Abstract
Surname adoption stories based on a selected number of interviews reveal a variety of “surnaming” experiences ranging from bestowal and choice, to assignation in absentia by officials, and even a purchase. The narratives show us the manner in which the law entered into families’ lives, and the amount of leverage family members perceived having at the time. Each narrative provides an account of the social ties through which a surname became associated with a family, opening a window onto the political economy in which names and words circulated. Since they are responses to the question, “How did you get your surname?” narratives about surname adoption describe what Asif Agha calls “baptismal events,” performative speech events whose discursive regularity, or pairing, then circulates in “speech chain networks” to merge the bearer and name, to give social life to the law.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Also known as Asr-ı Saadet (Age of Felicity).
- 2.
For further reading on the formation of the official history thesis, see Ersanlı (1996) and Copeax (1997).
- 3.
The author was Mustafa Seyit Sutüven.
- 4.
In April 2017, this surname became a source of stigma, as it became associated with the alleged leader of the July 15 attempted coup, to the extent that his family members applied to the courts to have their name changed to Berrak (clear, bright).
- 5.
One of the denoted meanings of Haydar is lion, in addition to being another name for the Prophet Ali. Baytar means veterinarian, but I was not able to locate a dictionary that indicated that Baydar means lion. There is more indication that it is a composite name. The root dar, from Persian, denotes location or place, and the prefix bay, means a lord, or bey.
- 6.
http://www.baydarailesi.com/default.asp?id=37, consulted Feb 12, 2017.
- 7.
Sevinçli observes in this article that the many words from the Language Reform that never made it into the standard language survived by becoming attached as surnames to families under the Surname Law.
- 8.
- 9.
See Geoffrey Lewis’s chapter, “Ingredients” for the way that particular suffixes made their way into the pure Turkish language, -man being one of these. It entered Turkish via the word for vatman, tram driver. The -man ending was first used with the equivalent for mütehassıs (expert), which in pure Turkish became uzman.
Bibliography
Agha, Asif. 2003. The Social Life of Cultural Value. Language and Communication 23 (3–4): 231–273.
Akalın, Müslüm. 2007. Lakap’tan Soyadına [From Nickname to Surname]. Şanlıurfa Barosu Dergisi, Aralık.
Caplan, Jane, and John Torpey. 2001. Documenting Individual Identity: The Development of State Practices in the Modern World. Princeton, NJ/Chichester: Princeton University Press.
Dakal, Tarık. 2008. Ulusal Kimlik İnşasında Soyadı Kanunu: Devrek Örneği [The Surname Law in the Construction of National Identity: The Example of Devrek]. Toplumsal Tarih 177: 62–67.
Ersanlı Behar, Büşra. 1996. İktidar ve Tarih: Türkiye’de Resmi Tarih Tezinin Oluşumu, (1929–1937). [Power and History: The Evolution of the Official History Thesis in Turkey]. Istanbul: Afa Yayınları.
Goldberg, Harvey. 1997. Names in Their Social Contexts: An Anthropological Perspective. In These Are the Names: Studies in Jewish Onomastics, ed. Aaron Demsky, Joseph A. Reif, and Joseph Tabory. Ramat Gan: Bar-Ilan University Press.
Gözükızıl, Ömer. 1992. Burdur Ili’nden Derlenen Lakaplar [Nicknames Collected in Burdur Province]. Türk Halk Kültüründen Derlemeler. Kültür Bakanlığı Halk Kültürlerini Araştırma ve Geliştirme Genel Müdürlüğü Yayınları 170: 49–68.
Özyürek, Esra. 2006. Nostalgia for the Modern: State Secularism and Everyday Politics in Turkey. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Portelli, Alessandro. 1997. The Battle of Valle Giulia: Oral History and the Art of Dialogue. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press.
Scott, James, John Tehranian, and Jeremy Mathias. 2002. The Production of Legal Identities Proper to States: The Case of the Permanent Family Surname. Comparative Studies in Society and History 44 (1): 4–44.
Sevinçli, Efdal. 2011. Adlarımızda Soyadlarımızda Yaşayan Dil Devrimi [The Language Revolution that Lives in our Names and Surnames]. Journal of Yaşar University 1 (2): 277–292.
Toury, Gideon. 1988. Surnames and Their Substitutes. Semiotic Theory and Practice Vol II, eds. Michael Herzfeld and Lucio Melazzo. Proceedings of the Third International Congress of the IASS Palermo, 1984, 1143–1152.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2018 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Türköz, M. (2018). The Social Life of the State’s Fantasy. In: Naming and Nation-building in Turkey. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-56656-0_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-56656-0_5
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York
Print ISBN: 978-1-137-57633-0
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-56656-0
eBook Packages: Political Science and International StudiesPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)