Politics of Culture in Iran is the first comprehensive study
of modern anthropology within the context of Iranian studies and
politics in the twentieth century.

This book analyzes the ways
in which anthropology and culture in Iran has interacted with Iranian
politics and society. In particular it highlights how and why
anthropology and culture became part of wider socio-political
discourses and how they were appropriated and rejected by the pre- and
post- revolutionary regimes. The author shows that there have been
three main phases of Iranian anthropology, corresponding broadly to
three periods in the social and political development of Iran and
include:

• The Period of Nationalism: lasting approximately from
  the Constitutional Revolution (1906-11) and the end of the Qajar
  dynasty until the end of Reza Shah's reign (1941).

• The Period of Nativism: from the 1950s until the Islamic Revolution (1979)

• The Post-Revolutionary Period

This book also places Iran within an international context by demonstrating
how western anthropological concepts, theories and methodologies
affected epistemological and political discourses in Iranian
anthropology. Politics of Culture in Iran is essential reading for
those with interests in Iranian society and politics and anthropology.

About the Author
Nematollah Fazeli is
Assistant Professor of Allameh Tabatabai of Iran and his specialises in
social anthropology and cultural studies focusing on contemporary
culture of Iran, ethnography and higher education studies.