Social and cultural change in Circassians: Example of İstanbul and Düzce

This study, which focuses on social and cultural changes in Circassians in İstanbul and Düzce, focuses on the social and cultural changes that Circassians, who have been expelled from their hometown Caucasia and placed on Anatolian land, have experienced until today. Circassians have been known for their lifestyle, traditions/customs and language which are peculiar to them since past dates. It is seen that the Circassians, who generally lived in the rural areas and conserved their cultural lifestyle within themselves in the past, have switched to urban life from rural life under the effect of the changing living conditions in time. The aim of this study is to handle the social and cultural change the Circassians, who live mostly in cities at the present time, have experienced in time and to evaluate the extent of this change from a sociological view by referring to the hardships they have encountered in this process. For this study, the fact that the cities İstanbul and Düzce being selected is important in terms of seeing the different extents of the social and cultural changes between small town and metropolis. In this study, detailed interviews have been made with a participant group consisting of 26 female and male individuals who live in İstanbul and Düzce. As a result of the data obtained, it has been observed that some changes have been experienced in the Circassians that live in İstanbul and Düzce from past to present time. Such reasons as living away from the family because of new lifestyle which is formed by urbanization, education and job opportunities affect the cultural life negatively in many ways. Urban life causes the families to have difficulties in transferring their cultural elements to the new generation. Therefore, the Circassians organize activities in which they can gather to socialize in order to keep their peculiar customs and traditions going and transfer them to the new generation. They carry out these attempts under the roof of the federations and associations they established by legal means in cities.