DISINTEGRATION AS ONE OF THE REFLEXES OF CULTURE TO SUSTAIN ITS EXISTENCE

Abstract

Culture, which encompasses everything produced by humanity, is one of the most extensively researched subjects. Various disciplines such as anthropology, archaeology, sociology, and ethnology all focus on culture, but they conduct studies by addressing it from different perspectives. A discipline relatively newer than others that focuses on culture is folklore studies. This rapidly developing discipline since its establishment in 1846 to present has made significant contributions to cultural studies, both in terms of the breadth of its research scope and the abundance of the theories and methods it employs. Folklore science, which examines a wide range of topics from oral cultural products to tangible and intangible cultural heritage, provides very important information to local and international authorities for a better understanding and survival of culture. In this study, the disintegration 2 function of culture is analyzed from a folkloric perspective. Just as cells form organs and organs constitute the human body, culture is formed by the combination of small building blocks such as motifs, cults, symbols, and behaviors. These building blocks constitute cultural elements, and the combination of cultural elements constitutes the culture of a nation. In situations like the weakening of tradition, forgetting/make forgotten in oral culture, loss of function, and cultural interactions. The building blocks that constitute cultural elements, such as motifs, symbols, and cults, detach from the whole and enter into another part and continue to preserve the old cultural element alive in the new cultural structure. Thus, culture does not cease to exist; it can continuously renew itself and ensures cultural continuity by engaging in new cultural productions. There is strong data that this situation will continue in the future. This situation identified in the study was examined together with its causes, and the application of this function on cultural elements was termed “Disintegration 1 Theory”