Sacred Rituals at a Chepni Village in Western Anatolia

Abstract

This article basically contains some information translated from a (Turkish-originated) French scholar’s ethnographic work. It is about the descendants of previously-nomadic Turkoman tribe of Chepnis, in Western Anatolia. Those people preserved most of their authentic social structure even after becoming sedentary. Their social dynamic impetus itself drives its force from the venerated Anatolian version of Shiism. Since the vast majority of Anatolian soil belongs to the Sunnite interpretation of Islamic tradition; Chepnis and similar closed communities had a hard time throughout the Ottoman history.