Anthropological Analysis of Bakhtiari Songs Inspired by Edmund Burke's Theory of the Sublime and Beautiful

Bakhtiari songs, as a reflection of tribal life, have played a pivotal role in preserving cultural identity and social cohesion. By narrating suffering, love, rituals, tribal customs and traditions, and nomadic joys, these songs convey deep human experiences combined with aesthetics and manifest the bond between man and nature. The aim of this research is to analyze the manifestations of the “sublime” and “beautiful” in these songs by using Edmund Burke’s aesthetic theory. The main question of this article is: How can the songs of the Bakhtiari people create experiences of the sublime and beautiful within the framework of Burke’s theory through themes such as the beauty of nature, the greatness of suffering, and the glory of love and death? This descriptive-analytical study, using qualitative content analysis and hermeneutic interpretation, examined 15 selected songs from the albums of the late Masoud Bakhtiari (Bahman Alaeddin) due to their cultural significance and thematic diversity. According to the findings of this article, Bakhtiari songs not only narrate the sufferings and glories of nomadic life, but also act as a mirror of ethnic identity and social cohesion. Interpreting these songs within the framework of Burke's theory showed how Bakhtiari songs evoke a sense of the sublime by using images of the glory of nature, such as endless plains and soaring mountains, as well as passionate emotional experiences, such as love and separation. In contrast, the gentle and harmonious descriptions of the beloved, springs, and tribal rituals display the manifestations of the beautiful. This duality, sometimes expressed in a single verse and sometimes in an entire song, creates an aesthetic experience that is both deeply human and, in a special way, reflective of Bakhtiari culture. The results of the analysis of the verses indicate a dynamic and multi-layered interaction between these two concepts, which is crystallized in the songs through emotional contrasts, natural images, and collective rituals. For example, poetic descriptions of nature such as the Koohrang spring or the Shimbar plain refer to the sublime by creating a sense of grandeur and awe, while metaphors such as the “sweet flower” and the “sugar fog” represent the beautiful with tenderness and harmony. This coexistence creates an aesthetic experience that simultaneously evokes the opposing feelings of wonder, fear, and pleasure in the audience.

The findings of this study also indicate a key innovation: Bakhtiari songs, through their deep connection with biogeography and nomadic culture, uniquely recreate the sublime and beautiful in musical and linguistic forms. These songs not only carry collective memory and ethnic identity, but also represent the complexities of human existence in the context of Bakhtiari culture by creating a dialectic between suffering and pleasure. This introduces Bakhtiari songs as multifaceted texts that can be considered in interdisciplinary studies, including aesthetics, cultural anthropology, and oral literature studies. Also, relying on Burke's theoretical framework, this research adds to the theoretical richness of the analysis of Iranian local literature and shows that Western philosophical concepts can be used in the analysis of Iranian local texts in a way that both preserves cultural authenticity and forms a global discourse in the field of aesthetics. The study showed how the contrast between elegance and power, beauty and sublimity, is manifested in the semantic and formal layers of these poems and creates a unique aesthetic experience for the audience; and highlights the literary and aesthetic value of Bakhtiari songs. With their ability to convey deep human experiences, these songs create a bridge between local and global cultures and show that art, even in its simplest forms, can carry deep and universal meanings.