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.

Sole of the shoe facing up, disrespecting God

Age: 21

Text:

“If you have sandals and you put the sandals on the ground upside down, its a bad thing. It means you are disrespecting God. This is for any shoes, it’s disrespect. I learned this when I was little. I don’t care anymore, but some people believe that.”

Context:

The informant learned this in childhood, and said it is a very common belief, and attributed it to the Muslim majority in Turkey.

Analysis: 

In Islamic countries (and Muslim-majority Turkey) shoes are considered dirty because they touch the ground which is unclean. To turn the bottom of your sandal or shoe upwards, towards God, is to show him disrespect. The informant no longer cares, demonstrating secularization, but there is belief negotiation – they respect that others, many not Muslim, abide by it. 

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.

Artist’s Morning Pages

Nationality: American

Age: 21

Occupation: Student 

Residence: Mason, OH, USA

Date: 4/29/2025

Language: English

Description

Okay, so I used to do, uh, the Artist’s Way morning pages. Uh, the Artist’s Way is a book by Julia Cameron, I believe. And in this book, it’s sort of like an artist’s like creative process book where you are supposed to go through this program, and each day of the program you are supposed to write three pages before you do anything. Like you wake  up and you immediately have to write three pages. You cannot even take a second to wake up. It’s like you get up, you turn over, grab the pen and paper, and you write three full pages of anything. And that’s a ritual that I used to do. I did it every single day for when I did the program, which is like, I don’t know, like, 10 weeks. I did it a few years ago, and I continued the morning pages for a bit after that, and you would just fill these notebooks and notebooks full of like chicken scratches that made no sense. Like reading back, you’d be like what the fuck was, I thinking, what was I doing? Um. But occasionally there would be a thought or two, uh, unlocked through that process that you were, like, oh, that’s kind of interesting I didn’t know. I think about that, or I didn’t know I think this way about this thing. But yeah, that’s that’s sort of the. Morning Pages. That’s what it is. 

Subject’s Opinion:

Interviewer: Do you think that helped you keep track of your journey in that time? 

Subject: Yeah, definitely, I think. There were many issues and topics that my brain kept circulating, like, just on a day-to-day basis. Like, I would keep on thinking about the same sort of things, and finally writing it down, I was able to…understand what exactly was persisting in these ideas. And find a way to move past that sort of. Circular thought, and also like, maybe not even like, get rid of it. But, like, know that it’s there, and that I’ve written if I’ve written three pages about it, it’s like I don’t have to be thinking about it all day. Um, so it’s almost like a purging of some of your immediate thoughts so you can move on to some things that you never really were able to to get to.

Analysis: 

It is rare to encounter a form of ritual that’s only shared with oneself. But due to how intimate and reflective the nature of the ritual is, I believe it to be valuable to examine how one can share a ritual with only their past self. The throughline of the morning action is clear and intense—the subject is likely always in a daze when he performs the ritual, with the freshness of each day be colored by a train of random thought. In this case, the ritual honors qualities within, and the attempt to discover one’s hidden thought patterns that may lead to heightened awareness and creativity.