The analogous actor of money phenomenon: The social history of opium

Social life is a whole that provides constant movement and shows the differents depending on time and place. An evaluation to observe the conditions such as the individual, the building and the environment, understanding the social life and sheltering will not be enough. Although the history cannot be changed, information about the past can be updated. It is possible to see this historical update based on its social dimension. The classical understanding of history may not be sufficient to understand and use the realities of social life. For this reason it is necessary to benefit from the social history method that has emerged to bring a new perspective to the discipline of history. This method, which claims that it is not enough to understand history through wars, states and important people, makes deep contributions to human science. Adhering to a certain time and place in the historical process, this understanding of history, which is not drowned in chronology, has been one of these starting points. This study, which means making the history of social reading through an object, aims to discovering what effects the opium plant has had in the social, political and cultural spheres. Opium, which has a deep classical place in social life, has allowed many features that cannot be adequately explained and overlooked in the literature of history. Opium offers elements that serve to preserve many aspects of our political and social life, from the Ottoman period until today, where the classical understanding of history is lacking. This study is a social history narrative and will try to take a photo of social life through the poppy plant and opium, and thus contribute to the literature that it will lead with what it will achieve in the social history narrative. This study which consist of four parts, was prepared by using the data collection techniques of the qualitative research method.