Journal of National Studies
Year:2008 | Volume:9 | Issue:2 (34)|Papers Count:9

Due to its unique natural, geographical and political situation, Iran has passed through numerous events since the beginning of history. However, the Iranian as well as national identity has acted as a framework preserving the country from the widespread invasions. Such a national identity has developed and manifested itself in the Persian language. This language has been always playing a unique role in the sustainability of the Iranian nation as well as the national identity both at the time when Cyrus and Darius had their orders and statements carved on the mountains and columns and at the time when the great Ferdowsi wrote his epical poems in Persian so as to strengthen the national and cultural interests and to display self-awareness to the Iranians. In fact, Persian is like a visible and invisible circle welding the Iranian national identity with its different ethnic groups and it keeps playing the key role in maintaining Iranians' national unity.In the present paper, the writer will point to the role of great Persian poets, some of whom are non-native speakers of Persian, in maintaining and preserving such valuable heritage as well as their efforts to preserve the Iranian identity in general and Persian language in particular.

This paper is taken from a survey study at the national level, which is conducted in order to review and measure the strength of collective identity in Iran-including national, ethnic, religious and modern identity, considering cultural, social and political dimensions of each of them, and also aiming to review relations and occasions among these dimensions. The theoretical framework of this research is the Symbolic Interaction Theory (SIT), on the basis of which hybrid and multidimensional (Iranian) identity is taken. And relations among these dimensions are also assumed to be in balance and harmony (and not conflicting and violating).In this research 4 scales are designed to measure Iranian identity dimensions, and after several pretesting, the unit tool is provided, and is implemented in a sample population of 1800 people in 13 central cities of the province.The outcomes imply the strength of cultural dimensions of national identity, ethnic identity and religious identity, and also average tendency to social dimensions of national, ethnic and religious identities, below average tendency to political dimension of national and ethnic identity, and eventually a slight tendency to the three dimensions of modern identity.Furthermore, the findings support the existence of numerous positive relations among most dimensions of national identity ethnic identity and religious identity with one another, and the meaningful distance of modern identity with other dimensions of Iranian identity.

One of the fundamental features of every nation that plays a vital role in determining national identity is national awareness. Iran has been among those nations which have always had a kind of national awareness which during history has functioned as a shield against foreign invasion. Manifestation of national awareness is in Iranian cultural and civil monuments, so this concept has played a fundamental role in foundation of the word, Iran, furthermore national awareness has been like a tool that Iranian various groups have appealed to. Another role of national awareness has been its remarkable role in advent of Iranian nationalism in historical developments. To emphasize the point mentioned above: it should be affirmed that all ethnos in Iran have had in mind the concept of national awareness as a unit, namely Iran, not in conflict with it. So Iranian ethnos contemporary movements and rebels doesn’t imply rebels against other Iranian ethnos but mainly either as a result of foreigners stimulations or rebel against wrong policies of their contemporary governments. And it should be asserted that local languages and dialects in Iran have never had independent function and have performed as a subfamily of Persian language. This doesn’t mean any pressure imposed from Persian language speaking people, at all, but the consequence of historical developments within a united nation. In other words the existence of national awareness in the evidence of historical sources in Iranian ethnos has been a cause of their conscious and friendly unity during various historical periods.

In this paper the typology of war narratives is done by using Michael Foucault's theoretical framework of archaeology and borrowing his concepts in exposing the limits of knowledge and emphasizing on the possibility of different ways of thinking to achieve a new knowledge in order to focus on four matters:1. To explain the present situation of war narratives by referring to what has passed in war narratives since the war.2. To bring a cut in the improvisation of these narratives by historical research on the present situation of war narratives in practical and mental habits of its targeted people.3. To bring about the mental possibility -as an introductory to a practical possibility- of some other different narratives of war by using this cut.4. To persuade the minds to think differently on war by the help of war narratives in this way.

The main aim of the present study is to verify the relationships of value orientations of high adolescents with their national identities. 984 boy and girl students were randomly selected from four regions (north, south, east, and west) in Tehran. Instruments included two main questionnaires; the Schwartz Value Survey (SVS) and the Iranian Values Inventory (IVI) containing five subscales (family, religious, media, nation, and individual values). The second questionnaire is a teacher-made inventory with appropriate psychometric properties. Results revealed that the most and least mean values among adolescents were conformity and tradition, respectively. Moreover, significant results were found between adolescents' values with their national identities. These findings were in harmony with the previous research.

Reinforcing national solidarity and unity is one of the important purposes of formal education in every society and country. Regarding the specification of primary schools pupils their education has vital role to fulfill the national solidarity.This article tries to answer questions as: Is there any will in the primary school text books to enforce the national solidarity? And if the response is positive, in which extension and for which purposes this have been done. This article there gives indications that in the most of the primary school texts, the national solidarity has been under consideration and there were a lot of endeavor to achieve it. But, from pathological point of view the article makes it clear that there are infirmity points with negative impact for achieving this end.

Most of the old celebrations and rituals have their roots in ancient myths; they are indeed reflections of the beliefs of a people who lived in a particular milieu and at a particular time. "Teer-mah Seezzehshoo" descends from the ancient Iranian grand celebration of "Teergan"; it is still celebrated in the north of the country, especially in the northern Iranian province of Mazandaran.The author of the current article will try to demonstrate the relation between "Teer-mah Seezzehshoo" with some other Iranian mythological stories such as archery myth of Arash, Afrasiyab, Sepandarmaz, etc. which have close associations with water and greenery of the north of Iran.