Search

For writing this invited paper, I was given the title Ethnic Groups of Iran and I was also asked to inform the reader/audience about the general situation of anthropology in the country. Specific questions were asked and the first part of this paper responds to those questions. The second part can be best understood if at the time of the reading reference could be made to the site mentioned in the article. A few articles and one book have discussed the history of the field of anthropology in Iran and they are discussed in this text. This field has had great difficulty trying to establish itself in the country due to the sensitivity of the political machine of the country which at times it did not really understand its topic, and at others was sensitive to the information it could bring from rural and pastoral areas of Iran to the center and critically consider the activities of the government. Transparency of political activities have always been at odds with social sciences, and this can clearly be seen in the problems anthropology has had to face to establish itself. The very name of the field has been problematic and this also shows the lack of discussion of the erudite of the field in a clear manner. Today this field is dispersed in various faculties of different universities and topics. The second part of this paper concentrates on my own work on the ethnic groups of country, and a map and a site which I have made to represent the active cultural life of all different peoples of Iran. My anthropological knowledge has helped me to divide the work according first to subsistence (pastoral nomadic, rural and urban), and then according to cultural characteristics and my hope is to continue this work which has been a very important lack in Human Relations Area Files. So far I only have some titles in English, its translation into English could disseminate the information to the anthropological scientific world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Book details: Frank Hole and Sekandar Amanolahi-Baharvand Tribal Pastoralists in Transition. The Baharvand of Luristan, Iran Ann Arbor, Michigan: University of Michigan Museum of Anthropology, Anthropological Papers, Number 100; 2021. xx, 381 pages, ISBN: 978-0-915703-99-9 (print), 978-1-951538-74-3 (ebook) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through the symbolic stories derived from Persian folklore, some of the actual anthropological environmental domains in Iran are conceptualized culturally and reflected in Persian animal-related proverbs. Translating these rich cultural conceptualisations underlying proverbs from the Persian world to the Western world, where the cultural and linguistic gaps between these two worlds are conspicuous, necessitates applying a coherent multidisciplinary approach. An approach that reconciles two fields, language and culture, which have, paradoxically, been antagonistic in Translation Studies (Koskinen, 2004, 2010, 2014), as an intertwined, interdependent and inseparable approach. Adopting such a cutting-edge approach to translation, namely Cultural Linguistics (Sharifian, 2017b) approach, for the first time in translation history, and through a careful analysis of numerous examples from Persian, we demonstrate that in current translation approaches, cultural conceptualisations underlying the wit and wisdom of the proverbial discourse are lost. Hence, we question current translation approaches through different systems of cultural conceptualisations (cf. Sharifian, 2018) that each particular speech community draws upon in intercultural communication. Moreover, we argue that translation is not "only" a problem of language, but also, more importantly, a problem of systems of cultural conceptualisations underlying language and language use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Network Scale Up (NSU) is a promising tool for size estimation of sensitive issues. In this study we investigated the important methodological considerations to employ this method for estimating behaviors, such as abortion, which happens in a particular age-gender group. Methods: We recruited 1250 males and 1250 females aged 18 to 50. Abortion rate was calculated through direct question and NSU methodology. The NSU was applied on three sub-samples (male, female and aggregate). Integrating replies to 25 reference groups, we estimated the network size (C) of respondents and its age-gender structure. To calculate the part of network that is subject to abortion, we compared two approaches: proportional and data based. The Visibility Factor (VF) was calculated through 222 females who had abortion. Direct estimate was considered as gold standard. Results: Using C’s derived from proportional method, the Relative Bias (RB) in the male and female samples was 33% and 84%. Applying the data-based C’s, the RB in the gender-specific and aggregate samples was 5% and 2%. Conclusion: The proportional method overestimates the prevalence. The data-based method to calculate the C is superior. The determination of the age-sex distribution of the network and the specific VF is essential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Road traffic injuries (RTIs) leading to death need the most essential concern for low, middle and high income societies. Mortality rate due to traffic injuries is considerable in Iran particularly during the last decade along with the industrialization process. The present study considered the trend of traffic injuries leading to death in Iran for a period of seven-years which started from March 2004 to March 2011. The formal merged Iranian database provided by the Ministry of Roads, the Legal Medicine Organization, the Traffic Police (NAJA), and the Ministry of Health covering 146, 269 deaths due to traffic injuries between 2004 and 2011 was analyzed. The time series method was carried out to determine the death trends of RTIs in the whole country. The Poisson regression model was used to estimate the changes in the frequency of events over time adjusting for associated known risk factors. The SARIMA (0, 1, 1)×(0, 1, 1)12 model was used for fitting to the time series of death rate. The death rate due to RTIs in Iran has statistically declined from 38 in 2004 to 31 per 100,000 populations in 2011. Based on the number of vehicles, the mortality rate has also declined from 38 to 12 cases per 10,000 vehicles from 2004 to 2011 respectively. However, the mortality rate was increased from 51 to 65 cases per 1000 accidents from 2004 to March 2011 respectively. Despite minor variations in mortality trends of RTIs in Iran according to different criteria, an annual average of 21,000 deaths is considerable and needs serious attentions. Modification of traffic laws, enhancement of police controls, improving transport infrastructure, holding education courses for drivers and providing optimal healthcare services are recommended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transnational Dutch-Iranian hyperlink networks allow the exploration of relationships between virtual and physical space. According to many of its analysts, the Internet implies a virtual transcendence of place, but ethnographic approaches have convincingly redirected attention to issues of embeddedness. Here, this concept principally applies to national contexts of hyperlink production, content, and directionality. This article examines the interrelationships of on-line and off-line contexts (patterns of Dutch-Iranian communal organization) as a prelude to explorations of transnational hyperlinking. My findings indicate that national hyperlinks remain relatively important and that transnational links, far from being ‘deterritorialized’, follow national patterns for their sectoral distribution. That is, physical space, of nation-state boundaries in particular, weighs heavily on virtual interaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]