نشریه پژوهش های انسان شناسی ایران
سال دهم شماره 1 (پیاپی 19، بهار و تابستان 1399)

Man is a medium through which phenomenon finds meaning, and thus will be accepted as cultural matters by others. Eliminating man could mean the destruction of culture and meaning from “self” and “other” perspective. But in the mainstream cinema human not only isn’t considered as a medium which carries meaning but also is reduced to a mindless consumer. Therefore industrialized cinema can be largely understood as anti-culture rather than cultural; because the phenomenon has only a mechanical encounter with “man” instead of making meaning. In contrast, there is an independent cinema that focuses on “man” and his ontological relationships. Peter Watkins is a filmmaker that considers “man” in all aspects of form, process, and production. A case study of “La Commune” had been conducted in this article with a participatory observation method that the filmmaker considers for the audience. A monograph with subjective wandering in the film was also done. Results indicate that by breaking the monoform Watkins considers “man” as the medium that gives meaning to culture through factors such as breaking the hierarchy in filmmaking, involving actors in the process of research and improvisation, giving roles to the audience by creating spaces for study and critical thinking, etc.

Following the Islamic revolution of Iran and during the last decades we have been witnessing considerable changes in the value systems and religious beliefs in different generations of urban families. The value orientation of the youth generation could show a landscape of our future society so we tried to investigate this issue. We used the mixed method, interview & questionnaire techniques. Using the purposive method we chose 40 families. The findings show that there are apparent distinctions between the religiousness of the first and second generation. Moreover our findings indicate the behavioral (ritual) aspect of religiousness has been changed far more than the other aspects and overall the religiousness of the first generation has been higher than the second one. The distinction has also had correlation with sex namely among women were more than men. Both generations criticized going away from the initial values of Islamic Revolution and call returning in them but the second generation took more reflexive and critical approach in this regard. Regarding the approach to the political system, both generations had low trust to the governance but the trust of the second generation was lower.

Advances in the assisted and selective reproductive technologies have changed the meaning and significance of the fetus and child in the world. For the first time, reproductive selection takes place before birth in order to prevent the birth of children with fetal abnormalities and allowing only "healthy" children to live. These technologies, which migrate to developing countries over time, are not neutral products. Rather, as Foucault asserted, they are “apparatus’’ that are situated at the heart of the figuration of indigenous culture as “cultural form”. Usually, medical pioneers legitimize, normalize, and standardize these innovations in a temporal and historical process, removing barriers and taboos. This is where birth changes from a purely biological matter or a personal choice to an economic, political, cultural and social one. In other words, governments have moved beyond quantity of population control over the past few decades to control the quality of population. Therefore, having a healthy child is not just an individual fantasy, but its realization depends, to a large extent on government policies. The purpose of this article is to pay attention to the necessity of anthropological studies in this field, and to this question whether application of these technologies is necessary or useful.  We also intend to propose related study methods and theories to study this social process, which changes the cultural meanings and implications of the concept of fetus and child, and government policies which routinize the implementation of this technologies in Iran.

The occupation of the Zoroastrians of Yazd was agriculture. The importance of agriculture among Zoroastrians has given rise to many beliefs, cultures and traditions and all of these led to the importance of white and green. The purpose of this study is finding the symbolic effects of white and green on Zoroastrian women in Yazd. To accomplish this, the Zoroastrian calendar and its ritual occasions are in the forefront; in the first stage, there is the calendar and ritual celebrations of Zoroastrians. The next stage is the myths associated with female and male Amšāspandān (Spenta ārmaiti and Šahrivar). In Zoroastrian religious literature, there are also metaphysical couples (Goddess Venus and Goddess Mehr). The symbols of white and green in the form of "Pire Sabz", "Čamrū", "ritual tables of Nowruz and Zoroastrian marriage","sofre Sabzi", "Qande Sabz", "Maknāye Sabz" and using the word "green" in the proverbs "Dari Behdini" are a sign of the importance of green and white. The research method is descriptive-analytical and library resources have been used. The method of collecting information in the proverbs section was by interviewing Zoroastrian women in Yazd.

