzing the data in both descriptive and inferential statistics. The results of the research showed that 35 local and folkloric festivals were held across Mazandaran Province in 2018. From the elites’ point of view, the happiness-creating components of the local and folkloric festivals were individual happiness, family happiness, and social happiness. From the visitors’ point of view, ten happiness-creating components, including natural happiness, spiritual happiness, hope for future, social solidarity, economic prosperity, job success at workplace, prevention of social harms, increasing productivity, strengthening family ties, and intimacy were mentioned among 68 indicators.

Happiness has been the main reason for Iranian national celebrations. Celebrations that are associated with myths and cultural symbols. Mehregan and Nowruz are the two great Iranian festivals that have been held in Iran since ancient times in order to protect the good and useful blessings of AhuraMazda. Nowruz (March 20) is celebrated in conjunction with the spring equinox and Mehregan during the fall equinox (September 21), and perhaps these two can be considered as a celebration of planting and harvesting in the agricultural days of Iran. The survival of these two celebrations to this day is due to the similarity of its symbols and signs with the stories of the holy books. The story of the Flood of Noah (pbuh) is told in the Semitic religions such as Islam, Christianity and Judaism, but the Iranians and Zoroastrians were unfamiliar with this story. By combining symbols and finding common ground with the myths and mythical kings of Iran, Zoroastrians were able to give a national and religious aspect to the two main celebrations of Mehregan and Nowruz, and protect them from the danger of being forgotten and obsolete. The research method in this paper is descriptive-analytical and finally, by comparative analogy, an attempt has been made to find commonalities. The main question of this research was the reason why these festivals have survived to this day.