Möchten Sie über diese Zeitschrift informiert bleiben? Klicken Sie bitte auf die Buttons, um unsere Alerts zu abonnieren.
Möchten Sie über diese Zeitschrift informiert bleiben? Klicken Sie bitte auf die Buttons, um unsere Alerts zu abonnieren.
Search for other papers by Annika Törne in
Current site
Google Scholar
Abstract
Kirva, a social kinship practice, has been preserved in the post-Ottoman space, where it continues to play an important role in community life. Kirva has long been crucial for organising social and religious interactions, economic cooperation, political allegiances, the transmission of knowledge, and conflict resolution in Anatolia, the Caucasus, and Mesopotamia. Oral history provides vivid accounts of this practice, which is well known among religious communities such as the Alevis and Yezidis, as well as Orthodox Christians (Armenian, Greek and Syrian), and Shia and Sunni Muslims (Arab, Azeri, Georgian, Kurdish and Turkish). It serves to forge a close, kin-like covenant between two families, sometimes from different ethno-religious communities, who commit to supporting each other in good times and in bad. This article examines the extent to which this commitment to mutual aid is upheld during times of conflict. Through an analysis of this institution within the memories of Armenian and Yezidi communities, I explore the decline of kirva within the historical context of the transformation from empires to modern nation-states. I argue that the power alliances of these two socio-religious communities were significantly altered during the Tanzimat era, a period characterised by collective violence—the inevitable companion of nation-state building. The modern endeavour to eliminate all ambiguity continues to put this social kinship practice to a severe test until today.
Kauf
Sofortzugang erwerben (PDF-Download und unbegrenzter Online-Zugang):
Institutszugang
Melden Sie sich mit Open Athens, Shibboleth oder Ihren institutionellen Anmeldedaten an.
Persönliche Anmeldung
Melden Sie sich mit Ihrem brill.com-Konto an
-
Arakelova, Victoria (2015), “Shibboleths of Heresies: On Some Essential Markers of The Near Eastern Non-Dogmatic Milieu”, Studies on the Iranian World 2: 119–128.
-
Asatrian, Garnik S. (1983), “Obryady detstva i vospitanie detej v tradicionnoj kul’ture persov”, Igor S. Kon (ed.), “Tradicionnye formy vospitaniya detej i podrostkov u narodov Perednej i Yužnoj Azii”, Étnografiya detstva, Moskva: 68–88.
-
Asatrian, Garnik S. (1999/2000), “The Holy Brotherhood: The Yezidi Religious Institution of the ‘Brother’ and the ‘Sister’ of the ‘Next World’”, Iran and the Caucasus 3.4: 79–96.
-
Asatrian, Garnik S. (2011), “Dimli”, Encyclopaedia Iranica VI.4 (available online at: http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/dimli, accessed on 9 October 2025).
-
Asatrian, Garnik S. /Arakelova, Victoria (2014), The Religion of the Peacock Angel: The Yezidis and their Spirit World, London.
-
Asatrian, Garnik S./Gevorgian, N. Kh. (1988), “Zaza Miscellany: Notes on Some Religious Customs and Institutions”, Duchesne-Guillemin, Jacques (ed.), A Green Leaf. Papers in Honour of Professor Jes P. Asmussen (Acta Iranica 12), Leiden: 499–508.
-
Dadunashvili, Elguja/Korn, Agnes (2014), “Zur Konstruktion von sozialer Kohärenz: Kirvaliq-Verwandtschaft in Georgien”, Die Welt des Islams 54.2: 237–257.
-
Demir, Hayrî (2017), “Kaniya Sipî—Die weiße Quelle”, Ezidipedia (available online at: https://www.ezipedia.de/kaniya-sipi-die-weisse-quelle/#_ftn3, accessed on 9 October 2025).
-
Deniz, Dilşa (2012), Yol/Rê: Dersim İnanç Sembolizmi. Antropolojik Bir Yaklaşım, Istanbul.
-
Deniz, Dilşa (2019), “Kurdish Alevi Belief System, Rêya Heqî/Raa Haqi: Structure, Networking, Ritual, and Function”, Erdal Gezal/Ahmet Kerim Gültekin (eds.), Kurdish Alevis and the Case of Dersim. Historical and Contemporary Insights, Lanham: 45–74.
