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SHAHSEVAN 671
sevan differ from other nomads is in their tents. Most tribes in Iran have rectangular
goat hair tents, similar to those of the Arab bedouin. Shahsevan tents
resemble upturned saucers and are related to the yurts of the Central Asian
nomads. The wooden framework of curved struts, held together by long girths
radiates from a central roof ring, which is anchored to the ground by a massive
peg. The covering of thick felt mats keeps out both heat and cold. Such a tent,
both heavier and sturdier than other types, costs up to the equivalent of $500.
The wooden parts should last 20 years and are bought in the bazaar, while the
felts, which need replacing every three years, are made in camp from the wool
of the flocks. Only about two out of three households can afford such a tent.
In each tent lives a household of seven or eight people on the average. The
Shahsevan prefer large households, and often brothers and their wives and children
or an old couple and their married sons stay together. There are no partitions
in the tent except in the first year of a son's marriage, when he and his bride
sleep behind a curtain. The hearth, focus of all domestic life, lies between the
door and the central peg.
The staple food is bread. To obtain wheat flour and other supplies, the Shahsevan
sell wool and surplus animals. Herding, milking, shearing and the marketing
of produce are the work of men, who also see to the erection and maintenance
of the tents. The household head is rarely at home during the day unless he has
guests. Younger men and boys help with the herding and fetch fuel.
Women and girls may fetch water, but normally stay in camp to run the
household. Their regular chore, at least once a day, is baking bread over the
hearth. For home consumption they also turn milk into cheese, yogurt and butter,
spin the wool and weave various colorful storage bags and rugs, given in a girl's
trousseau on marriage. Other containers are made of dung and straw.
Shahsevan women do not wear veils, but cover the lower part of the face in
the presence of unrelated men. This rule is strictly observed by newly married
women; young girls and old women are more casual.
For herding purposes, four or five households cooperate. The men are usually
brothers or paternal cousins, but may include relatives through marriage and
perhaps a hired shepherd, who is paid 5 percent of the animals he tends for
every six-month contract period.
People in these herding units know each other intimately, of course, but they
also have intense social relations within a wider community of 20 to 30 households,
the tireh. Men of the tireh trace common descent from an ancestor some
four generations back, whose name they usually bear.
About four marriages in ten involve couples from the same tireh, but unlike
many Muslims the Shahsevan rarely marry their first paternal cousins. Many
boys and girls are able to choose their own partners and say they marry for love.
Marriages are most often made between distant kin of the same tireh or between
neighboring tirehs. There is little or no divorce among the nomads. Perhaps
three men in a tireh have second wives, almost all of whom were widows.
Each tireh has rights to defined pastures in summer and winter quarters. The