Paper short abstract:

This paper studies the practice of wedding among an Iranian minority group, the Ġorbat. The money transfer during the wedding are significant to the group in both micro and macro scales. This study describes this event and the structures involved in a marital union in the Ġorbat world.

Paper long abstract:

This study focuses on wedding ceremonies among a minority semi-itinerant Iranian group, the Ġorbat. The matrimonial rules have a lot to say about this population who has remained unknown for decades from the scientific knowledge. Two main clans (blacksmiths and carpenters) constitute this ethnic group and several lineages form each clan. The matrimonial alliance can happen inside a lineage, between lineages or between clans. However, the wedding ceremonies, especially the underlying money transfer that characterizes this practice, seem to be highly significant for the cohesion of whole ethnic group and to be intertwined with daily practice of money gaining by each Ġorbat individual. This may explain the arrangement of several arūsi during the year even when there is no marital union to celebrate. In fact, for the Ġorbat, the wedding ceremony is not the first neither the most important event to legitimate the union between two individuals. The matrimonial alliance becomes legitimate through several phases (i.e. elopement and procreation) and the ceremony comes as the last phase. Thus, the function of arūsi seems to go beyond the marital union of two individuals. In order to clarify the underlying cultural logics of this ceremony, the present study gives thorough ethnographic descriptions of all the practices, beliefs and values that surround this event and the structures involved in a marital union in the Ġorbat world.