Afet Folkloru: Tanım, Tasnif, İşlev ve Anlam
Disaster Folklore: Definition, Classification, Function and Meaning

Summary/Abstract: In countries with high disaster risk, such as Turkey, understanding how disasters are preserved in social memory is crucial for developing disaster response policies. Folklore is a tool that preserves ideas in social memory by solidifying them into patterns and enables the transmission of this knowledge. This study examines the concept of disaster folklore within a theoretical framework, exploring how disasters are processed, interpreted, and transmitted in social memory. The study is based on an analysis of the existing written literature on the subject and data obtained through guided interviews conducted during field research in Kahramanmaraş in 2025. Disaster folklore is defined as a type of traditional knowledge shaped by artistic communicative processes, which has emerged around the theme of disasters, acquired certain patterns, is transmitted from generation to generation through oral transmission, is socially accepted, is flexible and functional in nature, responds to the needs of the carrier group, revives in the face of social crises, and enables the processing of destruction in the collective memory. This knowledge, which emerges as a result of the disaster experiences of the people, serves the function of making sense of disasters, remembering them, and developing strategies for coping with them. Disaster folklore manifests itself in a wide range of traditional folklore genres. Within the scope of oral narrative genres, myths, legends, and memorates, in particular, deal explicitly with the theme of disasters. Mythical origin designs related to disasters such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and tsunamis, or legends involving post-disaster rescue efforts, fall within this category. Among conversational genres, idioms and proverbs reflect traditional knowledge on disaster prevention and protection. Epics, ballads, and laments in the form of koşma and semai within the tradition of aşık poetry have continued to address the theme of disasters from historical catastrophes to the present day, creating an accumulation of knowledge in this field. The early signs of earthquakes and prophecies attributed to animal behavior also form another part of disaster folklore as popular beliefs. It is understood that disaster folklore fulfills the functions of making traumatic experiences acceptable, strengthening social solidarity, preserving cultural memory by passing on experiences to new generations, and raising awareness about disasters.

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