Document Type : Research Paper

Author

Assistant Professor of Linguistics, Institute for Humanities and Cultural Studies, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

Ethnic identity provides a way of understanding the need to assert oneself in the face of threats to one's identity (Weinreich, 1988) and social categories are the output of one's categorization based on a specific factor. The present study investigates the role of categorization as a cognitive strategy in identifying the Guilak people. In that it seeks to determine how a change in basic level membership reflects the attitude of one ethnic group toward the food category and how that categorization leads to confrontation between self and the other. The selection of Guilaki food proverbs as the research data indicates the importance of the role of these linguistic utterances as an integral component of popular culture which explains ethnic backgrounds. These proverbs have been collected in a field method and analyzed based on Rush's (1975) opinions. The findings of the research reveal that the lowland settlers in Guilan whose staple diet is rice define their identity based on it. Therefore, while categorizing food into two general categories of bread and rice, through the confrontation of these two, they forge the identity of self and the other. Rice, as an identity-building component, determines the degree of social belonging of a Guilak to the group.

Keywords

Main Subjects

استرنبرگ، رابرت (1392). روانشناسی شناختی. ترجمة سید کمال خرازی و الهه حجازی. چاپ چهارم. تهران: سمت.
انوری، حسن (1384). فرهنگ بزرگ سخن. تهران: انتشارات سخن.
برومبرژه، کریستین (1395). عادات غذایی و مرزبندی فرهنگی در شمال ایران. ترجمه و تلخیص امیر صیاد. انسانشناسی و فرهنگ. قابل بازیابی در سایت https://anthropologyansculture.com /عادت-غذایی-و-مرزبندی-فرهنگی-در-شما/
رابینو، یاسنت لویی (1391). ولایات دارالمرز ایران. مترجم جعفر خمامی‏زاده، چاپ ششم. رشت: انتشارات طاعتی.
روشن، بلقیس، فاطمه یوسفی‏راد و فاطمه شعبانیان (1392). مبنای طرح‏واره‏ای استعاره‏های موجود در

 
ضرب‏المثل‏های شرق گیلان. زبانشناخت. دورۀ 4، شمارۀ 2، 75-94.
صفوی، کورش (1379). درآمدی بر معنیشناسی. تهران: حوزة هنری.
فخرایی، ابراهیم (1394). ضربالمثلها و اصطلاحات گیلکی. بازخوانی و ویرایش رویا صفری. رشت: فرهنگ ایلیا.
فرهنگستان زبان و ادب فارسی گروه‌ زبان‌ها و گویش‌های ایرانی (1389). راهنمای گردآوری گویش‌ها برای گنجینة گویش‌های ایرانی. تهران: فرهنگستان زبان و ادب فارسی.
لوریا، الکساندر رومانویچ (1390). زبان و شناخت. ترجمة حبیب‏الله قاسم‏زاده. تهران: انتشارات ارجمند.
 
Al-Krenawi, A. (2000). Bedouin-Arab clients’ use of proverbs in the therapeutic setting. International Journal of the Advancement of Counselling, 22, 91-102.
Brown, W. P. (2004). The didactic power of metaphor in the aphoristic sayings of proverbs. Journal for the Study of the Old Testament, 29(2), 133-154.
Caltabiano N. (1984). Perceived differences in ethnic behavior: A pilot study of Italo-

Australian Canberra residents. Psychological Reports, 55, 867-873. [1][2]
Croft, W., & Cruse, D. (2004). Cognitive linguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Evans, V.,& Green, M. (2006). Cognitive linguistics: An introduction. London and New York: Rutledge.
Grice, H.P. (1975). Logic and conversation. In: P. Cole, & J. L. Morgan (Eds.), Syntax and semantics: Speech acts (Volume III), (pp. 41-58). New York and London: Academic Press.
Haas, H. A. (2002). Extending the search for folk personality constructs: The dimensionality of the personality-relevant proverb domain. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 82(4), 594-609.
Honeck, R. P.,& Temple, G.J. (1994). Proverbs: The extended conceptual base and great chain metaphor theories. Metaphor and Symbolic Activity, 9(2), 85-112.
Honeck, R. P., & Welge, J. (1997). Creation  of proverbial wisdom in the laboratory. Journal of Psychological Research, 26 (6), 605-629.
Husserl, E. (1948 [1973]). Experience and judgement.Trans. J. S. Churchill, & K. Ameriks. Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press. Erfahrung und Urteil, ed. Ludwig Landgrebe. Hamburg: Claassen & Goverts.
Kant, I. (1790 [1952]). The critique of judgement.Trans. J. C. Meredith. Oxford: Clarendon Press. (Kritik der Urteilskraft. Berlin: Bey Lagarde und Friederich.)
Katz, A. N. (1999). Proverb in mind (Book Review).Metaphors & Symbols, 14(1), 71-75.
Lakoff, G.,&Langacker, R. W. (1987). Foundations of cognitive grammar. Vol I: Theoretical prerequisites. California: Stanford University Press.
Lakoff, G.,&Turner, M. (1989). More than cool reason: A field guide to poetic metaphor. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Lawal, A., Ajayi, B.,& Raji, W. (1997). A pragmatic study of selected pairs of Yoruba proverbs. Journal of Pragmatics 27, 635-652.
Lewin, K. (1948). Resolving social conflicts. New York: Harper.
Maldonado, D. J. (1975). Ethnic self-identity and self-understanding. Social Casework, 56, 618-622.
Mayer, R. E. (2000b). Intelligence and education. In: R. J. Sternberg (Ed.), Handbook of intelligence, (pp. 519-533). New York: Cambridge University Press. 
Medin, D., Lynch, E. B., & Solomon, K. O.(2000). Are there kinds of concepts? Annual Review of Psychology, 51(1), 121-147.
Medin, D., Unsworth, S. J.,& Hirschfeld, L. (2007). Culture, categorization and reasoning. In: S. Kitayama,& D. Cohen (Eds.),Handbook of cultural psychology, (pp. 615-644). New York: The Guilford Press.
Parham, T., & Helms, J. (1981). The influence of black student's racial identity attitudes on preferences for counselor's race.Journal of Counseling Psychology, 28, 250-257.
Rogler, L., Cooney, R., & Ortiz, V. (1980). Intergenerational change in ethnic identity in the Puerto Rican family.International Migration Review, 14, 193-214.
Rosch, E. H. (1973). Natural categories. Cognitive Psychology, 4(3), 328-350.
Rosch, E. H. (1975). Cognitive reference points. Cognitive Psychology, 7(4), 532-547.
Rosch, E. H., Mervis, C., Grey, W., Johnson, D., & Boyes-Braem, P. (1976). Basic objects in natural categories. CognitivePsychology, 8, 382–439.
Rosch, E. H.,& Lloyd, B. (Eds.) (1978). Cognition and categorization. Hillsdale NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Rosch, E. H.,& Oliver, D. C. (1972). The structure of the color space in naming and memory for two languages. Cognitive Psychology, 3(2), 337-354.
Tajfel, H. (1981). Human groups and social categories. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Ungerer,F.,&Schmid, H.(2006). An introduction to cognitive linguistics, 2nd edition. London and New York: Rutledge. 
Weinreich, P. (1988). The operationalization of ethnic identity. In: J. Berry, & R. Annis (Eds.), Ethnic psychology. Research and practice with immigrants, refugees, native peoples, ethnic groups and sojourners, (pp. 149-168). Amsterdam: Swets & Zeitlinger.
White, C., & Burke, P. (1987). Ethnic role identity among black and white college students: An interactionist approach. Sociological Perspectives, 30, 310-331.