Chapter Three: Perspectives on Ethnicity in Iran
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CHAPTER THREE: PERSPECTIVES ON ETHNICITY IN IRAN 1. INTRODUCTION In his celebrated essay “Ethnic Groups and Boundaries”, Barth (1969) criticized a then common view on ethnicity for assuming that ethnic phenomena come about due to contact between groups which are already culturally distinctive, often in a colonial setting. Rather, Barth reasons, we should “ask ourselves what is needed to make ethnic distinctions emerge in an area” (ibid, 17). What he seems to call for here is an historical perspective on ethnicity. During last three decades, a number of scholars in social sciences, political sciences, and history disciplines such as Aghajanian (1983), Kazemi (1988), Ayubi (1998), Ahmadi (1999), Hajiani (2001), Altaiee (2002), Abdollahi and Ghaderzadeh (2004), and Ghamari (2005) have attempted to analyze ethnic diversity in the Iranian society. They have discussed problems such as the existence of ethnic diversity in Iran, the social and political issues of ethnic diversity of Iran, the boundaries of ethnic groups in Iran, and the factors that have developed ethnic diversity in the Iranian society since ancient times. In this chapter, the main perspectives on ethnicity in the Iranian society have been discussed. On the basis of those approaches, the multiethnic nature of Iranian society is explained. In this way, historically, the rise of the plural society in the Province of Golestan with reference to Turkmen group has been presented. 48 2. PLURAL NATURE OF IRAN SOCIETY On the basis of above studies, two perspectives are presented on the multiethnic nature of Iranian society. According to a research in politic discipline on ethnicity, namely ‘Ethnicity and Ethnocentrism in Iran; Legend and Reality’, Ahmadi (1999) argues that Iran is not multiethnic in nature. He states that “the usage of the concepts of ethnicity and ethnic group in the analysis of cultural diversity of Iran is false. The existence of ethnic groups with distinctive racial or cultural traits in Iran is as a result of researchers’ images rather than a historical fact” (Ibid, 51). His arguments are based on the following reasons: 1. Ahmadi says that the terms ethnicity and ethnic group are ambiguous and scientists do not agree with a single definition of ethnicity or ethnic group, especially, on the traits of ethnic groups in society. But scientists have emphasized the existence of some criteria such as race and objective cultural traits while defining ethnic group. However, Ahmadi argues that there are no racial and objective cultural criteria for distinguishing present linguistic and religious groups in Iran. The linguistic and religious groups of Iran have been organized on the basis of tribal context up to beginnings of 20th century. 2. Historically, the concept of ethnicity was used to describe the migrant population in North America that were culturally different and nations from Asia, Africa, Europe, and so forth. But the various lingual and religious groups of Iran are not migrants from different regions/nations of the world. 3. Various religious-lingual groups have been living together for hundreds of years and experienced similar historical experience and cultural heritage during such long time. These groups have been inseparable and incontrovertible parts of Iranian society (Ibid, 51-52). 49 The second perspective emphasizes on multiethnic nature of Iranian society. Abdollahi and Ghaderzadeh (2004:2) in their empirical study “Ethnic Distance and the Factors Affecting It in Iran” state that Iran is multi-ethnic society and various ethnic groups live in different regions. They have their own linguistic, local and cultural traits. They define ethnic group as: A group of people who (a) believes for themselves in common history, origin, ancestors, land, custom, language and cultural institutions with (b) more or less common feeling of belonging, obligation and loyalty toward them that (c) this common collective sense that is usually expressed by using plural subject pronoun ‘we’, Meanwhile creation of the solidarity among the members of each ethnic group, (d) determines symbolic boundaries and social distance of each group from another one. Hajiani (2001) in his article ‘The issue of ethnic unity and the pattern of ethnic policy in Iran’ states that we encounter ethnic groups and different geographical-cultural regions in Iran which have particular cultural traditions and identical perceptions. He also states that members of each ethnic group perceive themselves distinctive from other members of society. Thus, he says that the existence of ethnic groups and different cultural regions in Iran is an undeniable fact which are formed and recognized according to lingual differences (Ibid, 138). Kazemi (1988:201) in his article ‘Ethnicity and Iranian Peasantry’ emphasizes that “ethnical or lingual-religious differences are one of essential permanent traits of Middle East societies and Iran is also no exception to this rule.” Aghajanian (1983:211) in his research ‘Ethnic Inequality in Iran’ states that historical analysis of Iranian society shows that Iran has been an ethnically plural society. In other words, historically ‘Iranian people’ have been a heterogeneous collection of various groups. Altaiee (2002:160) in his book ‘Ethnic Identity Crisis in Iran’ says, “according to the mode of social and historical evolution of ancient society of Iran and affective factors like political- economic competitions and looking for more and better natural resources 50 (lands for living), Iran consists of various human groups. Also, there were different ethnic groups in the east, west, north, and south of Iran before the migration of the Aryans to Iran.” he also argues that some factors have developed cultural diversity in Iran after ancient times such as huge immigrations (Aryans and Turkmen), expansion of Islam religion in Iran, tribal life style in Iran, and wars. Immigration: Rahimpoor (2002:34) states that “some objects like dart discovered by archeologists in Iran date back to 10,000 B.C. The hunting tools and stone articles discovered in various caves reveal that human life existed in the Iranian plateau during the Paleolithic period. The most important civilization that existed in Iran before the settlement of Aryans was ‘the Illamit’ in the plain of Khuzestan, in particular, in the city of Susa. The Illamits called their territory and government ‘the Hatami’. The Illamit Dynasty was established in 3000 B.C.” The emigration of the Aryans from west and south plains of Siberia and the Turkmens from Central Asia was the largest immigrations in Iran. Matoofi (1995) in his book about the history of Golestan, under the name of ‘Esterabad and Gorgan in History of Iran’ describes that “Aryans have been living in the west and south plains of Siberia. They were ranchers and had to immigrate to the south west of Asia and other areas because of severe cold and loss of grazing pastures. They moved away to search suitable climate for themselves and their livestock. Initially, few Arayans immigrated, but later the number of migrants increased. Their huge immigrations included three big categories: a) Aryans who moved to central Europe about 5500 years ago, b) Indian-European Aryans who moved to India from Afghanistan about 4500 years ago. 51 c) Aryans who moved to Iran from the coast of Caspian Sea 3500 years ago” (Ibid, 17). They settled all over Iran in tribal groups and bred cattle for a living. Their major tribes were the Medes (in the west), the Perse (in the south) and the Parthes (in the southeast) (Rahimpoor, 2002:36-37). The Turkmens emigrated from Central Asia to the south for social and natural reasons and some of them stayed in Iran. Askarikhaneghah and Sharifkamali (1995) in their book ‘Turkmen Iranians’ state that: “Turkmen ethnic group lived in the north of ‘Ishig Gel’ Lake (in the north of Mongolia) about 6000 years ago. Most historians believe that Turkmens have moved from the east. They inhabited near Syr Darya (Jaxartes) in the 6th century and then they moved to around Amu Darya (Oxus) and Marv in the 11th century” (Ibid: 33). Political developments caused to have official borders between Iran and Soviet Union in December 1881. According to this agreement, the land of the Turkmens bifurcated into two parts, Russian and Iranian. Therefore, Turkmen people settled down in Turkmenistan in the then Soviet Union and ‘Turkmen Sahra’ (meaning land of Turkmen) in Iran (Ibid: 50). The expansion of Islam religion in Iran: The Islamic period of Iran started with fall of the Sassanid Dynast in 625 A.D. Before this period, the religion of Iranians was Zoroastrian (Rahimpoor, 2002:36-37). Aghajanian (1983:211) states: “although there was never mass colonization of Iran by the Arabs, Arab penetration in the southwestern and southern regions continued where the climate was favorable.” Thus, “Muslim Caliphs (religious leaders) governed the country for about 200 years. They spread Islam throughout Iran. During this period, the Iranian and Arab cultures greatly influenced each other in political, religious and cultural dimensions and it greatly effected the ethnic diversity of Iranian society. This new ethnic structure was created both by acculturation and marriages among different ethnic groups. Also, it should be 52 emphasized that Arab rulers have been affected gradually by Islamic-Iranian aspects of this era. As result of it, they conquered other countries emphasizing Arabic and Persian languages” (Altaiee, 2002:163-4). Tribal life style in Iran: Tribal life style was another