THE PERSISTENCE OF A SACRED PATRILINEAGE IN CONTEMPORARY TURKEY: AN ETHOGRAPHIC ACCOUNT ON THE ULUSOY FAMILY, THE DESCENDANTS OF HACI BEKTAŞ VELİ A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES OF MIDDLE EAST TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY BY MERAL SALMAN IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN THE DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY SEPTEMBER 2012 Approval of the Graduate School of Social Sciences Prof. Dr. Meliha Altunışık Director I certify that this thesis satisfies all the requirements as a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Prof. Dr. Ayşe Saktanber Head of Department This is to certify that we have read this thesis and that in our opinion it is fully adequate, in scope and quality, as a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Mustafa Şen Supervisor Examining Committee Members Prof. Dr. Ayşe Gündüz-Hoşgör (METU,SOC) Assoc.Prof. Dr.Aksu Bora (HU,COM) Prof. Dr. Tayfun Atay (AU, ETH) Assoc. Prof. Dr. Mustafa Şen (METU, SOC) Assoc. Prof. Dr. Erdoğan Yıldırım (METU,SOC) I hereby declare that all information in this document has been obtained and presented in accordance with academic rules and ethical conduct. I also declare that, as required by these rules and conduct, I have fully cited and referenced all material and results that are not original to this work. Name, Last name : Meral Salman Signature : iii ABSTRACT THE PERSISTENCE OF A SACRED PATRILIENEAGE IN CONTEMPORARY TURKEY: AN ETHNOGRAPHIC ACCOUNT ON THE DESCENDANTS OF HACI BEKTAŞ VELİ, THE ULUSOY FAMILY Salman, Meral Ph.D., Department of Sociology Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Mustafa Şen September 2012, 355 pages This ethnographic study is on a sacred patrilineage, on the Ulusoy family members who are widely accepted by the Alevi Bektaşi communities as the descendants of the eponymous founder of the Bektaşi Order, Hacı Bektaş Veli. In line with the Shi’ite tradition, it is claimed that Hacı Bektaş Veli inherited the batin, the esoteric aspect of the knowledge and the type of spirituality of this knowledge - walaya, by genealogical chain traced back to Ahl-al Bayt, and therefore undertook an initiating and supervisory role over his adherents. As the progeny of Hacı Bektaş Veli, the Çelebis, namely the Ulusoy family, have also become the heirs of his sacred authority which was also inherited by their descendant through blood and iv transmigration. The Ulusoys have undertaken the role of spiritual guides and leaders of some other sacred dede (sacred guide) lineages called ocaks, as well as of the disciples of those ocaks, to regulate and supervise their life in accordance with the batin, divine knowledge. Thus, the purpose of this dissertation is to explore the maintenance and reproduction of the hereditary sanctity of the Ulusoy family during the Republican period during which, due to the secularization and modernization attempts of the Republic, the sanctity and sacred authority of the family has not been recognized as a social distinct category. To this end, I firstly examine the historical background of the family by situating the family in the Ottoman period. Having found out the continuities and ruptures in exercising of the sacred authority of the family over the disciples after the establishment of the Republic, I focus on the transformation of the sanctity and new forms of it by employing the concepts of space/place; kinship and, gender. Key terms: Alevi-Bektaşi, sacred authority, kinship, gender, secularization v ÖZ GÜNÜMÜZ TÜRKİYE’SİNDE BABA SOYLU, KUTSAL BİR AİLE: HACI BEKTAŞ VELİ’NİN EVLATLARI, ULUSOY AİLESİ ÜZERİNE ETNOGRAFİK BİR ÇALIŞMA Salman, Meral Doktora, Sosyoloji Bölümü Tez Yöneticisi: Doç. Dr. Mustafa Şen Eylül 2012, 355 sayfa Bu etnografik çalışma Alevi-Bektaşi toplulukları tarafından Bektaşi tarikatının kurucusu Hacı Bektaş Veli’nin evlatları ve kutsal kabul edilen bir aile olan Ulusoylar üzerinedir. Şii geleneğine paralel olarak, Bektaşi tarikatının Çelebi koluna bağlı olanlarca Hacı Bektaş Veli’nin Ehli Beyt’e uzanan bir silsile ile batın yani ezoterik bilgiyi ve velayeti ve dolayısıyla bunların getirdiği kutsal otoriteyi kalıtsal olarak edindiğine inanılır. Hacı Bektaş Veli’nin evlatları olarak kabul edilen Çelebilerin yani Ulusoyların da kan bağı ve ruh göçü ile sahip olunan bu otoritenin kalıtçıları olduğu kabul edilir ve Ulusoylar kutsal otoritelerinin kaynağı olan batın bilgisiyle kendilerine bağlı ocaklar, dedeler ve taliplere rehberlik ederler. Bu çalışmanın amacı modernleşme ve sekülerleşme girişimleriyle birlikte kutsiyetleri resmi olarak ayrı bir sosyal kategori olarak tanınmayan ailenin Cumhuriyet dönemi boyunca kutsiyetlerini nasıl koruduğu ve yeniden ürettiğini araştırmaktır. Çalışma öncelikle Osmanlı