Two Semahs Of Tunceli And Its Surroundings: Semah of Maraş And Semah of Kırklar

Abstract

AbstractThe demographic structure of Tunceli has constantly shifted, including forced migration, anduncertainty has occurred in the community’s beliefs and practices depending on the location. Thenew place and time have made it easier to benefit from modern educational opportunities and tobecome a part of political and ideological movements with the help of political parties. Subsequently,the socio-cultural structure began to take a new form and the new discourse began to dominate thetradition. Thus, almost everything that belongs to the tradition ceased to be acceptable, but alsoturned into topics that need to be tackled. The educated actors of the new discourse, who took theplace of the Ocakzades and struggled against the ocaks (spiritual centers), turned the traditionallyon-going structure into pressure by both explaining with their new knowledge and imposing the new discourse. As a result, this discourse, in the face of the disappearance of the cem and semah that hasbeen going on for centuries, has caused the problem to deepen further and the practices to disappeargradually. The split between the executives and the executed has been left unsolved by the actorsof the new discourse, and uncertainty has started to occur gradually. There is saz (kind of musicalinstrument), but only few performers; there is a melody, but the reader is less; there is semah, but onlyfew people who apply. However, there are increasingly more people who explain all these issues andproduce theories far from their own place or in an unrelated place.As a result, in the field study conducted in 1995, Seydali Aktepe from Bargini Village of Hozatdistrict of Tunceli is the source person of Maras Semah and Kazim Mansuroglu from Tunceli isthe source person of Kirklar Semah.Keywords: Tunceli, Semah, Kirklar Semah, Maras Semah.