| Abstract: | This dissertation has two aims. The first is to contribute toward our knowledge of
changes in contemporary Anatolia in a coherent way, the second to provide the first
systematic ethnographic account of the Alevi, a Shiite minority living in rural Turkey.
From March 1988 until November 1989, I conducted fieldwork in a sub-province
in the north-eastern part of central Anatolia, and returned for a brief visit in August
1990. The population of the sub-province is approximately 70,000; about 12,000 live
in the only town, the remainder dispersed among 96 villages. I lived in one village but
made frequent visits to others, and to the town. The people are Muslim, divided into
two sects, Alevi and Sunni. 74 villages are Sunni and 20 Alevi, 2 villages contain both
Alevi and Sunni. The town I estimare to be 90 per cent Sunni.
The finding which I discuss in my dissertation is that the Sunni villages are more
successful than the Alevi villages at moving into the modern world. More specifically,
though most Sunni villages are declining in size, some are growing larger, and even
turning into small towns. In striking and direct contrast to this, all the Alevi villages are
losing population, so much so that the total Alevi population of the sub-province has
diminished by more than half over the years 1980-1990. Similarly, whilst most Sunni
men continue to confirm their faith, many Alevi men are becoming sceptical, some even
doubting the existence of God.
The model which I use to account for these findings suggests that the social order
within the Sunni villages is compatible with being absorbed gradually into the national,
centralised administrative system. In contrast to this, traditional Alevi culture is based
on the idea that they have offered submission to an authority which is not that of the
central government, but another which lies outside the jurisdiction of the central state.
As the Alevi internalise their membership of modem Turkey, the right to solve disputes
becomes transferred from indigenous mediators, whose position is supported by the
traditional myths, to figures whose authority is sanctioned by central government. In
addition, the Alevi settlements are much smaller than the Sunni; a number of them
together are declared a village by the state, causing conflicts of loyalty, ownership and
identity within their communities. In short, the dispersed nature of Alevi traditional
settlement patterns and their uneasy relationship with central authority means that their
communities cannot become part of modern Turkey without undergoing fatal
disruption.
In spite of the great upheavals in their communities, the Alevi do not become
violent. Rather, their religion, which might be described as 'Shi'ite mystical Islam',
loses it force as an instrument of social control, and, fused with Kemalism, becomes a
secular humanitarian ethic by which they can lead their lives in the cities. |
