Folktales and Storytellers of Iran

Erika Friedl is Professor Emerita of Anthropology, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Michigan.

• IntroductionChapter 1: Narrators live in their tales: two casesChapter 2: Family as Drama: SiblingsChapter 3: World of WomenChapter 4: Animals, Plants and People WisdomChapter 5: God’s WaysChapter 6: People and Transcendental PowersChapter 7: The Philosophy of Everyday Life

'By using unique, creative, and pioneering methods of research, analysis, and presentation, she has done far more than any other anthropologist to uncover aspects of Persian culture... It is therefore not surprising to me that Erika Friedl's current work also breaks new ground. It combines disciplines: folklore, ethnography and literary analysis. Friedl has used more than 150 folktales for the folklore aspect of the work. Further, she has conducted some 7-8 years of ethnography over the span of almost 50 years. I do not know of other examples of such intensive, long-term work in both folklore and ethnography. She is therefore, more so than any other scholar I know of, able to analyse the meanings of the folktales as understood by the tellers and the audience, and the applicability of the folktales' meanings to their own lives, relationships, and culture. She sees how the folktales uncover ideas, understandings, and meanings, about life, culture and reality, which are sometimes otherwise unexpressed.' P rofessor Mary Elaine Hegland, Department of Anthropology, Santa Clara University, California ' This book is a particularly interesting contribution, since it combines approaches from ethnography/anthropology and literature studies, particularly folklore. Interpreting the Persian folktales from her region of interest against the ethnographic context enables the reader to see the texts as resulting from a particular world-view whose major characteristics are developed through insightful commentaries based on decades of personal experience. Erika Friedl's diligent analysis thus sheds new light on the relationship of folktales and their surrounding culture. Her findings are highly relevant not only for Iranian Studies and Cultural Anthropology, but also for the general fields of folklore and studies in literature.' Professor Ulrich Marzolph, Georg-Auguest University of Gottingen