Doğu Azerbaycan Halk Kültüründe Geçiş Dönemleri

Abstract

Any physical and spiritual property that the society has produced in the process of history and transferred from one generation to another is called culture. Creating the identity of society, culture differentiates societies from one another. Culture is the living and thinking way of society. Culture is the formation of numerous different social signs. Giving shape to periods of transition, traditions, customs, beliefs and ceremonies compose an important physical and spiritual part of culture. This study titled “Periods of Cultural Transition in the East Azerbaijan” considers folklore cultural products pertaining to periods of transition in East Azerbaijan Province in Iran, and consists of four parts: general information, birth, marriage and death. All information acquired from written and verbal resources for this research are collected, categorized and examined. Transition periods are explained according to three phases proposed by Van Gennep, including: separation, transition and aggregation. It is shown that established beliefs and practices are connected with ancient Turkish belief systems and after converting to Islam, concepts originating from Islam are combined with these beliefs. This cultural heritage (influenced by standardized and uniformed cultural patterns applied in educational and media systems) is losing its unique cultural elements because it is located in the country of Iran.