Genealogy of a member of the ṭāyefa Eskandary descended from Karbalāʾ Bārānī, Kerman Province, Iran
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Description
The data shows the genealogy of an elderly villager from the village Bagh-e Borj, located in the mountains of Kerman (Southeast Iran). All villagers belong to the ṭāyefa Eskandery. ṭāyefa is an indigenous term that could be translated to English as 'tribe' although this term is, of course, a bit problematic. The Eskanderies live endogamous and believe to have a common descent from one forefather - all Eskanderies are descendants of a common ancestor who is known among them under the name Karbalāʾ Bārānī. This can be seen in the genealogy: The villager traces his descent via his patriline back to the common forefather Karbalāʾ Bārānī. Karbalāʾ is said to have come to the mountains of Bagh-e Borj roughly 300-350 years ago and most Eskanderies can trace their own (patri-)line back to this mythological figure. The genealogy is not complete: Occasionally the names of ancestors were unknown and female ancestors occur 'only' from the fourth generation after Karbalāʾ on. This corresponds with the survey method – the genealogy was recorded in an interview with the villager and, hence, stems from his memory and not from a written archive (such an archive doesn't exist). This is not a disadvantage: memory is not that much concerned with completeness or factuality, actually not even with the past. It is concerned with establishing social cohesion in the present and that is what this genealogy does: the Eskanderies' idea of being a group is significantly strengthened by the belief in a common descent.
The surname Eskandery was taken by the ṭāyefa members in 1924, when citizens of Iran had to take a family name by law. Eskandery was and stil is a popular name that many citizens choose as their family name and so did the members of the respective ṭāyefa .
Files
Genealogie Nāser Eskendary.xml
Additional details
Related works
- Is supplement to
- Text: 978-3-947251-31-5 (ISBN)
- Text: 978-3-7520-0868-5 (ISBN)
- Text: 10.5771/9783985721894-89 (DOI)
Data quality
- Accuracy
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not applicable
- Completeness
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The genealogy is based on the oral tradition of the members of the ṭāyefa Eskandary. It represents the common memory and can be incomplete or partly incorrect. Unknown but remembered persons are kept as blank database entry and unremembered persons are not included.
- Conformity
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not applicable
- Consistency
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not applicable
- Credibility
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not applicable
- Processability
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The genealogy is provided in the formats XML (.xml) and Gramps XML (.gramps). The genealogy was created with the software Gramps version 1.7.1, sqlite version 3.47.2 (2.6.0) and python version 3.12.8. Gramps is published under the GNU General Public License, version 2 (GPLv2) or later license.
- Relevance
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The relevance lies in the fact that it illustrates that the Eskanderis form an endogamous, kinship-based group. Since endogamy is always a relational and never an absolute concept, this does indeed require further clarification. The Eskanderies are what we would call in German a patrilinearer Deszendenzverband in der achten Generation. Unfortunately, this is somewhat difficult to translate into English, as the term Deszendenzverband is not easy to translate. However, the basic idea is that descent, which is constituted by parent-child relationships, is the constitutive element for the group. This lineage can be matrilineal or patrilineal, and in the case of the Eskanderies it is patrilineal and can be traced back eight generations.
Interesting now is that ALL members of the group (male & female) share this common descent and can trace their (patri-)line back to Karbalāʾ Bārānī, which constitutes a difference to the common understanding of the term "lineage" since a lineage as a whole usually contains only half of all descendants: either those of its female members or those of its male members. Taking this strong tendency towards endogamy into consideration, a translation of ṭāyefa with "lineage" seems to be inappropriate. Similarities (or differences) among other (pastoral-nomadic) groups in Iran (and beyond) might make this example interesting for other researchers. (for further details please consult the publications mentioned above)
- Timeliness
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not applicable
- Understandability
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not applicable