نشریه تحقیقات تاریخ اجتماعی
سال سیزدهم شماره 1 (بهار و تابستان 1402)

At the end of the Qajar era and with the subsidence of constitutionalist sentiments and the weakness of the central government, the history of ancient Iran was more and more noticed by artists. After Reza Khan came to power and increased archeological exploration in different parts of Iran, many intellectuals of that time found the solution to the problems of Iranian society in referring to Iran's brilliant past. Especially with the dominance of nationalist thoughts in Iran, these readings of history went in a certain direction. One of these people was Gregory Yeghikian, who tried to reconstruct ancient Iran by writing two historical plays. Yeghikian shows the fall of the great Achaemenid Empire in the play War of the East and the West and the weakening of the central government of Iran at that time and the causes of this fall and the occupation of Iran by Alexander the Great. However, at the same time, parts of northwestern Iran were occupied by Russian and Ottoman forces during the First World War. In this article, we are trying to explain why the history of ancient Iran was important in that era by introducing the Yeghikian, and by analyzing the play of the War of the East and the West, we will examine how pre-Islamic Iran was reflected in the first Pahlavi era, based on the approach of Fairclough 's critical discourse analysis.

Traditional design is a term that is used in two meanings, first, it means drawing decorative patterns and motives, with a historical background, and second, it means design and the process of reaching the form of a product. This research focuses on the second meaning. Traditional design (with a second meaning) is a topic that has been talked about a lot, but very little research has been done in this area. One of the consequences of this scientific gap is the misconceptions and stereotypes about traditional design. At the heart of these stereotypes is the issue of “creativity in traditional design”. Therefore, this study examines creativity in traditional design with a social historical approach. Consecutive research questions include: How have socio-cultural fields influenced the cognition of creativity in traditional design? And with a social historical approach, how is creativity in traditional design? The first goal of this study is, to deconstruct the current understanding of creativity in traditional design and crafts, (especially with a focus on the sociology of art) and second, to draw a new theoretical framework to study this issue. For this purpose, a theoretical-qualitative research method of descriptive- content analysis has been used. In the first step, the components of theoretical foundations are categorized as analytical concepts. Then, in the analysis section, the subject categories have been analyzed by reasoning method. The results of this study show that: Traditional design itself is a modern constructed concept, and traditional design is not fundamentally different from modern design.

Vernacular photographs, which generally include snapshot-everyday photographs, are intended to record a variety of qualities present in daily life and a fundamental link to actions, beliefs, habits and ways of life. People practically have citation qualities like the visual context of social history. From this perspective, in the study and analysis of vernacular photographs, it is not their artistic and aesthetic qualities, but the everyday methods of photographic recording by people from the perspective of social history that are important. Accordingly, the nature, definitions, and content of Vernacular photographs can be addressed by the method of social historians who try to analyze the most detailed everyday issues in a particular cultural context. The main question, however, is that, based on the history of daily life, what features of Vernacular photographs place it ontologically linked to new social history? It can be said that this category of photographic works, due to being out of the custom and definitions of artistic institutions, is out of the imperative requirements and necessities of art, and this provides the emergence of a unique citation quality from the context of daily life for historians. As a result, Vernacular photography is an essential visual content for research in the field of social history studies, and it may not be far-fetched to say that without the registration of Vernacular documents, studies of daily life in social contexts would face the problem of deficiencies in citations and Referrals.

Approaching the history of Iran's domestic architecture with regard to its social history is still a nascent interdisciplinary knowledge; While the evidence related to the architecture of the houses is not lacking among the historical sources. The logical way to do this is to understand and explain the methods and tools of historians who wrote the social history of architecture. In this research, firstly, through internal criticism of the text of one of the authentic social histories of Western architecture, about the house and domestic life, some familiar concepts in the field of social sciences including household and family, sex and gender, power and dignity, social mobility in relation to the architecture of houses. The English suburbs and manners were obtained; Then, to measure the possibility of applying this approach in the social historiography of Iranian architecture, these concepts were presented to texts related to domestic life in Qajar Tehran. Relying on the historical evidence based on these texts indicates that with scientific considerations, some of the theoretical tools and methods of social science scholars can be used to develop historical views and interpretations of Iranian architecture. Achieving this goal requires re-reading the historical sources of each period - here the Qajars - in terms of the evidence they provide from both the categories of social groups and architecture. In addition, there are some specifics in facing this issue, which is related to the difference in the social and cultural nature of the British and Iranian societies.

