Religion and Daily Life in the Mountains of Iran

Religion and Daily Life in the Mountains of Iran PDF

Author: Erika Friedl

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2020-12-10

Total Pages: 201

ISBN-13: 075561674X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Until the 1960s, little was known inside or outside Iran about the tribes living in the country. The anthropological research of Erika Friedl is now renowned for presenting comprehensive data collected over a 50-year period from her time among the Boir Ahmad tribal people living in the Zagros Mountains of Iran. In this new book, Friedl turns her attention to the subject of religion, which she had only touched upon in her previous work. About ninety percent of people in Iran and nearly everybody in Boir Ahmad are Muslims of the Twelver Shia group. However, studies of tribal people's religiosity, beliefs and rituals are scarce, and many researchers have discounted their views and experience, regarding the tribes as only “nominally religious” because their practices do not fit in with the mainstream practices and ideas in Iran. Religion and Daily Life in the Mountains of Iran corrects this view and provides a hallmark study of tribal people's religiosity. Demonstrating the great diversity of their philosophical and religious ideas, the book reveals the ways in which the tribes choose and express their religion, define their communities and understand their world. From conversations about God and his relationships with people, to observations on ageing and death, and research into the tribe's use of spells, amulets and sacrifices, to their beliefs about saints, health and well-being, the book is an original ethnographic exploration of religion and daily life.

Religion and Daily Life in the Mountains of Iran

Religion and Daily Life in the Mountains of Iran PDF

Author: Erika Friedl

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2020-12-10

Total Pages: 200

ISBN-13: 0755616758

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Until the 1960s, little was known inside or outside Iran about the tribes living in the country. The anthropological research of Erika Friedl is now renowned for presenting comprehensive data collected over a 50-year period from her time among the Boir Ahmad tribal people living in the Zagros Mountains of Iran. In this new book, Friedl turns her attention to the subject of religion, which she had only touched upon in her previous work. About ninety percent of people in Iran and nearly everybody in Boir Ahmad are Muslims of the Twelver Shia group. However, studies of tribal people's religiosity, beliefs and rituals are scarce, and many researchers have discounted their views and experience, regarding the tribes as only “nominally religious” because their practices do not fit in with the mainstream practices and ideas in Iran. Religion and Daily Life in the Mountains of Iran corrects this view and provides a hallmark study of tribal people's religiosity. Demonstrating the great diversity of their philosophical and religious ideas, the book reveals the ways in which the tribes choose and express their religion, define their communities and understand their world. From conversations about God and his relationships with people, to observations on ageing and death, and research into the tribe's use of spells, amulets and sacrifices, to their beliefs about saints, health and well-being, the book is an original ethnographic exploration of religion and daily life.

Iranian Romance in the Digital Age

Iranian Romance in the Digital Age PDF

Author: Janet Afary

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2021-01-28

Total Pages: 265

ISBN-13: 0755618289

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Following the 1979 Islamic Revolution, there was a dramatic reversal of women's rights, and the state revived many premodern social conventions through modern means and institutions. Customs such as the enforced veiling of women, easy divorce for men, child marriage, and polygamy were robustly reintroduced and those who did not conform to societal strictures were severely punished. At the same time, new social and economic programs benefited the urban and rural poor, especially women, which had a direct impact on gender relations and the institution of marriage. Edited by Janet Afary and Jesilyn Faust, this interdisciplinary volume responds to the growing interest and need for literature on gender, marriage and family relations in the Islamic context. The book examines how the institution of marriage transformed in Iran, paying close attention to the country's culture and politics. Part One examines changes in urban marriages to new forms of cohabitation. In Part Two contributors, such as Soraya Tremayne, explore the way technology and social media has impacted and altered the institution of family. Part Three turns its eye to look at marital changes in the rural and tribal sectors of society through the works of anthropologists including Erika Friedl and Mary Hegland. Based on the work of both new and established scholars, the book provides an up-to-date study of an important and intensely politicized subject.

Revolution Beyond the Event

Revolution Beyond the Event PDF

Author: Charlotte Al-Khalili

Publisher: UCL Press

Published: 2023-05-02

Total Pages: 220

ISBN-13: 1800081189

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Revolution Beyond the Event brings together leading international anthropologists alongside emerging scholars to examine revolutionary legacies from the MENA region, Latin America and the Caribbean. It explores the idea that revolutions have varied afterlives that complicate the assumptions about their duration, pace and progression, and argues that a renewed focus on the temporality of radical politics is essential to our understanding of revolution. Approaching revolution through its relationship to time, the book is a critical intervention into attempts to define revolutions as bounded events that act as sequential transitions from one political system to another. It pursues an ethnographically driven rethinking of the temporal horizons that are at stake in revolutionary processes, arguing that linear views of revolution are inextricably tied to notions of progress and modernity. Through a careful selection of case studies, the book provides a critical perspective on the lived realities of revolutionary afterlives, challenging the liberal humanist assumptions implicit in the ‘modern’ idea of revolution, and reappraising the political agency of people caught up in revolutionary situations across a variety of ethnographic contexts.

