Prohibitions and punishments in the legends of lake Van basin (Ağrı-Bitlis-Van)

Oral cultural products have the function of keeping values alive and transferring them to the future with the codes they contain. Reading and making sense of these codes allows human codes to come to light. It is also possible to see these codes in legends. Legends are generally based on the conflict of ideals and opposing values. One of the determining factors in this conflict is the prohibitions and punishments in the legends. Prohibitions and punishments have certain functions in legends. In legends, prohibitions ensure the protection and adoption of ideal value codes of behavior. Punishments have a symbolic function. Through the prohibitions and punishments in the legends, people are tried to adopt the codes necessary for life to proceed in order. In this study, the prohibitions and punishments in the legends, which have an important function among the oral culture products in Ağrı, Bitlis and Van provinces in the Van Lake Basin, were compiled from written sources, classified and analyzed. These cultural heritages, which the people have accumulated over centuries and transferred from language to language, include the traditions, customs, beliefs and practices of the society. It is aimed to better understand the intangible cultural products that have been written down in order to preserve these works, which carry thousands of years of cultural codes of the society, and to pass them on to future generations.