Category Archives: general

Turkish Circumcision

Age: 21

Text:

“When I was getting circumcision, all the people was watching me, actually. If I remember, I was in my parents room and a doctor came, and he started, doing a circumcision, to me – actually, that day, my grandpa. called me like my grandpa was over there. They give me a shot to my balls, like local anaesthesia, and I was six, and I remember I didn’t feel anything there, you know. And I was like, freaking out. And I escaped from the house. I started running, and my grandpa catch me, and he told me that, ‘hey, you’re not gonna do it right now. They’re gonna do it in the army. They’re gonna do it in the military, and they do it with the axe, when you’re 20.’ I was like, what? I’m like, I was so scared, you know, I’m like, ‘Okay, I should go back, I guess.’ Because I was so scared. In Turkey, military is mandatory, you don’t have a choice. I was like, forcing, and I went back, and I just made them do it. And as I said, I was like, six, – I have a video too. When I was getting a circumcision, and my aunts were coming in the room, my uncles were coming in the room, you know, they were just watching me. I’m like, and I didn’t know that much, you know, what’s going on. I remember, we do have food and stuff. People is coming more like our inner circle people, like Inner Inner Circle family. They come in and they eat some stuff, you know, and be celebrating that in the hall, in the home, too.”

Context:

“I didn’t know if it’s, like, very important thing, you know, and I didn’t know that much, but I knew that for my grandpa, for example, it was very important”

Analysis: 

This account of the Turkish sünnet (circumcision) ritual, emphasizes both its emotional weight and its communal significance. The informant’s memory blends fear, confusion, and performance, as the procedure becomes not only a medical event but a public spectacle within the family home. The presence of relatives, the filming of the moment, and the celebratory food all reflect the integration of private bodily transformation with familial observation and tradition. His grandfather’s comment—framing circumcision as a necessary precursor to avoid a harsher military version—reflects how elders use symbolic threats and traditional authority to uphold cultural rites. While the child at the center doesn’t fully understand the ritual’s meaning, he perceives its importance through the seriousness with which his elders treat it. 

Turkish Blood apotropaic – protection for car

Age: 21

Text:

“So what we do is, when we buy a car, usually, or when you buy a new thing, something new, it’s kind of brutal, but what they do usually it’s either chicken or like, sheep or something. They cut it and they put the blood in the front of the car, in the hood. They think it’s protected, like, the car, you know. It’s not religious. It’s just like a turkey. It’s just a Turkish thing.”

Context:

This custom seems to stem from animal sacrifice, though the informant insisted the practice today is just a “Turkish thing” and isn’t religious. According to him, this superstition/practice isn’t very popular with young people. 

Analysis:

The blood in this custom functions as an apotropaic, meant to protect a new object. Cars in this example carry special weight because they are very expensive in Turkey, around 2-3 times that in America, so it is a big life shift to purchase one. Though people are distancing themselves from the practice or original belief (first from Islamic tradition, then young people from older superstition) they still perform it. 

Predicting the future with Turkish coffee grounds

Age: 21

“After we finish the coffee, some people, some people will read coffee, cups, or to read someone’s coffee cup. You know, we are reading and they are trying to predict their future. You wait for 15 minutes and then you are gonna see some symbols in the bottom of the cup. You cannot read your own future, only someone else’s. My mom was a reader, one time all my aunts, my relatives, were coming to our house.They all drink Turkish coffee, and after they finished, they put two coffee cups upside down, and they are waiting for 15 minutes. After that, my mom takes all the cups, and step by step, my mom was trying to read the coffee cups with symbols inside of the coffee and telling them what’s going to happen, but she never says bad thing. She was saying, in three months you will get a big surprise from someone that sort of thing, right? Yeah, you will go abroad next year. Or some special person, one special person will visit you in

five months. My mom once told my aunt, you’re gonna get big money from somewhere in the next year. And that year, my aunt won the lottery.”

Context:

The informant didn’t believe in the validity of the readings, even though his mother predicted his aunt receiving a large amount of money. This practice is called kahve falı, and the “symbols” referenced are the patterns of the coffee grounds in the bottom of the cup. This is still very popular in Turkey and its youth, partially just for entertainment and partially because of belief in the contagious magic. 

Analysis:

The coffee grounds being believed to provide insight into the future of the person who drank from that cup is an example of contagious magic. The structured performance of the reading, creates a setting in which the mother, is awarded authority as a folk specialist, with which she offers optimistic predictions to family members. Her refusal to make a negative reading highlights the emotional and protective function of the tradition, especially in female-centered gatherings.

