A Semiotic Study of Balochi Food and Religion in Iranian Balochistan

Food as a sign system signifies the identity and culture of a nation as well as such items like religious beliefs and values, gender, climate, geographic location, generation status, age, job order, race, social norms, aesthetics and the amount of income. This research is an attempt to investigate the semiotics of Baloch people’s food living in Iranian Baluchestan based on Barthes’(1957,1987) levels of signification and show that Balochi food has semantic and semiotic readings according to religion. To this end, in gathering the research data, the techniques of interviewing, questionnaire and direct observation of Balochi food samples were used. The food questionnaire has been written based on religion variable and related categories and then distributed among 62 Baloch participants (32 females and 30 males) from Khash, Iranshahr, Sarawan, Sarbaz, Nikshahr, and Chabahar cities. The analysis of the data has been carried out by SPSS and EXCEL softwares. The research results show that Iranian Balochi food not only serve as a sign system which has a close relationship with religion in accordance with the categories under study including: Halal and Haram, Islam’s emphasis on correct and healthy nutrition, food in religious Eves and the Holy month of Ramadan, food and hospitality and Islam’s emphasis on honor of guest, eating habits, respect for food and blame for food waste in Islam but enjoys religious semantic and semiotic readings as well.