Levirat marriages in Hakkâri province

Existence of the family institution is of vital importance for the structural functioning of societies. Family is the main factor in the existence of societies. Family has many social functions. The individual first socializes in the family and earns how to behave in society by internalizing social norms. The social norms learned and internalized in the family turn into a collective consciousness in the society. Each society has a collective consciousness of its own family structure and different family structures are seen naturally around the world. Marriages are also realized with social collective consciousness. Depending on the social structure, there are different types of marriages as well as different types of families. One of these marriages is the levirate marriage; the widowed woman marries the brother of her deceased husband. Levirate marriage is seen in Turkey and all around the world. Within the scope of this study, it was aimed to investigate the factors affecting the levirate marriage in Hakkari province and the experiences of the people with the qualitative research method. For this purpose, in-depth interviews were conducted with 20 participants and the data collection process was supported by participant observation. The data of the research were evaluated with feminist method and phenomenological research design within the framework of Goffman's dramaturgy theory. It was observed that the participants living in Hakkari made this marriage due to different factors (cultural tradition, religion, economy, education, family pressure, age, child, honor, love, single beech, environment, society's definition of femininity). It was determined that the expectations of the participants from the levirate marriage and the results for them were not at the same level. Among the most important problems encountered in the Levirate marriage were the violence of the participants by their in-laws and their remarriage with other women. Keywords: Family Marriage, Levirate Marriage, Culture, Qualitative Research, Dramaturgy Theory, Feminist Method