Erika Friedl is the E.E. Meader Professor emerita of Anthropology at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Michigan, U.S.A. A Distinguished Faculty Scholar and recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Society for Iranian Studies, she has done some seven years of ethnographic research in an ethnic Lur community in Southwest Iran between 1965-2015, chronicling various aspects of the fast-changing culture. In addition to many articles, she published seven books about her work: Religion and Daily Life in the Mountains of Iran (I. B. Tauris, 2021) deals with local Islam; the previous four are on oral literature; the second and first, Children of Deh Koh (Syracuse University Press, 1997) and Women of Deh Koh (Penguin 1991) are on facets of family life.
"After fifty years of research among the Boir-Ahmad of Western Iran, Erika Friedl's latest book reveals a profound understanding of the ethics, aesthetics, emotional lives and philosophies of her subjects. The outstanding culmination of an unparalleled series of publications on a tribal people, it will be widely read and enjoyed.--Richard Tapper, University of London Friedl pioneers a new anthropological field. Five decades of observing and listening to commentaries reveal complications, choices, contradictions and rationales in evaluating what is good, useful, moral and why one is sometimes ""forced"" into decisions and actions. Excellent for understanding Iranian people and society over time and directions of change.--Mary Hegland, Santa Clara University"