The International Journal of Humanities
Volume:12 Issue: 3, 2005

Various opinions have been put forward about Achaemenian beliefs and thoughts, especially about the religious beliefs of the Achaemenian kings such as Cyrus the Great. Scholars rely on Herodotus’s statements that “they didn’t look at building temples and altars as a religious tradition, they refer believing in these things as ignorance and foolishness in the converse opinion to Greeks. They didn’t believe that Gods had the same nature of human. In their religion, Zeus (Ahura-Mazda) was the sign of the blue dome of the sky and was a wise master. Their traditions were going to the highest peaks of mountains praying and offering sacrifice to God. Sun, moon, fire, water, wind and other divine existences are only bodiless Gods that Iranians pray and offer them sacrifices.” According to Herodotus Iranians in the Achaemenian era, had no idol, temple and altar. In this article we have used the most accessible sources and references to study Achaemenian religion and their temples. Various opinions from the researchers have been cited here. The historic art of the Achaemenians, the inscriptions, and fire alters quadrangles and fire temples (or Brasmadana) the Achaemenian shrines which were generally located in holy areas are being focused in this article.

The aim of this study is to carry out an empirical study of constraint factors in recreational sporting activities. More specifically it tests the model of constraints (intra-personal, interpersonal, and structural), as proposed by Crawford et al. (1991), and its relationship with actual participation levels in specific recreational sports activities in Iran. Although there is a growing body of study in the USA, Canada, and United Kingdom into gender differences in leisure opportunities and behavior, Little is known about leisure activities in Iran. The maim purpose of this study is about the factors prohibiting female student at Khorasgan Azad Islamic University to participate in recreation sporting activities. This paper presents the findings of an exploratory investigation into factors influencing the recreational sporting activities. The data was collected by means of a self-administered questionnaire among three hundreds (300) female students who were participated in recreational sporting activities (102 individuals once or more per week, 129 individuals once or more per month, and 69 individuals once per year or more). Leisure constraints factors used in this study named as lack of time, lack of money, lack of facilities, transportation, social relations, lack of interest, unawareness, lack of skill and ability, and health and fitness problems. The findings showed that significant differences was found among constraint factors such as lack of time, lack of money, transportation, lack of interest, unawareness, lack of skill and ability, and health and fitness problems. These findings have theoretical and practical implications, which are discussed.

Asking about the place of religion in a democratic society refers straightforwardly to the kind of pluralism we adopt. Given that intra-societal tensions mark out a democratic pluralistic society, then it seems that there is no doubt that there should be a place for religion and religious people in it. What is crucial for a democratic society is taking a suitable view on pluralism. There could be, at least, two versions of pluralism: Incommensurable or radical and commensurable or moderate. It is argued that the incommensurable account of pluralism confronts with serious problems both theoretically (like the impossibility of outer critique) and practically (like replacing persuasion with force). Rorty advocates a commensurable pluralism based on pragmatic conventions or “know-how” skills without any meta-narrative or translation manual among the doctrines of rival views. However, along with Davidson, it is stated that some kind of translation among the rival views is inevitable. In addition, it is argued that commensurable pluralism could not be limited to merely know-how skills and it needs some know-that insights. This view of pluralism not only opens the door of dialogue, but also provides a basis for removing superficial differences or conflicts between the rivals. Real differences, however, could remain and should be tolerated.

