“RETURNING TO GOD” IN MOUNT IDA TAHTACI TURKOMAN MYTOLOGY

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In this study, socio-cultural practices and rituals concerning the phenomena of death, which is important for Çanakkale Mount Ida Tahtacı Turkomans within the scope of the conceptualization of “returning to God”, are hermeneutically analyzed. “Ethnicity” and “Qizilbash” pattern integrations, which are the two basic components of Tahtacı Turkoman collective identity, and the “Tahtacılık” (Forestry) which is a traditional occupation, exhibit a syncretic structure concerning the rituals and socio-cultural practices about the death and after World within the Tahtacı-Turcoman cosmology. If we are to consider death rituals in general, they exhibit an integrated structure within the socio-cultural practices and meaning codes of the Tahtacı—Turcoman—Qizilbash syncretism. Any study concerning the founding elements of the heteredox and syncretic qualities of the Qizilbash- Alaouite sect, a belief system specific to Anatolia, which is jointed to the Turkoman socio-cultural ethnicity, must be evaluated over syncretic interactions among Central Asia, migration from Central Asia, and the Anatolia. Death rituals and the meaning system attached to them point to socio-cultural practices where the mentioned integrated dynamics become visual as objective indicators.

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Tahtacı Turkoman , death , funeral rituals , returning to God , Qizilbash Tahtacı

Turkish Culture and Haci Bektash Veli Research Quarterly

82

Turkish Culture and Haci Bektash Veli Research Quarterly