Iranian Journal of Sociology

Abstract

Abstract In a surging evolutionary period, self-advisement and analysis is considered a necessity for cultural continuity. Without such rethinking, culture and tradition may lose its possibility of facing new social conditions. The Iranian culture has its own possibilities and barriers whereas rethinking them through an internal ontology increases the vigor of this tradition for confronting new issues and for interacting with other traditions. Here, among today's cultural issues, we call this issue the 'appetency of status'. Gaining status and dignity is socially important everywhere, it stimulates individual and social acts. Nonetheless, currently such stimulation is transformed into an unhealthy symptom. Throughout historical evolutions, it has been displayed and recognized in different aspects of social life. This article is a critical consideration of this cultural feature in relation to structural conditions. It will therefore attempt to describe the nature of appetence for status and thereby focuses on its differences with the ordinary status seeking activities. The article enumerates five features of appetency for status and considers some key domains in the contemporary Iranian culture, domains involved with this issue. At the end it will briefly describe six processes of historical formations of this cultural issue and its outcomes.