Fifteenth International Conference on Interdisciplinary Social Sciences

Abstract

Fortune telling as a key component of Iranian rituals is present in some important forms such as Yalda, Fire Feast, and Chele ceremonies. These rituals portray an anti-structural state, beyond formal time, location and spaces. These rituals overtake the structural meaning of social forms and create a space for going outside formal borders that make fortune telling possible. Due to these key features, these rituals have fused with some parts of Iranian literature that are symbols of polyphonic and dialogic perceptions of life and its turning points. Hafiz, Baba Taher, and Amir Pazavari are among those poets whose poems are featured in the fortune-telling components of such rituals. Calendrical folk tales that recount a space for a change in destiny uncovers the other content of fortune telling’s key traits and contribute to these types of rituals in Iran. The key question here is why fortune telling emerges in these kinds of rituals and how this key feature is combined with oral and written literature such as poetry. It seems that such rituals are the vanguards of calendrical change during the year, and are strongly associated with an anti-structural perception and interpretations of time, location, and life that make the perception of the future possible. To illustrate how this emerges, this article draws on ethnographic research, interviews with ritual subjects and celebrants, and aims to reconstruct an emic view of such rituals. Moreover, participant observation allows the etic and situational perception of the key element under study to take shape.