Hostname: page-component-5c6d5d7d68-qks25 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-08-17T20:47:26.862Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

“We Deserve Better”: Ideologies of Deservingness and Status in the Interpretation of Chinese Goods in an Iranian Bazaar

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 January 2022

Simon Theobald Open the ORCID record for Simon Theobald [Opens in a new window]
Simon Theobald*
Affiliation:
School of Archaeology and Anthropology, Australian National University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article argues that even as Chinese imports occupy an increasingly large percentage of the space in Mashhad’s bazaars and marketplaces, such goods are interpreted not only as being of poor quality but, critically, as insufficiently “worthy” of the Iranian middle class who positioned themselves as “deserving better.” In attempting to assess why this is the case, the article suggests that such framing both reveals much of, and requires us to consider, the pivotal role of status in Iran. It holds that this concern for status is expressed at multiple levels: that of the family, as a class, and finally, of the nation. At each of these levels of expression, it is possible to trace different post-revolutionary social phenomena. These include the reification of the family as a moral unit, major shifts in the demographics of education and urbanization, the rise of a consumer culture and the perilous decline of the fortunes of the middle class, and, finally, imaginings of national exceptionalism. This article then uses such readings of Chinese goods as a window into middle class ideologies of worth and deservingness.

Keywords

China-IranStatusConsumptive BehaviorClassDeservingnessAspiration
Type
Articles
Information
Iranian Studies , Volume 53 , Issue 5-6 , December 2020 , pp. 947 - 961
Copyright
Copyright © Association For Iranian Studies, Inc 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adelkhah, Farida, Being Modern in Iran. New York: Columbia University Press, 2000.Google Scholar
Alizadeh, Parvin, ed. The Economy of Iran: The Dilemma of an Islamic State. London: Bloomsbury, 2001.Google Scholar
Ahmad, Jalal Al-e, Gharbzadegi. Trans. Green, John, and Alizadeh, Ahmad. Lexington, KY: Mazda, 1982.Google Scholar
Amin, Michael Cameron. “Importing ‘Beauty Culture’ into Iran in the 1920s and 1930s: Mass Marketing Individualism in an Age of Anti-Imperialist Sacrifice”. Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East 24, no. 1 (2004):79–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arjomand, Said Amir, “Traditionalism in Twentieth Century Iran.” In From Nationalism to Revolutionary Islam, ed. Arjomand, Said Amir, 195–232. London: Macmillan, 1984.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Behdad, Sohrab, and Nomani, Farhad. “What a Revolution! Thirty Years of Social Class Reshuffling in Iran.” Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East 29, no. 1 (2009): 84–104. doi: 10.1215/1089201X-2008-046CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beeman, William, Language, Status, and Power in Iran. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1986.Google Scholar
Bourdieu, Pierre, Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste. Trans. Nice, Richard. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1984.Google Scholar
Burdelski, Matthew, and Mitsuhashi, Koji. “‘She Thinks You’re Kawaii’: Socialising Affect, Gender, and Relationships in a Japanese Preschool.” Language and Society 39 (2010): 65–93. doi: 10.1017/S0047404509990650CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brumberg, Daniel, Reinventing Khomeini: The Struggle for Reform in Iran. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2001.Google Scholar
Fanni, Zohreh, “Cities and Urbanization in Iran after the Islamic Revolution.” Cities 23, no. 6 (2006): 407–411. doi: 10.1016/j.cities.2006.08.003CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fathi, Asghar, Women and the Family in Iran. Leiden: Brill, 1985.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Godazgar, Hossein, “Islam Versus Consumerism and Postmodernism in the Context of Iran.” Social Compass 54, no. 3 (2007): 389–418. doi: 10.1177/0037768607080835CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Habibi, Nader, “Iran’s Overeducation Crisis: Causes and Ramifications.” Middle East Brief. Brandeis University, February 2015. https://www.brandeis.edu/crown/publications/meb/MEB89.pdfGoogle Scholar
