Comprehensiveness and Amnesia in “Oral History”

Ali Mohammad Tarafdari (PhD)
Translated by M. B. Khoshnevisan

2024-3-5

According to the author, it can be claimed in some ways that Iran is the land of cultural "epidemics"! At any time, it is possible to witness that a wave of attention to a cultural field in the country starts at once, and several centers pay attention to a common work widely. The example of writing encyclopedias is a prominent example of this type of cultural epidemic that we witnessed its “comprehensiveness” in the past decades, and the number of encyclopedia writing centers in the country even exceeded a hundred institutions at one point.

Another example of the prevalence of this type of epidemic or comprehensiveness in the last one or two decades is the attention to the field of oral history, which is widely and in many types and varieties and according to the needs, capacities, experiences, and the possession of its material and spiritual facilities and equipment in various cultural, political, military, and other organizations, centers and institutions have been taken into consideration, and it tries to cover wide angles and issues of Iran's recent and current history "before it is too late" and record its data in a methodical way historically. This field, which covers the extent of the Iranian world outside of Iran and specifically in the Western world especially in the political dimension, has a valuable collection of philosophy, epistemology, nature, method, knowledge of specific formats and standards during these years or perhaps in recent decades. It has become itself, and it has more or less opened its place as one of the branches of history science or historical studies in universities.

Naturally, in this study, some subjects, due to various and sometimes natural reasons, have been shown to be more important than others, and naturally, the custodian institutions and related to those subjects have paid the most attention to them, and in recording the history of Iran in its “oral” form, they have put these issues at the top of their priorities and the priorities of the "oral history" of current Iran. Topics such as the history of the Islamic revolution, sacred defense, the life and activities of political, military, religious, scientific, cultural, social, economic, sports, and... are among such issues which have attracted the attention of researchers and to-some-extent “historians” of this field and continue to do so as well.

At the opposite point of this "comprehensiveness" of paying attention to oral history in the general sense, and "comprehensiveness" of some prominent and important issues of current Iranian history in its specific sense, the "amnesia" of some other issues and fields stands out, which seems that there is not much time left to deal with some of them in the current era, and sometimes, the time to record their quality and quantity is too late. Topics such as the story of Kashf-e hijab in the first Pahlavi period with those dimensions and wide-ranging effects among the masses of people and especially women, a wide and diverse range of traditional occupations or the history of the activities and excavations of illegal diggers and antique finders, and in general the story of trade and shopping and selling, exploring, and collecting antique or artistic works are among those things that seem to have never been paid as much attention to their "oral" recording as it should be, and sometimes they have been completely "forgotten"!

The result of this "forgetfulness" and in a sense "amnesia" is clear, which in the case of the recent example, many traditional antique finders and diggers of the previous decades have passed away, and a sea of its experiences, knowledge and information in the field of exploration and sometimes superb methods of forgery and sale of antique works and the "history" of some informal explorations in the past decades have been lost forever, and except for a few references and reports scattered here and there, nothing is left of it, although this small amount that is still or at least indirectly available has not been paid attention by its custodians or independent oral "historians", and based on this, it can be said that the story of "comprehensiveness" on the one hand, and "amnesia" on the other hand continued in the process of recording the oral history of Iran.