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Masterarbeit / Master's Thesis MASTERARBEIT / MASTER’S THESIS Titel der Masterarbeit / Title of the Master‘s Thesis “Whirling between Sema and Dance - A transnational perspective on the transfer of whirling rituals in Austria and Turkey” verfasst von / submitted by Margarethe Christine Bendix, B.A. angestrebter akademischer Grad / in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts (MA) Wien, 2020 / Vienna 2020 Studienkennzahl lt. Studienblatt / UA 066 810 degree programme code as it appears on the student record sheet: Studienrichtung lt. Studienblatt / Masterstudium Kultur- und Sozialanthropologie degree programme as it appears on the student record sheet: Betreut von / Supervisor: Univ.-Prof. Doz. Dr. Elke Mader Photo by the author. Istanbul. 2019. When you dance the whole universe dances. All the realms spun around you in endless celebration. Your soul loses its grip. Your body sheds its fatigue. Hearing my hands clap and my drum beat, You begin to whirl RUMI I Acknowledgments I would like to thank my supervisor Univ. Prof. Dr. Elke Mader, for her patient support. I also thank Prof. Besim Can Zırh, for his supervision during my semester at ODTÜ university. I want to express my thanks to my interview partners and the people whom I met during my research. Thank you, Caro, for your help, advice, and motivation in all the ups and downs of the whole research process. Thank you, Irina for your input and for helping me form my thesis. Thank you, Dieter, for reading and struggling with my Denglish. And thank you, all my other friends and family, for your motivation and care. II Content 1 INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 WHIRLING, YOGA, AND ERASMUS - MY MOTIVATION ..................................................... 2 1.2 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK .............................................................................................. 3 1.3 STATE OF THE ART ............................................................................................................. 5 1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS ...................................................................................................... 7 1.5 RESEARCH PROCESS .......................................................................................................... 8 1.6 OUTLINE ............................................................................................................................ 9 2 METHODS .............................................................................................................................. 10 2.1 MOVING FROM ONE FIELD TO ANOTHER - MY ROLE AS A RESEARCHER ......................... 10 2.2 GROUNDED THEORY METHOD ........................................................................................ 11 2.3 MULTI-SITED ETHNOGRAPHY ......................................................................................... 12 2.4 PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION ........................................................................................... 15 2.5 QUALITATIVE INTERVIEWS .............................................................................................. 16 2.6 ONLINE DATA AND VISUAL INFORMATION ..................................................................... 17 2.7 DATA PROCESSING AND ANALYSIS ................................................................................. 18 2.8 SUMMARY – METHODS .................................................................................................... 19 3 THEORY.................................................................................................................................. 20 3.1 TRANSNATIONALISM THEORY ......................................................................................... 20 Transnationalism - Between boundaries and flows ................................................ 21 Summary – Transnationalism ................................................................................. 23 3.2 RITUAL THEORY .............................................................................................................. 23 History of ritual research ........................................................................................ 24 Ritual elements ........................................................................................................ 25 Ritual dynamics ....................................................................................................... 26 Transfer of rituals ................................................................................................... 30 Summary – Ritual theory ........................................................................................ 34 3.3 PERFORMANCE ................................................................................................................. 34 Performance and performativity ............................................................................. 35 Ritual performances and theatre performance ....................................................... 36 Cultural performance .............................................................................................. 39 Summary – Performance theory ............................................................................. 39 3.4 SUMMARY – THEORETICAL PART .................................................................................... 40 III 4 BACKGROUND INFORMATION ....................................................................................... 41 4.1 BAGHDAD SUFIS AND A FEMALE MYSTIC - EARLY SUFISM ............................................ 41 Spiritual ancestries – The formation of tarikas ...................................................... 44 4.2 MUSIC, WHIRLING, RECITATION – MEVLEVI SEMA ......................................................... 48 4.3 NEW SPIRITUALITY AND IMMIGRANT ASSOCIATIONS –SUFISM IN THE WEST ................ 50 4.4 REVIVING TURKISH MUSIC - ORUÇ GÜVENÇ AND TÜMATA ........................................... 51 5 EMPIRICAL PART ................................................................................................................ 55 5.1 DIFFERENT FORMS OF WHIRLING – INTRODUCING THE RESEARCH FIELDS ................... 57 “Es gibt nur an Allāh.“ - Sema at Haus des Friedens - Vienna ............................. 57 “Mevlana sema gösteri” – Sema at Mevlana culture center - Konya .................... 62 „The turquoise whirling skirt“ - Karabas-i Veli culture center – Bursa ................ 65 “Performing solo” - Khatoon Fallah’s dance performance - Ankara ................... 68 Summary – Different Forms of Whirling ................................................................ 70 5.2 TRANSNATIONAL CHARACTER OF WHIRLING ................................................................. 70 “The local should be globalized” – Transnational in Turkey ................................ 71 “There were 86 different nations” - Tümata – a transnational group ................... 74 Summary – Transnational character of whirling .................................................... 78 5.3 WHIRLING PRACTICE AS A TRANSFER OF RITUALS ......................................................... 79 “Sema is a spiRITUAL act” – Identifying whirling ................................................ 79 “Come, come whoever you are” – Whirling practitioners ..................................... 81 “Of course there are differences in the cultures, perhaps” - Analyzing contexts .. 88 “You can come and learn how to do it.” - Permanent transfer through teaching .. 92 Summary – Whirling Practice as a Transfer of Rituals .......................................... 97 5.4 WHIRLING DANCE – TRANSFER ‘OUT’ OF RITUAL? ........................................................ 99 “Imagined dance” - Historical perspective on contemporary whirling dance ...... 99 “You know that from Matrix, right?“ – Ritual vs. dance performance ................ 100 “Sema vs. whirling in masks” - Performative character of whirling ................... 102 Summary – Whirling Dance – Transfer ‘out’ of Ritual ........................................ 105 6 FINAL CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................ 109 7 REFERENCES CITED ........................................................................................................ 114 8 APPENDIX ............................................................................................................................ 124 8.1 GLOSSARY ..................................................................................................................... 124 8.2 OUTLINE OF PARTICIPANT OBSERVATIONS AND INTERVIEWS CONDUCTED ................. 126 IV 1 Introduction “Come, come, whoever you are. Wanderer, worshiper, lover of leaving. It doesn't matter. Ours is not a caravan of despair. Come, even if you have broken your vows a thousand times. Come, yet again, come, come.” Rumi This poem of Rumi is often recited as an illustration of Sufism’s open attitude. Sufism is seen as a peaceful religious practice with pluralist potential, as it is not only accepting of the different Islamic denominations but also embraces other religions. Especially in the context of new religious and spiritual movements in Western European contexts, Sufism has long been of interest. Its depiction as a mystical1 and tolerant form of religions has found many followers.2 For example, in America, the Inayat Khan Sufi order was
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