A Comparative Perspective of Folk Beliefs and Traditions of Kazakhs, Turkmens and Turkish Cypriots

Abstract

The phenomenon of belief has been among the most fundamental social needs of people from the oldest ages to date and played an essential role in shaping the cultures of nations throughout history. In the formation of Turkish cultural map, various religions, beliefs and belief systems have been influential. For example, in the oldest times, animatism, totemism, and later Shamanism and Sky God religion, and finally Islam, have played essential role in the shaping of culture and laid the foundations of folk beliefs. It can be said that in Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Northern Cyprus, which are determined as the study area of the research, especially animitism, totemism, Shamanism, Sky God religion and Islam served as the sources of folk beliefs. In this article, attempt was made to examine the folk beliefs of all three regions and determine them within this framework. In the determination of beliefs and customs, the literature was first searched, the data were collected by document analysis technique and mutual interviews were conducted with the source persons in verifying the data. During the interviews, it was questioned whether the beliefs found in the sources still maintain their validity and the results were stated in the study. The aim of this study is to compare the folk beliefs of Kazakh, Turkmen and Turkish Cypriots, to determine their similarities and differences and to interpret these beliefs. Based on this aim, it was determined that most of the folk beliefs and customs in Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan still have a widespread effect on the community life whereas their application in the Turkish Cypriots is weakened and disappeared. As a result of the analysis, it has been seen that the beliefs are predominantly based on the old religions, belief systems and Islam, which the Turks have believed.

Keywords

• kazakh turks
• turkmens turks
• cypriot turks
• folk beliefs
• tradition
• practices