An Anthropological Analysis of the Food System within the Cultural Structure of Horaman

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Ph.D. in Anthropology, Faculty of Social Sciences, Tehran University, Tehran, Iran.

2 Associate professor of Persian of Language and Literature, Persian literature group, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Razi University, Kermanshah, Iran

Abstract
The food system, cooking and food consumption methods, in addition to biological needs, are based on kinship, cultural and social relations, national and religious, mythological and aesthetic beliefs; Therefore, the cultural structure of the food system, its beliefs and rituals, has a dual nature based on the functions of cultural structure and social relations which appears as dualities like: nature and culture, nomadic and sedentary, raw and cooked, man and woman, grain and oil, bread and meat. Food and eating system in Horaman region has a cultural, social, religious and religious role tailored on mythological and aesthetic identities in a dual system and opposite interaction. This article has investigated the characteristics and place of food in the cultural structure of Horaman region with the approach of anthropological structure based on qualitative study and field work, participatory observation, open interviews, library ethnographic method and the use of food anthropology resources in Horaman region. The results of the research show that food, in addition to physical needs, has a structure that is part of the cultural structures of Horaman region and has an anthropological application, As it has a constructive role in the rules, principles and values ​​governing the cultural system of Horaman region and it forms part of the national and religious beliefs and cultural and social values ​​and rituals of this region.

Keywords


Barthes, R. (2018). “Toward a psychosociology of contemporary food consumption”. Pp. 13-20 In Food and culture. Routledge.
Dusselier, J. (2009). “Understandings of food as culture”. Environmental History, 14 (2): 331-338.
Jastrow, M. (1898). The religion of Babylonia and Assyria., Boston: Ginn & Company.
Mintz, S. W., & Du Bois, C. M. (2002). The anthroplogy of food and eating”. Annual review of anthropology, 31(1), 99-119.
Murchison, J. (2010). Ethnography essentials: Designing, conducting, and presenting your research. John Wiley & Sons.
Roden, C. (1968). A book of Middle Eastern food. Vintage.
Strauss, L. (2013). “The Culinary Triangle”. Food and culture: A reader (3rd ed., pp. 40–47). Routledge. (Original work published 1966).

  • Receive Date 05 April 2025
  • Accept Date 24 November 2025
  • First Publish Date 24 November 2025
  • Publish Date 22 May 2025