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608 PERSIANS
seasonal wage labor. A growing number of these rural migrants form permanent
shanty towns around the outer edges of the cities, the men combing the streets
for any menial task and the women and children begging for money or food.
In contrast to the city, the town is far more homogeneous. Religious observances,
though less sophisticated than in the city, are practiced regularly and with
deep conviction, particularly the fast of Ramadan and the Ashura ceremony
during Muharram. Many towns still organize passion plays commemorating the
martyrdom of Hussain. While deprecating the religious laxity of the city and
what is perceived to be decadent Western behavior and values, in many ways
townspeople, especially the more affluent members, try to emulate the city lifestyle.
A large but diminishing segment of the Persian population (about 50 percent)
lives in thousands of villages and hamlets, mostly along the interior rim of the
plateau. A village population may vary from a few households to more than a
thousand people living in one-story houses. The size of a village depends on
two important factors: arable land and water, both of which can be privately
owned. Usually, however, rights to water for irrigation are determined by membership
in the community. The allocation of water follows a complex procedure
which in larger communities is relegated to a mirab, or the distributor of water.
A common technique of channeling water in Iran is through qanats, miles-long
underground tunnels.
A major proportion of agriculture in Iran is based on dry farming. Farming
methods and implements are primitive by Western standards, but well adapted
to the steep and rocky terrain and shallow humus. The chief crops are wheat,
barley, some legumes and a few cash crops, such as tobacco, sugar beets and
sesame. Few villages can boast an appreciable surplus.
The basic social and economic unit in Persian society is the elementary family.
Some families combine into larger units comprised of a man, his wife or wives
(Persians practice polygyny) and married sons and their families. Extended family
units occupy independent quarters facing a central courtyard.
The Persian family is patriarchal. The wife defers to her husband in public
and when children are present, but in private she may wield considerable decisionmaking
power. Usually the father is an aloof disciplinarian, the mother permissive
and affectionate. She is also an intermediary between her children and husband.
In the father's absence, the eldest son is accorded respect and is shown deference
by his siblings as the master of the household. Men are the guardians and
defenders of the family honor, the locus of which are the female members.
Essentially this attitude has been responsible for the sequestering of women in
the more traditional segment of the society.
Selecting a future spouse is seldom a matter concerning only two individuals.
Even in modern urban communities marriage often involves two blocs of kinsmen
whose approval must be given some consideration. Compatibility is normally
judged on the basis of education and socioeconomic status. In spite of the recent