IRAN'S CULTURE ANTHROPOLOGY

Iran's Culture Anthropology

Abstract

In this study we try to explore the concept of Culture Anthropology in a holistic context. The main focus of the research is on Culture Anthropology and its relation with Iranian Culture. The research also analyzes many aspects of Culture Anthropology and tries to gauge its effect on Iranian Culture.

Table of Contents

Abstract2

Introduction4

Description and Analysis4

Iran's Local Culture and Anthropology8

Kinship10

Social Organization10

Political Organization11

Conclusion12

References13

Iran's Culture Anthropology

Introduction

Cultural anthropology is derived from various methodologies in order to understand the factors which are responsible for building human societies in the past and in the future. In other words, it is the comparative analysis of different cultures that shapes up a human society. A human society comprises of individuals who carry with themselves a specific culture, and according to that culture they live their life. Anthropologists are the people who try to find out the understanding of humankind and its diversity. The cultural anthropology examines the rural, urban and modern nation states across the world. It identifies the factor which leads to a tradition which is followed by an individual living in a particular social society. The culture of various societies differs from each other in different aspects. The different aspects, which shape up a culture, can be the overall economic condition of the society, major conflicts, wars, environment, poverty, injustice, inequality and human rights. This paper discusses the cultural anthropology of Iran in a holistic context.

Description and Analysis

Cultural Anthropology in the 19th century developed as an extension of important and successful work then being done in the “natural sciences,” and was given further impetus by the colonialism of various nations, and by the westward expansion of the United States. While it is true that Cultural anthropology has sometimes served the political interests of various governments, that aspect of the discipline will not be covered here. Regardless of how cultural anthropology may have been-or is-involved in Western colonialism, there remains a philosophical, scientific, and humanistic dimension to Cultural anthropology that-independent from politics-seeks to understand what it means to be human (Louis 2001, 117).

Ethnography and ethnology are related disciplines within the field of cultural anthropology. Cultural anthropology deals with all aspects of human culture from social to religious, to political, and beyond. Ethnography focuses on single cultures or specific structures within one culture while ethnology is a study of the members and structures of cultures and of the relationship of members to their cultures. Ethnology is highly theory driven, using a comparative approach with the writings of ethnographers to search for commonalities that may underlie all cultures or human behaviors. In addition, ethnology takes a broad view, comparing cultures or looking at the deep history of a culture in order to explain why and how it functions as it does. In recent years, ethnologists have moved into many subfields of anthropology, such as gender studies and folklore.

Fieldwork with participant observation is the defining method of the ethnographer. Ethnography applies in two ways. It is both an in-depth study of people within their own ...