The history of political parties in Iran and the world indicates they are a modern phenomenon. According to legal documents, the number 21 principle of the Persian Constitutional Revolution and number 26 principle of the constitutional law of the Islamic Republic of Iran enjoin establishing political parties. Regarding this history, we can now sociologically and anthropologically study the structure, legitimacy, and policy of political parties in Iran. Mainly, sociological analysis of political parties in Iran has been theoretical, quantitative, and macro-level, and large-scale, and analysis of political parties based on fieldwork and at micro-level has not been noticeable. This study will analyze and redescribe the politics and logic of performance of political parties of Fasa by ethnographical interviews. This study concentrates on legitimacy and institutionalization, how political parties present in elections, and education and their encounter with other institutions such as ethnicity. This analysis is based on interviews with political actors and assumes them as “experts.”  These experts, by articulating their percepts manifest particular ontology and influential relations that conduct what in this field is called “political party.”  The results show that the specific presence of political parties in Fasa has caused a schism between people and the political parties. The hierarchy in political parties, their dependence on the center, inability to performing their role as mediator between the state and people, and injection of values are significant also in this schism.

Recognizing the senses that people give to their own behaviors and actions based on which they build certain behavioral patterns, has always been considered by sociology and researchers in the field of ethnography. Increasing urbanization has brought about changes and transformations in the Iranian human life style and raises the question of how modern urban life changes and transforms human relations and their daily lives. Therefore, it is important to pay attention to daily life. One of these changes is a kind of bio-social life called cafe culture. In this study, an attempt was made to examine cafeteria as a kind of bio-social life with an ethnographic method. The social research area was the cafes on Somayeh Street in Tehran. In this study, observation and interview techniques were used to collect the required information and data, and the interviewed sampling was purposeful and 15 people were interviewed. After the interviews with 15 people, the data was saturated and for more assurance, another person was interviewed (owner of a cafe) who did not present any new data in this interview. The collected data were analyzed by Brown and Clark thematic analysis approach and themes entitled "Presence in a distinct atmosphere, norm-breaking and suspension of formal culture, modern lifestyle" were obtained in the analysis of cafeteria culture as a way of life were examined socially.

Turkish speakers of Iran have had a very winding history and full of ups and downs since Constitution revolution until the present era. During the mentioned period (1906-2020) art and culture- including music and its related issues, always have moved along with political and social movements. In a parallel look into the social history, executors and audiences of Azerbaijani Music, two important points could be observed. First, since the boycott era and marginalizing the language and music of Azerbaijan, protecting these elements has been considered as protection of culture and identity of Azerbaijanis. These identity elements have continued their dynamic life and after removing the boycotts have been renewed as an emphasis on ethnic identity. On the other hand, women as a group have been under more social and ideological boycotts, in every era of musical life, women have provided a definition for their feminine and social identity. In the present research that has been carried out based on published history and documents, personal archives of the authors and interviews with some informed Azerbaijani musicians, first we will review the history and musical incidents of the late Constitution era, then we will study the presence of women in the mentioned era of Azerbaijan history, especially Tabriz. Finally we will analyze the elements of Azerbaijani identity and Azerbaijani identity of women in both historical eras from the structure perspective and by focusing on concept of identity.

This paper aims to answer this leading question: "what are the cultural mechanisms in transferring models of public speaking fright in a culture?"  This question has been seen from the perspective of the theoretical approach of the school of culture and Personality and, of course, Iran's documentary studies. The school of culture and personality in the field of psychology anthropology tries to identify the society’s dominant features by relying on the general cultural characteristics of a society. This study also intends to focus on how the transferring of fear of speaking among the generations, based on the views of the school and also the study of literatures, which are commonly used as poems and rhetoric among the members of Iranian culture. In the literature and documents studies in Iran, there is component that fear to speak in the public, and the three main ways of conveying this fear of speaking include the emphasis on "silence," emphasis on "action", and the emphasis on "written text". The emphasis on not to speak in the crowd in literature and by proverbs and also the use of multiple methods to convey this fear, make questionable the oral history of Iranian culture. Being of high Oral history has been emphasized by the Iranian thinkers. While there are a lot sings of being silence. The oral history is rely on speaking. And speaking in culture is blamed and passed on to members through literature, proverbs, stories and narratives.

