Thinking about Death: Sedat Veyis Örnek’s Study of Death in Anatolian Folklore Cover Image

Ölüm Üzerine Düşünmek: Sedat Veyis Örnek’in Anadolu Folklorunda Ölüm Çalışması
Thinking about Death: Sedat Veyis Örnek’s Study of Death in Anatolian Folklore

Author(s): Serpil Aygün Cengiz
Subject(s): Cultural history, Customs / Folklore, Social Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind, Philosophy of Religion
Published by: Uluslararası Kıbrıs Üniversitesi
Keywords: Sedat Veyis Örnek; Anadolu Folklorunda Ölüm; death in folklore; death drive;

Summary/Abstract: The work titled Anadolu Folklorunda Ölüm (Death in Anatolian Folklore) (1971) by Sedat Veyis Örnek is an original and unique study in terms of multiplying examples on the phases of death rites which might be observed before death, during death and after death. With sympathetic feelings concerning rural life and its people in his newspaper articles in his early life; with his conceiving traditional culture in Death in Anatolian Folklore; and with his perceiving traditional culture through its universal values and by humanism, Örnek’s thoughts reminds us Blue Anatolists views. While his work offers a rich folkloric material with a universal perspective, Örnek does not make dynamic interpretations about the material in detail. He describes the reason behind this work as the insufficiency of the studies on death but availability of the plenty of works on birth and marriage. This account illustrates merely one of his reasons to attain the study on death. The other motives might be existing material on death that was used in early works, intensive death theme in his artistic writings, and might be concentrated on death through experiencing the Korean War as a lieutenant; dying of his father by heart attack and his thoughts on his own death because of severe heart spasms and attacks. From all these reasons, it may be argued that his contention for the fear as the most powerful feeling in emergence and convenience of customs in his work Death in Anatolian Folklore; this contention both gives a justification for the psychoanalytic conceptualization of his work and also rationalizes to select the death theme by motivating from his own personal life.

  • Issue Year: 21/2015
  • Issue No: 82
  • Page Range: 231-255
  • Page Count: 25
  • Language: Turkish