Is Iranian contemporary culture a secular one? A cognitive anthropology perspective

This paper introduces and analyzes religion from "cognitive anthropology" point of view and tries to answer the key question "What is the state of religion in today's Iranian society?". To do this, the secularization concept has been examined and it has been tried to analyze various aspects of the debate from a cognitive anthropology approach. In this paper, after defining the position of religion in anthropological studies, first "cognitive science of religion" and "cognitive anthropology" has been briefly introduced, and then it has been tried to make an interpretation of the state of religion and secularization process in Iran`s today society. The methodology used in this article is the author's theoretical and conceptual analysis based on his lived experience and an auto-ethnographic approach. The author as a professional ethnographer, who grew up and lived in Iran, has analyzed his lived experiences and observations within the framework of cognitive anthropology. The results show that the basic scheme of Iranian society is religious and although structural changes has occurred in the social context of religion in Iran, Iran's cultural models are mainly religious and secularization in cultural models cannot be mentioned.