Yörüks are diverse nomadic groups of people living in different parts of Anatolia, usually thought of having the same ethnic and cultural roots, going back to Central Asia - to the imagined past/homeland of the pan-Turkic histories. Although the homogenizing discourse on Yörük identity and culture is prominent in mainstream academic and political milieus, as well as among Yörüks themselves, the ethnographic accounts reveal a remarkable diversity.

This seminar aims to recount the journey of an ethnomusicological fieldwork team among Yörük people in Southern Anatolia, with a special emphasis on researchers’ ethical concerns in the field and on the ways Yörük people experience their sound worlds. The purpose of this research was to begin documenting sonic/musical practices of these diverse Yörük groups spread through Anatolia, initially with Yörüks living in and around Antalya- a city in southern Anatolia.

The fieldwork started in June 2018 and continued through 2019 with short trips to the region. The data we have acquired verified our foresight about the impact of the environment on Yörük ways of knowing and being in the world, and gave us clues on how to expand the scope of future research.

Our talk will consist of three parts. In the first part, we will discuss the dynamics of a collaborative ethnography, the questions of hierarchy and collectivity and the ethical issues the team has confronted during the fieldwork process. In the second part, we will discuss how an acoustemological perspective on music and sound can alter the way ethnomusicologists practice fieldwork in the context of Turkey; and in the third part, we will show a video essay made by one of the team members, Suna Başlantı, based on the field recordings.

This essay film captures the stories that we listened from our Yörük collaborators in order to explain the meaning and place of göç (migration) for Yörüks, and it tries to recreate the missing soundscapes of göç based on accounts of sonic remembrance.

Biography

E. Şirin Özgün studied sociology at Boğaziçi University. She earned her masters and PhD degrees in ethnomusicology at the Center for Advanced Studies in Music (MIAM), Istanbul Technical University (ITU). Her master thesis was based on a fieldwork about traditional drummer women in Anatolia, and her PhD thesis was the result of intensive fieldwork on the sounds of political actions in the streets of Istanbul for three years. She is currently leading a fieldwork team on the traditional musics and sounds of Yörük people in Southern Anatolia. Since 2014 she works as the vice director of MIAM, where she also teaches ethnomusicology.

Suna Başlantı is a PhD student in ethnomusicology at the Center for Advanced Studies in Music (MIAM) where she earned her masters degree in ethnomusicology with a thesis on soundscape and memory in Anatolian Black Sea Region. Her current research interests include sound studies, acoustic archeology and cultural geography.