A Thematic Analysis of Metamorphosis in the Culture and Stories of the Bakhtiary and Kohkiloye-and-Boyer-Ahmad People

Metamorphosisis one of the key issues in myth and mythological stories in which a creature physically changes and temporally or permanently losses its formal shape, as well as its recognized and natural formation to reach perfection or suffer a deficiency; thus, gaining a new shape. Metamorphosis sometimes constructs a part of the creature, becomes eternal, young or vulnerable, or finds a synthetic structure comprised of the human and animal features, and lives contrary to its basic nature. In this study, with regards to the significance of the issue under consideration and the status of culture and folk literature, different types of metamorphosis in the popular culture and literature of the Bakhtiary and Kohkiloye-and-Boyer-Ahmad people are investigated. Going throughvarious kinds of human metamorphosis to an animal, a tree, a bird, heavenly bodies, and vice versa, we shall be concerned with analyzing their literary representations and mythological aspects of different types of metamorphosis among the Bakhtiaries and Kohkiloye-and-Boyer-Ahmad people. This study is conducted fundamentally based on the library and field study using qualitative content analysis. Upon investigating various sources and analyzing literary and mythological representations of different kinds of metamorphosis, it may be indicated that the most important types of metamorphosis in the cultural and belief system of these people subsume the metamorphosis of human to animals such as bear, wolf, iger, and turtle. As a result of committing sinful actions, humans are metamorphosized into a tree