The United States and Iran : different values and attitudes toward nature ; scratches on our hearts and minds

152 Pages·2010·2.055 MB·English

by  Yekta Steininger, Maryam Y.

The United States
and Iran
Different Values and
Attitudes toward Nature
Scratches on Our Hearts and Minds
Maryam Y. Yekta Steininger
UNIVERSITY PRESS OF AMERICA,® INC.
Lanham (cid:129) Boulder (cid:129) New York (cid:129) Toronto (cid:129) Plymouth, UK
Copyright © 2010 by
University Press of America,® Inc.
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All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
British Library Cataloging in Publication Information Available
Library of Congress Control Number: 2009931206
ISBN: 978-0-7618-4615-4 (paperback : alk. paper)
eISBN: 978-0-7618-4616-1
Back cover photo: Dr. Maryam Y. Yekta-Steininger on a visit to Teheran in
2007. Source: Author’s personal collection.
(cid:2) ™
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum
requirements of American National Standard for Information
Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials,
ANSI Z39.48-1992
Dr. Maryam Y.Yekta-Steininger as a student at Columbia University in 1978. Source:
Author’s personal collection
Dr. Maryam Y. Yekta-Steininger, an American-Iranian woman, came to the
United States as a student at Indiana University in 1957, and earned a Master
of Science Degree in educational psychology. She later continued her stud-
ies at Columbia University and obtained a Master of Arts Degree in applied
linguistics and a Doctor of Education Degree in international and cultural
communication from there in 1984.
Deeply concerned about the deterioration of relations between Iran and
the U.S. after the Islamic Revolution of 1979, Dr. Steininger has devoted ef-
forts toward attempting to analyze the roots of this situation, as related to the
differing value systems that Iranian and American culture feature. This book
covers the value systems of Iranian culture through the eyes of American
scholars who had lived and conducted research in Iran, and were familiar with
the Persian language and with Iranian culture in general, its religious charac-
teristics, and its paradoxes. One of these paradoxes has been Iran’s search for
Islamic identity alongside modernity. Dr. Steininger is, in her own words, an
admirer of both Iranian and American culture. As such, she wishes the United
States and Iran to be friends rather than adversaries, and hopes that this book
will contribute to friendship and understanding between the two peoples and
governments.
This book is dedicated to:
1. my Iranian and American friends, and
2. my children,
Francine Mithra Steininger, M.S., M.A, M.B.A.
Marc Kaveh Steininger, M.S., Ph.D.
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To those who rigorously follow “Religion,”
And those who wonder and reinstate “Reason,”
The muezzin compassionately decries
“Oh! Ignorants, your search for Truth is
Neither this one, nor that one”
Omar Khayyam
Persian philosopher, poet and
mathematician,
11th century C.E.

Contents
Preface x
Acknowledgments xiii
1 Methodology 1
2 Introduction 8
3 Culture and Communication 18
4 Value Orientation Theory 22
5 Nature as Perceived in Persia and the United States 33
6 Perceptions of the American Scholars 42
7 Culture, the Islamic Revolution, and the Hostage Crisis 69
8 Conclusion 89
Appendix, Tables and Written Questionnaires 105
Bibliography 115
Index 121
ix