Alevî-Bektaşî Kültüründe Yaratılış Anlatıları ve Toplumsal Cinsiyet İlişkileri

Abstract

The narratives of creation respond to the existential questions of the members of the society by addressing the issues such as how life came about, what it is, where it is revealed, what is being male and female, how they relate to each other and to the world outside them. The anwers given by creation narratives to these questions serve to normalize gender relations and the roles of women and man are based on dualities. Based on these dualities the naturalization of women’s dependecy of man is reflected in social ideologies related to patriarchal relations and gender. Symbols and meanings related to representation of creation are tools for understanding the relations between elements such as body, lineage, family, space, world and other world. The aim of this study is to analyze how the Alevi and Bektashi society, which has a considerable population in Turkey, is concerned with creation, how these ideas are internalized and naturalized in the course of religious and daily life, and how this internalization process shapes gender relations. How the Alevis and the Bektashi will shape their own perceptions of self through the creation accounts and how they draw the boundary between the other will be examined in terms of mythology, oral culture and gender based on oral and written sources.