Beliefs and motives about predatory birds in Turkish cultural history

It is obvious that the beliefs and cultures of the people who live together with nature are shaped by the elements of nature. The beliefs and cultures of the Turkish tribes who were originally lived in the region of steppe have created spiritual products that are peculiar to this region. Steppe animals are undoubtedly one of these products and they have played a very important role in the material and spiritual lives of Turks. Predatory birds play extremely important role among these animals. Such that they have shown a lot of existence in the beliefs, social lives and cultures of various Turkish people. Unfortunately, the place of these magnificent predators in Turkish culture and beliefs has not been investigated thoroughly. For this reason, this study aims to analyze the location of predatory birds (eagle, vulture, falcon, owl) in Turks' beliefs and material-spiritual cultures. The study consists of two parts. In the first part, predatory birds were examined as a belief element; in the second part, they were considered as a social and cultural element. The predatory birds are found in scattered cultural legacy with migrations of Turkish tribes and communities to various geographies. So, the studies have been viewed and analyzed in the light of the data that have been obtained from the old and new researchers' ethnographic works, encyclopedic dictionaries, travel books, written and oral legends, inscriptions, grave stones and Kurgan graves, it was viewed and analyzed. During the historical process, although Turkish tribes and peoples of similar cultural horizons have been scattered across various geographies, it is understood that predatory birds have an ancient culture and belief bond among these tribes and hidden in myths and ancient structures.