Tools & tillage: a journal on the history of the implements of cultivation and other agricultural processes (1.1968/1971)

Fig. 1. The right-handed harvester is reaping dispersed-standing wheat on a balk with his “Mangal”. Areaped
handful is seen to the right and a thorny bush to the left. At Derjesi.
Fig. 1. Der rechtshandige Schnitter maht verstreut wachsenden Weizen in einer Furche mit seiner “Mangal”.
Rechts eine Handvoll gemahter Weizen, links ein Dornenbusch. Aus Derjesi. Fot. G.L.

OBSERVATIONS ON HARVESTING
WITH SICKLES IN IRAN*
Grith Lerche

Social organisation and economic conditions are
the usual considerations when anthropologists
describe a peasant community, and material cul-
* I wish to express my sincere thanks to the Carls-
berg foundation for covering my travelling expenses.

ture may eventually be treated from an ecologi-
cal point of view. How the actual activities are
carried out in detail is rarely analysed. Harvest-
ing may be treated as follows: “Wheat is reaped
with sickles. Threshing is done by trampling or
by use of a sledge. The grain is winnowed by toss-