Conceptualizing Iranian Anthropology

During recent years, attempts have been made to move beyond the Eurocentric perspective that characterized the social sciences, especially anthropology, for over 150 years. A debate on the "anthropology of anthropology" was needed, one that would consider other forms of knowledge, modalities of writing, and political and intellectual practices. This volume undertakes that challenge: it is the result of discussions held at the first organized encounter between Iranian, American, and European anthropologists since the Iranian Revolution of 1979. It is considered an important first step in overcoming the dichotomy between "peripheral anthropologies" versus "central anthropologies." The contributors examine, from a critical perspective, the historical, cultural, and political field in which anthropological research emerged in Iran at the beginning of the twentieth century and in which it continues to develop today.

Shahnaz R. Nadjmabadi is a social anthropologist, who worked at UNESCO in Paris from 1977 to 1986. She is a Research Fellow and Lecturer at the Department of Anthropology at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe-UniversitSt, Frankfurt/Main. Her research focuses on the interrelationships between the populations living in the Iranian coastal areas and their neighbours in the Arab countries of the Persian Gulf. She has published a number of articles on questions of identity, locality and the history of settlement in the province of Hormozgan (Persian Gulf).