نشریه مطالعات ملی
سال نهم شماره 4 (پیاپی 36، زمستان 1387)

Author Proposes Phenomenology as an appropriate approach for the study of Iran’s history. To begin with, he describes the fundamental principes of phenomenological methodology. Then, in second section, he explains, in outline, basic characteristics of phenomenological approach to history. Finally, he tests these matters against some historical problems of Iranian historiography. Generally speaking, for author, phenomenology in comparison with other methodologies, is more appropriate and consistent with Iran’s historical particularity. Also, he points out how phenomenology can help historians to write history of Iranian people.

Building rock reliefs is one of the traditions in ancient Near East by which then governors eternalized their demands and thoughts. These valuable historic relics not only give researchers worthy information about the styles of the art of that time but they are also valuable data by which we can restore the historical events, political conditions, and religious as well as social systems of the time. Rock reliefs are ,infact, leaves of the pictorial book of Iranian art and culture behind which one can discover lost of hidden thoughts not fully and clearly perceived to the moment. Rock reliefs are of considerable significance in Iranian studies and researches so that understanding and interpretation of their scenes have always been among the subjects studied by researchers from different aspects. In this paper, the author intends to study part of the thoughts of the governors on the land of Iran by scrutinizing the rock reliefs.

Religion (Mazhab) is considered as one of the key factors in the creation of national identity and it has undertaken a great role in the solidarity of nations from long times ago. This function was more widespread in the pre-modern eras and it has been a vital mainstay together with the government and political institutions. In Iran and from the ancient era up to the present time, there has been a very close association between society and religion and between its basics and elements; and Iran’s integrity and national independence has often been reliant upon religious unity and integration of religion and government. This paper tries to explain the identity-making functions of Shia' as a mainstay of national identity. The recognition of Shia' and establishment of national government are considered as two neglected pillars of national identity which were completed by the Safavid revolution. In the process of the emergence of national identity, Shiism has undertaken six important roles including; creating religious unity in the country; acting as a similarity-making and distinguishing system; religious nationalism; preservation of independence; establishment of a legal system, and also establishment of a legitimizing system for Safavid regime.

Islamic Revolution of Iran because of its revolutionary and Islamic nature, and the conflicts between Islamic and Iranian norms and values, has witnessed a negation of "national" values. In the shadow of this negation, pre-revolutionary symbols and rituals were negated. The alternative symbols and rituals that replaced the old one were mostly cosmopolitan Islamic ones. This article will review these changes in relation to national symbols and rituals. In this article, rituals such as "Nowrooz", "Ashoora", the anniversary of Islamic Revolution, The Qods Day, The Unity Week, and such symbols used on stamps and banknotes, monuments and so on are discussed to understand the share national symbols have in these fields. The case study shows that the representation of national symbols and rituals after Islamic Revolution has been low, but this representation has become better through this 30 years process.

In this article; the author tries to explore the amount of inclination toward national and ethnic identities among the Arabs of Khuzestan province. Statistical population includes all Arab adults having at least secondary certificate. The main hypothesis is that the Arab ethnic group of Khuzestan incline towards both national and ethnic identities. There is a meaningful correlation between economic condition and the amount of integration towards national identity of this ethnic group .The more income of the individuals increases; the more they incline towards Iranian-Islamic identity. For inclination towards national identity the components include territorial belonging; belonging to the nation; confidence to the officials and executive apparatus and Farsi language. The ethnic identity has been measured on the basis of two indexes: "cultural customs and traditions" and "ethnic language". The results show that the Arabs not only highly incline towards Iranian-Islamic identity but also are integrated in their ethnic identity and their concern about their ethnic identity does not decrease their inclination toward national identity. Meanwhile the origins of some fragmentations should be explanated in such concrete indexes as economic and social problems followed by "relative deprivation"; not in subjective ones.

The integrity of people to their previous episode both sociological and ecological reveals itself identity- bearing. These two factors have profound effects on Fars province especially with regard to its marvelous historical- geographical texture. Nowadays the youth and their dependence on the factors mentioned have gained a high status especially in our global world with satellites and internet which have resulted in extensive migration to abroad. This article seeks to find answers for the following questions. Are the youth feel problem with regard to these two factors in Shiraz? What are the factors influencing them? To what extent these factors influence culture- bounding? The sample included 400 individuals form Shiraz (at high school level, third level). The results show that 5 percent from historical view and 10 percent from ecological feel problem . The results also indicate that geographical and historical identity have highly significant in relation with being integrated in society, legacy of political organization, believing in positive role in society, curriculum of school, interrelationships with others, national identity.

There is an increasing interest among Iranian youth in using internet and cyberspace. Due to the widespread use of internet in different parts of the country, including less developed areas, the consequences of such phenomenon deserve much attention. Though the development of modern media can bring about both positive and negative consequences, the present paper attends only to the negative ones, i.e. the resulting identity crisis. In particular, it focuses on identity crisis at the individual, group, social, ethnic and religious levels. At the same time, the author focuses on identity changes and the resulting crisis of using modern media, in particular cyberspace. First, identity, crisis and cyberspace are defined; next, identity crisis and the related theories are reviewed. At the end, based on the available research, the possibility of the crisis will be investigated in Iran. The investigations reveal that, based on a classification of generations, the third generation interacts more with the internet; hence, they are more probable to suffer from its negative consequences, in particular identity crisis. At the same time, there appear some signs of the identity crisis at the individual ethnic level. Further, it was found that the modern media has made lots of changes in the sources based on which people’s identity was formed. Another finding is that a number of networks are being formed based on the users’ ethnic groups. Moreover, some changes are taking place in the way users attribute themselves to the ethnic and national identities. It seems such identity changes paves the way for other types of crisis in the country.