Oil wrestling folklore in Antalya province

Folklore is the branch of science that studies material and moral elements, common concerns, behaviours, skills, customs and traditions which cover the whole life of a country, region and nation. Folklore is closely related to other branches of science. Therefore, folklore benefits from folkloric findings and research methods of other sciences or countries. Folklore was first used by the British scientist William J. Thomas in 1846. Before that date, folklore was not regarded as a branch of science. It was examined as an element in other branches of science. In our study, we tried to analyze oil wrestling, one of the traditional sports performed in Antalya, in folkloric terms. We prepared our thesis on oil wrestling performed in Antalya in the light of findings we obtained through video compilation study we conducted with 52 people from different counties of Antalya. In the first part of our study, we examined sports which is a folkloric element, the sports culture of Turkish people together with its place within and relation with the culture that has a lot of meanings but not a definite one. In the second part of our study, we examined the history of wrestling, history of Turkish wrestling and traditional wrestling, in general. In the third part of our study, we handled oil wrestling among the types of traditional wrestling performed in Antalya which formed the main part of our study, together with all material and moral cultural elements.