A Study on Turkish Folk Narratives in the South Siberian Region / Kadın ve Şeytan: Güney Sibirya Sahası Türk Halk Anlatıları Üzerine Bir İnceleme

Abstract

Evil, which is a universal phenomenon affects various aspects of human life. In the early periods of history, every situation that threatened human beings in the struggle for survival with nature was described as bad. The cultural history of humans continued with gathering, hunting, animal husbandry and eventually the transition to settled life and agricultural society. In this process, there is the presence and influence of belief in bad power or forces. Studies have been conducted in Turkish folklore about the “Satan”, which is believed to be one of the leading evil forces. However, there is no study on the relationship between “woman” and “Satan” in narratives of the South Siberia and this is the starting point of the study. Turkish narratives in Siberian in general and the South Siberia in particular are important sources in this sense. In addition to the narratives about the association of women with Satan, being as bad as Satan and even deceiving Satan contribute to the image of women in Turkish culture and allow to explain the reasons for this negative image. The roles and the image of women have changed and transformed from the beginning to the present. In this context, the main point of the study is the idea that masculine discourse and power became widespread after the transition from matriarchal to patriarchal period. At this point, the perception of “gender” and “socialization” has been constructed as the initiator of this idea. As a result, narratives from the South Siberian field (Altai, Tuva, Khakas), especially including “woman” and “Satan” have been selected by random sampling method in the study. Also, current reflections of the relationship between the two phenomena have been identified in this study. The relationship between these two phenomena has been critically examined in the context of cultural feminism theory.

Keywords

• south siberia
• matriarchal
• patriarchal
• gender
• woman
• satan