Feeding Iran Shi`i Families and the Making of the Islamic Republic

Reviews

"Wellman’s work is a powerful contribution in the best tradition of anthropology, from which sociologists of religion and Islam can learn a great deal."—Sociology of Religion: A Quarterly Review

"Beyond food studies, for those interested in contemporary kinship studies, or the anthropology of the Middle East, particularly Iran, [this book] sheds an important light on the inculcation of every day, embodied support for the illiberal state."—Anthropological Quarterly

"Feeding Iran offers an account of kinship and the intersection of kinship and politics. . . .readers are unlikely to mistake the emotional and perspectival empathy she applies in her fieldwork."—Religiologies

"Rose Wellman’s exemplary study of everyday life in provincial Iran breathes new life into the perennially topical question of the sources of emotional resonance and moral legitimacy of kinship, religion, and the nation. The result is a luminous anthropological work that clarifies the mutual resonance and naturalizing potential resting between spaces of intimacy and state power."––Janet Carsten, Professor of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Edinburgh

"This is a vivid, engaging, and evocative ethnography of the cultural life of an inaccessible community, the Basiji families of Iran—people associated with institutional support of the Iranian Revolution of 1978–79 and the Islamic Republic as a kind of paramilitary force. Because they have been associated with political and religious extremism, they have not been taken seriously as a living community by many both inside and outside of Iran. Wellman humanizes them and provides a fascinating account of their rich symbolic and interpersonal lives."––William O. Beeman, author of The Great Satan vs. the Mad Mullahs: How the United States and Iran Demonize Each Other

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