Transitional periods customs and music practices of the Gypsies of Hacı Feyzullah (Tepe) neighborhood in Aydın province Kuşadası district in the context of cultural identity

Oral traditions are the main carriers of culture in traditional societies, and become the source of many fields of social sciences today. The stages in which the products of folk culture are intensely created and kept alive are the stages of Birth, Marriage and Death, which were depicted as Transitional Periods by the researcher Perter Naili Boratav. From this point of view, the subject of the research is to compile, describe and conclude the Transitional Periods (Birth, Marriage and Death) Customs of the Gypsies in the Hacı Feyzullah (Tepe) Neighborhood of Aydin Province Kuşadası District and the musical practices that continue to exist within these customs in the context of Gypsy cultural identity according to folklore theories and methods, and to interpret the results. As in many communities with different cultural identities, Gypsies had to migrate constantly due to political, economic, historical etc. reasons. As they influenced the people living in the settlements they migrated with their own cultural identities, they were also affected by them. As a result of these interactions in the places where they migrated, many cultural elements have either changed or been forgotten. Music and dance are indispensable elements of the Gypsy people , which express their cultural identity. The lack of a previous systematic study on the research topic was considered as a deficiency in the field and this deficiency made the research important. The model predicted for the solution of this problem is the scanning model, and the method is field research and descriptive methods. The main result obtained with a relationship-seeking approach in the study is that birth, marriage, death customs and music practices are gradually changing and transforming under the influence of modernity and popular culture. Key Words: Gypsy, Hacı Feyzullah (Tepe) Neighborhood, Transitional Periods, Custom, Music