An Analysis of Items Based on ‘Cult of Sun-Fire’ in Local Culture and Music in Turkey: Case of Adiyaman Province
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Banu MUSTAN DÖNMEZ, Lecturer Mehmet Sadık DOĞAN

Abstract
This study carries out a culture analysis of the items based on the cult of sun-fire in the local culture and music of Adıyaman region. Located in the South East of Turkey, Adıyaman is a city where the communities of two different cultures, Alevi and Sunni, as well as Syrians who belong to the Orthodox Christian denomination predominantly live. Moreover, it is the region where the Syrian Metropolitan resides. Kurdish is one of the most widely used languages in the region as well as Turkish. The primary research was carried out on the concept of “fire” in regional phrases and idioms in order to understand the reflection of the cult of fire on the culture. The second area of research addressed traditional clothing, scenes of folk dances, rituals of jumping over fire accompanied by music in Nowruz (new day/spring festival) celebrations, religious or secular music lyrics and musical-religious rituals of different faiths, and all these accounts were substantiated by images, photographs and musical notes in order to identify in what way the cult of fire is present in the culture. This study reveals that the repercussions of the cult of sun-fire are not only observed in the legends, phrases and expressions in the language, but also in unreligious-secular musical texts, religious-nonreligious musical practices, traditional clothing and scenes of folk dances of Adıyaman region. Doing so, the study analyzes the presence of the cult of fire in tangible and intangible cultural products and substantiates the findings using visual elements.

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