-
Dinç, Namık Kemal (2015a), “‘1915 Diyarbekir, Kürtler’” projesi ve soykırım öncesi Kürt-Ermeni ilişkileri ya da tomplumsal bir kurum olarak kirvelik”, Ahmet Önal (ed.), 1915 Diyarbekir ve Kürtler Sempozyumu, Istanbul: 31–44.
-
Dinç, Namık Kemal (2015b), “The Custom of Kirve in the Memory of Kurds and Armenians”, Repair (available online at: https://repairfuture.net/index.php/en/identity-standpoint-of-turkey/the-custom-of-kirve-in-the-memory-of-kurds-and-armenians, accessed on 9 October 2025).
-
Dressler, Markus (2013), Writing Religion. The Making of Turkish Alevi Islam, Oxford.
-
Farghal, Mohammed/Shakir, Abdullah (1994), “Kin Terms and Titles of Address as Relational Social Honorifics in Jordanian Arabic”, Anthropological Linguistics 36.2: 240–253.
-
Fosztó, László (2007), Born Again in Postsocialist Romania: Ritual, Personhood, and Conversion among the Roma in a Transylvanian Village, unpublished PhD thesis, Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg.
-
Gezik, Erdal/ Gültekin, Ahmet Kerim (2019), Kurdish Alevis and the Case of Dersim: Historical and Contemporary Insights, Lanham.
-
Gezik, Erdal/Çakmak, Hüseyin (2010), Raa Haqi Dersim Aleviliği İnanç Terimleri Sözlüğü, Ankara.
-
Güç Işık, Ayşe (2013), The Intercultural Engagement in Mardin. Religion, Culture and Identity, Unpublished Master thesis, Australian Catholic University.
-
Gültekin, Ahmet Kerim/Suvari, Çakır Ceyhan (2021), The Ethnocultural Others of Turkey: Contemporary Reflections, Yerevan.
-
Gündoğan, Kazım (2022), Alevileş(tiril)miş Ermeniler “Biz İsa’ya tabiyiz, Ali’ye mecburuz”, Istanbul.
-
Gündoğdu, Cihangir (2016), “Armenians in the Dersim Region Before 1915: A Glimpse of the History of the Mirakian Tribe”, Yaşar Tolga Cora/Dzovinar Derderian/Ali Sipahi (eds.), The Ottoman East in the Nineteenth Century: Societies, Identities and Politics, London: 268–290.
-
Hadjian, Avedis (2018), Secret Nation: The Hidden Armenians of Turkey, London.
-
Haider, Ezzat Khider (2022), The Use Of Rhetorical Frames to Create Hope During Wars And Genocides: The Case Of The Yezidi Women, unpublished PhD thesis, North Dakota State University.
-
Hayreni, Hovsep (2009), “Ermeni Soykirimi ve Dersim‘in Bağrına Sığınma: 1915‘den 1938‘e Kader Ortaklığı”, Paper Presented at Institute kurde de Paris, 27.11.2009 (available online at: https://www.institutkurde.org/conferences/dersim-1936-1938/ermeni_soykirimi_ve_dersim.html, accessed on 9 October 2025).
-
Hayreni, Hovsep (2015), Yukari Firat Ermenileri 1915 ve Dersim, Istanbul.
-
Hofmann, Tessa (2025), “The Invisibles: Hidden Christian Nation(s) in 20th-Century Türkiye”, Armenological Issues 2.1: 19–46.
-
İbrahimoğlu, Yunus (2024), “Yezîdilerde Sünnet Merasimi ve Kirveliğin Birlikte Yaşama Kültüründeki Yeri: Midyat Örneği”, Journal of Islamic Sects Research 17.1: 295–318.
-
Keskin, Mesut (2008), Zur dialektalen Gliederung des Zazaki, unpublished Master thesis, Frankfurt Goethe University.
-
Kokaisl, Petr/Hejzlarová, Tereza/Kreisslová, Sandra (2022), “The Influence of the Diaspora on the Transformation of the Main Elements of the Yazidi Religion”, Religions 13: 1071. [available online at: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13111071, accessed on 9 October 2025].
-
Kolukırık, Suat/Saraç, İbrahim Halil (2010), “Farkli Dini Gruplarda Kirvelik Geleneği: Sanal Akrabaliğin Dönüşümü Üzerine Bir Araştirma”, Zeitschrift für die Welt der Türken (ZfWT) 2.1: 217–232.
