Journal of Iranian Social Studies

Abstract Background and Objective: Tattooing has become widespread across various social groups, and displaying tattoos in public has become common. Tattoo is perceived with heightened sensitivity, particularly in contexts characterized by a blend of traditional and modern elements. Shiraz, as Iran’s third religious capital, provides an ideal setting for studying tattoo. Thus, this research aims to study tattooing in the social context of Shiraz to gain insight into the lives of tattooed people.
Methods and Data: This study employed a qualitative approach based on Grounded Theory. Seventeen tattooed individuals were selected through purposive sampling. Data were collected through in-depth, semi-structured interviews and analyzed using open, axial, and selective coding.
Findings: Data coding led to the identification of six categories. Physical-psychological benefits, and aesthetic sensibilities, constitute the causal conditions for tattooing. Normalization as the contextual condition. Significant others as the intervening condition. Struggle and argumentation are the strategies. Finally, contradictory outcomes as the consequences of tattoo.
Discussion and Conclusion: The findings gave rise to a core: Tattooing as a tool for identity and resistance. Within the social context of Shiraz—individuals draw on the structures of metropolitan life to assert themselves and engage in self-repair, deriving a sense of empowerment from their tattoos. However, because of the city’s traditional fabric, they simultaneously encounter numerous social restrictions when dealing with institutional structures and official discourses, thereby experiencing this contradiction more intensely.

Abstract Traditional-Islamic medicine and modern biomedicine represent two distinct paradigms for understanding health and disease. These differences became particularly salient—and antagonistic—during the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing on Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe’s discourse theory and employing a multi-sited ethnographic method, this study explores the roots, points of divergence, and tensions between these two medical systems. The findings indicate that knowledge production within the discourse of Traditional-Islamic medicine is grounded in transmitted traditional sources. Illness is explained through a holistic framework known as the theory of temperaments (mizāj), and healing aims at restoring the body’s internal balance. In contrast, modern medicine is founded upon empiricism and cumulative scientific knowledge. Accordingly, Traditional-Islamic practitioners interpreted COVID-19 as a disease with a “cold and moist” temperament, recommending herbal remedies and therapeutic interventions to adjust the body’s temperament toward a “warm and dry” state. Modern medicine, on the other hand, conceptualized the disease as caused by a viral agent, grounding its treatment and control measures in infectious disease medicine and epidemiology. Traditional-Islamic medicine can be understood as an identity-oriented discourse—an expression of cultural resistance and the defense of “tradition and heritage” against the hegemony of modern scientific knowledge, as well as an embodiment of distrust toward formal medical institutions. Conversely, modern medicine challenges the efficacy and legitimacy of local healing practices under pandemic conditions. Each of these discourses seeks to articulate the nodal points of “health” and “disease” within a broader field of meaning, resulting in an ongoing discursive antagonism in the struggle for hegemony. Given the political implications embedded in these therapeutic discourses, this antagonism mirrors the broader discursive struggle within Iran’s political discourse, characterized by the coexistence and tension between “traditional, nativist, and identity-seeking” elements on one side and “modernist and progress-oriented” tendencies on the other.
 

Abstract The aim of this research is to study the effects of socio-economic development on Kurdish identity from a sociological perspective. Through qualitative research method of grounded theory, central categories of research were categorized in five areas including dominance of western identity over traditional identity, reconstruction of identity and its relative popularization, emergence of unequal development, heterogeneous development, and strengthening of Kurdish identity. The coding processes (open, central and selective) of the collected data resulted in the extraction of 883 subcategories and 279 major categories, which summed up in 37 categories. The causal and intervention factors, action strategies and consequences of action were then introduced. Finally, the main theme of research manifested as "emergence of development elements during fundamental changes in traditional identity" which indicates the "crisis-generating development and new form of identity".

Abstract The name of the children indicates the identity and traits of parents in most places. The selected names for children can be indicative of cultural, political, and ethnic orientations of individuals. The selection of different names, and their changes over time are influenced by different subcultures and indicate the strength and weakness of different ideational traits in different societies. Evolution of name selecting for children from the view point of national and ethnic identities shows the tendency towards integration in society. Therefore, this study investigates the changes of the names during 2003-2013 and explain the factors causing these changes The results of the study indicate that a series of factors have changed the naming of children in Kurdistan province. These factors include the dysfunctions of the political system, the expansion of communication and communication tools, the weakening of national discourse, the ineffectiveness of the educational system, religious differences, and the existence of ethnic discourse in this province  

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Abstract Many linguists and anthropologists believe that language is the base of identity, because the concept of language and identity have an inseparable connection. Even some of them believe that the first sign of identity, like a person’s name, is stuff of language. In this research by the use of field data, language and its connection to other variables like age, sex, ethnicity and nationality among Afghan immigrants was studied and the connection of these elements with identity was investigated. After a quarter century of their widespread presence in Iran, now the second and third generation of immigrants are experiencing the new conditions and achieving a new identity. This process that inevitably passes through an identity disorder will come across immigrant society. The new identity is formed through the language. It seems forming this identity can effectively act as a basis for the official presence of a new minority called the »Iranian - Afghan«. So it seems that the Persian dialogue of Afghan is more or less threatened not only among the immigrants in Iran, but also back in Afghanistan.

Abstract The question of identity is one of the oldest questions facing human beings and today it is a challenging question about human existence. The question is problematic since the rapid contemporary social and cultural changes have obliterated traditional resources of identity construction and assigned the task of identity constructing to the individuals .These changes along with individual growth and the increasing importance of individualization have turned the services and goods consumption to one of the most significant tools of identity construction. Our main purpose is to examine the relationship between consumption patterns and individual identity. After reviewing identity and consumption literature, the research theoretical frame has been made based on post modern theorists view, especially the theory of Gladdens. The concepts and variables have been defined according to the theoretical frame. To conduct the surveys, a questionnaire and cluster sampling method were used-the population was Kemani youths. The findings show that tendency to high consumption in visual fields such as clothing and make up, in comparison to cultural consumption is more prominent among youths. While modern identity is more common among men, the women have more traditional identity. Moreover, the relationship between paying attention to consumer behavior and modern identity is significant.

Abstract According to writings and research conducted by Michel Foucault, discourse analysis is by no means limited to textual analysis. Arranging discourse analysis and consequently focusing on analysis of the text has seemingly emerged after Foucault’s death. Gradually however, the method of discourse analysis has moved away from textual methods as an empirical phenomenological method. As a result, cultural products and goods, social actions and institutions can constitute a theme of subject matter of discourse analysis. In the article, space has been introduced as a new area for discursive research; in the meantime, an attempt has been made to illustrate some new techniques of space-research in the social studies

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