Exploring the Concepts of Home and Territory and Their Transformation in Kakavand’s Villages (Case Study: Zevaram Village)

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 MA in Anthropology, faculty of Social Sciences, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.

2 Professor, Anthropology Department, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.

Abstract

This paper investigates the situation of home and territory in Kakavand’s villages and their process of transformation. The theoretical framework of this study is based on ideas of Gaston Bachelard about the concept of “space”. This research is an ethnographic study and field data is gathered by participative observation and interview. Findings show that the rural home is in harmony with the climate and local architecture; the home is open to outside world; a vast array of social relationships are formed and reinforced inside the home and they embrace all the village; so there is a dynamic relation between inside and outside of home. Several items like participation and cooperation, conflicts, rituals, soiree, games and amusements, kasmsa, pilgrimage, visiting each other in eids, and public sphere have an influential role in building social relationship, reinforcing attachment to the place and the community and creating memories; and they generalize the concept of home to the whole village. But during the recent years, policies for affordable housing have led to a type of architecture which has weakened social relationships and the relation of inside and outside of the home. Recent changes like new agricultural tools and methods are destroying local cooperation and participation; and there is no possibility to revive the local architecture of the village. But it does not mean to neglect revitalizing the social life of the village and the opportunity of expanding the territory of home; some strategies like 1-revitalizing the publice sphere 2- preventing privatizing of public spaces 3- building public places like gyms, libraries, etc. seem beneficial to achieve this goal.

Keywords

Iranian Journal of Anthropological Research
Volume 9, Issue 1 - Serial Number 17
Indexing Databases
September 2019
Pages 135-156

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