FEEDING MORAL RELATIONS THE MAKING OF KINSHIP AND NATION IN IRAN Rose Edith Wellman Charlottesville, Virginia M.A. Anthropology, University of Virginia, 2009 B.A. Anthropology, Mount Holyoke College, 2005 A Dissertation Presented to the Graduate Faculty of the University of Virginia in Candidacy for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Anthropology University of Virginia May, 2014 ABSTRACT Feeding Moral Relations: The Making of Kinship and Nation in Iran, draws on 15 months of ethnographic research within the households of pro-regime Shi’i Iranians (or Basijis) to examine how Islamic concepts of purity and morality are shaping social relations at the level of both kinship and nation. Since the Islamic Revolution of 1979, the imperative to protect and create the inner purity of the Shi’i family and nation in the face of impending outside corruption has been a driving force in national politics. Through an intensive investigation of everyday life in the rural town of Fars-Abad and of numerous Shi’i national commemorations in urban Tehran and Shiraz, I explore how Basijis strive to constitute this inner purity by strategically channeling and containing two vital aspects of Iranian sociality: food and bodily substances such as blood. Indeed, while previous scholars have noted the special significance of bodily substance in Islamic family law and the striking display of spilled agnatic blood in Islamic national rituals, my research delves more deeply into the cultural logic of bodily substance in Iran to explore how bodily substances such as blood both naturalize and sacralize claims to common descent, purity, and closeness to God. In addition, my research goes further to show that food provides another key vehicle for imbuing relations of kinship and citizenship with the qualities of purity and spirituality. Apparent in everyday and ritual acts of cooking and feeding within the home, and also in the widespread pious sharing of votive food in national contexts, food works alongside bodily substance in the spheres of both kinship and nation to connect constituents to each other and to the divine. Food, I argue, is not merely transformative of individual family members or citizens, it (re)constitutes and demarcates the moral family and nation as against political and moral others. ii Feeding Moral Relations explicitly challenges narratives of modernity that relegate kinship to the domestic domain and assume a secular model of the nation-state. I argue not only that the ideas and practices of kinship can inform nation making, but also that both kinship and nation can be shaped by the same religious and moral concerns. Indeed, although scholars have begun to address the interrelation of kinship and nation, they have largely focused on how the bodily substances of kinship—such as blood and genes—have come to have significance for the nation. While I build on these studies, I also apply more recent insights of kinship theory that move beyond the boundaries of bodily substances to query how other forms of kin making, such as feeding or prayer, may have relevance for the nation. Finally, in the context of the increasing mutual demonization of Iran and the U.S. in contemporary politics, this work provides a nuanced portrait of what the Islamic Republic of Iran looks like from the standpoint of its rural Basiji supporters, a powerful and frequently misunderstood section of Iranian citizenry. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS It is with great pleasure that I can finally thank those people who have made this project possible. First and foremost, thank you to my host family in Iran for your love, support, and endurance through life’s difficulties. I will never forget your kindness and hospitality. Special thanks also to my research assistants Mohammad and Hoda in Fars-Abad and Tehran. I have been exceedingly fortunate to have a wonderful committee at the Department of Anthropology at the University of Virginia – Susan McKinnon, Ira Bashkow, and Richard Handler – who have provided invaluable advice, support, and constructive criticism over the course of this project. As a student of anthropology, I have been especially honored to work with my advisor and committee chair, Susan McKinnon, who has taught me everything I know about kinship and the anthropological critique of domains. Without her stalwart support and encouragement, this project would not have been possible. Special thanks also to my other committee members, Ira Bashkow and Richard Handler, who have read my drafts and offered valuable feedback and to whom I owe much of my understanding of the discipline. Finally, thank you to Farzaneh Milani, my esteemed outside reader in the Department of Middle Eastern and South Asian Languages and Cultures, who supported my research and shared with me her love of Iranian