48

‪Ashura celebrations, which commemorate the death of Imam Hossein in Karbala (680), are the main collective rites of Shia societies. As such, they represent an essential place for constructing and affirming the different communities that structure society (village, urban, professional, ethnic communities, etc.). This fact is explored in the light of the transformations that have affected Iranian society over the past four decades. Based on the monographs describing this process in the 1960s and 1970s, we show that the Ashura rites have adapted to the reconfiguration of communities whose boundaries have been altered by rural exodus and modernization. This article focuses both on the rural world, based on a field survey in the Kuhbanân region (Kermân), and on the urban world welcoming newcomers, particularly in Tehran.‪