The Nabatean illustrations showcase a rich trove of the time-honored leitmotifs of its neighbors and the autochthonous mentalities. The tradition was grown, expanded, and echoed down the ages, with some motifs appropriated, mutatis mutandis, in neighboring regions, especially in its southern neighbor – Central Arabia. The main questions this study attempts to answer are: What are the myriad mentalities of the Nabataean illustrations, not least their sociocultural signification? And how and to what extent these mentalities informed the pictorial mentalities of Arabs residing in Central Arabia? Adopting a sociocultural and anthropological approach and examining the various pieces of evidence (notably the material finds reported by anthropologists), the social signification and function of images in the daily lives of the people, such as the all-pervasive influence of images and the temporary interdiction against the depiction of humans on tombstones, are investigated. The Nabatean mentalities are shown to have permeated Arabian society via a variety of cultural conduits like commercial exchanges and, more conspicuously, through the importing of figurines of goddesses like ʿUzza/Isis, which culminated in major cultural resemblances between the Nabatean and Arabian cultures.

In the middle of the Qajar period, multinational companies took over the Iranian carpet industry. These companies ceased to operate when World War I began. Thus, by the beginning of the Pahlavi period, the conditions were ripe for ousting multinational companies. Subsequently, with governmental support, Iranian manufacturers established rug-weaving workshops in many cities, including Qazvin, where several carpet companies commenced working, the most famous of which were "Qazvin’s Etemaad Company’s Carpet Weaving Workshop" and "Salamat". The aim of this research is to identify the socioeconomic settings in which carpet weaving companies formed in Qazvin during the above-mentioned period, as well as studying their development process. The authors have tried to answer these questions: What social and economic backgrounds led to the foundation of Qazvin’s rug-weaving companies? How were carpet production’s process and methods in these companies? The research is done with a sociohistorical approach and with qualitative analysis of oral data and first-hand documents. The results show that between 1918 and 1950 weaving high-quality carpets became prosperous in Qazvin, due to various factors like its proximity to Tehran and important rug-weaving centers, the assembly of investors, and governmental supports. But the American recession, and World War II, reduced the demand in Western markets; therefore, carpet production was also reduced. After the Russian squad’s arrival in Qazvin, Etemaad almost ceased to operate. Being afraid of the financial support of Qazvini notables for sociopolitical movements, the Russians exiled Etemaad’s founders to Baku in 1942. Despite the efforts made after that by some certain producers, the carpet production of Qazvin was over by the beginning of the 50s. In the course of sociopolitical changes, the workshop rug of Qazvin also evolved. In weaving techniques and artistic aspects (design, pattern and color), Qazvin rugs followed neighboring rug-weaving centers, such as Kashan and Sarouq.

Problem Statement: Khamsah of Nezami is one of the greatest books of Persian literature, which has been highly regarded by the miniature artiste of different times due to its romantic and lyrical poems; beyond this, it provides a salient context for field of social history and presents the cultural status of women in specific historical eras. The visual lived reality illustrated by the women images in Khamsah of Tahmasebi, including customs, traditions and socio-cultural conditions of them in the Safavid era, can be well studied in these miniature paintings. these representations are in somehow expressing the conditions of daily life of women in their historical transition. Research Method To get the research aim, the theory of different fields` influences on creating artworks by Pierre Bourdieu was applied to discuss the extent of the influence of historical and social fields of Safavid in illustrating women images in Khamsah of Tahmasbi. However, the question here is that: 1. what aspects of women lives in the Safavid era are presented in the miniature paintings of Khamsah Tahmasbi and 2. which social and historical fields have been influenced by it? We conclude that the images of women in Khamsah Tahmasbi, due to the strict supremacy of the Shah and the Safavid court, the "court women" are mostly depicted and, contrary to the views of traditionalists, who believe in presentation of an imaginary world, many public customs and beliefs, or the realities of Safavid society are represented by them.

