نوع مقاله : علمی-پژوهشی
عنوان مقاله English
نویسندگان English
Introduction
The type of thinking, the way of thinking and the characteristics of different ethnic groups can be deciphered through their customs, beliefs and socio-cultural habits. In the meantime, the documents that have been left behind from the past, especially the works that have emerged in direct connection with daily life and entertainment, act as a mirror for the manifestation of culture, worldview and power structure and are considered one of the main ways to understand the history, culture and identity of the ancestors. In this view, art is not only not just an aesthetic front but also an efficient tool for carrying and transmitting cultural values and a dynamic platform for the formation of attitudes, tastes and social interactions; because works of art condense part of the lived experience of society and, along with reflection, play a role in reproducing that same experience.One such work is the playing cards attributed to the Qajar period, which have been in circulation between the court and popular culture in the field of art and entertainment. These cards, in the context of the socio-political conditions of that era, the reference to ancient culture, the extensive interaction with the West, and the emergence of new visual media such as photography, lithography, and engraving, have numerous capacities for examination. In many examples of this period, one can observe the imitation of Western culture and art alongside the continuity of Iranian tradition; such as naturalism, the use of human figures, the presence of foreign women and girls, mythological and ancient motifs, and various decorative arrangements.Therefore, beyond their entertainment function, the Qajar Asnas playing cards can be studied as visual documents of the lived experience of art in the Qajar era; documents in which we can recognize the relationships between artistic taste, cultural capital, and developments in the field of art and entertainment. Therefore, the main issue of the research is how the iconographic and foreignization characteristics in the images of these cards played a role in the formation and representation of artistic taste in the cultural field of the Qajar era, and what relationship these images establish with the process of generalization of art and entertainment.Accordingly, the aim of the present fundamental research is to study the picture cards of the As-Nas game as documentary images as well as visual media in the field of art and entertainment in the Qajar era and to identify the conventions governing the images, relying on Pierre Bourdieu's theory of the cultural field and cultural capital. It tries to answer the research questions: What structural and content features do the images of the Qajar As-Nas cards have? How can these features be interpreted within the framework of Bourdieu's concepts of the cultural field and capital? What is the role of these images in reflecting and shaping artistic taste in Qajar society?
Materials & Methods
The present fundamental research, with the aim of achieving the truth and enhancing the civilizational and cultural identity, has been conducted in a descriptive-analytical method based on documentary study and with the approach of Bourdieu's sociology of art. The research data has been collected through inference from related research (mentioned in the background), a review of the bibliography of written and visual sources, electronic surveying, and the use of modern search tools such as available databases. In this regard, a collection of 200 playing cards has been collected and studied in its entirety and with a qualitative approach. Considering the structural limitations of the article and writing guidelines, the socio-cultural role of the five main points of the game of Asanas, which have been identified and categorized through non-probability (purposive) sampling, has been provided to allow focusing on the samples that have the greatest visual richness for theoretical analysis.In addition, 10 cards were selected by a non-probability (purposeful) method with criteria such as the distinctive characteristics of Qajar iconography (such as facial expression, shading, and composition), the presence of Western elements (such as clothing, figures, and naturalism), and the historical authenticity of the cards in accordance with museum documents (domestic and foreign mentioned in the sources) and analyzed along with a description of the cognitive style in relation to cultural capital, symbolic capital, and the distinction of tastes. All selected images have been recorded in the research tables based on their number and Internet address to enable other researchers to review and re-evaluate the results.
Discussion & Result
Asnas cards, having entered the public space of the coffeehouse, are not only a medium for entertainment, but also a “map of the field” in the new cultural competition arena. Therefore, the change in the form of the cards from the courtly to the public space also indicates the adaptation of social habits to the new rules of the game in the field of art and entertainment of the Qajar era; where the images both “reflected” this transformation and “shaped” it. Analyzing the formation of the five motifs of Qajar Asnas cards can explain how each role (Shah, Bibi, Sarbaz, Lakat, Ace) embodies the hierarchy of power and visual taste of the period through the position of the body, axes of vision, center-margin and text/margin ratio.Therefore, in order to facilitate and explain the important points for each mole, several fixed indicators (figure location, direction of gaze, body size to frame ratio, density of decorations, relationship with the border and written text) are introduced and then the connection of these patterns with symbolic capital and the Qajar cultural field is explained.
Conclusion
In this study, Asnas playing cards were examined as visual media in the cultural field of the Qajar era and it was shown that these works, beyond being an entertainment tool, carry deep layers of cultural and symbolic capital. Based on Bourdieu’s theory of field, cultural capital, it became clear that Asnas was first formed in the aristocratic-courtly field and then, by moving to coffeehouses and popular gatherings, became a bridge between elite culture and popular culture. This shift reflects the transformation of the boundary between aristocratic and popular art/entertainment and the changing position of art in the daily life of Qajar Iranians. In other words, the images of the cards, as documents and visual data, carry signs of the relations in the field of art and the transformation of taste in the Qajar period.The analysis of these images based on the concepts of field, cultural capital, and habitus showed that some of the visual components, especially in iconography, portraiture, shading, and idealized realism, reflect the established patterns of courtly visual culture in the service of consolidating the court's symbolic capital and representing the hierarchical structure of society; while some Westernized and innovative elements are signs of the arrival of a new taste and a gradual shift in the system of visual preferences. These two trends together show that the Qajar artist is not simply an imitator, but an activist who selects, combines, and reinterprets imported elements in the light of his own habitus and visual tradition.These cards reflect both the individual attitudes of artists and kings and the collective emotions of society towards change; from legitimizing the monarchy and displaying courtly splendor to reflecting curiosity, skepticism, and selective acceptance of Western culture. Finally, although the present results only refer to the samples examined in this study and cannot be generalized to all manifestations of Qajar art or all instances of the lived artistic experience of that period, the study of asanas as valuable visual documents within the intended framework suggests that in order to understand Iranian-Islamic art, paying attention to seemingly “marginal” media such as playing cards can open new perspectives on cultural identity, historical memory, and mechanisms of distinction and power in Iranian society.Also, an intra-collection comparison shows that the homogenization of all cards is not justified and confirms that the visual field of Asnas was a diverse and transitional aren
کلیدواژهها English