The Social Life in Muslim Turkey - Essay Example

s s PSYC211 Cultures Turkish Muslim Death Related Beliefs This topic was chosen for this assignment because the Turkish Muslim ethnic groups are very dissimilar from what we know in our Western cultures. In fact, the Turkish Muslim group is even different to the regular Muslims from the various other parts of the world. The beliefs they practise, as well as how they practise those beliefs will be discussed throughout this essay in considerable depth. Their unfamiliar beliefs will also be compared to the beliefs and thoughts of our own culture. 2 The social life in Muslim Turkey contains a large number of different beliefs, customs, traditions, rites and ceremonies and stereotype attitudes in many fields. In small settlements in particular, where traditions, customs and beliefs are more influential, death is a concept that reinforces social solidarity. Death, which is seen as a person's physical disappearance although he continues to live on in spirit, is generally a terrifying phenomenon. With the subconscious pressure created by this fear, a number of events or manifestations are interpreted as omens of impending death, including unexpected forms of behaviour, objects being used in a particular way, meteorological events (a shooting star, thunder, northeast wind, etc.), the behaviour of animals and noises made by them (the howling of dogs, the hooting of owls, a rooster crowing at the wrong time, etc.), dreams (of coffins, wedding dresses, wedding-festivities, camels, houses being demolished, falling teeth, onions, pepper etc.), as well as physiological and psychological changes (someone's growing pale, an increase or decrease in appetite, staring fixedly at one point, etc.) in the sick person. People tend to avoid events that are thought to trigger the process of death. Among the ways this is done is to slaughter the rooster that crows at an inappropriate time, giving some food that has prepared at home or bought outside to the poor if one sees a bad dream, describing that dream to water, waking up pregnant women or children if they are asleep when a dead person is taken away, emptying water cups in the home where there is a funeral, sweeping the home after the deceased has been taken away, turning cauldron in which the water used for washing the dead has been boiled upside down. In beliefs of people, among symptoms that predict death, which related with animals have been taking a great and importantplace. Some talents of animals, which are absent in human beings, their power of intuition, physical characteristics, their consideration of being fortunate or ill-omened have been playing great role in creation of such beliefs and their reaching a universal line. Basically there lays also the fear of death on the foundation ofa certain amount of beliefs which are accumulated around home, household, tool, apparatuses and food; and they have been qualified by people usually as symptoms of death. Most of these beliefs are completely different to what we in Western Cultures believe. Someone who was fairly new to the Turkish Muslim religion may consider their beliefs as rather strange, yet quite fascinating. 3 The first practices regarding sending the deceased off include washing the body and enshrouding it within fixed rules. If the deceased was a woman, she is washed by other women and by men if the dead person was male. Washers are experienced and well-versed in the rules. In villages, the body is washed inside the house or on a bench reserved for this purpose in the garden, and few people are allowed to be present. When the deceased is washed, the relatives pour a bowl of water over the body, give their consent and ask the deceased for whatever they have shared in the past. In big cities, the deceased is washed in a room reserved for this purpose in the cemetery. The piece of cloth used as a shroud is always white. The shroud for women has more parts to it than that used for men. As a female corpse is wrapped in the shroud, henna (this may also be applied to her hands before the body is washed), black cumin and rose water are sprinkled inside the shroud. When the deceased is waiting for burial or as the body is wrapped in the shroud, incense may be burned nearby to prevent any bad odors. The enshrouded body is then placed inside the coffin and taken to the place where funeral prayer is performed. The funeral prayer is performed at the cemetery or else in the mosque. Women are not usually able to attend the funeral prayer. Following the funeral prayers, the coffin is carried to the cemetery by the congregation. The grave is prepared before the coffin is brought there. Graves for women are usually dug deeper than those for men. Recently, the most popular form of burial is that a flat grave is dug or a separate cavity is opened inside the grave and the body is placed there. The cavity is closed up with branches, adobe, bricks or briquette, and the grave is filled with soil. The body is usually placed in the grave without a coffin. Following the burial, prayers and formula thought to help the deceased on the other side are recited by the imam. The soil used to fill in the grave is then allowed to settle, which takes about a year. A tombstone may be erected at both ends of the grave, or only at the head. Some of these grave yard practices are fairly similar to Western Cultural beliefs. Just as we do, they also bury with the use of graves and headstones, the only differences that may be found would be the ceremonial rituals that are involved in the burial. 4 With regards to grief work, the most important aspect of the Turkish Muslim culture lies in the fact that there is little time involved in the preparation of the ceremony. The effects could produce positive results, such as weaning loved ones off the gloom and doom of the final burial. Anybody who dies is prepared for burial as quick as possible. If a person died in the morning, the burial ceremony is performed at the time of afternoon prayer, if he/she died afternoon, the corpse remains at that night and buried in the morning. The burial ceremony may be delayed for arrival of relatives who live at distant places. This is also a very important part of the grief process. The relatives who live in distant places are able to see their loved one and attend the burial, before they are lowered into the grave. This helps them by letting them see with their own eyes, the last of their loved one before they depart. The final burial is a very integral part in the closing stage of the grief process. 5 After the event of death the most significant and salient behavior is the mourning by the deceasedperson's relatives. Mourning is reactions felt, bewilderment, revolt and grief in anybody who loses his/her relative as the result of this event. One aspect of the traditions carried out in Turkish Muslim culture would be the fact that there are stages, or periods of mourning that continue long after the death of the deceased. First of all, the 40th and the 52nd day, and anniversaryof the dead person are mourned. Although it is very seldom, on the third and seventh days, the dead person can also be commemorated in a certain way. These frequent anniversary stages which are fairly distant from the death of the intended person, are also a reflection on the fact that this may be negative way of attempting to begin the healing process. The people involved may begin the healing process a lot earlier before the 40th day, thus having to rekindle all of those past feelings that they once had, especially on the day of the burial. This could also be considered especially negative if there are children are involved. REFERENCES Paleczek, Gabriele Rasuly (Ed.) (1996): Turkish Families in Transition. Peter Lang, Germany. Stirling, Paul (1993): Culture & Economy, Changes in Turkish Villages. The Eothen Press, Huntington Read More