Gelenek ve Din: Türkmenistan’ın Dinî Hayatında Geleneğin Rolü

Tradition and Religion: the Role of Tradition in Religious Life of Turkmenistan

Öz

The separation between modern and traditional is a gift from modern thought and was put forward to define non-modern. But both of them are ideal types and there is no society which is completely separated from tradition. If we define the traditional society as a society in which custom, folkway and superstition are relatively effective, we can put Turkmenistan in this category. In this situation, religion takes part in the tradition as "edep" and "däp-dessur". The main constituents of Turkmen religious life are rituals concerning birth and death. The actors who orientate religious life (yaşulu, molla and işan) are, at the same time, carriers and protectors of tradition. Although it is thought that there would be no conflict between religion and tradition, in the condition that there is a conflict, the second one takes precedence.

The separation between modern and traditional is a gift from modern thought and was put forward to define non-modern. But both of them are ideal types and there is no society which is completely separated from tradition. If we define the traditional society as a society in which custom, folkway and superstition are relatively effective, we can put Turkmenistan in this category. In this situation, religion takes part in the tradition as "edep" and "däp-dessur". The main constituents of Turkmen religious life are rituals concerning birth and death. The actors who orientate religious life (yaşulu, molla and işan) are, at the same time, carriers and protectors of tradition. Although it is thought that there would be no conflict between religion and tradition, in the condition that there is a conflict, the second one takes precedence.