Anthropology and ethnic studies, Iran

For writing this invited paper, I was given the title Ethnic Groups of Iran and I was also asked to inform the reader/audience about the general situation of anthropology in the country. Specific questions were asked and the first part of this paper responds to those questions. The second part can be best understood if at the time of the reading reference could be made to the site mentioned in the article. A few articles and one book have discussed the history of the field of anthropology in Iran and they are discussed in this text. This field has had great difficulty trying to establish itself in the country due to the sensitivity of the political machine of the country which at times it did not really understand its topic, and at others was sensitive to the information it could bring from rural and pastoral areas of Iran to the center and critically consider the activities of the government. Transparency of political activities have always been at odds with social sciences, and this can clearly be seen in the problems anthropology has had to face to establish itself. The very name of the field has been problematic and this also shows the lack of discussion of the erudite of the field in a clear manner. Today this field is dispersed in various faculties of different universities and topics. The second part of this paper concentrates on my own work on the ethnic groups of country, and a map and a site which I have made to represent the active cultural life of all different peoples of Iran. My anthropological knowledge has helped me to divide the work according first to subsistence (pastoral nomadic, rural and urban), and then according to cultural characteristics and my hope is to continue this work which has been a very important lack in Human Relations Area Files. So far I only have some titles in English, its translation into English could disseminate the information to the anthropological scientific world.