study of the manifestations of totem in the stories of Haft Peykar

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Master's degree, Persian language and literature, Shahid Rajaee Teacher Training University, Tehran, Iran.

2 Assistant professor in the department of Persian language and literature, Shahid Rajaee Teacher Training University, Tehran, Iran.

10.22077/jcrl.2025.8122.1157

Abstract

Totem is one of the manifestations of the very old beliefs of the people of Iran, the roots of which have remained in stories and tales. The stories and anecdotes of Haft Peykar figures have preserved the remnants of belief in totems due to the background of folk tales. Examining this concept in this text leads to the knowledge of ancient religious and ritual beliefs of Iranian people. Therefore, the recovery of totem and totemism in the tales of Haft Peykar is the aim of the present study.The statistical community of the research is Haft Peykar. The research design is qualitative discourse analysis and descriptive analytical research method. In order to obtain the data of the research, totem and taboo were recovered in the stories of Haft Peykar. The results of the investigation showed that this ancient work is not devoid of totemism and there are signs and traces of totemism in ancient Iran such as followings : Exogamous totem (Bahram's seven marriages with seven happy women of seven regions), sun totem the (Roman princess totem), plant totem (in the story Egyptian moons, the story of good and evil and the story of the pious Parsa eunuch), the totem of the holy land (in the story of the pious Parsa eunuch), and the transfer of the totem with marriage (in the story of Xeir and shar (good and evil). Therefore, the story of " Haft Peykar " is reflective of some manifestations of totemism.

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Journal of Ritual Culture and Literature
Volume 3, Issue 2 - Serial Number 6
December 2025
Pages 245-260

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