Transmitting the tradition: An analysis on master-disciple relationship in Alevi Community of Turkey

Hiroki Wakamatsu

doi:10.24289/ijsser.279143

Abstract

The phenomenon called “Globalization” has been discussed within the all social science. For almost of all Anthropologists, the global issues cannot be avoidable to conduct their ethnographic researches in any fields. Globalization is a process of international integration arising from the interchange of products, ideas and other aspect of culture. After 1990’s the interpretation of a complex set of disputes and exigencies settled into a conventional narrative of paradigm shift, in which the intellectual past became essentialized as “traditional Area Studies” and “Classic Anthropology.” A Crucial theme is that the global/local nexus is one of unpredictable interaction and creative adaptation, not of top-down determinism. Theoretically, globalization studies have become the focal point for the convergence of interpretive Anthropology, critical Anthropology, postmodernism, and poststructuralism, which are combined with a tough empiricism. In this paper, I examine the relationship between master and disciple in the Alevi community in Turkey from the framework of Anthropology of Globalization. Traditionally Alevi Dede gives their disciples religious traditions and practices such like how to organize Cem ceremony and other rituals. To transmit their religious knowledge, religious masters called Dede visits villages where Alevis consist of the majority of the population. Then Dede give his disciple called Talip some kind of religious education. In the past Alevi communities in Anatolian villages were generally situated in remote areas where the infrastructure was not sufficiently installed. Even in Alevi villages there were no Dede. However, the situation has changed within the recent two decades. People can access to the remote areas by transportation system and internet access is also available everywhere in the countryside. In this paper, I try to reveal the current situation of master-disciple relation of Alevi community and describe how they transmit some kind of religious education to their disciples in the global era through an Anthropological analysis. At the same time, I investigate the whole of social change in Alevi communities in Turkey.

Highlights

The Alevi population consists of a sizable proportion of the Republic’s population – it is not clear exactly because the census does not ask for detailed religious affiliation
The Dersimis, themselves, perceive a cultural difference between the Zaza-speaking tribes of western Dersim (Ovacık and Hozat with part of Çemişgezek and Pertek), and the Dersimi tribes proper of eastern Dersim (Pülmür, Nazımiye, Mazgirt), and among whom are both Zaza and Kurmanci sperkers. We find another important Kurdish Alevi population: the Koçgiri tribal confederation, in and around Sivas
One is that Holy Lineage is composed of dedes, and the other aspect is of a ritual group that constitutes a relationship between the master and disciple

Summary

Introduction

The Alevi population consists of a sizable proportion of the Republic’s population – it is not clear exactly because the census does not ask for detailed religious affiliation. Many Alevis regard as the resting place of their founding saint, they in no case form the majority of the inhabitants of a town (and even in that case they do not form the majority of the government officials within the town) Instead, they form sub-sections of the larger towns dominated by the Sunni form of mosque-worship, living in their own distinct parts of the community, in often rather uneasy relationship with the rest of the town. There are several other small Zaza- and Kurmanci speaking enclaves in Sivas, who claim Dersimi origins Another indication of their relationship with Dersim Alevis is the presence of seyit (notably Kureyşan) living in their midst. Van Bruinessen’s work is perhaps appropriate for an analytic study in that the length of his research is quite unparalleled in Kurdish ethnographic work He conducted his first study in 1974, travelling around Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey. The village had no paved roads and the track it did have, was often blocked by snow; running water and electricity had not yet been installed

The Alevis in Varto Sub-Province

Ocak: The Genealogy of Ehl-i Beyt

Religious ceremonial

Findings

Conclusion