A study on the meaning of life, death and suicide: The case of Tunceli

While the cultures and institutions created by societies have changed individuals' perspectives on life, death and voluntary death, individuals whose perspective changed over time changed cultures, either completely abolished institutions or changed the functioning of institutions. While the intellectual, scientific and technological developments in every part of the world are progressing at a dizzying speed, the meaning of life, the feelings of death and the attitudes towards suicide are changing day by day. What was meaningful yesterday is meaningless today, yesterday's law is no longer valid today. The dream of yesterday has become the normal of life today, new developments have been pursued. All this mutual change and transformation has come from the first societies to the present, changed our worlds of meaning and will continue without stopping from now on. The main purpose of the study is to reveal the differing world of meanings regarding life, death and suicide in today's world and to reach the social perception on life, death and suicide through individuals. For this purpose, firstly, the meanings attributed to life, death and suicide from the past to the present were examined in line with historical, philosophical, psychological and sociological perspectives, and then the meanings and perpectives attributed to life death and suicidein today's world by men and women of different ages, beliefs, professions and situations who are raised in Alevism culture and belief which is common in Tunceli, were evaluated in-depth interviews. As a result, most of the people, inTunceli influenced by the Alevi cultures and beliefs, give the meaning life and death. Although there are exceptional views on the meaning fulness of life, life is meaningful for the people of Tunceli in general and death is a natural part of life. Even though the people of Dersim denied suicide in line with the value given to life, they found it understandable in cases of desperate and painful illness. The general view that man's life belongs to himself is dominant and therefore the sin of suicide in Sunni Islamic culture is not valid for Tuncelian Alevis.