The culturel geography of Üzümören town

This study examines the culturel geography of Üzümören, a town in the Pazar district of Tokat province, through an interdisciplinary approach, focusing on the transformation of its natural environment, settlement history, cultural landscape, and social structure over time. The research is framed within the discipline of culturel geography, emphasizing the interaction between space, time, and human activity. It is supported by qualitative methods, including fieldwork, archival documents, oral history narratives, cartographic data, and archaeological findings. Within the scope of the study, the natural environmental elements of Üzümören—such as geomorphological structure, hydrological resources, climatic characteristics, and soil composition—are evaluated in a culturel context to analyze their determining effects on settlement decisions. The historical settlement pattern of the town is examined through traditional housing typologies, religious and cultural structures, sites of memory, and livelihood strategies; these elements are considered as both spatial and symbolic carriers. Continuously inhabited since antiquity, Üzümören stands out as one of the rare examples of multilayered culturel heritage in the Anatolian countryside. The findings of the study reveal not only the culturel continuity in Üzümören but also significant breaking points. Particularly, the population exchange in the 20th century, agricultural modernization, and rural migration have profoundly transformed the town's demographic and socio-economic structure. In this context, the evolution and resilience of local identity and collective memory in the face of modernization are explored, with an interpretation of how spatial memory is reproduced through culturel structures, modes of production, rituals, and language. Keywords: Culturel Geography, Üzümören, Spatial Memory, Rural Transformation, Cultural Heritage, Settlement History.