The Cultures of Collecting Prayer Beads in Turkey: Material Fetishism and the Construction of Authenticity

International Journal of Management and Applied Science, ISSN: 2394-7926 Volume-4, Issue-10, Oct.-2018 http://iraj.in THE CULTURES OF COLLECTING PRAYER BEADS IN TURKEY: MATERIAL FETISHISM AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF AUTHENTICITY KORAY DEGIRMENCI Erciyes University, Department of Sociology, Kayseri, Turkey E-mail: [email protected] Abstract - Prayer beads or rosaries (tesbih in Turkish), although being controversial in the relevant literature, have religious, cultural and functional significance in the doctrines and practices of various religious traditions, such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, etc. Beyond its religious functions and meanings, tesbih collection represents a deeply rooted and rich field, creating a unique cultural (and so-called secular) practice in Turkey. In this study, a very specific dimension of this cultural practice will be investigated, which is related with the materials used in rosary making. This article will attempt to examine how a material fetishism, which takes mystical states in some cases, has come to the forefront and how collectors and masters construct authenticity through and within materials in tesbih making. To investigate the construction of authenticity, the author will especially focus on the so-called “Ottoman (squeeze) amber” (faturan) in tesbih making, which are supposed to be related with the Ottoman period but indeed date back to a later (modern) period. Indexterms - Prayer Beads (Tesbih), Rosary, Collection, Authenticity, Fetishism, Ottoman (squeeze) amber (Faturan). I. INTRODUCTION it is valued primarily for use, or purpose, or aesthetically pleasing quality, or other value inherent This study focuses the rosary culture in Turkey and in the object or accruing to it by whatever discusses the authentic construction of the materials circumstances of custom, training, or habit, it is not a used in making the rosary and the notion of fetishism collection.” And he adds: “If the predominant value is operating in this specific type of collection culture. It representative or representational, i.e., if said object claims that a kind of material fetishism which can or idea is valued chiefly for the relation it bears to take mystical states in some cases in the collection of some other object or idea, or objects, or ideas, such as rosaries plays a significant role in the collection being one of a series, part of a whole, a specimen of a practice and the concept of authenticity produced on class, then it is the subject of a collection.” the basis of these materials primarily makes rosary a Undoubtedly, this definition has important true fetish object. The study focuses on what is called implications. First of all, the collection is a Ottoman (squeeze) amber, a precious material used in representation of the object itself, and it is of the rosary making in which the authenticity construction critical value that the object is not only a part of a can be explicitly observed. Although the material is whole in the definition but also a signifier of a regarded as being “Ottoman” in its origin, it is in fact particular terrain of meaning. Moreover, we see here a relatively new material. that not every kind of hoarding or gathering practice is considered as a collection; it is a necessity to II. CULTURE OF ROSARY COLLECTION associate every object in the collection with the other AND THE CONCEPT OF FETISHISM objects in the collection and in some cases with the ideas that are not directly related with the act of There are variety of different manifestations and collecting. On the other hand, act of collection is forms of interest in rosary and its collection. mainly involves what Pearce (1994, p. 159) calls as However, it is necessary to know whether the practice non-utilitarian gathering, “an internal or intrinsic of hoarding rosary is an act of collection as relationship between the things gathered” and the understood in the relevant literature. Such an effort subjective view of the collector. Moreover, the makes sense in terms of creating an intuition about collection is necessarily more than the sum of its the differences within this culture rather than parts. Furthermore, in almost all collections we can confining it to certain forms or confining it to the sense the presence of a desire to complete a series and conceptual frameworks of collection culture. to reach the whole, which, in most cases, turns into an Although the literature has controversial ideas in this obsession. In a sense, the collection is "an obsession regard, the definition of the work of Durost (1932, p. organized" (quoted from Aristides, Pearce, 1994, p. 10), which has become a classic in the field, appears 158). In the collection there are superordinate at this point as an inclusive and valid definition in the categories that objects are defined as belonging to literature: “A collection is basically determined by according to their specific qualities or features and the nature of the value assigned to the objects, or there are also subcategories within those ideas possessed. If the predominant value of an object superordinate ones (Danet and Katriel, 1994, p 225). or idea for the person possessing it is intrinsic, i.e., if In order for the assemblage of objects to be regarded The Cultures of Collecting Prayer Beads in Turkey: Material Fetishism and the Construction of Authenticity 68 International Journal of Management and Applied Science, ISSN: 2394-7926 Volume-4, Issue-10, Oct.