A Study of Changes in Miandeh Village in Gilan after Fifteen Years (Iran)

In the past, the prevalence of social changes in the villages was very low and slow, but gradually with the passage of time and under the influence of several factors, changes have emerged in the rural society of Iran which include various aspects. Study on these changes not only provides the possibility of knowing the current situation and changes of some rural areas and the reasons for these changes, but it can also help predict the possible path of these changes in the future and formulate suggested solutions and plans based on the knowledge of the contemporary rural society. The main question of the current research is what changes after 15 years of the previous study have undergone in Miandeh village in Gilan in the terms of population and some social components, agricultural activity, division of labor between rural women and men, physical structure and settlements. Ethnography as a research method was used in this research With techniques of semi-structured interview and observation for data collecting during the years 1400-1401. The analysis of these data was done by thematic analysis method. Decrease in population of the village and increase in the migration of villagers to the nearby city, depopulation of some parts of the village, the loss of neighborhood environment, the feeling of lack of security and fear among some of the survivors of the village, prevalence of theft in the village due to its becoming more secluded, replacement of mostly non-Gilani city dwellers with temporary residence in the village, the proximity of two population groups in the village with two different lifestyle, i.e. 1) production and 2) recreation, leisure and consumption, formation of temporary and small settlements for the temporary accommodation of farmers living in a nearby city, implementation of the plan for leveling fields, use of rice planting machine by a number of villagers, changes in the division of labor between rural men and women, etc. are some of the visible changes in this village that were investigated in this research.