Department of Humanities and Social Sciences

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/10679/5962

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Now showing 1 - 20 of 67

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Akle Tayyibe [Tasty Dish]—Cooking up belonging in the Syrian refugee foodscape in Turkey
(Taylor & Francis, 2023) Rottmann, Susan Beth; Kanal, M.; Humanities and Social Sciences; ROTTMANN, Susan Beth
This article is a study of Syrian women’s food practices in Turkey. Researchers have shown that food matters for belonging, but we need more research examining how migrants use food in memory-work; how they cook to create a “happy home”; and how shared meals are tied to inclusion in communities. Drawing from ethnographic fieldwork, this research examines five food practices of belonging that can inform migration researchers about how refugees relate to their heritage and collective memories. The article sheds light women’s agency within struggles over belonging and the role of food in the home-making processes of refugee families.
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“All we hope is a generous revival”: The evangelization of the ottoman christians in western anatolia in the nineteenth century
(İstanbul 29 Mayıs Üniversitesi, 2020) Erol, Merih; Humanities and Social Sciences; EROL, Merih
This article examines the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions’ activities in the 1870s and 80s at the Manisa and Smyrna/İzmir stations in an attempt to evangelize Greeks and Armenians living in the region. The main body of sources used in this study are the letters of the missionary Rev. Marcellus Bowen (1874-1880) sent from Manisa to the headquarters of the ABCFM in Boston, and the letters of Rev. George Constantine (1880-1889) sent from İzmir to the same destination. These first-person narratives provide us with extremely rich material, due to the fact that they comment on phenomena and events directly and immediately. This article investigates a variety of themes, such as the efforts of the American missionaries to adapt their missionary work to Smyrna’s multicultural and multinational society; the missionaries’ decisions and arguments regarding which language to use in their preachings or at religious services for the Greeks and Armenians of the region; the means of persecution or opposition employed by the Greek Orthodox high-ranked clergy in Smyrna/İzmir against the Protestant missionaries; and the conditions under which foreigners could sell religious books or open / build schools and churches in the Ottoman lands, and which intermediaries the missionaries appealed to when they were challenged by the Ottoman authorities.
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Anthropologist Lloyd A. Fallers’ Research in Turkey during the 1960s
(Cyprus International University, 2023) Sipahi, Ali; Humanities and Social Sciences; SİPAHİ, Ali
Due to the influence of the modernization paradigm, as the main axis of the American social sciences during the Cold War, and since the 1950s, the field of anthropology has shown interest in the developing nation-states in addition to primitive societies. Within this context, Turkey was one of the ‘new nations’ to become a potential object of analysis for Western anthropologists as Turkey was already praised as an exemplary democracy in the political science literature. As a result, for the first time in the history of American anthropology, a series of ethnographies pertaining to Turkey were generated in the 1960s. This article brings to light the academic portrait of the anthropology professor Lloyd A. Fallers at Chicago University and his studies on Turkey. Fallers worked on Turkey for more than ten years, did long-term fieldwork during his residences in Turkey for a total of two years, and supervised dissertations about Turkey. Fallers’ work, which has mostly remained unpublished due to his early death, is analyzed by relying on the archives deposited in the Chicago University library and on oral history interviews conducted by the author with people who had known Fallers.
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Armenians in 1920s Greece: Turkey’s unwanted minority, the league of nations’ Burden, Greece’s “Other” refugees
(Brill Academic Publishers, 2023) Erol, Merih; Humanities and Social Sciences; EROL, Merih
This article sheds light upon the history of an underresearched group of refugees who settled in Greece in the 1920s. It focuses on Armenians from Anatolia who fled to Greece in 1921-22, during and after the Greek-Turkish War of 1919-22. The article examines how the Greek government and international humanitarian organizations (Near East Relief, American Red Cross, etc.) approached the Armenian refugees, including orphans. The study further highlights practices such as transfers of Armenians within Greece, repatriation programs supported by Greece to send the Armenian refugees to Soviet Armenia, and citizenship policies regarding them.
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At the unsettling limits of collaborative life writing: A memoir of an ethnography-memoir
(Taylor & Francis, 2023-01-01) Rottmann, Susan Beth; Humanities and Social Sciences; ROTTMANN, Susan Beth
This chapter uses a memoir to examine the limits of anthropological collaboration. I draw on 12 years of friendship and fieldwork that culminated in my writing an ethnographic life story of a German-Turkish return migrant (Leyla) and publishing it together with Leyla’s own original memoir. In recent years, anthropologists have rightly celebrated collaboration as the latest incarnation of engaged, public or activist anthropology. Yet, while reflecting on my collaborative project with Leyla and moving forward with further ones, I have found that collaboration is limited in ways that have not yet been fully explored. Researchers have tended to focus on barriers to collaboration stemming from unequal power dynamics, appropriation of an other’s story and the revealing of ethnographic secrets. In this chapter, I argue that important challenges for collaboration lie with the ethics of reciprocity in the ethnographic encounter and specifically with issues of authority, readership and publication goals; the limited training of anthropologists to engage in co-authorship; and the highly fraught nature of friendship itself under the pressures of late capitalism and professional academic anthropology.
