نشریه فرهنگ و ادبیات عامه
پیاپی 42 (بهمن و اسفند 1400)

Myths and stories, created by the general public, are a good platform for exploring the mythological beliefs of each nation. In Larestan region, due to bad weather, drought and scarcity, beliefs and ideas about fertility and rain-seeking rituals are left, which are the heritage of the ancients having mythological patterns. The combination of these beliefs with people's lives is sometimes so much that it affects all aspects of their lives. The purpose of this study is to achieve the patterns of fertility myths and rain-seeking mirrors manifested in Larestan region. In this research, data have been collected by field and library methods through a descriptive-analytical approach. In data analysis section, the fertility myths and rain-seeking mirrors in Larestan region have been investigated; attempts have also been made to reveal any similarities or differences between the myths of this region and the Iranian and non-Iranian myths. The findings showed that the fertility myth in Larestan region consists of five pillars of Varzova, Indra, Crow, Tishter and Anahita, about which the people of the region have special beliefs. On the other hand, the three rituals of "qeble doa", "Allah bede barun" and "khushe neshan" are the remnants of the rain-seeking rituals in Larestan region.

The Baluch people are rich in culture, inheriting a unique indigenous values and literature. In Baluchi literature, there are epical poems and love stories that date back to centuries ago. Hani and Shaimorid is the most famous one which has a similar status in Baluch literature as to that of Laila and Majnoon in Persian literature. These two characters enamored love after years of separation, reaching a mystical conjugal, and according to the Baluch people, they are like Khedr and Elias who achieved eternal life and are known as the "old live". There are many narrations and poems about this ancient story. Minstrels, also known in Baluchi as "Pahlavanan", have been the most important sources of the poems from one generation to another. The narrators have used various motifs adding to its richness. In this article, the structure of motifs in this story is studied in four sections: "Motifs of love, imposture, dignity and mysticism". The story begins with the motif of modesty "Promise and Covenant" and ends with the motif of the dignity of the "disappearance" of the two main heroes. This story, like other Baluchi poems, is unknown among non-Baluch. The poems and narrations of this research have been collected from Minstrels and narrators in the field. While summarizing the two narrations, the main points and motifs of this story were analyzed

Apart from superstructure chains in the structure of myths, other points such as "numbers" and their function are involved in their construction. The present study, in a descriptive-analytical approach, has extracted the numbers used in the fifteen myths of Azerbaijan, and then dealt with the quality of their dissemination in popular beliefs in three sections of "less than ten, decimal, and compound". Out of 26 numbers with 462 repetitions, the proportion was 71% for the first group, 23% for the second group, and 6% for the last group. "One" in the counting unit position, "forty" for the celebration, and "twelve" for the group are the most abundant numbers and functions in each category. Numbers have commonalities in their multiples. The other finding is that the epic or love theme of myths has a two-way relationship with the chosen number. Composite and ironic combinations also indicate the presence of numbers in the linguistic structure of myths.

One of the less-introduced types of the visual arts of the Qajar and Pahlavi periods is the painted ceramic beehive covers. These lids, approximately 23 cm in diameter, were installed on wicker hives of about 85 cm long and had a hole for the crossing of the swarm. This article introduced dozens of these lids that were made from the late Safavid period to the first Pahlavi era. The most important aims of this research were the identification of the place of production, a thematic classification of the paintings and inscriptions, and an analysis of their content. It can be said that these works can be classified into three general groups: non-illustrated inscribed examples, religious paintings and secular paintings. Among the inscribed works, some prayers have been written that should be considered as an amulet to ward off calamities from the products. Moreover, some prayers and Quranic verses are related to increasing the blessing of the crop and also repelling the evil eye. In addition to several Shi’ite inscriptions, all the identified religious paintings are also related to the Shi’ite beliefs. The religious paintings include images of the Duldul (prophet’s mule, which was presented to Ali ibn Abi Talib), Khamsa, and shrines of Shiite imams. Among the secular paintings, the most frequent are the images of animals, showing them in hunting scenes or in the motif of the tree of life

The present article dealt with the sociological analysis and reading of some of the Sarhadi Baluchi's proverbs. This study examined the manifestation of social structures and ritual values in the Baluchi proverbs of the Sarhadi dialect, based on the people-oriented approach of Michael Borawy. The knowledge of social movements and elements and the study of the laws governing these movements is one of the main tasks of sociology, and social life is linked to popular literature through its oral aspect. Bonding with cultural studies, the people-oriented sociology deals with the experience and life style of the people, heritage, structure and cultural assets of a society, using folklore data that represent people's beliefs and practices. The research method is qualitative and the data collection has been done based on content analysis, which is one of the most common methods of identifying literary works. The proverbs have been collected as field research and library-study method. The research’s findings showed that many significant actions of the social structure of the Baluch people in the form of folk traditions and holy rituals such as asylum, court, assistance, revenge, swearing oath, sword and shroud, salt bread (hospitality), etc. are vividly reflected in the Baluchi proverbs.

