مطالعه ي ساختارهاي اجتماعي و فرهنگي در ضرب المثل هاي فارسي

Reflection of Socio-Cultural Values in Persian Proverbs

The study of literature (written or oral) with the intention of discovering the structure of cultural beliefs and values has attracted the attention of sociologists and intellectuals. The text and context of these studies encompasses such classical cognitive areas as schools of philosophy, ideology, exegesis of religious texts and literary and artistic styles, as well as the study of folk culture including stories, songs, superstitions, and proverbs. The present study analyzes more than 20,000 Persian proverbs collected in Amsal o Hekam by Ali Akbar Dehkhoda in relation to socio-cultural attitudes and values. Three main structures have been identified and analyzed: Epistemological, religious, and philosophical insights (42.2%), containing eleven subcategories such as insights about the world, destiny, humans, God, education, popular knowledge, etc. Insights toward moral values and social matters and concepts (40.4%), in which the following categories are discussed: values and anti-values, social stratification and the importance of wealth and poverty, the matter of time and opportunity, the concepts of group work, consultation, and participation. Insights toward kings and attitudes related to power (17.6%) which contains such topics as king-subject relations, expectations from and criticisms about kings, criticisms of double standards, insights about justice and oppression and criticizing the current situation, and reflections of and reactions to problems and hardships which have been presented in the form of proverbs.