Reflection of culture and identity on gastronomy: Assyrian culinary culture and foods

The cultural diversity in cosmopolitan countries like Turkey also manifests itself in their culinary cultures and foods. This study aims to answer the questions of "What are the fading Assyrian culinary culture and authentic foods like and what actions should be taken to revive them?" To that end, firsthand data has been gathered through interviewing with the alive witnesses of the matter rather than dealing with book and literature reviews only. This research is significant for the reasons that it has been intended to reveal all the known facts about the Assyrians, one of the ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia, relating to the subject matter and to determine how food and cultural identity are built together. Regarding the "Assyrian culinary culture and foods" which lies at the heart of this research; the history and socio-cultural and religious life practices of the Assyrians, the influences of these on their culinary culture, what their authentic dishes are, intergenerational differences in willingness to cook those dishes and reasons for these differences constitute the scope of this research. The theoretical part of the study has been built based on the concepts of "culture" and "identity", and the connections of these concepts with their culinary culture and foods have been clarified. In the study, "mixed research design" has been used and this design has enriched the research in terms of providing practices. Questionnaire study has been applied in order to measure the rituals pertaining to the Assyrian culinary culture and food, the influences of daily and religious life practices on food and the recognition of their authentic dishes. Through the convenience sampling method, a total number of 550 persons have been reached online and by hand, however only 51 persons out of them have accepted to participate in the questionnaire study. Following the questionnaire study, in-depth interviews have been performed with the semi-structure interview form in order to gain further data about their culinary culture and foods. The participants have been selected by the purposive sampling method among the persons who are the members of the Assyrian society in Turkey and who are knowledgeable about the subject matter. A total number of 13 persons have been reached for the interviews in this context. The "ethnographic and phenomenological" designs have been preferred for the qualitative research and "triangulation" designs for the mixed research method. The data obtained from the questionnaire study has been interpreted by "frequency analysis" which is one of the explanatory statistical methods. And the interviews have been analyzed by "descriptive analysis". As a result of the questionnaire study and interviews, it has been found out that the Assyrian society maintains the most of the practices pertaining to their culinary culture and authentic dishes, and also, what dishes they find the most delicious and what dishes they don't cook anymore have been discovered. Particularly, it has been understood that the religion has a considerable influence on their culinary culture and foods. The findings such as the negative factors of the migrations on their food and the lack of willingness of the young generation to maintain their authentic culture have been reached. It has been determined that the Assyrian culinary culture and foods which are fading into oblivion reflect the typical characteristics of the culinary culture of Southeastern Anatolia. It has been concluded that the religion shapes their culinary culture and foods and that they are willing to maintain their authentic culinary culture and foods. In the light of the aforementioned, it is believed that this study will make a contribution to the academic world and the body of literature. Key Words: Culture, Identity, Assyrian Culinary Culture, Assyrian Foods, Extinct Foods.