This study tries to investigate relationship between rainfall parameters and USLE R factor. To gain R-factor, at first, shower kinetic energy was calculated and then its erosivity computed by using maximum 30 minutes rainfall intensity. Therefore 3 meteorological stations in Khuzestan province and one station per Kohgiloyeh & BoyerAhmad and Boushehr provinces were selected and their recorded hyetographs of 13 years were analyzed. For any hyetographs, rainfall erosivity was computed in any one month, season, or year and corresponding rainfall parameters were extracted too. Temporal and spatial variation of rainfall erosivity was studied and relationships between R factor and rainfall characteristics were investigated by using regression analysis. It was resulted that February to March and winter season has the most erosivity risk. Spatial analysis of rainfall erosivity in selected area showed that Dezful and Ramhormuz have the maximum erosivity factor. Mean annual erosivity factor of Khuzestan province was computed 28.07 ton.m/ha.h. Regression analysis showed strong relationships between rainfall amount (mm) and maximum 30 minutes rainfall intensity (cm/h) with R factor. A model that computes R-factor by means of rainfall amount was suggested.

Arguments for the recognition of cultural diversity have led to a fundamental question in political theory: On what basis the process of political decision making should be formed to accommodate cultural diversity as a permanent feature of contemporary societies? The aim of this paper is to examine whether 'dialogue' can be employed as a means in such a process. The first section of this paper is concerned with the nature and sources of cultural diversity. It is also important to see in what way cultural diversity implies problems which concern political theory. This is the concern of the second section. Next, I shall examine ways in which dialogue can be employed to aid the formation of political decision making process to accommodate cultural differences. In particular, I shall suggest that interpretations of dialogue such as Brenda Dervin's and David J. Schaefer's interesting discussion, which aims to transfer the burden of dialogue as a discipline from participants to procedures, may be useful so far as dialogue among cultures and civilizations is concerned.

The disappearance of bipolar system following the disintegration of the Soviet Union, has also changed many strategic concepts. Central Asia, as a part of the Soviet empire, has become an arena for regional and global challenges after these transformations. The region, already faced with various political, economic, social and cultural problems, soon became a location for the activities of Islamic fundamentalists, which in turn intensified regional crisis. Different socio-political problems made the ground for these activities. The basic question of this paper is: What is the role of NATO enlargement and its effects on security provision in Central Asia? This paper tries to answer that, “what role can NATO play in Central Asia in order to provide security in this region specially after September 11th and the following events”. Based on current security issues in Central Asia, America has seriously emphasized on socio-economic reforms under the” Greater Middle East” framework. Central Asian leaders are obliged to control political, social and economic crisis to prevent terrorist acts and reduce public dissatisfaction. Political transformations following the Soviet Union collapse have clearly revealed that the roots of threat and instability in Central Asia are essentially internal. Sooner or later, leaders of these states have to resolve these threats, based on a clear understanding of regional sociopolitical realities.

Language like other inventions was originated to serve human needs in different civilization. Different language was created later. Contextually the importance of translation from one language to another is not only to understand words; as the words are not the elements of translation. Importance and base of translation lies in context to understand it. After getting the content, one should deliver the same idea with the words of the destination language. That is an art of creative reproduction. There is no doubts that ideology in not specific for a special language. Difference in ideologies is originated from human essence and experiences and it is not related to the kinds of languages. Translation is the first and the most important way to convert these concepts and connect people, cultures and civilizations. Therefore it will not be an exaggeration if we say translation is a medium for creating peace.

This research is designed to produce detailed descriptions of the morphological ergativity in three South Asian languages. The chosen sample includes Hindi/Urdu, Pashto and Balochi, as morphologically enough to achieve the goals and generalizations of the research. The study presents the range of variation in case and agreement marking in these South Asian descendants of the common Indo-Iranian language, in which the distinct systems of ergative case marking and agreement is to be compared, both within the nominal and verbal domain. While these individual languages are common examples of morphological ergativity, the range of variation among these languages has not been examined comparatively. The goals of this research are twofold. After a comprehensive overview, we present a detailed typology of ergative marking and agreement in the predetermined languages, demonstrating their common split ergative behavior. This process is manifested in two distinct strategies of markedness: Differential Case Marking (DCM) [including Differential Subject Marking (DSM), as well as Differential Object Marking (DOM); Aissen 1999] in the nominal domain, and marked agreement in the verbal domain; which is considered within a comparative account. It will be seen that the ergative marking and agreement patterns are not uniform across these languages. The overt morphological expression of case marking occurs of varying degrees in their nominal paradigms, while in the verbal paradigm the ways in which agreement morphology cross references arguments illustrates the common default agreement with the nominative argument in all three systems. The study proceeds as follows. First the range of variation in case and subject (St) marking in the sample will be presented, together with an overview of morphological ergativity. Following this, the typological splits, indicating the strategies of markedness and the variation in case marking splits (DCM), including both differential subject marking (DSM) and differential object marking (DOM), will be examined through the study. The effect of differential object marking (DOM) on verb agreement is considered next; and finally, a summary of the typology of variation in the domain of the study will be presented. Noteworthy is that the acheived comparative patterns can be considered as representatives of languages in the Indo-Iranian family.