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Ayfer Tunç'un modernizmle derdi: faillik ve iktidar
(Celal Bayar Üniversitesi, 2017) Günay-Erkol, Çimen; Humanities and Social Sciences; ERKOL, Çimen Günay
Türk edebiyatının önde gelen çağdaş yazarlarından biri olan Ayfer Tunç, romanlarında modernizmin açmazlarına vurgu yapmakta ve modernleşen dünyada, toplumdan ve doğadan yabancılaşan insanların çelişkilerine yer vermektedir. Tunç’un edebiyatında, “özgürlük”, “karar alabilme” ve “doğruyu arama” gibi temalar, modernizme ilişkin çeşitli toplumsal ve siyasal sorunlarla birleşerek genişler ve etkinleşir. Kamusal alan, bir ortak dünya yaratma eylemi olarak bu temalar çerçevesinde değerlendirilir. Tunç’un modernizmle hesaplaşma çabası, tıpkı 20. yüzyılın en önemli düşünürlerinden biri olan ve kitle siyaseti üzerine çalışan Hannah Arendt’inki gibi, “faillik”, “iktidar”, “kamusal alan”, “kötülük”, “şiddet” gibi kavramların gözden geçirilmesini de gerektirmektedir. Bu makalede, Tunç ve Arendt bir araya getirilmekte ve modernizmin bazı çıkmazlarını nasıl tartışmaya açtıkları ele alınmaktadır. Arendt’in ünlü “kötüğün sıradanlığı” kavramlaştırması, modernizme getirilen önemli bir eleştiri olarak tarihteki yerini almıştır. Tunç’un 2014’te yayımlanan romanı Dünya Ağrısı, Arendt’in altını çizdiği “kötülüğün sıradanlığı”nı gözler önüne sererken, yazarın 2009’da yayımlanan romanı Bir Deliler Evinin Yalan Yanlış Anlatılan Kısa Tarihi, bu kavramın önüne bir de “deliliğin sıradanlığı”nı eklemektedir. Bu makalede, Tunç’un iki romanından yola çıkılarak, yazarın modernizmde sezdiği ve kendine has bir üslupla edebiyata dönüştürdüğü çıkmazlara yer verilmiş ve bu çıkmazlar Arendt’in kuramsal tartışmaları ışığında ele alınmıştır.
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Becoming protestant: Greek Orthodox responses to conversion in 19th-century Ottoman Anatolia
(Koç Üniversitesi Suna & İnan Kıraç Akdeniz Medeniyetleri Araştırma Merkezi (AKMED), 2018) Erol, Merih; Humanities and Social Sciences; EROL, Merih
During the nineteenth century, through American missionaries’ efforts, some, albeit a small portion, of the Greek Orthodox subjects of the Ottoman sultan adopted Protestantism. This article explores various incidents of libel and violence, and the punishments of exile or banishment which the Greek Protestants faced. This study is mainly based on the official documentation at the Prime Ministry Ottoman Archives, and to a lesser extent, on the annual reports of the missionary organization, the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. The article investigates the disputes between the Orthodox and the Protestant Greeks (Rum) in various parts of Anatolia, namely Izmir, Bursa, Burdur, Adana, and Ordu.
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Being a forestry labourer in the late Ottoman Empire: Debt bondage, migration, and sedentarization
(Cambridge University Press, 2022-12) Kovankaya, Başak Akgül; Humanities and Social Sciences; KOVANKAYA, Başak Akgül
This article examines the survival strategies of forestry workers and craftspeople in the late Ottoman Empire. Through the example of the Tahtacl, a semi-nomadic community specialized in lumbering in the forests along the western and southern coasts of Anatolia, it visualizes the adaptation strategies of forestry labourers in the changing economic and ecological environment of the Mediterranean Basin, which became warmer, less forested, and more integrated into regional and global markets after the mid-nineteenth century. Contrary to the generally accepted view that perceives the Tahtacl as a self-isolated, authentic clan with a static way of life, this article considers them a highly adaptive community that developed a wide range of strategies to earn their livelihood under intense commercialization in forestry and agriculture.
