Reflection of Var Ritual in Balouch Tribe Historical Stories ;Case Study of Malek Shah and Allahi

Rituals and customs are the basic elements of culture and a way to know the ideology of people. The more variable rituals and customs of a nation are, the more that nation’s culture is varied and expanded. In the current situation of the world where identity crisis is an issue, returning to traditional rituals and customs is one of the methods of preserving cultural identity. Balouch tribe is one of the original tribes of Iran, preserving its language, culture, and rituals. One of the rituals of the tribe is called Nal or Var, which is mentioned in many Balouchi stories too. One of these stories is Shahdad and Mahnaz in which the ritual is performed. To do this study, we interviewed some Balouch people in different regions. It is noticeable that despite religious awareness increase of people, it is still performed in different regions and in cases of theft, magic, and betrayal where there exists no proof to prove the convict’s sinfulness or innocence. A noticeable case of the ritual occurred for Malek Shah and Allahi, in 1871. There are numerous cases of the ritual but only some of them will be mentioned here. This study efforts to find out in which cases and accusations the ritual occurred more. The answer is that the Nal ritual was performed more for accusations of theft, magic and betrayal especially for theft. This study is based on an analytic-descriptive and field-research methodology.