Overview
- Provides new information obtained through years of field studies in Iranian villages
- Examines intangible water culture from an interdisciplinary point of view
- Brings the readers to the deeper layers of water rituals through historical-geographical interpretations
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Table of contents (6 chapters)
Keywords
About this book
This book traces “water” back to the most primitive animistic notions that are still lingering on in the shape of such rituals as qanat marriage or rain-making. Water, in the Iranian philosophy, is used in an attempt to find an explanation for the genesis of the universe, as described in Zoroastrian Akhshij philosophy, according to which water is one of the four fundamental elements of the creation. The concept of time began to germinate in the Iranian mind, when they had to count the passage of time in order to divide their scarce water resources. Water became so omnipresent in Iranian culture that it reached even the most mysterious seclusion of the Sufi monks. In Iran’s local communities, water culture is a thread that runs through different types of production systems. This book goes beyond indigenous water knowledge and traditional irrigation techniques, and conceptualizes water as a pivotal element of Iran’s social identity, cultural dynamics and belief systems, where itexamines the role of intermittent droughts in engendering and diffusing intangible cultural elements across the Iranian plateau. This book delves into Iran’s political organizations most of which were ensnared in a water-dependent lifecycle constituting a historical pattern described in this book as “hydraulic collapse” .
Authors and Affiliations
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Cultural Dynamics of Water in Iranian Civilization
Authors: Majid Labbaf Khaneiki
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-58900-4
Publisher: Springer Cham
eBook Packages: Social Sciences, Social Sciences (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-58899-1Published: 24 September 2020
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-58902-8Published: 25 September 2021
eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-58900-4Published: 23 September 2020
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: X, 155
Number of Illustrations: 22 b/w illustrations, 10 illustrations in colour
Topics: Social Anthropology, Water, general, Middle Eastern Culture, Anthropology, Human Geography