Abstract
This chapter examines a specific local folk dance tradition called zeybek. It details various aspects of the set-up of the local cultural scene around zeybek folk dances while observing the indexation of a local dance (in this case the zeybek) from the village of Eğridere (Tire) to the national folk dance repertoire. Emblematic of the Aegean region, the zeybek musical and choreographic repertoire symbolizes both the regional spirit and a national anchorage in the cultural institutions of the Turkish state. The chapter questions the consequences of performing “traditional dances” outside of their original context. It argues that zeybek cultural activities are playing a significant role in the communication between urban centers and rural areas, and it sketches a regional network of individuals, associations, and state regional institutions.
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Notes
- 1.
“Türk Halk oyunları bölümü”, Ege Üniversitesi Devlet Türk müsikisi konservatuvarı.
- 2.
This chapter is based on material from my doctoral research looking more generally at the heroic dimension in the zeybek tradition and at how the figure of the efe is currently used. It focuses on the processes by which the zeybek repertoire is institutionalized, drawing on ethnographic data collected during a field study commencing in June 2014 among zeybek dancers in a small town called Tire in the Aegean hinterland.
- 3.
The existence of these bands of rebels is attested by historical sources dating back to the seventeenth century, but they disappeared with the founding of the Turkish Republic (1923).
- 4.
Selim Sirri Tarcan goes over how this dance was devised in a work called “Tarcan zeybeği”, published in 1938.
- 5.
Thus, for instance, in the case of the Aegean region, the zeybek musical and choreographic repertoire gives indirect expression to the singularity and diversity of the provinces of Izmir, Aydın, and Denizli. Many zeybek elements refer to places, and each town and village has its own emblematic zeybek.
- 6.
The People’s Houses (Halk evleri), set up in 1932, acted as local relays for popular education. They were in charge of recording local cultural practices, gathering information about ethnic groups and languages, disseminating modern Turkish, and conducting the new republican celebrations. They were placed under the supervision of the single party founded by Atatürk (Cumhuriyet Halk Fırkası) and played a leading role in the cultural reforms undertaken by the young nation state.
- 7.
It is hard to translate oynama with a single word. It can designate a component in a musical and choreographic repertoire (akin in meaning to a “piece”). It can also designate the highly contextualized idea of a performance, and even certain correlates such as interpretation. Interesting work has been conducted on the polysemy of “play/playing” in different linguistic contexts. As Roberte Hamayon points out, “across the length and breadth of the vast Turkish world, including in Islamicized central Asia, the same root, oy-, ‘to play’, is used for imitating animals, dancing, fighting, provoking others or taking delight in something, as well as for carrying out a ritualized act” (Hamayon 2012: 18). In this chapter we shall seek to adapt the translation to the varying contexts of reference in which it is used.
- 8.
In the earliest days of the republic the creation of a national imaginary involved rejecting the “garbs of Ottomanness” (Öztürkmen 2003). This continues, and urban Ottoman dances are still not part of the state company’s repertoire, or that of the many amateur companies up and down the country (Shay 2002). This corresponds to the desire to ward off all forms of protest against central power, such as ethnic feeling or the religious and cultural originality of minority populations, including Alevis and Bektashis.
- 9.
- 10.
Poulot, taking his inspiration from the expression “art worlds” as used by the sociologist Howard Becker (1988), refers to “heritage worlds”, showing how artistic activities are collective and collaborative in nature .
- 11.
The term “mission” is the endogenous term used by collectors to describe what they do. I suggest it covers two distinct dimensions: first, the planned and normative nature of their action, and second, the ethical dimension this task has to their mind—that is to say, their interest in recording and thus safeguarding traditional usages and memories that are under threat from the cultural transformations affecting contemporary society.
- 12.
For a discussion of the profession of “folklorist ” and how it relates to politics, see Öztürkmen (2005).
- 13.
Interview, Izmir, September 2016.
- 14.
The drive to legitimize a national culture in Turkey was supported by setting up institutions that worked to maintain and conserve benchmark heritage for transmission to future generations. From the advent of the republic in 1923 through to 1966, state conservatories in Istanbul and Ankara were in charge of overseeing the collection of popular music. For example, folklorists collected the songs of nomadic populations in Anatolia and took them back to the major urban centers. Nowadays, all scholarship is conducted by the National Bureau for Folklore Research, overseen by the Ministry for Culture and Tourism . While the conservatories now direct virtually all their efforts towards artistic education, it should nevertheless be noted that they have become attached to universities , which consequently now act as the main framework for teaching Halk müziği (“popular music”). This establishes a strong link between republican education and the transmission of local heritage.
- 15.
Folklorist Jean-Michel Guilcher argues that the traditional work is dynamic and inseparable from the figure of the traditional interpreter (1963).
- 16.
Interview, March 2015.
- 17.
The Tire HEM has stepped in to replace the cultural action department of the Republican People’s Party (Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi)-run municipality, which should normally be ideologically in favor of this type of activity. According to the chairman of the Tire Kültür (Tire Culture) Association, the only support the cultural action department has provided has been to set up a small municipal company to perform at republican celebrations throughout the year. Furthermore, this company is largely comprised of dancers and musicians trained by the HEM.
- 18.
According to Cenk, an assistant lecturer at Ege University conservatory, the other, harder way of becoming a state-accredited folklore dance instructor is to obtain a diploma from the state conservatory (it is difficult to be admitted to the conservatory). Over the years I have observed that many young dancers from Tire who had trained at the HEM failed the first exam (musical listening) in the yearly selection procedure held by the state conservatory at Ege University. This tended to be because they were ill prepared. They did not have the time or the money to go to the preparatory workshops run by the conservatory ahead of the entrance exams.
- 19.
The positive involvement of the HEM in developing zeybek practice at the local level is clearly driven both by a certain enthusiasm among Tire youth for these activities and by the director’s involvement.
- 20.
For Crozier and Friedberg (1977), this idea (referred to as “marginal sécant” in their French text) designates individuals who span different “worlds”, and who by belonging to both and mastering the potential for zones of uncertainty are able to enjoy greater symbolic or material recompense.
- 21.
For a discussion of the symbolic dimension to peasant identity in Turkish nationalism , see Gokalp (1985).
- 22.
For a clarification of the concept of “invented tradition”, see the article by Babadzan (1999).
- 23.
“Sportification” consists in “the process by which a physical activity is transformed into a ‘sport’ governed by a set of rules and norms, all of which are legitimized by its tutelary institutions” (Lebreton 2010).
- 24.
For a discussion of “artification”, see Heinich and Shapiro (2012).
- 25.
For a discussion of the neologism “trans-acting”, see Chap. 1.
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Zeghmar, L. (2018). Tradition Makers. The Recognition Process of a Local Dance: From the Village to the Institutions. In: Girard, M., Polo, JF., Scalbert-Yücel, C. (eds) Turkish Cultural Policies in a Global World. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-63658-0_9
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