dönemine, ailenin tarihsel arka planına bakmış, ailenin vi Cumhuriyet dönemi boyunca kutsal otoritesini uygulamak konusunda tecrübe ettiği devamlılıkları ve kopuşlar incelenmiş ve sonra yer/mekân, akrabalık ve cinsiyet kavramları aracılığıyla ailenin kutsiyetinin dönüşümü ve aldığı yeni biçimler araştırılmıştır. Anahtar Kelimeler: Alevi-Bektaşi, kutsal otorite, akrabalık, cinsiyet, sekülerizm vii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I owe my sincere gratitude to many people for their help and support throughout this study. First and foremost, I would like to thank all the Ulusoy family members, especially Veliyettin Ulusoy, who welcomed me and my study warmly. I am also grateful to the late Aliye Ulusoy, Nafia Ulusoy, Mürset Ulusoy, Fadime Ulusoy, Hürrem Ulusoy, Serap Ulusoy, and Sinan Ulusoy for sharing their lore, experience, ideas and feelings with me generously. Not only conducting a study with the Ulusoys, but also witnessing their inspiring intelligence, friendship, and humor was a great happiness for me. Moreover, I would like to express my gratitude to all my other informants who kindly shared their ideas, experiences and feelings with me. During the study, I had three supervisors throughout different periods of time. The study began under the supervision of Assist. Prof. Dr. Aykan Erdemir and ended under the supervision of Assoc. Prof. Dr. Mustafa Şen. Prof. Milan Vukomanović from Belgrade University also became one of my supervisors for a year I spent in Belgrade with the doctorate exchange student scholarship granted by Join EU-SEE. I will forever be thankful and indebted to my supervisors for their encouragement, inspiration, and critical feedbacks on the study. I am also grateful to Prof. Dr Tayfun Atay not only for his advices and critical evaluation of the dissertation but also for teaching me anthropology of religion and anthropological methodology. I also thank other members of my jury, Prof. Dr. Ayşe Gündüz Hoşgör, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Aksu Bora, and Assoc. Prof. Erdoğan Yıldırım for their invaluable critiques and suggestions which helped me improve my study. I thank Elise Massicard who kindly shared with me the article on the Ulusoy family written by herself and by Benoit Fliche, before it was published in the viii collection of presentation papers of the International Alevilik Symposium held at Heidelberg University in 2006. I am grateful to Dr. Zilka Spahic-Šiljak from University of Sarajevo for a fruitful discussion on the gender part of the study. I thank Dr. Tuğba Tanyeri-Erdemir, Dr. Besim Can Zırh and Dr. Zerrin Arslan for their support. I also thank Babyrani Yumnam for proofreading the text. I would like to thank secretary of the Department of Sociology, Sündüs Aydın, and administrative staff of the Graduate School of Social Sciences, Selma Şahindokuyucu, for their invaluable help which made the bureaucratic issues easier. My special thanks go to my friend Marijana Mišević who made corrections to the language of the study and encouraged me during the hard times. I also thank to my friends Delal Aydın Elhüseyni, Selin Önen, Özgür Bal, for their friendship, encouragement and support. I am grateful to Harun Yıkmış who patiently listened to my complaints about the study. I also thank Gül Erdost for her “motherly” support. Finally, I am deeply grateful to my extended family members, but first of all to my mother Yüksel Salman, my father Hakkı Salman and my sisters Mehtap Vural and Meltem Salman. They always motivated me and supported me with their love. I would also like to thank my grandmother Sultan Danacı and grandfather İzzet Danacı. With their love, friendship and support the fieldwork of the study became more joyful. I also thank Savaş Danacı for his friendship, support and suggestions on the study. ix TABLE OF CONTENTS PLAGIARISM ............................................................................................................. iii ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................ iv ÖZ ................................................................................................................................ vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ....................................................................................... vii TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................. x LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................................... xiii CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................... 1 1.1 The Research Problem .................................................................................. 5 1.2 Review of Research ...................................................................................