Life and Culture of Armenians in Iran

The designation "Iranian Armenian community" already encompasses important social and anthropological presumptions and stances. The important impact of Armenians in spreading of innovation in socio-cultural and economic sphere as a religious, ethnic, cultural, and linguistic minority in Iran is discussed by examining the characterization, multiple identity, history, and economic activities. In the field of arts, the achievements of the Iranian Armenian community were also speculated. The aim of this paper is to present the role and contribution of Armenians as a displaced minority community in the modernization process of Iran under the shade of historical analysis started from Safavid era, seventeenth century up to the recent times. New conjectures, suggesting the need for major revisions in well-established historical interpretations are elaborated. The need to develop new social, cultural, and anthropological paradigms in order to account for complex historical facts and their ideological reflections is also demonstrated both from the etic and emic perspectives. It is argued that the Iranian Armenian community has played a crucial role in the modernization process, not only in Iran, but also in the international scale, that has largely been underestimated or altogether neglected due to many internal and external causes. The ability to switch between different socio-cultural standards in the domain of role balancing, a trend belonging to disadvantage groups, and the option of role compartmentalization which usually is not open to them is argued in this paper.