Environmental anthropology is one of the sub-fields of cultural anthropology whose ultimate goal is studying types of relationships between humans and their surrounding environment. By utilizing the resources in this field, we seek to identify common issues, approaches and attitudes, and finally its applied efforts. Accordingly, the structure of this article in the body section is divided into three parts. In the first part, by reviewing the latest English articles from 2018, in the field of environmental anthropology, the most important issues considered by environmental anthropologists have been studied. The important topics refer to the cultural experience of environmental challenges and the processes of adaptation to these challenges. The second part studies the specific approach of anthropologists defining their relation to the environmental challenges. To participate in environmental challenges, anthropologists define various roles for themselves, including interpreters, translators, mediators, facilitators, and actors. In the third part, while reviewing the most important sources dealing with applied environmental anthropology, we examine different types of applications and participations in environmental anthropology. Finally, a model of anthropological participation in the study of environmental challenges is presented, which consists of three pivotal components: knowledge, action and scale comprehensiveness.

Indigenous knowledge is knowledge that originates from a specific geographical area and is naturally produced and includes a collection of the best, most useful and adaptable ways of exploiting and living in its own environment. Ethnoecology, as one of the branches of this knowledge, is a method of examining the relationship between human beings and their environment that emphasizes the role of human cognition and knowledge in his regular and regular interaction with nature. The aim of this study was to investigate the indigenous knowledge of the farmers of Goghar region in the field of basics of division and naming of rangelands, soils as well as the local calendar. Data collection tools in this study included free interview, semi-structured interview and participatory observation. Interviews were conducted using snowball methods from local experts in the area. Finally, from the information obtained from the interviews, notes were extracted and key concepts were extracted from their native knowledge. The findings show that local people are fully aware of their surroundings and its components and elements; As they are able to divide rangelands into 9 categories according to various factors such as climate, sun and shade, features and unevenness, soil type, altitude and temperature, vegetation, humidity, land use and dominance of an environmental factor and separate soils based on material, color and depth. They also consider divisions in relation to time, which include both a year and a day, and carry out their work accordingly. Thus, it is clear that the knowledge of local communities from their surroundings is very wide and includes various aspects.

Food is one of the most important human needs for social activities that cannot exist without the possibility of the development and development of other human abilities. The main issue of the present research is whether it is possible to draw and design patterns for the cultural fabric of Iranian food, and what changes have been made in the construction of Iranian food culture throughout history? Thus, the basic question of the research is whether we can design patterns for Iranian food culture, and what changes have been made to making the Iranian food culture during history? The main hypothesis of the text implies the idea that there has been a strong link between the type of society and the food actions of the Iranian people so that in the Pre-contemporary society dominated the collective actions in the dietary behaviors and with the emergence of Gesellschaft society, individual behaviors dominate the food arena. The results confirm three food paradigms: The ancient Persian model, the Arabic Islamic model and modern model, each of which has its own characteristics. In the Iranian archetype, metal and wooden tools such as spoons and knives were used, while in the Arabic-Islamic pattern, food was eaten with three fingers.The first two patterns, in spite of their distinctions, have come from a Gemeinschaft society and at this level, collective actions are governed by "co-ordination". But in the third paradigm that came from Europe, Individual actions overcome, such as personal spoons, forks, Knife and plates that this cultural construction is a manifestation of the Gesellschaft society.

Indigenous and ethnic arts are an admirable part of the cultural heritage. Tattooing, meanwhile, has been as an old custom and a common practice around the world for a long time. This practice has been common among Bakhtiari tribes. The tattoo of Bakhtiari women living in Khuzestan is a manifestation of the culture of the tribes that express their beliefs and attitudes in the form of pictures on their bodies. This study evaluates the tattoo designs of Bakhtiari women living in Khuzestan using ethnography and cultural semiotics. The present study is an attempt to evaluate cultural concepts of tattoo motifs of Khuzestan Bakhtarian women represented through anthropological and cultural semeiotic approaches and to investigate the meaning of such tattoos, their meanings as well as the influence of culture, beliefs and convictions of these people emphasizing the views of Yuri Lotman (1984). The research method is descriptive-analytical and in addition to library resources, information was collected through interviews and field observations. The results of the research show that Bakhtiari women tattoos are used for various reasons such as decoration, healing, magical properties, and countering supernatural forces as well as protecting pregnant women against "Al". The Bakhtiari artist creates his works inspired by nature and the world, including cosmic, abstract geometric, animal, plant, ornaments, objects and sometimes human motifs. Some motifs such as the sun, star, rood, crux, Jinn believing … are symbolic and have a long presence in the ancient culture of the Bakhtiari tribe.