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Between solidarity and conflict: Tactical biosociality of Turkish egg donors
(Springer, 2022-06-29) Mutlu, Burcu; Humanities and Social Sciences; MUTLU, Burcu
Based on ethnographic fieldwork and interviews conducted with Turkish egg donors at a Northern Cypriot clinic, this article investigates tactical biosociality of cross-border egg donors that allows them to manage social relations and orient themselves in transnational egg donation (including the processes from recruitment to self-management in and beyond the clinic) under legally restrictive and socially stigmatizing conditions. Addressing the social and collective dimensions of tactics and recognizing the fragmented and conflictual forms of biosociality, it aims to shed light on the complex and ambivalent aspects of tactical biosociality in relation to selective disclosure and stigma within the context of transnational egg donation. Tactical biosociality involves possibilities for solidarity and alliances, and also for conflict and competition among egg donors. It is because for young Turkish women, egg donation retains both gendered moral and financial values that must be tactically negotiated while navigating the wider context of heteropatriarchal cultural norms and expectations, precarious economic and social conditions, biomedical profit and biopolitical control.
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Beyond headscarf culture in Turkey's retail sector
(Cambridge University Press, 2016) Birelma, Alpkan; Humanities and Social Sciences; BİRELMA, Alpkan
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Beyond legal status: Exploring dimensions of belonging among forced migrants in Istanbul and Vienna
(Cogitatio Press, 2020-03-25) Rottmann, Susan Beth; Humanities and Social Sciences; ROTTMANN, Susan Beth
Migrants with precarious legal statuses experience significant structural exclusion from their host nations but may still feel partial belonging. This article explores two dimensions potentially relevant for this group’s sense of belonging: city-level opportunity structures and public political discourses. Specifically, we examine perceptions of belonging among forced migrants with similarly precarious legal statuses located in Istanbul and Vienna. Drawing from semi-structured interviews, we argue that opportunity structures in the cities provide a minimal sense of social normalness within a period of life otherwise considered anomalous or exceptional. Any articulations of belonging in this context however remain inherently tied to the conditions of legal limbo at the national level. With regard to public political discourses, migrants display a strong awareness of the role of religion within national debates on culture and integration. In a context where religion is discussed as a mediator of belonging, we found explicit affirmations of such discourses, whereas in a context where religion is discussed as a marker of difference, we found implicit compliance, despite feelings of alienation. Overall, this article shows the importance of differentiating belonging, and of cross-regional comparisons for highlighting the diverse roles of cities and public political discourses in facilitating integration.
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Beyond mosque, church, and state: alternative narratives of the nation in the balkans
(Oxford University Press, 2018-02) Erol, Merih; Humanities and Social Sciences; EROL, Merih
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Can nacar, labor and power in the late Ottoman Empire: Tobacco workers, managers, and the state, 1872-1912
(Taylor & Francis, 2023-01-26) Kovankaya, Başak Akgül; Humanities and Social Sciences; KOVANKAYA, Başak Akgül
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Citizenship ethics: German-Turkish return migrants, belonging, and justice
(Sage, 2018-08-01) Rottmann, Susan Beth; Humanities and Social Sciences; ROTTMANN, Susan Beth
This article examines citizenship for German-Turkish return migrants attending monthly meetings of the Rückkehrer Stammtisch (Returner’s Meetings) in Istanbul. Meeting attendees call themselves “world citizens” and remain deeply concerned about disrespect and inequality they experience as ethnic minorities in Germany and as citizens in Turkey. Drawing on the anthropology of ethics, this research demonstrates the importance of ethical relationships for understanding these migrants’ experience of citizenship. Moving beyond work that views citizenship primarily in terms of state power and legal disciplining, this research demonstrates that citizenship for these migrants is focused heavily on an ethics of care and responsibility developed in the course of personal interactions with fellow citizens. This article also adds ethnographic specificity to the concepts of belonging and justice. It analyzes how ethical relationships established among meeting attendees confer feelings of comfort, intimacy, and a sense of shared humanity that structure migrants’ inclusion in national spaces.
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Conclusion
(Springer, 2023) Şahin-Mencütek, Z.; Gökalp-Aras, N. E.; Kaya, A.; Rottmann, Susan Beth; Humanities and Social Sciences; ROTTMANN, Susan Beth
The findings of this in-depth case study provide insights for generalisations about how strategic temporality may operate in other refugee-hosting countries as well as specific findings about state responses to mass migration situations. Some key findings can be summarised as including a (1) complicated and fragmented legal system, (2) multiplicity of actors, (3) re-nationalisation and restrictiveness, (4) increased complexity and uncertainty in all layers of rules and practices, (5) consistent liminality experienced by refugees. These characteristics are observable in concrete policy practices in diverse sub-policy fields involving remote border controls, blocking reception, downgrading protection and slowing integration. As we showed, the concept of strategic temporality, along with its related components of liminality, uncertainty and complexity, is helpful for understanding state responses across time and sub-policy fields.