The objects like 'talismans and amulets' (charms) have always been used by humans from the past to the present to remove misfortunes and distress conditions. The Baloch are among those ethnic groups of Iran that still use these talismans. They used symbolic objects and patterns in their daily work to protect themselves against calamities and stay away from misfortunes in life. Considering that handwoven works are among their most important applied and everyday artworks, and given they use many figures of these charms in these works, to know and think about that people, it is necessary to research on these handwoven, this research aims to answer the inspiration of supernatural beliefs in these handwoven works. Therefore, according to the purpose of the research, which is to review the manifestation and representation of supernatural beliefs in the material culture of Baloch nomads by focusing on handwoven artworks, and by using a descriptive-analytical method, library sources, and field observations to collect data, it has been found that the beliefs of this nations have been manifested in their handwoven in forms of plants, geometric, animals and human motifs in daily applied objects. It has also been observed that the frequency of motifs inspired by applied objects is more than other elements. Moreover, the most frequent object was related to the concept of the evil eye (Nazar). It seems that from the past until the present, removing the evil forces, which are mostly pointed to other eyes is of great importance among these people, compared to other misfortunes.

Iranian art history is basically dominated by men and the court. This art has mostly been supported by male patrons and artists, and whenever women appear, they play a minor role as the theme and subject of works. This trend, however, underwent a drastic change during the reign of Fath-Ali Shah in his court and in the hands of his artist daughters and other women. They started a new movement by putting their signatures under or at the end of their works, considered a unique act in its own by that time. In this essay such a trend has been studied besides considering others aspects of women’s art in the Qajar era up to the Pahlavi period in the Kamal-ol-Molk’s school and his female apprentices’ work. An evaluation of the extant cases and works demonstrates that signatures by the female artists, inside and outside the realm of court, have increased in the course of time as a result of several factors, including the women’s self-consciousness, evolution of educational system and a decline in despotism. The act of signing works implied some essential concepts the most significant of which were credit, ownership and personal identity.

Creating precious architectural and artworks is an important socio-cultural act. Consequently, the act of preserving those resources could be considered a socio-cultural action. In general, preserving historic resources is studied as a humanist and modern act; however, historically, and particularly in the pre-modern era, there are instances of the same socio-cultural actions, which, if not entirely, at least in some parts, ties to the modern approaches of preservation.

This paper, in a descriptive-analytical method and with a concentration on social history, examines some of the existing examples and historical records of preservation actions. The main question of this research is how the preservation of historic resources as a socio-cultural action could be analyzed through social history. This question is important because the preservation of historic resources is not only a modern approach but a social and cultural response, which in many cases is for political and religious purposes. Thus, it could enlighten some parts of the cultural and social life of the people in pre-modern Iran.

while it confirms the continuousness of society’s attention to historic resources over time for several reasons, including value, national and religious interest, cultural and social beliefs, and political motivations, it also creates public awareness and, subsequently, social advocacy for the conservation and preservation of historic resources, or in some cases, the opposite, destruction of cultural and historical resources for the same reasons.

Objects and works of art can narrate the history and lifestyle of the people of their historical period. Among these objects is Qalmadan (pen box) had an important function and role in the social and cultural system of the Qajar era. During the Qajar era, the lifestyle of many Iranians, especially the literate class, was associated with Qalamdan. From the social point of view, Qalamdan represented more than anything the social class of the Mirzas, who were considered as the few literate people of Qajar era. Beyond that, the Qalamdan was a symbolic sign of the dignity and status of its owners in the Qajar political sphere. At the highest level, it was a sign of chancellery and was considered one of the exquisite royal gifts; But as we get closer to the end of the Qajar era, with the change of cultural and social patterns, especially the change in the lifestyle and cultural patterns of the society, this object gradually lost its value and symbolic significance and joined history along with many other cultural objects.