-
Kreyenbroek, Philip G. (1995), Yezidism, its Background, Observances and Textual Tradition, Lewiston.
-
Kreyenbroek, Philip G. (2005a), “Yazidis II. Initiation in Yazidism”, Encyclopædia Iranica (available online at: http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/yazidis-ii-initiation-in-yazidism, accessed on 9 October 2025).
-
Kreyenbroek, Philip G. (2005b), “Religious Minorities in the Middle East and Transformation of Rituals in the Context of Migration, Robert Langer/Raoul Motika/Michael Ursinus (eds.), Migration and Ritualtransfer. Religiöse Praxis der Aleviten, Jesiden und Nusairier zwischen Vorderem Orient und Westeuropa (Heidelberger Studien 33), Frankfurt am Main: 35–50.
-
Magnarella, Paul J./Türkdoğan, Orhan (1973), “Descent, Affinity, and Ritual Relations in Eastern Turkey”, American Anthropologist 75.5: 1626–1633.
-
Murad, Nadia (2017), The Last Girl: My Story of Captivity, and My Fight Against the Islamic State, n.p.
-
Nicolaus, Peter (2016), “Yezidi Circumcision and Blood-Brotherhood (Including the Circumcision of the Dead)”, Iran and the Caucasus 20.3–4: 325–345.
-
Omarkhali, Khanna (2017), The Yezidi Religious Textual Tradition: From Oral to Written. Categories, Transmission, Scripturalisation and Canonisation of the Yezidi Oral Religious Texts, Wiesbaden.
-
Kokaisl, Petr/Hejzlarová, Tereza/Kreisslová, Sandra (2022), “The Influence of the Diaspora on the Transformation of the Main Elements of the Yazidi Religion”, Religions 13: 1071 (available online at: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13111071, accessed on 9 October 2025).
-
Parkes, Peter (2001), “Alternative Social Structures and Foster Relations in the Hindu Kush: Milk Kinship Allegiance in Former Mountain Kingdoms of Northern Pakistan”, Comparative Studies in Society and History 43.1: 4–36.
-
Parkes, Peter (2003), “Fostering Fealty: A Comparative Analysis of Tributary Allegiances of Adoptive Kinship”, Comparative Studies in Society and History 45.4: 741–782.
-
Parkes, Peter (2004a), “Milk Kinship in Southeast Europe: Alternative Social Structures and Foster Relations in the Caucasus and the Balkans”, Social Anthropology 12.3: 341–358.
-
Parkes, Peter (2004b), “Fosterage, Kinship and Legend: When Milk was Thicker than Blood?”, Comparative Studies in Society and History 46.3: 587–615.
-
Parkes, Peter (2005), “Milk Kinship in Islam. Substance, Structure, History”, Social Anthropology 13.3: 307–329.
-
Rodziewicz, Artur (2022), “Between Orthopraxy and Orthodoxy: International Yezidi Theological Academy in Tbilisi”, Kulturní studia 18.1: 81–116.
-
Sanal Akrabaliğin Dönüşümü Üzerine Bir Araştirma”, Zeitschrift für die Welt der Türken 2.1: 217–232.
-
Sato, Noriko (2010), “Kinship and Politics among Orthodox Christians in Syria”, 21st Century Political Science Review 20.2: 262–284.
-
Sertel, Ayşe Kudat (1971), “Ritual Kinship in Eastern Turkey”, Anthropological Quarterly 44.1: 37–50.
-
Six-Hohenbalken, Maria (2019a), “The 72nd Firman of the Yezidis”, Genocide Studies International 13.1: 52–76, (available online at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/26986110, accessed on 9 October 2025).
-
Six-Hohenbalken, Maria (2019b), “May I Be a Sacrifice for My Grandchildren—Transgenerational Transmission and Women’s Narratives of the Yezidi Ferman”, Dialectical Anthropology 43:161–183 (available online at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10624-018-9506-9, accessed on 9 October 2025).
-
Spät, Eszter (2008), “Religious Oral Tradition and Literacy among the Yezidis of Iraq”, Anthropos 103.2: 393–403.
-
Spät, Eszter (2021), “Displacement, Loss and Transformation: Yezidi Ritual Life in Iraq”, Khanna Omarkhali/Philip G. Kreyenbroek (eds.), Yezidism between Continuity and Transformation, Wiesbaden: 107–134.
