Changes in Traditional Funeral Rites in Dikili Town Villages Cover Image

Dikili’nin Köylerinde Cenaze Törenlerinin Değişen Uygulamalari
Changes in Traditional Funeral Rites in Dikili Town Villages

Author(s): Meryem Bulut
Subject(s): Customs / Folklore, Ethnohistory, Local History / Microhistory, Sociology of Culture
Published by: Uluslararası Kıbrıs Üniversitesi
Keywords: Dikili Town villages; bathing the dead body; burial; funeral dinner; mourning; grave;

Summary/Abstract: In this paper, changes related to traditional post mortem rituals in Dikili town villages are evaluated. Post mortem practices being as one of the passage rites, may be dissimilar at different societies. This study concentrates on changing post-mortem practices. While it was found when considering those traditional practices associated with Central Asia were continuing together with Muslim traditions, it was also found that some of the traditions were changing. Better communication and transport means due to modernization was observed to have caused changes in traditional practices. It may be stated that some traditional practices are rapidly disappearing with access to services provided by municipalities in villages on one hand and with the annexation of villages to metropolitan municipalities and the incidence of migration and carrying new information into villages by those leaving villages living in cities on the other. In villages where emigration is slower, it was found that traditional practices were changing slower. It is said that people were not erecting tombs in villages until recently, with the result that graves wanted to be disappeared, and were therefore not being visited. As a result of novel ideas introduced by those who moved into cities when they visited their village back and of the changes in transport and communication, changes being observed in the thoughts and practices of those living in villages about building tombs and visiting graves. This study performed on July, August 2016 was based on findings obtained by interviewing individuals living in the villages of Dikili district who described themselves as Yoruks, Balkan immigrants, Çepni and Romany. Data on post-mortem practices were recorded in audio- visual media by using oral history methods. The recordings were then decoded and analysed in interpretivist paradigm.

  • Issue Year: 24/2018
  • Issue No: 93
  • Page Range: 123-137
  • Page Count: 15
  • Language: Turkish