Basseri Essay

Introduction

The Basseri are an egalitarian tribe of pastoral nomads who live in tents located in the arid steeps and mountains south, east and north of Shiraz in Fars province, South Persia or what is currently known as Iran (Barth-1961). Following a traditional migratory route known as the Il-Rah (tribal road), they are granted the particular rights to a land for a specific time (Basseri).The Basseri generally are a Persian (Farsi) speaking tribe, they are also known to speak Turkish and Arabic (Barth-1961). During the mid nineteenth century, the Basseri were part of the Khamseh Confederation where they were not a predominant group within the confederation, but during

Today their numbers range from 20-25,000 inhabitants (Matthews). Therefore, following in the rest of this Ethnography, you will read about the Basseri’s ecological setting, social organization, religion and rituals, government organization, and changes due to modernization, if any changes at all. The Basseri will also be compared to another tribe known as the Batek for any cultural differences and

Each tent is headed by a male and that male has ownership of everything inside the tent including their herds, only when there are no male adult members or if they are absent, a women may take the title of head of the household; and in such cases she is usually represented for formal purposes by a relative (Barth-1961). The size of a Basseri camp depends upon the two seasons either winter or summer (Johnson). In the summer time a Basseri camp can be between ten to forty tents, in winter time camp sizes vary between two to five tents (local camps) where the tents are pitched closely together and are usually three to four kilometers apart from the next local camp (Barth-1961). Dispersal of these local camps during the winter time are advantageous due to pastures being extensive but the state of the pastures being poor