Turkish circumcision wedding

Age: 21

“We got a circumcision wedding in Turkey. When you’re a kid, and you’re a boy, you know, and you get a circumcision, you do a wedding for him. Here [in America] usually you get a circumcision when you’re little kid, like a baby, but in Turkey, it was like, when you were, like, six, seven years old, they were doing, they were doing that. For example for me, I got a circumcision when I was six, and my parents did a wedding for me. Said we call circumcision. Wedding is for the boys and, like they invited a bunch of people, like in my wedding, that was like four or 500 people. Like 400 300 at least people in my circumcision wedding, and they give you money, and people is, having fun, you know, and that kind of stuff. 

So in the morning, when it was like one to 2pm in the afternoon, we’re doing a convoy. And probably, like, as much as the cars they come in, it’s like 20, 30 cars. They were like 35 cars. You know, we go one by one like everybody follows each other. It’s just one line. And everybody’s like, using their honk. And it’s like, sometimes being like, 20 cars, 30 cars, for the cars, you know, yeah, and people is coming, they following you. You being in the first car, usually. And, you just, like, telling the people who doesn’t know you, oh, I got the circumcision, you know. It’s a tradition too. Yeah, it’s on the wedding day. after that you just get them prepared. Youhave, a specific clothes that you should wear, and you wearing that clothes, and you just getting ready.

They are like traditional clothes. 

In the wedding, usually we have a pasta. not a pasta, actually, it’s a dessert we call pasta, but it’s like a cake, like a birthday cake, but a really big one, like, maybe, 200 people cake, you know, they can eat, slices, you know. And you have that and you dancing. And after, like, a couple hours, you have a different, you just not changing the clothes, but they give you something, and you wear something, and people is coming, and they starting to give you gold or, like money, but on the clothes, they put with the needle. Yeah, they give you money, they give you gold, whatever they give you, like, and you just thank them like, ‘Thank you.’ and your parents are in the same line. You ,your parents, your grandpa, you know, you’re waiting in the same line. And people is like giving you some stuff, presents, I’m coming from the Aegean side, we have a specific, like a dance for the Aegeans. And we did, that actually, (the zeybek dance).”

Context: 

This is a widespread traditional rite of passage in Turkey called sünnet düğünü. The traditional dance referenced is the zeybek dance. The informant said he didn’t understand, but knew it was important to his grandfather. 

Analysis:

This ritual is a public celebration of the informant’s transition towards manhood, and social recognition, and religious belonging. The convoy announces this to the broader community. The pinning of gold or money to clothes is present in other Turkish celebrations, like weddings and births, and ritualizes support and symbolic investment into the informant and his family, who are in line to receive gifts with him. In many ways, the celebration is for the family just as much, if not more, than for the informant who at that age, didn’t understand what was going on or why. The celebration as a whole ties Muslim identity (religious duty of circumcision) and regional community to the boy’s identity.

Irish Funerary Traditions in an American Family

Age: 19

Text:

Hello A, do you have any end-of-life celebrations or just traditions that your family does? I understand you have something for your mom’s side.

Hi, yes.  Good afternoon. So on my mom’s side, for a traditional ceremony, we call it celebrations of life, a tradition for us to be cremated and then, after the play, the bagpipes at the funeral, followed by family-given obituaries and the like. You know the normal stuff. Then your ashes are usually scattered around a place that you are quite fond of, usually, for my family, it’s somewhere around the water. But yes, Ben, thank you for your interview time. 

Would you like this to happen to you at the end of your life, or is it significant to you? I mean, have you seen multiple funerals where this happens?

Yes, it’s quite typical for where I’m from, and especially within my family. I want this when I pass: to be cremated and have the bagpipes played and have my ashes scattered in the ocean.  So, of course.

Do you know where this tradition allegedly came from or when it started in your family?

My greatest hunch is that it came from when my family was residing in Galeium, Ireland. It goes along with the bagpipes and also close connections to the sea. They are very much a seafaring people from that part of the Western coast of Ireland. Thank you.

Context:

End of life celebrations involving the scattering of ones ashes are a traditional form of cremation/celebration from Norse and Gaelic cultures. The practices following Americans who immigrated to the US over 150 years ago (in the case of A’s family) show just how enduring many of these practices are. A also discusses the strong connection to the sea that many families who leave proximally to it in the northeast have. These enduring connections are reminiscent of the traditions of their Irish forefathers, who also felt a spiritual connection to the sea, the same reason that their end-of-life celebrations occurred there.

My interpretation:

These are traditions that are passed down from person to person in these families. It is in major life events that we return most to our traditions and the perceived heritage that we link ownership to, and so it makes sense that these traditions have passed from person to person in these settings. The connection that Alex made to his Irish ancestry is interesting, as it also displays that he is aware of where his family is allegedly from inside of Ireland. Americans, especially those of European ancestry, often seem to wish to find some understanding of which part of that continent their family’s blood originates from, mostly because Americans of European descent in the US have little to no ethnic identity.