Village Woman, Modernity and Islam

Village Woman, Modernity and Islam Book Description

This book by Noriko Nakayama is based on original research she conducted by staying for a year in a village in Zonguldak Ereğli in Turkey in the 1990s, at a time when there were not many studies by foreign anthropologists. Unlike studies on women and Islam that generally deal with the position of urban women, Nakayama asks "What is the meaning of Islam within the living village tradition? What is it to be open or closed?" It takes a new approach by asking questions such as: This study examines the relationship between women and religion, which is dominated by "Kemalist" or "conservative" or "liberal" interpretations in our country, with problems such as "Modern or not?" or "Is it the preferred alternative version of modernity?", which produces polarized discourses in dilemmas. The fact that Nakayama, as a Japanese social scientist, comes from a society experiencing similar multi-layered processes makes it possible for him to be particularly sensitive to this kind of interaction between modernity and tradition. The research questions in this study are not addressed within templates based on simple dilemmas. We witness how women in a village of Zonguldak Ereğli combine the institutions of the Republic, changing social conditions and the unique culture of the village in modern life. Therefore, it becomes clear that modern social reality requires a multifaceted explanation rather than a single template. This work displays a very successful reading of village women's relations with tradition and modernity, both from outside and inside.
Prof. Dr. Selcuk Esenbel

Tolga Özşen is a faculty member at Çanakkale 18 Mart University. Özşen is an expert in Japanese anthropology and continues his research in a village in Japan.

(From the Promotional Bulletin)

Dough Type: 2nd Dough

Number of Pages: 208

Size: 15 x 21

First Printing Year: 2021

Number of Printings: 1st Edition

Language: Turkish