Traditional ecological knowledge and designs among the Altai Turks

This dissertation, which examines how "Traditional Ecological Knowledge" (GEB) among the Altai Turks is produced, transmitted, and legitimized within the cultural order through nature designs, cult practices, mythological narratives, and codes of everyday life, addresses with a holistic approach the conceptual foundations of GEB in the Altai intellectual world, its narrative modes of representation, and its practical correspondences. The study consists of an "Introduction," three main chapters, and a "Conclusion," along with complementary sections such as an index of source persons and a glossary of Altaic terms. In the Introduction, the aim, scope, limitations, and method are explained; the methodological ground of the research is established through a field assessment. In the first chapter, the theoretical position of GEB is discussed through contemporary approaches such as the concept of ecology, ecocriticism, new materialism, eco-anarchism, ecofeminism, ethno-ecology, deep ecology, and ecological folklore; and the historical, geographical, and ecological context of the Altai Republic is presented. In this chapter, furthermore, as one of the original contributions of the dissertation, the "Eco-Structural Functional Narrative Theory" (EYİAK) is developed, and principles that explain together the textual, structural, and functional dimensions of GEB are set forth. In the second chapter, the accumulation of GEB is examined at the levels of text and practice under the headings of creation designs and water, soil, mountain, tree, agriculture-botany, animal-hunting-zoology, folk architecture, cuisine, healing, the sky, and the underworld. In the third chapter, the social dynamics that protect GEB and ecological museum-based approaches to conservation and transmission are evaluated. In the Conclusion, in the light of field and literature data, the mechanisms of continuity and cultural functions of Altai ecological designs are presented in a holistic manner.