Women's Laments and Mourning Hymns: Funeral Rituals of Tahtacı Communities in the Aegean Region of Western Turkey

Societies establish the building blocks of life with their traditions, values, experiences and culturalheritage. The culture of each society reflects such vital values. Death, like birth is an importantritual of passage in the cycle of life. In the case of Tahtaci communities of Western Turkey, ritualsassociated with death include musical forms such as hymns and laments that are performed in freerhythm and with specific syllabic meters or syllable lines. Laments are improvised by women at theplace of mourning, while the nefeses are performed in cem rituals and other ceremonies of Tahtacicommunities. The lyrics of the nefeses are selected from well-known Alevi poets and sung to theaccompaniment of instruments such as long-necked, plucked lutes (cura, bağlama, and divan saz),and the violin. The data of this study were collected through observation a structured interviewmethod. Intensive research concerning funeral rituals and religious ceremonies was conducted forthree years and five months in villages densely populated with Tahtacis, and interviews took placewith individuals familiar with the repertoire and rituals associated with lamenting. Methodology: Theresearch process or ethnography involved participant-observation and documentation of contextsfor lamenting, lamenting as performance practice, and interviews that were compiled and analyzedon the basis of written observations, recordings, and transcriptions in the form of musical notationand lyrics. The data compiled in this study contributes to the dearth of publications concerning thedata investigated. The results of the investigation illustrated that mourning hymns (yas nefesler) andwomen’s laments (ağıtlar) feature prominently in the oral traditions of Tahtacis.Keywords: Tahtacis Identity, Mourning Hymns, Women’s Laments, Agitlar and Nefesses, FuneralRituals.