Shiraz

Abstract

After two rural and one nomad survey had established a foundation for reference and had confirmed our methodology, an urban sample was needed. Though the Adviser was urged to attempt this in Tehran he was reluctant for various reasons. The metropolis with its now several million inhabitants, its manifold stratification and steep socioeconomic gradients, its wider exposure to foreign influences and its higher level of industrialization and commercialization could not and cannot be regarded, though it is the capital of the country, as typical of Iran as a whole. Even if it could have been, the resources available were far from adequate for so complex a task. Our methods and tests had not yet been tried out in an urban setting, and we did not know what the response of an urban population, to which we could offer no form of direct or indirect assistance as we had in Marvdasht and Khuzestan, would be. It seemed unwise to undertake our first experiment in the largest and most problematical city of all Iran. As on the other hand a minor city could provide us, at least in the early and middle ’sixties, with hardly any of the essential supporting facilities, the choice of a site was essentially restricted to one of the provincial capitals.