LAMENTATIONS IN THE TURKISH CULTURE AND THEIR FUNCTIONS IN SOCIETY - On the example of Kyrgyzstan -

Abstract

In every society there are various important rituals of a social event as death. For the Turks, the beginning of these rituals is "lament, koşuk, koşok". Lamentation accompines with a sad voice according to respect the death, traditions, and customs. The stones built on the head of the tombs remaining from VI.-VII. centuries, the writings on the balbalar are known as Yenisey and Orhun inscriptions. The writings on these tombstones are the first concrete reflections of our tradition of lamentation. Today, it is accepted that the information written about the person who died on the tombstones is the manifestation of the same tradition of poems dedicated to him. However, the sociological importance of this tradition is great in terms of Turkish culture. Because these traditions are the most important rituals that ensure the solidarity of Turkish society. In our work we will focus on the etymology of the word "koşuk, koşok" in the Turkish world , then we gave an evaluation to the lamentations according to folklore and tried to reveal the motifs that form the lamentations. It will also be mentioned about the social function of the lamentations for the Turks. Then the funeral of Kyrgyz people, the place of man and woman in the funeral, the aim, how and by whom the lamentation was performed were depicted with comparative examples in this article.

Keywords

• lamentation
• kyrgyz
• turk
• social function.