What Do Bodies Possess?

Year 2020, Issue: 6, 66 - 82, 15.09.2020

Ozan Can Yılmaz

https://doi.org/10.46250/kulturder.770653

Abstract

As the memory studies argue that forgetting can also emerge as a significant component in the creation of new identities, this is, however, rather challenged and opposed within the framework of religious institutionalism. The knowledge that constitutes the cultural memory is a construct of power, and power enforces symbolic codes to maintain the knowledge. In other words, the cultural symbols maintain the memory and reinforce the definitions of situations. The institutional significance attached to certain bodies suggest an astonishing instrument to sustain ideologies and the history of particular constitutions. Whether to be concrete or a relic, a body, with its sacred tranquility, creates an affiliation between the memory of the past and its transmittance toward the future. It is equally worth to consider how bodies are not only subject to institutionalization but also to a process of gendering. In this regard, I aim to explore the implementation of certain sacraments and rituals together with their highly structured power in sustaining the collective memory. Marian iconography, images and relics of saints are also examined insomuch as they foster the cultural memory through the manifestation of bodies.

Keywords

Anthropology of the Body, Embodiment, Collective Memory, Institutionalization, Ideology

Supporting Institution

University of Vienna

Thanks

Dr. Ulrike Davis-Sulikowski

Bedenler Neye Sahiptir?

Abstract

Hafıza çalışmaları, unutmanın aynı zamanda yeni kimliklerin yaratılmasında önemli bir bileşen olarak ortaya çıkabileceğini ileri sürdüğünden, buna dini kurumsallaşma çerçevesinde oldukça meydan okunmakta ve karşı çıkılmaktadır. Kültürel hafızayı oluşturan bilgi, bir iktidar yapısıdır ve iktidar, bilgiyi sürdürmek için sembolik kodları zorlar. Başka bir deyişle, kültürel semboller hafızayı korur ve durumların tanımlarını güçlendirir. Bazı bedenlere atfedilmiş kurumsallaşmış anlam ideolojilerin ve oluşumların devamı için kayda değer bir araç olarak karşımıza çıkmaktadır. İster beton formunda ister bir vücut parçası olsun, kutsal sakinliği ile bir beden, geçmişin hafızası ile geleceğe iletimi arasında bir ilişki yaratır. Bedenlerin nasıl sadece kurumsallaşmaya değil aynı zamanda bir toplumsal cinsiyet sürecine de tabi olduğunu düşünmek de eşit derecede değerlidir. Bu bağlamda, bazı dini tören ve ritüellerin, kolektif hafızayı sürdürmedeki son derece yapılandırılmış güçleriyle birlikte uygulanmasını araştırmayı hedefliyorum. Marian ikonografisi, azizlerin imgeleri ve kalıntıları bedenlerin tezahürü yoluyla kültürel hafızaya katkıları bağlamında incelenmiştir.

Keywords

Beden Antropolojisi, Şekillenme, Kolektif Hafıza, Kurumsallaşma, İdeoloji

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