article
Ritual, the state, and the transformation of emotional discourse in Iranian society
Culture, medicine and psychiatry • 12 (1) • Published In 1988 • Pages: 43-63
By: Good, Mary-Jo DelVecchio, Good, Byron J..
Abstract
The Goods examine the culture of sadness that has engulfed revolutionary Iran. The Shi'ite passion play, the TA'ZIEH, with its underlying and highly emotional appeal for social justice, served the Moslem clerics well in bringing about the downfall of the Pahlavi regime (1979). However in the new Islamic Republic the TA'ZIEH has become part of state ideology, legitimizing the new regime. Furthermore, with the terrible death toll exacted by the Iran-Iraq War, funerals and mourning rituals have also become part of daily state-controlled media broadcasts. The Goods argue that mourning rituals in the past offered an important psychological release from the state's exactations and abuses, however now that they are an actual part of the state apparatus, they can no longer serve that role, resulting--the authors' claim-- in a rise in clinical depression.
- HRAF PubDate
- 2000
- Region
- Middle East
- Sub Region
- Middle East
- Document Type
- article
- Evaluation
- Creator Type
- Ethnologist
- Document Rating
- 4: Excellent Secondary Data
- 5: Excellent Primary Data
- Analyst
- Ian Skoggard ; 2005
- Field Date
- 1072-1974
- Coverage Date
- 1972-1985
- Coverage Place
- Iran
- Notes
- Mary-Jo DelVecchio Good and Byron J. Good
- Includes bibliographical references (p. 62-63)
- LCCN
- 79642232
- LCSH
- Iranians