An Attempt to Determine Formal and Functional Culture Region for Aba Wrestling as Cultural Heritage (Hatay)
Bayram Çetin, Mürşide CoşkunWith the purpose of determining formal and functional culture regions for Aba Wrestling, this study is significant in solidifying the role of culture in spatial organization. Data were obtained by using ethnographic methods through participatory observations and interviews with people aged 65 years and older in communities that have adopted wrestling. The characteristics such as its practice, terminology and clothing style can be considered an indication of Hatay Aba Wrestling formal culture region. The region actually continued to exist encompassing Aleppo as the centre during Ottoman period and it was later restructured by the changes in political borders between 1921 - 1939. The present study is aimed at determining the functional and formal culture regions that are the continuation of a preexisting region in Turkey. Formal culture regions caused a spatial organization centered on Yayladağı and Altınözü between 1939 - 1990. The borders of the Hatay formal culture region became indistinct because of the 1990-institutionalization attempts, but these attempts resulted in the formation of the Hatay functional culture region. The Antakya-centred functional culture region overlapped the provincial borders. Today, this culture region is likely to expand its activities at a national and international level. This transformation is regarded as the change of the centre, actors and borders rather than having an evolutionary-progressive trait.
Kültürel Miras Unsuru Olan Aba Güreşine Yönelik Şekilsel ve İşlevsel Kültür Bölgesi Belirleme Denemesi (Hatay)
Bayram Çetin, Mürşide CoşkunAba güreşi şekilsel ve işlevsel kültür bölgelerini belirleme amacındaki bu çalışma, kültürün mekânı örgütlemedeki rolünü somutlaştırması bakımından önem arz eder. Veriler, güreşi benimsemiş topluluklar içerisindeki 65 yaş ve üstü olan kişilerle etnografik yöntemle katılımcı gözlem ve görüşme yapılarak elde edilmiştir. Aba güreşinin uygulanışı, terminolojisi, giyim-kuşamı gibi özellikleri temelinde, Hatay aba güreşi şekilsel kültür bölgesinden söz edilebilir. Bölge, Osmanlı döneminde Halep merkezli olarak varlığını sürdürürken, 1921-1939’da siyasi sınırların değişiminden etkilenerek yeniden şekillenmiştir. Çalışmada, geçmişteki bölgenin Türkiye’deki bakiyesi konumundaki, şekilsel ve işlevsel kültür bölgelerinin tespiti yapılmıştır. Şekilsel kültür bölgesi, 1939-1990 arasında Yayladağı-Altınözü merkezli mekânsal örgütlenmeye meydan vermiştir. 1990 sonrasındaki kurumsallaşma çabaları, Hatay şekilsel kültür bölgesinin silikleşmesine, buna karşın Hatay işlevsel kültür bölgesinin oluşumuna yol açmıştır. Merkezini Antakya’nın oluşturduğu işlevsel kültür bölgesi, il sınırlarıyla örtüşmüştür. Günümüzde faaliyetlerini ulusal ve uluslararası boyuta taşıma eğilimindedir. Dönüşüm, evrimsel-ilerlemeci bir nitelik taşımaktan çok merkez, aktör ve sınırların değişiminden ibarettir.
Aba Wrestling, which is both a concrete and a non-concrete element of Turkish cultural heritage, is a lesser known ancestral sport. It is a folk sport that has survived until today in Hatay, Turkey and in various parts of Syria by assuming different functions on a folkloric basis. In this aspect, it organized the space as a formal culture region until the 1990s, and as a functional culture region since then.
This study aims to determine the role of Aba wrestling in organizing the space as an element of Turkish cultural heritage rather than describing its technical characteristics. In other words, it tries to determine what features of it have organized the formal region and how it has changed to be effective in forming the functional region. By focusing on Aba wrestling, this study is significant in terms of solidifying the role of cultural elements in spatial organization.
The research data were collected by using ethnographic methods through participatory observations and interviews. With the objective approach, detailed interviews were conducted with people over a certain age (65 years and older) in the communities where wrestling was an indispensable part of their cultural life. In the sampling process, special attention was given so that the individuals included in the sample were mostly selected from different communities and among those who did wrestling during a certain period of their life or who had a family member engaged in wrestling. Accordingly, a total of 42 people, including 5 women, were interviewed.
Although the research is mainly focused on determining the formal culture region between 1939-1990 and the functional culture region after 1990, it also reveals a formal region that goes beyond today’s political boundaries, especially during the Ottoman period. The Ottoman-period formal culture region, with the central city of Aleppo, ranges approximately from the Bayır-Bucak region to Latakia with the Sanjak of Iskenderun (guard post) in the south of Yayladağı, and it continues covering Cisr-i Şuğur and Aleppo in the southeast and Gaziantep in the north. The region fell apart due to the change in the political borders between 1921 and 1939. Cultural interaction became weaker due to the political boundaries, yet it did not disappear completely and cross-border influence between the remaining parts continued to exist.
The formal region discussed in this study is actually the remaining part of this large region. The formal culture region between 1939 and 1990 covered a total of 100 settlements surrounding Yayladağı and Altınözü. Identified according to the six following criteria, the region can be classified as a centre and periphery in itself given the relationship between the communities and Aba Wrestling. To determine both the formal region and the centre and periphery, several criteria were used such as the existence Aba Wrestling as a tradition among people, frequency of practice on time basis, its effectiveness in social gender roles, the presence of special clothing forms regarding wrestling, the existence of a special terminology, and the existence of trained wrestlers. Whereas Aba Wrestling formal culture region shows homogeneity according to the first five criteria, it differs with respect to the last criterion – the existence of trained wrestlers. In this sense, living spaces of the communities with good, skilled wrestlers constitute the centre of the region. A formal culture region mostly has distinct boundaries and is culturally homogeneous. It has been evidenced that Aba Wrestling and its elements serve multiple functions within the region. In addition to the use of Aba as a uniform and clothing item, these functions can be summarized as follow: symbolizing social identity, uncovering gender roles, and being complementary to recreational activities and rituals.
Folkloric sports activities were restructured on an institutional basis after 1990. In this sense, while the formal region based on ancestral sport of folkloric value has weakened and disappeared, a foundation for a functional region based on professional sports activities has been formed by means of a central, official administrative organization. The new region is now in a position overlapping the provincial borders of Hatay. In fact, the form of organization that has emerged along with the shift of borders and centre is nothing more than the reconstruction of the organizational structure of the space. The national and international organization tendency resulting from the new structure can also be described as the new dynamics of the cultural value change occurred in Aba Wrestling.
Though the transformation from formal to functional region exhibits a positive structure, it is not fully evolutionary-progressive owing to its unidirectional nature. Rather, it can be regarded as a change of centres, actors and borders.
