ABSTRACT
At women’s religious ceremonies in Iran, only female researchers are admitted and the researcher is expected to participate fully in the rite and accept whatever duties the conductor or chief of the ceremony gives at the event. This includes adopting a set of behavioral and ethical norms appropriate to the situation, such as refraining from recording for later study and from certain kinds of questioning. Instead, the researcher learns the chants and songs, participates actively and observes. Only after the ceremony can she attempt to transcribe the songs from memory and writing down an ethnography of the event.
In the present study, we discuss Mirtaheri’s participation and how it shaped her ongoing research and focus our questions and observations on ethical issues regarding the obligations and responsibilities of ethnographers and music researchers in such a field and draw out local ideas about behavior and the giving of respect and reputation to vocalists who lead these rituals.
