Verbal, Spatial, Visual Memory and Representation of Ankara Hat Makers: Case Studies of the Bozdağ Kasket and the Ankara Şapka

Abstract

The hat has great symbolic importance in Turkey and the most significant manifestation of this importance is the hat law. The introduction of the law lead to widespread hat production in the country and the intensification of spatial formations. In this study, the historical process of hat making in Ankara is examined in terms of its socio-spatial content. With the proclamation of the Republic, the fedora was used by urban residents, and the cap by rural residents, as symbols of modernization. This representation has visual, textual, and verbal sources which are used in this work to consider the symbolic and semantic value of the hat. The aim is to evaluate the hat as an object, as well as the spaces where it was produced with their subjects and their own time periods. The period covered in the research was during a marked change in clothing habits, as determined by Ankara hat makers, with the proclamation of the Republic. There were two stages to the research: to consider the symbolic and semantic meaning of the hat through visual and textual materials; and to examine the socio-spatial development processes of the Bozdağ Kasket and Ankara Şapka, selected as samples, with their context and subjects. This review also includes oral history interviews in terms of scanning archive documents and producing new documents. This work is considered important in the context of producing visual and technical material, and then sharing such material by creating oral testimony. The research was carried out qualitatively and utilized the method of oral history. Oral, written and visual documents included in the mixed methodology were evaluated, and then a spatial analysis of the case study was implemented. Data was collected on a voluntary basis after consent forms were obtained.

Keywords

• hats
• symbols
• ankara hatters
• oral history
• bozdağ kasket
• ankara şapka