نشریه مطالعات مردم شناختی
سال دوم شماره 3 (پیاپی 4، پاییز 1395)

Shabih-Xani or better known as Ta’ziyeh is an Iranian intangible cultural heritage. Scholars with different approaches have surveyed Shabih-Xani and categorized it as play, theatre or ritual. Most of these points of view ignored the cultural plurality in applying the definitions of these terms. This research aimed to investigate the mentioned issue under the light of cultural diversity. Therefore, the definitions of drama, ritual and play have been discussed to reach a better understanding of these terms regarding cultural diversities. Considering Schechner’s theory on theatre and other activities relating to it, namely games, plays, sports, dances and music, it has been cleared that Shabih-Xani is an oriental dramatic performance that has been intertwined with ritual and game. In terms of function, however, the approach of Shabih-Xani to ritual can be considered the best among other activities. Furthermore, Shabih-Xani has applied dramatic performing conventions in harmony with Iranian culture to form a unique dramatic system.

Cultural ecology is a knowledge that investigates and analyzes the cultural aspects of human relevancy with their surrounding nature. History indicates that humans continually use their surrounding environment and resources in order to survive, developing and forming his culture and civilization and, through this means, he was able to achieve knowledge and experience that can say courageously that these achievements are a part of the national capital of any tribe. Therefore, Indigenous Ecological knowledge (IEK) in rangeland management and pastoralism is one of the dimensions that is discussed in cultural ecology. Thereby, this research investigated the cultural ecology analysis and indigenous knowledge role in different dimensions of rangeland management and pastoralism in Ghasr-E-Yaghoub region in the north of Fars Province. This research conducted as survey method that used direct observation for producing data, cooperative observation and organized interview methods. This research investigated the different aspects of stakeholders’ culture and indigenous knowledge in rangeland management mechanism among them and states that stakeholders for confronting to hardships of social and economic, continental and also occasionally available resources deficiency, are forced to create a social structure for rangeland utilizing. In this structure the members have different or similar roles that based on partnership and cooperation with each other, manage the livestock for a specified time in rangeland. The total sum of these relations and interactions lead to forming a rich and traditional culture from pastoralism indigenous knowledge that in addition to facilitating of routine activities and correlated to pastoralism is also underlying of village social structures maintain.

Folklore contains vast aspects of life such as customs, rituals, religion, art, knowledge and literature that shapes material, behavior and speech traditions of folklore. Culture is a dynamic phenomenon that is constantly changing and it represents a part of an individual and collective identity. The identity in form and in content will be meaningful in the context of social interaction. Mass media often indirectly but pervasively transfers too much information about people to the audience that can shape their everyday life. The media, particularly television, is one of the factors that make it possible to identify the elements of identity. Thus, in modern times, people form identities with pictures and titles that reflect the cultural industry and media. The present research is an attempt to represent folklore factors observed in the I.R.I.B. series in the last three decades. Thus, two sets of three decades (In my shelter (1373) and Rely on the Wind (1391)) have been chosen and with the aid of semiotics have been analyzed. The results show how representations of folklore factors have been changed over time.

In the spring of 2010, a mission lead by myself was dispatched, to archeologically survey and identify the existing ancient sites and Tepes (hills), to Mash’ūreh Strait (Gāvshomār), at a southwestern distance of 60 km from the town of Delfan in Lorestan. The mission managed its investigations in two phases: 1) at the vicinity of Cham-e Zakariyā River located at the rural district of Southern Mirbag, suburbs of town of Delfan, and 2) around Kākā Rezā River in the rural district of Firouzabad located at town of Selseleh through a condensed and exact survey. The result of survey was identification and collection of 72 ancient sites. Among these sites, only one building index was found to belong to the Islamic era, which among the local people is known as the mausoleum of Haji Baktash. The remains of architectural structures known as Haji Baktash is on a Parthian hill, in Qalayi Village District in the Firoozabad of Aleshtar, located in the Lorestan province. The original plan of the mausoleum was built with 20 × 20 ×5 cm square bricks, is circle from inside view and octagon from outside view. We plan to study the recognition of a body to deal with the remaining legible architectural space. While we know Haji Baktash was a Sufi seventh century AH who immigrated to Anatolia from Nishapur and sect Baktashi Order in Turkey was founded and developed by him. Thus was it named because of his mausoleum in Lorestan? Is this connected with the mausoleum of the Ahle Haq Sect in the northern Lorestan? The important questions were proposed by the author based on the available archaeological evidence; the present research is in this area.

One rich subculture in Iran is the pilgrimage, which has been observed throughout the entire country. North Iran is one of the areas where many local shrines with particular rituals come in to view. In Mazandaran Province located in Northern Iran next to the Caspian Sea, one of North Iran’s provinces, some pilgrimage rituals have been held and people gathered there around the year as well as on some particular occasions. Gazu shrine is one of the shrines of this province where the ritual of pilgrimage has been observed from the past time as ritual subjects and trustees of this shrine remember. Some of these rituals take the same form of other holy shrines customs, while others differ partly. This article focuses on the Shrine of Gazu in the given region. It uses ethnography and information gathered from key informants to reconstruct the rituals attached to the shrine.

Regardless of population decline and the extent to which the villages and rural life in Iran have been associated with a negative outcome and backlashes from various causes including urban modernization, drought, injustice in economic development etc., villages are currently an attractive arena for nvestment as well as gates for sustainable development in this country. Three standpoints have been applied to analyse the relationship between tourism and rural development: 1. Tourism as the strategy for rural development; 2. Tourism as a policy for rebuilding rural settlements; and 3. Tourism as an instrument of sustainable development. It seems rural tourism has left positive and negative influence on the villages discussed in this article. The fast trend and speed of social changes affect rural development in countries across the world, including them Iran. This article strives to clarify the importance and status of rural tourism in Iran and to identify how and how much this kind of tourism can help and reinforce policies of sustainable development in Iran.

Among the key Components of Shahnameh, composed by the grate poet Ferdowsi, there are many textual elements that are tied to inter- textual elements, out of the text. This key features are rooted in reflection and representation of social and cultural contexts and backgrounds of this society. This  epresentation mirrors and reflects rituals such as marriage, rite of passage and Initiation, and death. When we return our eyes and direct our attention to the concepts and rituals of death, it makes evident that how a part of construction of this book, is associated with death belief systems which stem from Zoroastrian, Islamic, and Zurvanism roots. Using a descriptiveanalytical methods, this article seeks to investigate relationships between death and the epic poems so this essay concentrates on some stories and narratives of Shahnameh related to death. This approach leads us to awareness of some anthropological knowledge on the topic under discussion. Some results as the achievements of this study, are as follows:- In this book, three aspects of death come in to view: fear of death, death as a reality, and a philosophical-ethical standpoints on death. These three parts come from pre-Islamic and Islamic notions and their combination. - Due to the image of death that is influenced by the notions of time and devilish quality and content of death (death as the function of Ahriman)- evident in this book, emergences of death sometimes is related to the Zoroastrian world views. - In some stories like the story of Siyavoush and Keykhosro, death is connected to the archetype of rebirth that does not come from pre-Islamic and Islamic backgrounds. A dichotomy is present here that embedded in some parts of this book. - In some parts of this book, such as Rostam and Sohrab’s story, death of Sam, death of Faridoun and Iraj, Death of Esfandiyar and will and testament of Anoushirvan, textual elements that are seen, related to inter/external textual elements including burial rituals that lay foundations of anthropology of  oroastrian culture in the pre-Islamic Iran.