Book
Persian beliefs and customs
Human Relations Area Files • New Haven [conn.] • Published In 1954 • Pages: 527
By: Massé, Henri, Messner, Charles A..
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
This is a study of Persian beliefs and customs from the beginning of Iranian history up to the 1930s. Most of the data presented here are derived from earlier published materials, from the authors own observations, and from information given him by informants in Iran in the 1920s and 1930s. This work is almost entirely descriptive; the author rarely analyses or interprets the data he has collected. Topics covered include beliefs and practices related to marriage, pregnancy, childbirth, death, ceremonial, animals, plants, meteorology, astrology, divination, magic, supernatural beings, constructions, monuments and religious edifices. Abstracts of particular legends, folk tales and poetry are provided and childrens games are also described. The author has attempted to select his source materials from a representative sample of earlier works, especially those by reliable travelers, and there are many references to beliefs and practices indigenous to particular regions and tribal groups in Iran. On the whole, however, the data apply predominantly to the Iranians of the larger cities and surrounding rural areas, although Masse is frequently careless about specifying the area, date of observation, or prevalency of particular beliefs and practices. Also confusing is the authors intermittent replacing of Roman with Islamic dates; occasionally both are indicated (as 1323-1905 for example). The authors transliteration of Persia and Arabic words has been followed in this translation, while place names have been changed, wherever possible, to conform with those listed in Websters Geographical Dictionary (1949 ed.). At the time of publication of this study, Massé was Professor at the National School of Oriental Languages in France.
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Culture summary
- cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
- Iran
- HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
- 2000
- RegionThe area the document pertains to
- Middle East
- Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
- Middle East
- Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
- Book
- Evaluation
- Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
- Social Scientist
- Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
- 5: Excellent Primary Data
- AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
- Mary L. Bartlett
- Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
- ca. 1923
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- 1617-1936
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- Iran
- NotesAdditional notes
- Henri Massé
- Translation of: [Croyances et Coutumes Persanes]
- The original French text is included
- Full references for abbreviated bibliographical listings which appear throughout the text may be found in Information sources in other works (113), pp. 517-527. Skoggard, 2005)
- Translated from the French for the Human Relations Area Files by Charles A. Messner in 1954
- Omitted from Files: Various pages of non-textual material; indices; errata. [The corrections listed on the errata sheet have been incorporated in this translation.]
- The sources for much of this material comes from the writings of European scholars, explorers and diplomats, including among the earliest the Spanish explorer Garciá de Silva Y Figueroa (1617-1619), Jean-Baptiste Tavernier (1631-1633, 1651-55, 1657-62, 1664-68), the German scholar Adam Olearius (1635-1637), French-British explorer Sir John Chardin (1673-1677), James Justinian Morier (1809), Charles Texier (1834), Layard (1840-1841), etc. Massé also draws from the Persian wirters and poets, such as Firdousi (935-1020), who wrote the epic 'Book of Kings.' (I.
- Includes bibliographical references (p. 517-526)
- LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
- 55003661
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Iranians