Sünnet Düğünü When Turkish boys become Men

sünnet

I recently was invited by my host counselor to attend the sünnet düğünü of his nephew. The word “sünnet” (the word used in Turkish for circumcision) is of Arabic origin and means “busy path”. In a broader sense; it refers to the path to God and the good or bad attitudes which human being adopt. Düğünü means "day of".I was initially told that it would be held at an event hall and that the boy's becoming of a man would be celebrated with the Turkish signature combination of abundant food and group dancing. Later I learned that this was a rite of passage ceremony that is among the most significant traditional procedures related to the male child in Anatolia. Circumcision is believed to be one of the features of a `heliolithic' culture about 15,000 years ago and has spread over much of the world. People speculate that it might have originated independently within several cultures depending on evidence that inhabitants of the new world and Australian aborigines were circumcised when these continents were discovered. The observation of 6,000 years old circumcised mummies point to the fact that this may be one of the oldest surgical procedure. Today although most male babies are circumcised in hospitals at birth, the celebration of sünnet düğünü is held for boys sometime between the age of 5-12 years.
Above I have included some photos of the festivities.


References:
www.turkishculture.org
www.cirp.org

The beginning of the Year's Rotary events

So the year has begun here in Ankara, Turkey. Amidst the frenzy of settling down, going to host Rotarian functions, and plunging into graduate course work in social anthropology I have just found time to update my blog today. I am very pleased with the helpful group of international professors in the social anthropology department at Middle East Technical University (METU). Currently I'm taking one graduate lecture course on Political and Social Issues in Turkey that focuses on the Turkish sociologists an one seminar course on Migration and Transnationality that looks at some very interesting aspects of ethnic and civil nationalism and issues of citizenship in Turkey and around the world.

I have attended a several of the Aniteppe Rotary club meetings so far and I have been able to schedule my first two presentations the first and second week of November. Three weeks ago the Koru Rotary Club hosted a fundraiser at the Austrian embassy. The food was as amazing as it was plentiful; amidst the cold appetizers there were all varieties of roasted vegetables in olive oil or yogurt with herbs as well as hot borek (a pastry filled with meat or cheese and topped with black sesame seeds). I also had the opportunity to try salep, a hot drink with cinnamon made from orchid root. There were two live performers, the first a women dressed in interesting gettup who sang in English (she had me singing along) and later on a man who sang Turkish pop songs that really got the Turkish ladies dancing and waving arms while standing characteristically shoulder-to-shoulder. The weekend later I have a very Rotary Sunday: in the morning I attended a beautiful brunch on the grounds of one of the Aniteppe Rotarian's manufacturing plants. We sat in a gazebo in the plant garden area snug between a apple orchard on the left and a field of grape vines on the right. I was given a bag to fit as much fruit as I wanted to bring home with me. In the afternoon we attended another Rotary fundraiser that was an outdoor picnic and live music with a special guest, Deniz Arcak, who I was told was pretty famous around Turkey. What she sang in Turkish sounded good to me, but she really shined when she did her rendition of Rollin' on the River. The photos below say a little bit more about my Rotary adventures thus far.

Aniteppe Rotary