Zurna practices and cultural identity: The case of Abdal Zurna players in Turgutlu

This dissertation studies the manifestation of the Abdal cultural identity in the music practices of the zurna players who grew up in the Subası neighbourhood of Turgutlu and the role of these practices in the continuity of cultural identity. Belonging to the musicians' caste, holding a heterodox Islamic belief and living in the Coastal Aegean Region, where the Roma are visible while Abdals are invisible as professional musicians, the research sample of Abdal zurna players exhibit a multidimensional social marginality. They have maintained their cultural identity up to present although residing far away from their counterparts in Central Anatolia whose culture they regard as the original of their own while living in ties of kinship with the Roma, whose identity they refuse to identify themselves with. The elemental research questions of the dissertation are asked on the basis of the concepts of "deep and surface structures", first used by Noam Chomsky in linguistics and the use of which is suggested by John Blacking for ethnomusicological studies. The dissertation aims to state the interaction between these two structures. The most important constituent of the deep structure, namely, the construction of Abdal identity is analysed through a method formulated by Nuri Bilgin, in simple terms, as drawing a "picture" of the community in concern and marking the "address" thereof. In compliance with this formulae, in order to draw a 'picture' of the sample community, their practices of life, religion and music are examined through anthropological methods and techniques and described through ethnographies. This picture reflects the manifestations of the deep structure in the surface structure. Address, on the other hand, is determined by positioning the sample community among the other communities they are related to in terms of identity. Determining the 'address' helps analyse the sociocultural construction, adaptive strategies and how the continuity of culture is maintained. The surface structure in the zurna practices, i.e. the musical expression of the ideal sound in zurna performances, is analysed by means of both conventional and music information retrieval methods. The interaction between musical surface structure and sociocultural deep structure is discussed under various headings of the dissertation, particularly in the conclusion.