Religion as Occupation (original) (raw)

The Status of Rituals among the Audiences of the Iranian Islamic Reformists

The religious intellectualism is one of the active intellectual current in the Iran which has been criticized in different ways. One of the critical aspects is how to deal with rituals and religious' practices. Most of these criticisms are general and theoretical without regard to the audiences. The issue of this research is the ritual of audiences and their understandings' and perceptions'. This research was performed with qualitative methods and techniques of observation, interview, study the speech of religious intellectuals and finally analysis of all data content. Husseiniye Ershad, one of the most important religious intellectual bases, had been chosen and the intellectuals who were active there in 2000-2010 and their audiences' had been studied. The results show religious intellectuals have imprecise stance about ritual which can be because of response to the current formalism in country, limitation in accumulation and use of media, and not having clear pattern. The most important internal reason is not having clear pattern about ritual, and it can be explained with some arguments; first, criticism of formalism and originality of the content of religion and therefore trivialized form of religion, second, individualism and importance of individual choosing and directly relationship with God, and finally, rationalism which has created utilitarianism, goal oriented and original oriented.

Ritual of Holy Healing in Northern Iran

Anthropologist 33 (1-3), 2018

This paper highlights the historical evolution and transformation of Iranian pilgrimage rituals with a focus on the function, meaning, and form of the ritual of holy healing (rituals of the Hanifiyeh and the Shah-e Shahidan shrines) in northern Iran in Gilan province. In order to achieve this goal, this paper describes a fieldwork study and analysis of the ritual in accordance with other similar rituals in Iran. The researchers take holy healing into account as the key sign of spiritual power that acted against the hierarchy produced by Iranian Khans (literally lords). Key components of this ritual, such as the holy elements, are the topics under discussion in this analysis. As such, this paper argues that the ritual of pilgrimage should be taken as a critical response to Iranian Feudalism until about 1952, and then to this time as the space of equality and spiritual liminality.

Ritualistic Performance of Women Pilgrims in the Makhdum Shah Shrine, Sirajganj

EBAUB Journal, 2021

Ritual is such an issue based on material symbolic practices. These practices endowed with an interrelated set of ideas, which establish a common mood to assert identity through performing the function. In the context of Bangladesh, a Shrine year, which put up heritage and identity by creating a kind of interrelationship between the Shrine and the followers. One of these remarkable shrines is located in Shahjadpur of Sirajganj district, known as Makhdum S through a close Shah Shrine in 2020 to investigate the reasons. This study has been carried out to keep the questions in mind ritualistic performance is conducted during their visit; and scrutinize their relationship with Shrine through ritualistic performance. The attempt is to explore the reason of visiting women participants at Shrine conducted to understand ritualistic Shah Shrine.

MOURNING IS BEAUTIFUL: TA'ZIYEH AND GENDER AFFIRMATION IN SOUTH IRAN

Godina VI, broj 6, 2015.

Iranian women's presence in Shi'i rituals was noted by travellers in pre-modern era and extensively described since the 19th century. After the Islamic Revolution, whose success was partially decided by Shi'i myths and symbols and by women's contributions, the attention towards gender aspects of Shi'i religious ceremonies increased, and now it is discussed in numerous recent works. So far, scholars have mainly observed and described the rituals performed in the capital Tehran, with the exception of Ingvild Flaskerud whose target of research is the female community of Shiraz. However, it is South Iran that presents striking peculiarities in the way women participate in Muharram ceremonies. This paper is based on ethnographic research carried out among women performers in Muharram rituals in South Iran, in particular in the Gulf area; it shows how women, by claiming their right to perform in a public arena, are also asking to be recognized as social, cultural, historical and religious agents.

Saints and Their Pilgrims in Iran and Neighbouring Countries (The Anthropology of Persianate Societies)

The importance and ramifications of saints, sainthood and pilgrimage in contemporary Iran and neighbouring countries are great, yet the academic conceptualizations of them and their entailments are sorely lacking. This book places the saints and their pilgrims in sharper focus, and offers important correctives to all-too-common Western misunderstandings, the foremost of which is the erroneous portrayal of Islam as primarily a body of legal doctrine and corresponding practice, and the associated principle that we can 'know' Islam if we 'know' Islamic law. In an effort to challenge such a limited, and limiting, perspective, this volume suggests that both anthropology, insofar as it can focus on experience and practice, and history, insofar as it can encompass more than an institutional/political 'names and dates' discourse, can reveal something of the dynamism of the faith, as more than the sum of its laws. The approaches demonstrated in this book on Shiite Pilgrimage offer windows into the beliefs and lives of 'ordinary' people, past and present, and thereby bring forth agendas akin to those of 'subaltern studies'. Finally, the memorializing documented in these chapters provides evidence, past and present, of widespread desires for a more concrete, even immanent, relationship that is direct, unmediated and, at least partly, involves forms of intercession - even though such desires for immanence in the Islamic world have previously been considered as limited to devotees of the Sufi saints or the Shi'i Imams or their progeny.

Ritual of Holy Healing in Northern Iran : Rebellion Rituals of Spiritual Power

2018

This paper highlights the historical evolution and transformation of Iranian pilgrimage rituals with a focus on the function, meaning, and form of the ritual of holy healing (rituals of the Hanifiyeh and the Shah-e Shahidan shrines) in northern Iran in Gilan province. In order to achieve this goal, this paper describes a fieldwork study and analysis of the ritual in accordance with other similar rituals in Iran. The researchers take holy healing into account as the key sign of spiritual power that acted against the hierarchy produced by Iranian Khans (literally lords). Key components of this ritual, such as the holy elements, are the topics under discussion in this analysis. As such, this paper argues that the ritual of pilgrimage should be taken as a critical response to Iranian Feudalism until about 1952, and then to this time as the space of equality and spiritual liminality. Anthropologist, 33(1-3): 80-90 (2018) DOI: 10.31901/24566802.2018/343.1-3.2019 © Kamla-Raj 2018