Changing marriage rituals, culture interaction and consumption relationship: The case of Tokat

Rituals, which are an important component of culture, serve as a tool for the creation and revitalization of cultural values as well as reflecting the social order. The rituals of the marriage are important events that contain the culture to which one belongs, are affected by it and affect it. Examining marriage consumption in a culture through rituals is the subject of this research. The aim of this research is to reveal the extent to which cultural change and interaction are reflected in marriage rituals and therefore on marriage consumption, and to determine the profiles of marriage ritual consumers. For this purpose, a mixed method study was designed by using qualitative and quantitative research methods together. Qualitative data were collected through in-depth interviews with 15 people who are in the process of marriage, married and mother-in-law, and content analysis was used in the analysis process. A quantitative data collection tool was developed in the light of the data obtained as a result of the qualitative research. In the quantitative study, data were collected from 417 consumers residing in different provinces. The created marriage rituals consumption scale was subjected to factor analysis and the factor dimensions to be used in determining the marriage ritual consumer profiles were determined. Conspicuous ritual consumption, traditionalism, modern photographic rituals, bundle opposition, modern preparation rituals, opposition to pre-wedding rituals, using couples' budgets, modern marriage proposal rituals, using family budget in ritual consumption, and bride's modern ritual expectations from the groom, are the marriage rituals consumption dimesions. By means of these factors, consumers were segmented by cluster analysis and four marriage ritual consumer clusters were obtained. These clusters are included; invisible, in-between, perfect sets of ritualists and free-rider ritualists clusters. As a result of the ANOVA tests, it was determined that there were significant differences between the clusters in terms of consumption of marriage rituals. As a result of the analysis, recommendations for practitioners and future research were developed.