Participation is a process in which people involved to make endeavors aiming at a common goal; and they do this actively, freely with awareness and accountability. Women participation as one of the principles for development can be studied from different perspectives. The objective of the present study is to investigate social and cultural factors influencing social participation of rural women in the developmental process. The theories of experts in modernism domain in general and feminism theories like liberal feminism in particular, are theoretical bases of this study. This research was conducted through interviews (during October 2002 to May 2003) in one of the villages of Azerbaijan Sharghi province; where 155 women with the average of 15-60 were selected as subjects whose answers were then analyzed. The average rate of social participation of rural women based on this research is shown to be low and only 4 percent of respondents had a high participation rate. Their type of participation was mainly traditional and religious including participation in birth anniversary, religious get-to-gether and health houses; it in fact manifests a kind of passive participation. However, based on the data there was a correlation between the social participation of rural women and variables relevant to women’s attitude and self-concept (internal factors), age, education (background factors), their access level to urban centers, and the media (structural factors).

In the context of comparative and intercultural philosophy the approach and engagement of one philosopher with another, is a very basic issue. With regard to this, I want to narrate Farabi’s special engagement with the Meno and Gorgias dialogues of Plato. His engagement can be named hermeneutic dialectical reading-here hermeneutic means the relation of Farabi with the Meno and Gorgias texts and also inside these two texts there are diverse and different levels, layers and mediations (though this is also true so far as my self as a researcher); dialectical means his reading is in the from of synoptic question (s) and answer; and reading means conversational construction of meaning in relation to the text and context. Farabi’s hermeneutic dialectical reading of the Meno and Grgias has these characteristics: he propounds these two dialogues thematically or in accordance whit their subject matter as two parts or orders in the whole of the Plato philosophy. Therefore for understanding these dialogues we have to put them in a broader context that heve interconnections whit the whole philosophy. Basides, the Gorgias is connected with or exists in a set of dialogues that collectively make a network that too has logical relation with the Meno. He says that plato philosophy as a whole begins with a search about human perfection as the first order that is discussed in Alcibiades I and then for getting this perfection we need knowledge that Theaetetus dialogue discusses thematically as the second order. After searching about eudaimonia in the Philebus and knowledge of eudaimonia in Protagoras respectively, Plato further searches about the possibility and the quality and how-ness of getting this special knowledge in the Meno. Farabi says that in the Meno (means fixing) dialogue as the fifth order or level of Plato philosophy he searches about this matter i.e. getting of this knowledge and the method if the answer is positive. Plato in this dialogue says that this knowledge is possible by means of Sana’t / art /τεχνη. Therefore the next step is searching for these arts that are well-known among citizens of different cities and civilities. Farabi says that for Plato these arts are six arts according to six dialogues-that begins with theological syllogism art in the Euthyphro and continues by language, poetics, rhetoric, sophistics and ends by art of dialectics in the Parmenides. According to Farabi Gorgias (means service) is after Ion dialogue about poetics, before the Sophist that is about sophistics. In this dialogue Plato searches two problem, does this art give us knowledge or only the method, and how much this art is knowledge?