-
Stoter, Brenda (2017), “How One Yazidi family Was Saved from IS by an Arab Tribal Leader”, The New Arab, 08.08.2017 (available online at: https://www.newarab.com/analysis/how-arab-tribal-leader-saved-yazidi-family, accessed on 9 October 2025).
-
Suciyan, Talin (2023), Outcasting Armenians. Tanzimat of the Provinces, Syracuse.
-
Taş, Fırat (2021), “Varto Alevilerinde sanal akrabalik ve dönüşümler”, The Journal of International Social Research 14.77: 49–55.
-
Taylor, David G.K. (2015), “The Syriac Baptism of St John: A Christian Ritual of Protection for Muslim Children”, Robert G. Hoyland (ed.), The Late Antique World of Early Islam: Muslims Among Christians and Jews in the East Mediterranean (Studies in Late Antiquity and Early Islam 25), Princeton: 437–459.
-
Törne, Annika (2012), “Dedes in Dersim. Narratives of Violence and Persecution”, Iran and the Caucasus 16: 79–109.
-
Törne, Annika (2015a), “Recent Studies on the September Pogrom in Istanbul 1955”, Iran and the Caucasus 19.4: 403–417.
-
Törne, Annika (2015b), “‘On the Grounds Where They Will Walk in a Hundred Years’ Time’—Struggling with the Heritage of Violent Past in Post-Genocidal Tunceli”, European Journal of Turkish Studies 20.
-
Törne, Annika (2019), Dersim—Geographie der Erinnerungen: eine Untersuchung von Narrativen über Verfolgung und Gewalt, Berlin.
-
Vock-Verley, Samuel (2023), “When Research Turns into a Quest: Ethics in the Narratives of Khidr-Seekers in Contemporary Turkey”, Michel Boivin/Manoël Pénicaud (eds.), Inter-religious Practices and Saint Veneration in the Muslim World. Khidr/Khizr from the Middle-East to Asia:123–134.
-
Vock-Verley, Samuel (2024), “Dans la langue d’un monde qui meurt: les imaginaires du kirmançkî de Dersim (Turquie)”, Justine Breton/Audrey Tuaillon Demésy (eds.), Les langues anciennes et leurs imaginaires, Actes du 4e colloque des 23–25 mars 2023 à Autun: 21–30.
-
Eerewanean, Gēvorg (1956), Patmut‘iwn Č‘arsančagi hayoc‘, Beirut.
| Insgesamt | Letzte 365 Tage | In den letzten 30 Tagen | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aufrufe von Kurzbeschreibungen | 257 | 257 | 9 |
| Gesamttextansichten | 4 | 4 | 1 |
| PDF-Downloads | 16 | 16 | 2 |
Search for other papers by Annika Törne in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Abstract
Kirva, a social kinship practice, has been preserved in the post-Ottoman space, where it continues to play an important role in community life. Kirva has long been crucial for organising social and religious interactions, economic cooperation, political allegiances, the transmission of knowledge, and conflict resolution in Anatolia, the Caucasus, and Mesopotamia. Oral history provides vivid accounts of this practice, which is well known among religious communities such as the Alevis and Yezidis, as well as Orthodox Christians (Armenian, Greek and Syrian), and Shia and Sunni Muslims (Arab, Azeri, Georgian, Kurdish and Turkish). It serves to forge a close, kin-like covenant between two families, sometimes from different ethno-religious communities, who commit to supporting each other in good times and in bad. This article examines the extent to which this commitment to mutual aid is upheld during times of conflict. Through an analysis of this institution within the memories of Armenian and Yezidi communities, I explore the decline of kirva within the historical context of the transformation from empires to modern nation-states. I argue that the power alliances of these two socio-religious communities were significantly altered during the Tanzimat era, a period characterised by collective violence—the inevitable companion of nation-state building. The modern endeavour to eliminate all ambiguity continues to put this social kinship practice to a severe test until today.
| Insgesamt | Letzte 365 Tage | In den letzten 30 Tagen | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aufrufe von Kurzbeschreibungen | 257 | 257 | 9 |
| Gesamttextansichten | 4 | 4 | 1 |
| PDF-Downloads | 16 | 16 | 2 |
