THE PAST TIME OF RITUAL CELEBRATION OF WOMANHOOD: THE VEIL RITUAL IN SOCIAL MEMORY

Abstract

Society meticulously control the establishment of the family institution. They operate these control mechanisms through social norms and rituals. In the cultures of societies that develop detailed norms and rituals in the formation of family, there are concerns that children should grow up under the supervision of parents. They also socially mark fatherhood rights through these rituals. To ease this anxiety within the scope of norms, society defines each stage of marriage, engagement, marriage, and divorce. Rites of passage also point to the beginning of life‟s stages and promise statuses to the individuals. Furthermore, they are dramatic guidebooks that reflect society‟s shared beliefs and values formed around gender, status, and age within their socio-cultural dimensions. In my research, the marriage transition ritual compiled during fieldwork conducted in Bartın and Karabük, located in the Black Sea Region of Turkey, focused on the ritual celebration of womanhood in the frame of social norms. The volunteer informants who participated in my research were chosen among the women who were the last actors of the veil ritual. In this context, my fieldwork's result also represents the social memory formed around the way. During the fieldwork, I recorded the oral history of the way abandoned in modern times. Since oral history focuses on the experiences of social actors, I aimed to present the reflection of the veil rituals in the social memory of women who are the last practitioners of the ritual.