From nomads to vegetable farmers. In search of yökük identity among the Saçikarah of Southwestern Turkey
The Saçikarah of Southwest Anatolia have been small cattle and camel nomads when cultural change started in the course of the 19th century. Around the middle of the 20th century they had adopted agriculture and had permanently settled down. Although, in that process, social norms of the Saçikarah more and more resembled general Turkish culture, remarkable traits of ´being yorük´ of their nomadic past are still alive. Borchhardt gives a brief history of ´yörük´-ness (either originating from an ethnic term, perhaps an Oghuse tribe - the Yüregir, or derived from the root yörü for ´to march, to roam´), introduces her fieldwork in Tatlisu, and describes the process of becoming settled. She comments on the ´emic´ valuation of nomadic life, tribal traditions and identity, and then continues her explanation through the medium of kinship. In several chapters she thus describes the system of patrilineal descent, patrilocal residence, the meaning of collateral male relations, principles of neighborhood and kinship (like reciprocity, egalitarianism, solidarity), and the marriage network and marriage strategies (endogamy, marriage groups, patrilateral parallel cousin marriage, polygyny). Another long chapter deals with the household, individual and society: Borchhardt documents hierarchy and cyclical events of the household, gender roles and gender identity as well as sexuality, then gender relations and honor/esteem (segregation, honor, marriage strategies), and finally communication and interaction (the coffee house, addressing others, rumor, representative speeches, and conflict). The conclusion discusses emic levels of identity and demarcation, yörük identity in the regional context, and regarding the ethnicity discourse.
Keywords: Saçikarah identity, identity of Saçikarah, kinship of Saçikarah, nomadism of Saçikarah, change among Saçikarah, marriage pattern of Saçikarah, yörük identity, segregation among Saçikarah, reciprocity, honor, esteem
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