A Purging Presence

The Dog in Zoroastrian Tradition

in Anthropology of the Middle East
Author:
Mahnaz Moazami Columbia University mm1754@columbia.edu

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DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3167/ame.2016.110103
Keywords:
corpse; death; demons; dog; purification; Zoroastrianism
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Abstract

As in many cultures Zoroastrians consider corpses as foci of pollution. Corpses are unclean and dangerous since they are afflicted by the demon of dead matter. As soon as the dying person loses consciousness, the demon of dead matter arrives from the north in the form of a fly and attacks the body. To counteract her influence, a corpse must be exposed to the gaze of a dog or a bird of prey before it is left exposed outside in the funerary tower. The dog’s presence forms an essential part of several Zoroastrian purification rituals. In this article we shall discuss two of these rituals: the sagdīd and the Baršnūm.

Contributor Notes

Mahnaz Moazami is an Associate Research Scholar at Columbia University in the City of New York. She has written extensively on aspects of Zoroastrian religion and tradition during the Sasanian period and is the author of Wrestling with the Demons of the Pahlavi Widēwdād (Brill, 2014) and the editor of Zoroastrianism: A Collection of Articles from the Encyclopædia Iranica (EIF, 2016). E-mail: mm1754@columbia.edu

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Anthropology of the Middle East

Cover Anthropology of the Middle East
Article Category:
Research Article
Page Count:
10
Keywords:
corpse; death; demons; dog; purification; Zoroastrianism
Print Publication Date:
01 Mar 2016
Online Publication Date:
01 Mar 2016
Copyright:
© Berghahn Books 2016

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