Some peculiarities of the Persian culture of behavior in the context of historical and cultural identity of the Persian people

Abstract

The article analyzes the characteristics of the culture of behavior and the mentality of modern Persians in the context of the historical features of the formation of their identity. The article contains a brief history of the formation of the Persian ethnocultural identity, which has several important components: Iranian (Indo-European, pre-Islamic), Arab-Islamic and Turkic. Under the Safavids a Shiite version of Islam was established in Iran, and under the Pahlavi dynasty an attempt was made to abandon Arab-Islamic elements in all spheres of life, which was one of the reasons for discontent of a large part of the people and the 1979 Islamic revolution. Currently, a large number of Iranians are becoming increasingly disappointed in the Islamic regime and wish the country to develop culturally according to a western pattern. The article analyzes the features of the Persian culture of behavior based on the observations of the authors of R. Lewis theory. The Persian culture of behavior belongs to the multi-active – reactive type, since multi-active (disorganization, lack of coordination, the habit of doing several things at once, a very large role of live communication) and reactive (listening skills, humility and respect for the interlocutor) features are mixed in the Persian national character. In this sense, it is very similar to the culture of behavior of the Turks. Currently the process of secularization takes place in Iran; however, the majority of the population remains loyal to the traditional pattern of behavior. A noticeable part of Persian atheists is experiencing a crisis of traditional culture.