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Fieldwork among Pastoral Nomads and in Sedentary Communities of Iran

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Sekandar Amanolahi*
Affiliation:
Anthropology at Shiraz University, Iran

Extract

Even as a high school student in Luristan I was interested in folklore, in recording folk tales, songs, and poems, and in the various customs of the different peoples of Iran. When I returned from the United States in 1974 with a Ph.D. in anthropology and started to teach at what then was Pahlavi University (now Shiraz University), I realized that my professional interest amounted to a scholarly mission, given the fact that so few anthropologists were active in Iran and how much there was to record ethnographically. As I like to travel (mostly by car so as to have easy and spontaneous access to locations of interest) and to interact with people, I have taken my work to many places. I have no problems making contacts or communicating with people of all walks of life, although gender is, of course, an issue. As a rule, I work on projects where I do not have to interact privately with women, or else where I can rely on the services of a female assistant.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © 2004 The International Society for Iranian Studies

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References

1 For example, Amanolahi, Sekandar, Qoum-e Lur (Tehran, 1985)Google Scholar; Amanolahi, S., “The Tribes of Iran,” Human Relations Area Files, vol. 1 (New Haven, 1989)Google Scholar.

2 Barth, Fredrik, Nomads of South Persia (Oslo, 1961)Google Scholar.

3 See Baharvand, S. Aman Allahi, Tales From Luristan (Cambridge, 1986)Google Scholar.

4 Geertz, Clifford, Local Knowledge (New York, 1983)Google Scholar.