Female Minstrels within the Minstrelsy Tradition and the Problems They Encounter
Associate Prof. Dr. Fatma Ahsen Turan, Dr. Reyhan Gökben Saluk

Abstract
Female minstrels, who are the representatives of oral poetry tradition in Anatolia within a wide time period from the past to the present, carry great importance in terms of research on females. Female minstrels carry on the folk literature to future generations by using traditional Turkish musical instruments and their spoken skills. The development of generations is materialized with great effort in the expressions, hands and tongue of women. In this paper, the matter of women, which is brought to forefront by the concept of social gender, is considered in line with the minstrelsy tradition in Anatolia within the framework of factors such as socio-economic problems, social taboos and carrying on the tradition. Female minstrels have become the topic of sociology researches not only because they stated the positive and negative events affecting their individual lives but also because they have mentioned the problems of the society and state issues. Female minstrels believe that they are abstracted because they are unable to attend the literal assemblies, where males have a dominating power in tradition, due to social taboos. However, they are not at all behind the opposite gender in terms of saying and skills. In the internet and social media, female minstrels have carried the tradition to electronic environments with their individual poetry presentations and rows. In the scanning of scripts present, when the efficiency of female minstrels in the tradition is analyzed, we can see that women have a certain prestige in the Turkish society. The tradition of minstrelsy eliminates the practitioners of this tradition in terms of their skills and abilities but doesn't go into gender apartheid. In that sense, the tradition announces the expert to be reputable, audible and proficient in the society. Therefore, female minstrels who have proven their worthy have not only been accepted in the society but have also taken on an efficient role in the carrying on of the Turkish language and literature and tradition to the future generations.

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