-2018 http://iraj.in as a collection, it is essential that each piece has a understood outside the cultural context, objects as feature that makes it different from the other objects sings and what it stands for is totally cultural and in the collection in the mind of the collector. their meaning depends on collective reality built by a Despite of the fact the main function of rosary is group of people. “counting beads” (while praying or only comforting), When considered from a practical or functional point we see that majority of the collectors in the field do of view, the association between rosary and religion not count beads and perceive prayer beads in much can only be achieved through its functional different ways than their purely religious or dimension. So simply counting function. However, in comforting (or meditating) functions. This non- rosary’s transformation from a profane object to a pragmatic and non-utilitarian view makes the practice sacred one or when it becomes an object of of gathering prayer beads a candidate for being a collection, a certain distance should be put collection practice to a certain extent. On the other discursively between rosary and religious terrain. hand, we observe that there are classifications That is because the association with religion can only according to different qualifications such as masters be provided by the functional dimension and within carving the prayer beads, materials used, different this functionality it can make sense with the forms of imam (longer and leader bead symbolizing sameness, not the singularity. If rosary gains its the Islamic leadership) and habbe (each piece of sacredness from religious terrain, it would be only beads). Moreover, as I will discuss in detail later, limited to this function. However, this argument there is a narrative linking prayer beads to a number should not lead to the conclusion that the rhetoric of of other features that give rise to other ideas and their sacralization is completely unrelated to the religious uniqueness beyond their purely religious or mystical sphere. The religious field, however, makes a meaning. Perhaps the only thing that distinguishes the superficial contribution to the discourse of things that gathering rosary from collection is that there is no sacralize it in the act of collection. Furthermore, if the possibility of completion or that it is not driven with rosary would be sacralized totally by the religious desire of completion. discourse, possession and subjectivity which are Although an obsession that is unique to collecting defined here as central to the act of collection would plays an important role here, it does not mean that never occur. The act of rosary collection itself is this seemingly irrational motivation is unfounded. In perhaps in a paradoxical relationship with fact that almost all cultural practices, there are different there are strong symbolic attributes of sameness in connections, unconscious processes and processes of the rosary itself: the sameness of the pieces (habbe) signification which manifest in the form of and the leadership position of the longer bead (imam) obsessions but form the basis of the desire. At this simply imply a notion of community or congregation. point, we can say that the objects of collection are At this point, there is a direct relationship with the transformed from ordinary, mundane objects into distinction between the art and craft that was some kind of blessed, sacred and unique things. As observed to be entrenched in the 19th century in the Belk (1994, p. 320) states, sacred (sacralized) objects West. The identification of craftsmanship with a are becoming instruments of a transcendental traditionally acquired skill and the appearance of the experience beyond the aesthetic qualities that can be craftwork in a totally utilitarian way has formed the regarded as functional or objective. While Baudrillard basis of this distinction (Lugowska, 2014, p.268). (1994, p. 8) points out the difference between However, as a fetish object, meaning of rosary is possessing and utilizing an object, he also provides a totally contrasted with the utilitarian definition of theoretical basis for some inferences about the craftsmanship. practice of collection where possession is the center This work basically claims that practice of collection of obsession. Although utilization is related with the cannot be understood without analyzing the notion of subject’s practical control mechanism in the real fetishism and the desire mechanism that drives the world, possession represents an abstract mastery of collection act is based on the fetishization of the the subject, through which the subject asserts himself objects in various forms.

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