Self-sacrifice, Womanhood and Melodized Speech

Three Case Studies from the Caucasus and Anatolia

Type de publication
Article
Year
2016
Published in
Asian Music, 47(1)
Pages
29-63
Abstract

This article explores a practice of melodized speech by senior women from the Caucasus and Anatolia and its implication in the daily lives of this region. Based on three case studies from fieldwork conducted in Azerbaijan, Turkey, and Armenia, the article shows how self-sacrifice emerged as a central theme in the worldview of elderly women. They view self-sacrifice as an ideal and melodized speech as its sonic embodiment. This article argues that women’s daily dedication in melodized speech to the remembering of the deceased and the exiled relatives is a gendered sacrificial act that helps construct self-sacrifice as a positive moral value.

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Attached media
Name
Mullah Nazkhanum, recorded in Qobi, Azerbaijan, in 2001
Audio file
Name
Vediha, recorded in Gazi (Istanbul), Turkey, in 2003
Audio file
Name
Vediha, recorded in Gazi (Istanbul), Turkey, in 2003 (Were Keko)
Audio file
Name
Sûsîk, recorded in Rya Taze, Armenia, in 2006
Audio file
Research project
Azeri female mollah
Description
On the role of female mollah in Azeri mourning rituals Apsheron peninsula 2001-2002
Yezidi laments
Description
On vocality and the narration of loss amongst the Yezidis in Armenia, 2006 - 2014
Kurds in Turkey
Description
On sorrow and loss amongst Kurdish refugees in Istanbul and Diyarbakir 2003-2005