GEOGRAPHICAL RESEARCH
Year:2000 | Volume:15 | Issue:1-2 (56-57)|Papers Count:13

The pastures in different parts of Iran are of different nature, vegetation, topography, etc. These varieties in the kind of pasturelands have given rise to different exploitation systems. This article has categorized and described these systems. Different ethnic people living in various parts of Iran, based on the qualities of the pasture they use, have their own way of exploitation.These methods include all the technical and fundamental procedures in using a pasture. All these form a system of exploitation in a certain region. This article has tried to examine all factors, the natural, social, cultural, etc contributing to the formation of an exploitation system.

The families living in Yazd, historically originate from different groups of people; namely Zoroastrians, Sadats (the descendents of the holy prophet Mohammad, P.B.U .H.), kinsfloks, doctors, tribal chiefs, and the emigrants coming from other cities. They generally form the composition of Yazd population, living indistinctively and peacefully. These groups of people have been intermixing for years and have given rise to new families having new identities. At the present time, they can be divided into nine groups, many of whom have initiated public endowments, public facilities, and industrial] establishments. To study issues such as public facilities and services, industrial establishments, and public endowments in Yazd, it is therefore needed to take into account the family background and their genealogy first.

The rural society of Iran in its long history, has always experienced several natural and human problems, such as, agricultural and domesticated animal production, socio-economic protection, and social welfare, both inside and outside the villages. The villagers then has been forced to divide the society into 3 lines as is common in the army:1- The first line: the farmers.2- The second: nonfarmers as the back-somons.3- The staff of the headquarters: the village representatives.Such division of the society along with these three lines has been commonplace for many centuries.However, the shah's Land-Reform act (1962) in connection with the development of socio-economic changes, in Iran and other countries, resulted in the disintegration of these three lines of the rural society. The act, despite the clashes with the government staff, came to villages to act as the new protector. As a result of this, rural production decreased, the farms were mostly left uncultivated, the villagers migrated to the cities and the settlements were deserted.In this paper, the author has made an attempt to reintroduce the traditional rural back-somons and compares them with government staff now in their place.

Pigeon nests in France, depending on their size and capacity, have various shapes. They are still found in different parts of the country. The largeness, smallness and materials used in these buildings, depend on the social conditions of their users; a matter which shows the economy and culture of the individuals in a locality.Pigeon nests have unequalled architecture and their makers took necessary measures to make them more suitable. Above these pigeon houses, there are mostly some embellishments of baked clay or earthen pots, which had numerous functions, for example, resting and leaping of birds, and a means for warning. These pigeon places played a very important role in forming economy, and farmers took advantage of the birds dropping as fertilizer for summer plantation of crops. They also made use of their delicious meat. Finally shepherds and farmers, in unfavorable conditions, used these pigeon houses as shelter.

Inn (Rebat) and carvanserai are basically two different phenomena which have almost assumed the same status in recent centuries. In this way, the distinction between them is not an easy task. It seems that the origin of carvansarai gets back to the pre-Islamic era when it provided shelter to the travelers and pilgrims. Rebat, on the other hand, appeared in the post-Islamic socio-cultural and architectural domains.It has however changed and was used according to the time requirements and the socio-political conditions. The article has cast a glance at the changes and the development of Rebat from the beginning to the present time.

Probably the most important holy places in Iran for Zarthushtis (Zoroastrians) are pilgrimage places near Ardakan, Aghda, Mehriz and Yazd, all in Yazd province. This article discusses the significance and geographical as well as cultural characteristics of these historical and religious places. While these holy places are visited every year by hundreds of Zoroastrians from all over the world, they cannot be considered solely as places for worship. We are not sure whether these piroons (= pilgrimage places) were originally places of pilgrimage in the past. However, they were mainly used by Zoroastrians as stations and shelters during their long journeys east. From 1200 years ago, such a scenario has happened possibly several times during political and sociological disturbances. Various Zoroastrians dialects in Yazd, Ardakan and Taft areas can testify to the effect of such immigration pattern which eventually led to the settlement of a mixed population in the area. Whatever their origins are, these holy places provide platforms for Zoroastrians gathering (unity), praying and remembering their ancestors and of course the happiness which is the consequence of these three.

This article, with a historical approach, deals with geographical sources and traces their formation from the oldest time. Next, the causes of Moslim's attention to geography and their first written works are discussed. The most famous works are mentioned, annatated, and described. Then, follows a classification of geographical sources and the introduction of some of the electronic ones in English considered to be the most important works in this discipline. The author believes that the geographical researchers, should at least be acquainted with Farsi-Arabic printed sources of the discipline described in most of the Persian reference guides.For each source, the bibliographic data, its scope, the method of accessibility, the way of making contact with the publisher and ordering system, its price and other data and services are provided. Five sources of this kind are described in detail and samples of their entries and contents are given.

The activities which characterize the rustic life include farming, raising cattle and perhaps a number of other marginal activities such as advance purchase, buying and selling of Gabbe, rug etc. These activities vary from village to village.The village of Barab is different from other villages in Darab district in that none of the inhabitants here own their land or water resources or farm animals. They lead a very hard life and make a living only through paid labour. Moreover, these villagers are ethnically and culturally different from the inhabitants of other villages in the area and it is clear that they have moved to this area in a very distant past and have preserved their ethnic physical characteristics of dark faces, curly hair, thick lips and relatively small skulls through intra - group marriages.

This article studies the effect of the ecology of Sistan on the historical monuments and tries to compare the existing monuments with those described in the religious books belonging to the Pre-Islamic time and those found in the Muslin historians and geographer's works. There is particularly an emphasis put on the comparison between the Greek historians' Golden city or zarang/zarange of the Archemenian and Islamic times and the monuments and ruins found in the Nad-ali field (Sistan/Afghani), Dahana Gholaman and in the old Zahidan.

The article starts with a short introduction on the author's purpose in writing it. It then discusses the village and its characteristics and provides some information concerning planting, growing and harvesting as well as preserving pomegranates in traditional ways. The existing varieties of pomegranates, their special local names and usage are presented too.The author tries to show the economic, social, cultural, legal and religious positions of pomegranate in order to indicate its significance in the life of the villagers to establish social relations with other villagers in the region.

The composition of the flock can be studied from different perspectives. It may have a certain composition, for example, based on the type or sex of the animal. The composition of the flock may also be affected by a set of various natural and cultural factors. These factors can be identified and described fully. In this article, attempts have been made to classify the different types of flock and the factors contributing to their compositions. The authors have also tried to show how different elements in a social system interact systematically. The author concludes that, having this in mind, the problems of rural and nomadic people can be handled in a more successful way.

The 29th International Geographical Congress was held from August 14 to 18th 2000 in Seoul, Korea. More than 129 years ago the first IGC convened in Antwrep, Belgium.In the 29th IGC, about 2000 geographers from 100 countries, representing a wide range of fields of geographical research, participated and presented their new findings in about 800 papers. The main theme of the congress was "Living with Diversity". The 29th IGC challenged the geographical society to come together and start an interdisciplinary debate about the natural, physical and social processes that affect the environment, in order to find ways to foresee.