poetry, prose, and film. While at the University of Virginia, I have received additional support, insight, and education from many other professors. I am especially thankful to Zjaleh Hajibashi (who taught me Persian), Eve Danziger, Wende Marshall, Daniel Lefkowitz, Abdul Aziz Sachedina, Roy Wagner, George Mentore, and Lise Dobrin. Finally, thank you to my colleagues at the University of Virginia and beyond: Lydia Rodriguez, Arsalan Khan, Julie Starr, David Flood, Dionisios Kavadias, Roberto Armengol, Jack Stoetzel, Todne Chipumuro, Asiya Malik, Katey Blumenthal, iv Amina Tawasil, Claire Snell-Rood, Yu-chien Huang, Nathalie Nahas, Alison Broach, Carolyn Howarter, Jennie Doberne, Irtefa Binte-Farid, Sue-Ann McCarty, Jason Hickel, Jacqueline Cieslak, and to the person who first enlived my interest in all things Persian, my life long friend, Mina Assadollahzadeh. Finally, I dedicate this dissertation to my grandmother, Edie Turner, who has always been my number one supporter; to my parents, Irene Wellman and Donald Wellman; and to my best friend in the whole world, Naser Alijabbari. v A NOTE ON TRANSLITERATION In this dissertation, I have largely followed the transliteration scheme outlined in by the journal Iranian Studies. Long vowels are represented with the letters ā (as in āb), i (as in melli), and u (as in Tus). Short vowels are represented with the letters a (as in ashk), e (as in fekr), and o (as in pol). Ezafe is written with an –e after consonants and –ye after vowels. Tashdid is represented by doubling a letter and plural is represented with the addition –ha. In addition to this system, however, I have chosen to employ the conventional spelling of key words, events, and public figures as given by the International Journal of Middle East Studies (IJMES). For instance, I use the spelling Husayn for the grandson of the Prophet. vi CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION…………….………………………………………………………………1 Inner Purity and Outer Corruption…...……………………………………………..……3 Nation-state or Community of Believers..……….………………………………………9 Guest and Daughter…..….………….……………………………………………….….14 Methods..………..………………...………………………………….............................18 Fars-Abad, Landscape, and History…………………………………………………….23 Theoretical Engagements…..….……….……………………………………………….30 2. BLOOD AND THE MAKING OF MORAL KIN…………………………………….…...39 Theoretical Directions………………….…………………………………………..…...41 Substantial Debates: “The Law of Nature,” Biology, and the Divine…….……….…...42 More than Substance………………….…………………………………….…….…….48 How “Shared Blood” Plays Out: Making the Moral Family..………...…………….….65 3. FEEDING THE MORAL FAMILY: THE SPIRIT OF FOOD IN IRAN.....…...……….80 Theoretical Directions………………………………………………..…………………82 The Moral Family Household………………………………………..…………………83 Who Counts as Kin? Sharing Food at the Sofreh…………………….………………....85 Feeding and Eating at Home: How Food is (In)corporated into the Sofreh……………89 Kindred Spirit and Fasting…………………………………………………………….114 Blessing the Family through Vow-making and Food Charity…………………….…..128 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………….131 4. REGENERATIONG THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC……………….……………………...133 THE MAGIC OF MARTYRS’ BLOOD vii Theoretical Directions………...…..……………...…………...……………………….136 Patrilineal Blood and Iranian Citizenship……….……….……………………………139 Blood Everywhere: The Symbolic Force of (Martyrs’) Blood………………………..144 Martyrs as (National) Kin in Fars-Abad………………….…………………………...161 Epilogue: Alternative Discourses through Blood……….………………………….…168 5. A RETURN TO A SHI’I BROTHER AND SISTERHOOD……………...……………..173 CREATING AN ISLAMIC NATION THROUGH MORAL FOOD PRACTICES Theoretical Directions.………………………………………………………………..177 Making a Moral Nation…………………………………………………………….…179 Feeding Shi’i Citizens Halal Sustenance…….…..…………………….……………...181 Halal Appetites, Fast Food Ambivalences, and Public Eating……...…………….…..190 Circulating Divine Blessing: Food Distribution on a National Scale…....……....……206 Conclusion: Returning to the Martyrs’ Burial….………………………...………..….232 6. CONCLUSION…………………………...………………………………………..……….233 Kinship and Nation…..……………………………………………………………..…235 Why Bodily Substances and Food?...............................................................................240 Rethinking Spiritual Kinship……..…..…………………………………………….....242 Bibliography………..……………………………………………………………………….….246 viii Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION Nushin and I sat on the bright red Persian carpet in the sitting room of the home she shares with her husband and three unmarried children in the small town of Fars Abad, Iran.1 She leaned against the wall, her legs cross in front of her, wrapped in a dark colored home use, old- style chador that was speckled with tiny yellow flowers. She reached periodically to sip from a glass of golden