The Basseri of Iran





The Basseri of Iran
Student’s Name
Course #
Instructor’s Name
Date



The Basseri of Iran

The Basseri is a native pastoralist tribe located in Iran. The tribe is pastoralist because they have pastures to graze cattle, sheep and goats and they depend on the animals for food. Everything that the Basseri do is central to the animals that they own. The following pages will discuss the Basseri and their culture and living arrangements, the kinship system, economy, and the pastoral chiefdom that is their leader. In a pastoral culture, all things evolve around the ability to successfully execute economic transactions with the animals that are owned. This goes for marriage as well; however, in the Basseri culture women are controlled and they are forced to cover their faces in public. More about the control of women will be discussed later in this paper. First, the area in which the Basseri lives needs to be explained to understand how rest of the culture works.
The Basseri live in the mountainous areas of Persia, better known now as Iran since 1935. The area borders the Persian Gulf and is known as the “land of nomadic tribes” (Marx, 1977, p. 347). Iran is used by nomadic tribes for its agriculture and diverse animals and birds. Iran is the 18th largest country in the world, with approximately 66 million people as of 2008 (http://www.mongabay.com/igapo/world_statistics_by_area.htm). The Basseri population fluctuates between 2,000 and 3,000 tents which equal approximately 16,000 people as of 1961 (Barth, 1961, p. 1). The location of the country is quite significant. It is bordered by Afghanistan, Pakistan, Russia, Turkey, and Iraq. It has a significant supply of natural resources including oil, therefore the country yield significant power. In addition to natural resources, Iran is a very mountainous country that is a welcome break from the other arid and semi-arid regions of the...