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Constructions of masculinity in the Middle East and North Africa: Literature, film, and national discourse
(Duke University Press, 2022-07) Günay-Erkol, Çimen; Humanities and Social Sciences; ERKOL, Çimen Günay
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Convict Labor in Turkey, 1936–1953: A Capitalist Corporation in the State?
(Cambridge University Press, 2016) Sipahi, Ali; Humanities and Social Sciences; SİPAHİ, Ali
The article proposes the institutional analysis of convict labor as an alternative to both (profit-oriented) economic and (discipline-oriented) political explanations. The specialized labor-based prisons in Turkey from 1936 to 1953 are brought to light by archival research and are presented here as a rich case to discuss the experiential/subjective conditions of unfree labor regimes and the structural effects of institutions on the convicts’ experiences. I argue that the state department responsible for prison labor in Turkey was transformed into a capitalist corporation with bureaucratic management, and the target of convict labor system was neither profit nor discipline, but the creation of the corporate bureaucracy itself. As a consequence, both for prisoners and for the prison staff, labor-based prisons appeared as privileged places. Hence, unfree labor was volunteered.
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Cultivating and contesting order: 'European Turks' and negotiations of neighbourliness at 'home'
(Berghahn, 2013-12) Rottmann, Susan Beth; Humanities and Social Sciences; ROTTMANN, Susan Beth
This article examines how Turks returning from Germany to Turkey self-fashion as 'orderly neighbours'. By maintaining aesthetically pleasing homes and gardens, keeping public spaces clean, and obeying rules and laws in public, return migrants believe they act as modern 'European-Turks' and exemplify good neighbourliness. Many neighbours, however, feel these actions are unnecessary or even disruptive to Turkish communities. In conversation with the burgeoning anthropology of ethics, this research explores how local, national and transnational assemblages foster reflections and debates on neighbourly ethics. Further, this study highlights anxieties about individualism, reciprocity, 'modernity' and 'European-ness' in today's Turkey.
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Cultivating membership abroad: Analyzing German pre-integration courses for Turkish marriage migrants
(Taylor & Francis, 2022) Rottmann, Susan Beth; Humanities and Social Sciences; ROTTMANN, Susan Beth
Addressing research on migration governance, this article examines German pre-integration courses offered to Turkish marriage migrants in Istanbul. The courses were implemented in response to growing concern about the perceived poor integration of Muslim migrants and a high number of forced marriages. I argue that these courses are a micro form of biopolitical governance. Specifically, they are an attempt to generate internalized ways of being and knowing that are desired by the state, which I call 'membership cultivation.' As such, the courses are not precisely aimed at restricting migration as in other pre-integration measures, nor are they mainly reinforcing symbolic boundaries and teaching liberalism as in post-migration German civic integration courses. Rather, the courses attempt to re-make migrants with regards to morality, culture and gender. Using participant observation and in-depth interviews, this research examines the disciplinary mechanisms targeting migrants' transformation to enhance our understanding of the biopolitics of pre-integration governance.
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Deception and violence in the ottoman empire: the people's theory of crowd behavior during the hamidian massacres of 1895
(Cambridge University Press, 2020-10) Sipahi, Ali; Humanities and Social Sciences; SİPAHİ, Ali
This article is an historical ethnography of the popular conceptualizations of crowd behavior during the pogroms against the Armenians in the Ottoman East in 1895-1896. It draws on contemporary sources like official telegrams, governmental reports, letters of American missionaries, and Armenian periodicals to show that observers with otherwise highly conflicting views described the structure of the event in the exact same way: as an outcome of sinister deception. Without exception, all parties told some story of deception to explain the violent attacks of the Kurdish semi-nomadic crowds on the Armenian neighborhoods of the city of Harput. The article analyzes these cases of disguise, deluding, and inculcation to reveal how contemporary observers theorized crowd behavior in general and the atrocities they witnessed in particular. They did not perceive violence as an index of social distance or deep societal divisions. On the contrary, they described a world in which Armenians and Muslims lived a shared life, and where one attacked the other only when deceived. Methodologically, the article lifts barriers between intellectual history and social history on behalf of an historical ethnography of people's theories about their own society.

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