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Cultural Domains That Have Helped Shape The Country That Iran Is Today

Decent Essays

BACKGROUND PAPER
ON
IRAN
1. This paper will examine two cultural domains that have helped shape the country that Iran is today: language and history. Iranian languages come from a long-stemming linguistic chain, carrying the DNA of the contemporary culture along migration paths. The history of Iran is dominated by this steady stream of migration as well as several empire changes beginning as early as 3500 BCE.1 After providing the cultural framework and foundation of Iran, this paper will then explore the ways in which these cultural and historical contexts have led to or influenced relations and interests between the present-day United States (US) and Iran.
2. One of the defining characteristics of any culture is its language. This is not because there are so many vast and differing languages, nor is this a matter of ethnicity or ancestral heritage. The nature of language itself can carry down messages and meanings that ultimately express perceptions and recall events in history from the perspective of that linguistic lens. So it is that through the Iranian languages from yesteryear to modern day, anthropologists and linguists are able to glimpse cultural snapshots that, alongside archeological evidence, inform on cultures past. Today there are over 150 million speakers from the over 16 Iranian languages spoken worldwide.2 Iranian languages are spoken in parts of Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Central Asia, and Oman.3 These languages all have heritage

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