Cultural Determinants of Liminal Lives in Rural Anatolia: Patriarchal Veils Framing Infants’ Destinies

Yaprak H Civelek

doi:10.5539/res.v7n7p46

Abstract

This study focuses on my field experiences conducting the Turkey Demographic and Health Surveys, Turkey Maternal Mortality Survey, and extensive use of qualitative research on family planning and induced abortion in Turkey since 1993. During the surveys, I had the opportunity to gather substantial information about women’s everyday experiences in relation to traditional practices, approaches to health and health care, as well as women’s attitudes and emotional contexts. The women’s narratives included heartbreaking and tragic experiences related to traditional gender norms within the families. In this paper, I examine the effect of patriarchal/gender hierarchies on the experiences of brides in relation to infant mortality data through a qualitative approach based on observations, field notes, and in-depth interviews with women. This research questions the impact of the culturally determined gender and age hierarchies within these extended families on the liminal life of infants and their mothers in Anatolia. How do these relationships determine the life courses of infants during their initial years? The concepts of “liminality” and development of “personhood” frame the theoretical grounds to further articulate bride/mother/infant visibility and invisibility within these families and the experiences of infant mortality.

Highlights

This study focuses on my field experiences conducting the Turkey Demographic and Health Surveys, Turkey Maternal Mortality Survey, and extensive use of qualitative research on family planning and induced abortion in Turkey since 1993
The liminality reflects a process or practice created by gender hierarchy in domestic life and liminal entities refer to the young brides, who are betwixt and between the positions strictly designated by moral authority belonging to a male discourse
In the sub-local Anatolian areas, the liminal stage of patriarchy has been fostered by extended patriarchal families with a strong conservatism and an artificial religious mentality, which is one of the imperative functions of the common mind

Summary

Introduction

“Those who die as if they have never lived”. And whose place at our table comes after our oxen. My previous research experiences in demography provided me with the opportunity to visit over fifty villages and numerous neighborhoods in towns and provinces within all the seven regions of Anatolia; I engaged in detailed note-taking about the points that I found remarkable, but ignored by the survey questionnaires, collecting a large amount of information about traditional practices, approaches to health and health care, attitudes, and emotional situations of women After analyzing these notes, I found that most included information about a tragic but traditionally approved relationship between the brides (gelin), infants (bebek), and older people, parents-in-law. I argue how political, traditional, and religious instructions can be associated with the construction of patriarchal/gender hierarchy, and how the concepts of “liminality” and “personhood” emerge

Contextual Framework

Findings

In Lieu of a Conclusion