Routledge Handbook of Islamic Ritual and Practice

Routledge Handbook of Islamic Ritual and Practice PDF

Author: Oliver Leaman

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2022-06-08

Total Pages: 714

ISBN-13: 1000583902

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Ritual and practice are one of the most distinctive features of religion, and they are linked with its central beliefs. Islam is no exception here, and this Handbook covers many aspects of those beliefs and practices. It describes the variety of what takes place but mainly why, and what the implications of both the theory and practice have for our understanding of Islam. The book includes accounts of prayer, food, pilgrimage, mosques, and the various legal and doctrinal schools that exist within Islam, with the focus on how they influence practice. The volume is organized in terms of texts, groups, practices, places, and others. An attempt has been made to discuss the wide range of Muslim ritual and practice and provide a sound guide to this significant aspect of the religious life of one of the largest groups of believers in the world today.

The Persian Puzzle

The Persian Puzzle PDF

Author: Kenneth Pollack

Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks

Published: 2005-08-09

Total Pages: 571

ISBN-13: 0812973364

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

In his highly influential book The Threatening Storm, bestselling author Kenneth Pollack both informed and defined the national debate about Iraq. Now, in The Persian Puzzle, published to coincide with the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Iran hostage crisis, he examines the behind-the-scenes story of the tumultuous relationship between Iran and the United States, and weighs options for the future. Here Pollack, a former CIA analyst and National Security Council official, brings his keen analysis and insider perspective to the long and ongoing clash between the United States and Iran, beginning with the fall of the shah and the seizure of the American embassy in Tehran in 1979. Pollack examines all the major events in U.S.-Iran relations–including the hostage crisis, the U.S. tilt toward Iraq during the Iran-Iraq war, the Iran-Contra scandal, American-Iranian military tensions in 1987 and 1988, the covert Iranian war against U.S. interests in the Persian Gulf that culminated in the 1996 Khobar Towers terrorist attack in Saudi Arabia, and recent U.S.-Iran skirmishes over Afghanistan and Iraq. He explains the strategies and motives from American and Iranian perspectives and tells how each crisis colored the thinking of both countries’ leadership as they shaped and reshaped their policies over time. Pollack also describes efforts by moderates of various stripes to try to find some way past animosities to create a new dynamic in Iranian-American relations, only to find that when one side was ready for such a step, the other side fell short. With balanced tone and insight, Pollack explains how the United States and Iran reached this impasse; why this relationship is critical to regional, global, and U.S. interests; and what basic political choices are available as we deal with this important but deeply troubled country.

Negotiating the Religious in Contemporary Everyday Life in the “Islamic World”

Negotiating the Religious in Contemporary Everyday Life in the “Islamic World” PDF

Author: Roman Loimeier

Publisher: Universitätsverlag Göttingen

Published: 2021

Total Pages: 261

ISBN-13: 3863954939

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

The contributions to the present volume show that the countries that are often presented in the literature as forming part of a stereotypical and seemingly monolithic “Islamic world” in fact represent considerable diversity. From Iran to Senegal, we encounter a vast array of social and religious structures, historical trajectories, political regimes and relative positions of societies and individuals. We encounter also, in many different and often unexpected ways, the individual in multiple contexts. The present volume presents perspectives on everyday life in Muslim societies beyond the spectacular. From a broad academic background in Islamic and Iranian studies, social anthropology, sociology, philosophy and history, its contributors show that everyday life as well as religious practice in countries as diverse as Senegal, Niger, Egypt, Tunisia and Iran is not informed by one single “Islamic” tradition, but rather by multiple and often surprisingly different modes of religiosity and non-religiosity.

Mountain Jews

Mountain Jews PDF

Author:

Publisher: UPNE

Published: 2002

Total Pages: 164

ISBN-13: 9789652783158

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

According to tradition Caucasian Jews descended from the Ten Tribes exiled from the Kingdom of Israel in the first millenium BCE, making them one of the oldest communities of Jewish people anywhere. This remarkable population preserved its Jewish identity and developed a culture of its own in a region inhabited by a host of different peoples and plagued by ethnic tensions. The term "Mountain Jews" (they call themselves "Juhur") dates back to Imperial Russia's occupation of the Caucasus in the early nineteenth century, when the tsar's visiting representative referred to "Mountain Jews" living mainly in the east and north of the Caucasus range, in what is today the largely Muslim areas of Dagestan and Azerbaijan. After their emigration to Israel, Caucasian Jews continued to resist integration, sharing in Israel's upbuilding without losing touch with their roots in and ties to the Caucasus. Along with her fellow essayists Mordechai Altshuler, Moshe Yosifov, Michael Zand, Ariella Amar, Boris Khaimovich, Anatoly Binyaminov, and Tyilo Khizghilov, author Liya Mikdash-Shamailov, a Jew of Caucasian origin, successfully blends her scientific interest in the community with her own special affinity with its culture. The fruit of many years of field work and extensive research, Mountain Jews presents, in words and striking pictures of this people and its practices, the history, spiritual life, language and literature, daily life, material culture, and decorative arts which together define the rich and extraordinary cultural heritage of Caucasian, "Mountain" Jews.

Lanterna Rally - Theme by Grace Themes