Folklor Akademi Dergisi

Abstract

The culture of clothing and ornament, having an extremely rich material culture is perhaps one of the most significant areas including a strong symbolic content in human history. Especially in the history of clothing, objects such as accessories, hair, make-up, tattoos, head accessories, shoes, bags that could be considered as the extensions of the body and the way these objects are worn are considered as the most striking areas of material culture. On the other hand, rituals of dressing these ornaments, present us a world full of not only beauty and aesthetic purposes but also protective, talismanic, and symbolic contents in traditional cultures considering materials used, the method of construction, and rituals. One of the forms of these rituals, that has decreased in number considerably in Anatolia today, is known as face writing.
While the history of face writing in Turkey goes back to very old times, this tradition has been continuing and trying to survive as a visual performance, especially in traditional cultures. Bridal face writing is also a decoration technique that is thought to be protective, and this technique is generally applied to young girls of marriageable age, believed to provide good luck to the bride and groom, and to establish a peaceful life.
This decoration technique is applied in many different communities today by using different patterning techniques and materials. For centuries, this tradition has been carried out by wise and old women having wisdom, both in palaces and in rural areas, with the special techniques of the face writer woman on certain parts of the face.

This paper examines the face writing tradition in Kösedere Village in Karaburun town and explores how this tradition emerged as a tradition, craft, bringing to the forefront recurring memories and original researches. The main subject of this research is to convey how the tradition of face writing by using the abstracted forms through the symbols, which is used as a traditional ritual in Kösedere village, is presented on the face in marriage ceremonies, as rites of passage. The content of this research was first encountered in Reşat Ekrem Koçu's Turkish Clothing and Ornament Dictionary. In the light of this information obtained, it has been possible to reach the face writer Şerife Zorlu, who still practices her craftsmanship with passion, in Kösedere Village of Karaburun district. The outcomes used in the research were obtained from in-depth interview techniques, interviews with open-ended questions, field studies at the wedding ceremonies as participant observer and observations since 2015. In the study, it is aimed to transmit the knowledge obtained through Şerife Zorlu, one of the last representatives of the face writing, not to be erased from the memory of cultures.