[Discussion] PUBL.- Helene Perrin-Wagner, New Book on Turkic Social Institutions (in French)

[gonul@pultar.org]

From: Helene Perrin-Wagner <hperrin@fas.harvard.edu>

PUBL.- Helene Perrin-Wagner, New Book on Turkic Social Institutions (in French)

New publication (in French):

Helene Perrin Wagner

L'ideologie du Tore et l'espace communautaire turcique: les institutions
sociales populaires et la formation de l'identite collective dans les
communautes turciques d'Asie interieure et de Turquie aux 19eme-20eme siecles.
Etude de trois domaines institutionnels: la commensalite, le
funeraire/commemoratif et le systeme ethico-legal.

[The Ideology of Tore and Turkic Communal Space: Popular Social Institutions
and Collective Identity Formation in Turkic Communities in Inner Asia and Turkey
in the 19th-20th Centuries. A Study of Three Institutional Domains:
Commensality, the Funerary/Commemorative and the Ethico-Legal System.]

Atelier national de reproduction des theses, Universite Charles de Gaulle -
Lille III, 2005, 746 pages - ISBN : 2-284-04790-4

Price: 66,50 Euros

Available for purchase at:

http://www.anrtheses.com.fr/Asp/Recherche.asp?NumISBN"84047904

Book Abstract:

The central thesis of this study challenges the preconceived notion that Turkic
identity is based mainly on shared linguistic traits, and is thus reducible to a
turcophone identity, by arguing that it rests substantially on shared social
practices as well. The predictable manner in which these practices, constituting
a habitus, are followed and the attachment to a certain traditional social order
which these regular and regulatory actions bring to light reveal what we may
term popular Turkic social institutions. These are institutionalized sets of
actions, defining distinct institutional domains, linked to particular
conceptions of social space, social hierarchy, the reproduction of the social
group, community relations, and relations of exchange, which contribute to a
profound sense of group identity. In particular, the realms of commensality,
funeral practices, and customary law among the Turkic communities of Central
Asia and Turkey demonstrate the importance of these institutionalized actions. 
Through a study of these practices we come gradually to recognize a Turkic
ideology in the popular milieu, an ideology distinct from the pan-Turkic
ideological constructions which originated among Western Orientalists and the
Tatar, Azeri, and Ottoman elites in the 19th century.

Russian, Ottoman, and Chinese imperial histories have accustomed us to
considering social phenomena among the various Turkic groups as distinct from
one another, and have often impeded easy access to comparative data. The rise of
nationalisms in the region has likewise contributed at times to the scholarly
neglect of transnational categories of identity, which remain particularly
salient at the popular level. The existence of a vast Turkic macro-diaspora,
resulting from different periods of migration in the region and pre-dating the
modern era of nationalisms, explains the presence of an identifiable substratum
of Turkic identity still in place within Turkic communities.

Within this configuration, Islam appears paradoxically to play a lesser role
in identity formation in the popular milieu than the Turkic substratum does.
Although Islamic rules and practices are often included in the general normative
social discourse, they are regularly subordinated to other sets of rules and
practices which are thought, in contrast, to be vitally necessary for the
preservation of the community.

Turkic communities thus appear to be rooted not only in linguistic affinities
but also in common social and ideological structures, this in spite of the rich
cultural variation which is found across the Turkish, Tatar, Kazakh, Kirghiz,
and other groups in the region. There exists a Turkic social model which has not
been completely assimilated into the Mongol, Persian, or Islamic cultures, and
which has flourished, especially in the popular milieu, from at least the
medieval period until today.

Resume du livre:

La these centrale de cette etude est que contrairement a certaines idees
dominantes, le phenomene identitaire turcique ou turk ne repose pas uniquement
sur des faits de langue communs, sur une turcophonie donc, mais bien aussi sur
des pratiques sociales communes. Le niveau de previsibilite de ces pratiques et
l'attachement a un certain ordre social que ces actions regulieres et
regulatrices revelent nous permettent de parler de veritables institutions
sociales populaires turk. Il s'agit d'actions instituees se rattachant a une
conception toute particuliere de l'espace social, du groupe et des relations
communautaires et contribuant au sentiment identitaire profond du groupe. Les
domaines de la commensalite, du funeraire et du droit chez les Turcs d'Asie
centrale et de Turquie revelent ainsi plus particulierement l'importance de ces
comportements institutionnalises. Peu a peu, au travers de l'etude de ces
pratiques nous voyons emerger une ideologie de la turcite en milieu populaire,
laquelle apparait distincte des constructions ideologiques pan-turquistes datant
du 19eme siecle, encore actives aujourd'hui, fruit des elites intellectuelles
tatar, azeri et ottomane. Les histoires imperiales russe, ottomane et chinoise
nous ont habitues a considerer les faits sociaux lies aux communautes turciques
comme distincts et ont souvent empeche l'acces aise aux donnees comparatives.
L'ere des nationalismes a egalement parfois pousse a negliger des categories
identitaires transnationales lesquelles sont cependant particulierement vivaces
en milieu populaire. La prise de conscience de l'existence d'une vaste diaspora
turcique ancienne, issue des differentes periodes de migration dans la region,
pre-datant ces faits politiques explique la presence, identifiable, d'un
substrat identitaire turk archaique encore actif dans les communautes turciques.

L'islam au sein de cette configuration apparait paradoxalement jouer un role
identitaire moindre que le substrat turk en milieu populaire et, bien que
souvent cite, est maintes fois relegue au second plan des actions pensees comme
necessaires et indispensables pour la preservation de la communaute.

Les communautes turciques apparaissent donc fondees non seulement sur des
affinites linguistiques mais aussi sur des structures sociales et ideologiques
communes et ce en depit de la variabilite culturelle apparente des groupes turc,
tatar, qazaq, kirghiz et autres dans la region. Il existe bien une civilisation
turk non completement assimilee aux courants de la culture persane, mongole, ou
islamique et celle-ci fleurit plus particulierement en milieu populaire du Moyen
Age au moins jusqu'a nos jours.

Helene Perrin-Wagner Ph.D.
Resident Tutor, Inner Asian and Altaic Studies and Anthropology
Lowell House, Harvard University
532 Lowell Mail Center
Cambridge, MA 02138
E-mail: hperrin@fas.harvard.edu
Tel (home): 617-493-2922
Tel (office): 617-493-3562



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