مرکز منطقه ای اطلاع رساني علوم و فناوري - A CRITICAL OVERVIEW OF THE GOKALPIAN CULTUR-CIVILIZATION DICHOTOMY WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO BEKTASHI HYMNS (NEFES)

Abstract :

The main paradigm guiding the policies of the Early Republican regime regarding national identity and culture is based on Gökalp’s culture-civilization dichotomy which assumes a sharp contrast between the Ottoman civilization and the authentic Turkish folk culture. Republican elites, prone to ignore the transitivity between the elements of civilization and culture, as well as exaggeration the contrast between them; underlined those elements of Turkish folk culture which they assumed to contrast with the Oriental Ottoman civilization and be in conformity with the Western civilization. The most striking examples of this approach were observed during the Turkish musical reform movement that aimed to form a new Turkish musical culture which excluded the Ottoman musical tradition and embraced the Western technique. Not a few proponents of this reform claimed that some intact folk songs and Bektashi hymns should be classified as the genuine authentic music of the Turks and they also attempted to demonstrate that these had much more common elements with the Western music than they had with Ottoman music. On the contrary, this article argues that Bektashi hymns are in fact a striking example of the existence of fertile transactions between the elements of civilization and culture which were assumed by Gökalpian tradition to be completely disharmonious with each other. Bektashi hymns invalidate the Gökalpian formula which postulated an Ottoman world having two literatures, two musical traditions and two religions unrelated to each other. The focus of this article is on the sociological, religious, literary and musical aspects of the Bektashi hymns that challenge the culture-civilization dichotomy.