Choosing the element in a work is directly related to the reader. This study aimed to investigate the themes of the tales of Sankhast from the suburban areas of northern Khorasan in order to figure out how tale tellers used the related theme to achieve their objectives. The findings showed that the tale tellers sometimes expressed the themes in their work and in other times represented them through moral lesson to not only have more impact on the reader but also improve the level of the folk tales from the normal clichés. In general, the method of selecting themes in the tales were discussed, but there were occasions in which the themes were prior to the tale. The themes in the Tati tales of Sankhast showed that most of them were selected based on the hearings, lifestyles, mentalities, and people's opinions. Also, despite the fact that these tales tried to create heroes, attraction, curiosity, and entertainment for the general public, but in fact their fundamental mentality and social aspects were advertising humanity, equality, brotherhood, and social justice.

The cultural resources of the people in Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad are full of themes that are rooted in the ancient culture of the Iranian people. For a long time, due to the deep connection of the people of this region with Shahnameh, their thoughts, aspirations, rituals and beliefs, being influenced by the national epic, have found their way through heroic stories in their narratives. Kaykhosrow is one of the important characters of Avesta and Shahnameh who has had a prominent presence in the popular culture and literature of the people of Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad, and has even found a sacred position. In this article, re-reading the narration of the people of Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad about the events regarding the end of Kaykhosrow's life and analyzing its epic themes and myths, we investigated the holy image of Kaykhosrow in the beliefs of the people in Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad. The findings of the research showed that the changes that Kaykhosrow's story has found in the narrative of the people in Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad, has been influenced by the epic and heroic spirit of these people, and contain themes that are related to ancient myths. Among these principles, we can mention the relationship between Kaykhosrow's Cup and his rule, the relationship between Jam (Jum in Lori dialect) and the spring, the occultation through the angel of water, the relationship between the spring and the immortality of Kaykhosrow and the sanctity of the plant.

Medical uses of minerals, after herbal and bestial therapies, have been the most important and prevalent therapies among ancient people. Utilization of mineral therapies could be studied and analyzed in three groups of texts. Mineralogical texts, some parts of encyclopedias or fantasy literature, and medical texts. Reflection on these texts shows that there were a variety of methods for providing and utilizing mineral therapies the most important of which were rubbing, burning, drinking, eating, coating, fastening, hanging, taking with oneself and watching them. This study is a descriptive and analytical investigation on the basis of ancient texts and aimed at finding some answer to the following question: What are the therapeutic properties and the most prominent therapeutic usages of minerals in the ancient texts? Results of this study showed that psychotherapy, ophthalmology, oral and nasopharyngeal disease, kidney and bladder disease, arthritis, skin and hair disease, wounds and injuries, poison and antidote, prevention of diseases and therapeutic tools were the most considerable grounds that the minerals were put to use according to the ancient texts. Therapeutic properties of the minerals that cover a vast and varied spectrum stem in the ancient experimental knowledge, popular culture, beliefs and customs related to the mysterious impressions of the stones and their therapeutic affects in the ancient humans’ mind

This paper aims to examine the extent and specificities of the relation between Manichaean and Persian literature through an in-depth analysis of Manichaean tales which recur in the folkloric Iranian literature. In the first stage of the paper, we selected 30 parables by analyzing Iranian Manichaean manuscripts. We, then, explored some well-known Iranian folkloric tales to find similar examples. The quantity and characteristics of similarities in the literary elements, plots, and subplots showed that the Manichaean literature has had more chances to be represented in folkloric literature than in the official literature. Furthermore, analyzing folkloric literature provides a better tool for tracking the path the Manichaean thought has left behind in different cultures. Finally, we argued that similar versions of tales may help us reconstruct some of the damaged Manichaean fragments

This paper examines how a text becomes humourous in changing from a non-narrative to a narrative joke. First, a general statement was made regarding humorous narratives. A non-narrative humorous anecdote was subsequently contrasted with the humorous narrative. Non-narrative jokes are contextualized, conversationalized, and improvised during a conversation, and thus, do not require any stories or narrators. Instead, the humorous narrative is not contextualized but pre-fabricated in advance, and hence it requires stories and narrators. Non-narrative jokes are based on the three processes of set-up, paradox, and resolution. Consequently, the transition of short narrative jokes to longer humorous narratives was discussed through several examples mostly taken from Juhi’s anecdotes as data collection. More extended narrative jokes seem to deal with not a punch-line, but some jab-lines scattered all along with the joke. The results showed that a change in punch-line has no significant effect, mainly in Juhi’s anecdotes, in making a non-narrative into a narrative joke; though, a short narrative joke can become a longer one due to the punch-line scattered all through the joke.