A World of Difference: Islam and Gender Hierarchy in Turkey 1856491854, 9781856491853

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Women in Asia Publication Series ISLINGTON LIBRARIES

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A WORLD OF DIFFERENCE

FOR REFEREIMCE OIMLY

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ASIAN STUDIES ASSOCIATION OF AUSTRALIA Women in Asia Publication Series The Women in Asia Publication Series is a publishing venture of the Asian Studies Association of Australia. It is intended to promote high quality scholarship about women in Asia, a subject of growing interest among students of Asia and of women’s studies generally. EDITORIAL COMMITTEE Susan Blackburn (Chairperson) Robert E. Elson Beverley Hooper Christine Inglis Vera Mackie Lenore Manderson

Monash University Griffith University Murdoch University University of Sydney University of Melbourne University of Queensland

C/- Politics Department Monash University Clayton, Victoria AUSTRALIA

A WORLD OF DIFFERENCE Islam and Gender Hierarchy in Turkey

Julie Marcus

London and New Jersey

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© Julie Marcus, 1992 This book is copyright under the Berne Convention. No reproduction without permission. All rights reserved. First published in 1992 Allen & Unwin Pty Ltd Published in the rest of the world outside of Australia, New Zealand, Southeast Asia and South Asia in 1992 by Zed Books Ltd, 57 Caledonian Road, London N1 9BU, UK and 165 First Avenue, Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey 07716, USA.

-^ISBN 1 85649 185 4. ISBN 1 85649 186 2 (pbk.). A catalope record for this book is available from the British Library. US CIP is available from the Library of Congress. Set in 10/llpt Times by Graphicraft Typesetters Ltd, Hong Kong Printed by Kim Hup Lee Printing, Singapore

Contents

Preface 1 Travelling to the Orient 2 Izmir, the ‘Infidel City’ 3 Cannibalising the Orient 4 Women and the Orient 5 Islam, Gender and Hierarchy 6 Women’s Place, Women’s Space 7 Women’s Rites 8 Women, Islam and Superstition 9 Gender and the World of Difference Endnotes Bibliography Index

vii 1 11 30 46 62 91 121 137 160 ^25

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OTHER TITLES IN THE WOMEN IN ASIA PUBLICATION SERIES Mukkuvar Women Gender, hegemony and capitalist transformation in a South Indian fishing community Kalpana Ram Western scholarly writings on caste and Hinduism tend to assume that these frameworks have identical meanings for all social groups in India. This book questions such representations from the standpoint of one among the many groups excluded from the dominant perspective. Kalpana Ram explores the ambiguities and complexities of caste, religion, class and gender in the Catholic fishing community of the Mukkuvars, at the southern-most tip of the Indian subcontinent. These coastal villages have been shaped by distinctive elements: a history of colonisation by Portuguese Jesuits, the work of fishing, and an unusual sexual division of labour. In addition, the micro-politics of power within the villages is being redefined by the new place of the fishing industry within the world economic order. Against this back¬ ground, Ram traces the participation of Mukkuvar men and women in the construction of a culture that cannot be easily classified as Catholic or Hindu, peasant or proletarian. The broad scope of Mukkuvar Women covers questions of gender and migration, capitalist development, goddess worship, healing, and the consciousness of minorities. These issues are discussed through a variety of critical approaches. In her analysis the author draws on Marxist, feminist and anthropological methodologies, while evaluating blind spots in each canon. Born in India, Kalpana Ram went to school in New Delhi and received her university education in Australia. She is a tutor in anthropology at Macquarie University.

Purity and Communal Boundaries Women and social change in a Bangladeshi village

Santi Rozario Purity and Communal Boundaries explores the rich complexities of a central Bangladeshi village, populated by Muslims, Hindus and Christians. Through a carefully constructed theoretical framework Santi Rozario demonstrates the ways in which class and communal domination rein¬ force gender inequality. The position of women is analysed in terms of linkages between religious values, sexuality, economics and politics. Rozario also examines the divergence between the demands of the economy and the system of values in Bengali society. By linking gender, communal and class domination. Purity and Communal Boundaries raises questions regarding the complex position of women in Bangladesh as well as in other cultures. It also offers a valuable contribution to the sociology and ethnography of South Asian village life, and the sociology of religion. As a Bangladeshi women, Santi Rozario is in a unique position to explore this subject. She has overcome the constraints on mobility that would normally bar local women from conducting the kind of extensive anthropological fieldwork represented here. The result is an unusual achievement—the scholarly perspective of a Bangladeshi woman on her own society. Santi Rozario is a lecturer in sociology at the University of Newcastle. Her teaching and research interests include women’s studies, the soci¬ ology of religion, and community and development studies.

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