Harris, Kevan, “The Brokered Exuberance of the Middle Class: An Ethnographic Analysis of Iran’s 2009 Green Movement.” Mobilization: An International Quarterly 17, no. 4 (2012): 435–455. doi: 10.17813/maiq.17.4.hm3q725054052k85CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Karimi, Pamela, Domesticity and Consumer Culture in Iran: Interior Revolutions of the Modern Era. London: Routledge, 2013.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Khosravi, Shahram, Precarious Lives: Waiting and Hope in Iran. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2017.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Khosravi, Shahram, Young and Defiant in Tehran. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2009.Google Scholar
Kian, Azadeh, and Riaux, Gilles. “Crafting Iranian Nationalism: Intersectionality of Aryanism, Westernism, and Islamism.” In Nations and their Histories, ed. Carvalho, Susana, and Gemenne, Francois, 189–203. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lenehan, Sara, “Nose Aesthetics: Rhinoplasty and Identity in Tehran.” Anthropology of the Middle East 6, no. 1 (2011): 47–62. doi: 10.3167/ame.2011.060105CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mahdavi, Pardis, Passionate Uprisings: Iran’s Sexual Revolution. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press, 2008.Google Scholar
Midler, Paul, Poorly Made in China: An Insider’s Account of the China Production Game. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley, 2011.Google Scholar
Mir-Hosseini, Ziba, Marriage on Trial: Islamic Family Law in Iran and Morocco. London: I.B. Tauris, Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.Google Scholar
Moin, Baqer, Khomeini: Life of the Ayatollah. London: I.B Tauris, 2009.Google Scholar
Nassehi-Behnam, Vida, “Change and the Iranian Family.” Current Anthropology 26, no. 5 (1985): 557–562. doi: 10.1086/203340CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Olszewska, Zuzanna, “Classy Kids and Down-at-Heel Intellectuals: Status Aspiration and Blind Spots in the Contemporary Ethnography of Iran.” Iranian Studies 46, no. 6 (2013): 841–862. doi: 10.1080/00210862.2013.810078CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reza-Rashti, Goli, “Iran: Women and Higher Education—Negotiating Tradition and Modernity.” In Education in West Central Asia, ed. Ahmed, Mah-e Rukh, 103–122. London: Bloomsbury, 2013.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reza-Rashti, Goli, and Moghadam, Valentine. “Women and Higher Education in Iran: What Are the Implications for the ‘Marriage Market’?” International Review of Education 57, no. 3 (2011): 419–441. doi: 10.1007/s11159-011-9217-9CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ringer, Monica M., “Iranian Nationalism and Zoroastrian Identity.” In Iran Facing Others, ed. Amanat, Abbas, and Vejdanig, Farzin, 267–277. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schayegh, Cyrus, “Iran’s Karaj Dam Affair: Emerging Mass Consumerism, the Politics of Promise, and the Cold War in the Third World.” Comparative Studies in Society and History no. 54 (2012): 612–643. doi: 10.1017/S0010417512000254CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Seyed-Gohrab, Asghar, “Khomeini the Poet Mystic.” Die Welt des Islams, no. 51 (2011): 438–458. doi: 10.1163/157006011X603550CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shari'ati, Ali, On the Sociology of Islam: Lectures. Berkeley, CA: Mizan, 1979.Google Scholar
Sreberny, Annabelle, and Mohammadi, Ali. Small Media, Big Revolution: Communication, Culture, and the Iranian Revolution. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1994.Google Scholar
Varzi, Roxanne, Warring Souls: Youth, Media, and Martyrdom in Post-Revolution Iran. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2006.Google Scholar
Zia-Ebrahimi, Reza, The Emergence of Iranian Nationalism: Race and the Politics of Dislocation. New York: Columbia University Press, 2016.Google Scholar
Zibakalam, Sadegh, “Iranian Exceptionalism.” Middle East Institute, January 29, 2009. https://www.mei.edu/publications/iranian-exceptionalismGoogle Scholar