Contrastive Analysis of "NAMING" & "MOHR ZADAN" Rituals in Kurdish based on Gender

Document Type : مقالات علمی پژوهشی

Authors
E. Mizban 1
َ. Izanloo 2
1 PhD candidate of linguistics, Department of Linguistics, Faculty of Letters and Humanities, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran
2 Assistant professor, Department of Linguistics, Faculty of Letters and Humanities, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran
10.48311/LRR.15.4.443
Abstract
The current study aimed to provide a "contrastive analysis" of rituals related to 'Mohr Zadan' and 'naming' in Kurdish based on gender factors. Deep interview method applied to gathering data of an adult educated native woman. Based on the collected data on this step, a new non-structured group interview was designed and carried on in a small group of 5 non-educated native speakers aged 60 to 70. Relying on the conceptual blending theory, the present study analyses all recorded narrations. The results suggest that Kurdish culture uses different conceptual inputs- or more significantly- selects different mappings of the same input to regenerate new conceptual spaces to represent the cultural values of two genders. In other words, in Kurdy, cultural gender values play a significant role in conceptual blending.



1. Introduction

The various rituals and ceremonies that take place in every culture and subculture are significant examples of how people, by engaging in symbolic behaviours, create a new or collective concept. Rituala and concept have meaning not only in the culture, but also has the power to influence and change a person's life. Based on this, the study of rituals not as mere symbolic ceremonies, but as meaning-creating models that are effective in the psychological and cognitive spheres of people is the subject of the upcoming research. Therefore  with a comparative study of the rituals related to birth in the Kurdish culture of Sorani Sanandaj based on both genders, boys and girls, we have sought answers to the following questions

Research Question(s)

With regard to a common concept such as the birth-giving, what inputs are used in the Kurdish culture under study to create meaning for each gender?
What mappings were made to create a generic and blended space of rituals related to the birth-giving in the Surani Kurdish culture of Sanandaj for each gender, and what methods did this culture use to create a blended space?
the conceptual blended space around the ritual of the birth-giving in the studied Kurdish culture for girls and boys with emphasis on what choices among input elements is formed?



2. Literature Review

Conceptual blending theory (Fauconnier & Turner, 2002) as the theoretical framework of this research, has been adopted in various filed and different topics from news narrating analyses (van Krieken and Sanders: 2018); and headlines’ implicatures (Barczewska: 2017); to internet discourse study (Augustyn and Prażmo: 2020) or political analyses like (Berberović and Delibegović Džanić: 2020).

In Iran also this frame work was utilized in many studies like as the study of Conceptual Blending of War, Hunting and Love in Saadi’s Ghazals (Asqar Nejhad & Fahgih malek marzban: 2017) or cognitive narratology and applying the Conceptual Blending Theory to Persian Folk Tales (Barekat, Rowshan, Mohammad Ebrahimi, Ardebili: 2012); 



3. Theoretical Framework

The theoretical framework of this research is conceptual blending theory (Fauconnier & Turner, 2002), which identifies two or more different mental spaces as inputs and, by examining the mappings between aspects of common elements selected from each of the two, analyses the way in which the human mind perceives, deals with, re-understands or re-identifies pre-existing perceptions, or creates new applications from previous inputs.



4. Methodology

In order to answer the questions of this research, the general structure of the research is first designed within the framework of a comparative study and based on the qualitative analysis model. Based on this, the semi-structured interview method was considered and the desired questions were given to an educated female speaker whose mother tongue is Sorani Kurdish. The interviewee was asked to evaluate the interview questions in terms of clarity, relevance and comprehensibility by 'thinking aloud'. After designing and modifying the interview questions based on the suggestions made by the spokesperson, various rituals related to the birth-giving were collected from a middle-aged female spokesperson by using the in-depth individual interview method. Then, in order to obtain more information, five illiterate men and women, aged between 50 and 70, whose mother tongue was Sorani Kurdish and who conducted their daily conversations in this language, were interviewed using the "targeted group interview" method. their narration of the desired ritual was recorded and continued until saturation point. Finally, the interviews were transcribed in order to extract and analyse the details related to the ritual of the birth-giving rituals. It is worth mentioning that the information was collected in the form of an audio recording with the knowledge and consent of all the interviewees. At the same time, some important classifications were also recorded in writing during the interview and re-evaluated by the interviewees in order to check the accuracy of the recording or its classification. By transcribing and analysing the data extracted from the interviews, the concepts related to the ritual of the birth-givinf were analysed as follows.



5. Results

The analysis of different parts of the rituals related to the birth-giving in the Surani Kurdish culture of Sanandaj, in response to the first question of the research, data shows that this culture creates different meanings in same rituals by choosing two different inputs belonging to the same class to form a conceptual blended space. For example, choosing two different foods such as 'walnuts' or 'crystallised sugar' is effective both in the process of creating the meaning of the blended space and in the purpose and intention behind the desired ceremony and ritual. On the other hand, despite the use of this culture from similar inputs such as "Sureme", "Blessed Object", "Angels" and "Mohr", sometimes the selection and representation of different components of the concepts leads to the creation of a completely different meaning in the blended space.

Data analysis in response to the second question of the research shows that the Sorani Kurdish culture of Sanandaj, by selecting different components of input concepts and creating selective mappings from a set of conceptual blended space, selects concepts that fit the cultural frame of the child's gender. In this sense, the selective projection of input elements in the ritual of "Mohr Zadan" for baby girls is done in line with concepts such as "being beautiful, patient, pleasant and being liked"; while in the case of a baby boy, this process is done by selecting elements such as "being stubborn and resistant, being an entrepreneur and being a thinker and supporter".

Finally, in answer to the third question of the research, it seems that rituals in the Surani Kurdish culture of Sanandaj, take account the conceptual frames that govern the cultural definitions of "good woman" and "good man" and choose different inputs or choose and represent different aspects of the same input to create new meanings through this passage. Based on this, the determining factor of the blended space and conceptual mappings in these rituals is the "gender cultural frame" that will be effective in all the processes of "mapping", "choosing the vital relationship" and "creating meaning".

 

Keywords

Subjects

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Language Related Research
Volume 15, Issue 4 - Serial Number 82
September and October 2024
Pages 443-472