(Social) Darwinism for Families

Abstract

The impact of Darwinism on the formation of modern Turkish state is indisputable. Social Darwinist theories were employed to consolidate a homogenous Turkish entity in early Republican Turkey, and were promoted not just within political spheres, but also in popular culture. Against this background, this paper analyses the role of social Darwinism in an illustrated monthly family magazine, Muhit. The magazine included sections on literature, popular science, and tips on housekeeping. Ahmet Cevat (Emre), who wrote the editorials of the magazine, paid special attention to the Kemalist agenda of the day. While popularising science in general and social Darwinism in particular, Muhit also included sections that were meant to shape the children and women of the Republic in line with Darwinist concerns. Kemalist conservative ideals with respect to the gender roles of women were thus reproduced through a stress on the idea of marriage and raising up healthy children. Although such articles were mostly translations from Western magazines, Muhit still served the Kemalist ideology of creating modern women with traditional roles at home and fit and healthy children for the future of the Republic. From 1931 onwards Muhit shifted from pro-natalist discussions of social Darwinism to a full-fledged racist social Darwinism. The five-year-publication life of the magazine was in that sense an important witness to the change in the Kemalist ideology.