Technology and the transformation of the social status of the Isfahan City’s Artistic-Ritual Object, “Alamat”

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 PhD Candidate in Research of Art,, Department of Research of art,, Faculty of Art,, Alzahra University, Tehran. Iran.

2 Associate Professor, Department of Research of Art, Faculty of Art, Alzahra University, Tehran. Iran

3 Associate Professor of sociology, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran.

4 Assistant Professor, Society and Information Research Institute, Iranian Research Institute for Information Science and Technology (IranDoc), Tehran, Iran.

Abstract

Alamat is a Muharram’s artistic-ritual object in Iran, which is made with special artistic and technical principles. These principles and their effects on the social role of this object have changed over time. Because Isfahan is an important center for the traditional production of Alamat and this object is an important artistic-ritual object in this city, this research considers the effect of new technological changes in the production and promotion of Alamat on its social status and function. For this purpose, the authors have used the anthropological definition of social position in combination with the agency theory of Alfred Gell. This article seeks to answer two questions: What function and social status does Alamat have in Isfahan city? Moreover, what effect has the new developments of technology had on the Alamat’s traditional characteristics, social status, and function among this city’s citizens? This research’s data has been collected through ethnography and non-reactive methods. The research results show that Alamat in Isfahan city is one of the components of the determining cycle of an individual’s social status and the use of modern technology in its construction has the following effects: Increasing the demonstration and promotion function of Alamat, changing the criteria of the social status and value of this object from ritual and social criteria to individual and demonstrative criteria, shifting the position of agent and patient in the interaction of Alamat and society, and breaking or weakness in the cycle of determining the Alamat’s social status based on its agency.

Keywords

References

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