This book contains photographs of men and women, old and young alike,
living in Turkey, who come from various ethnicities, religious backgrounds,
and identities, and are the natural product of a specific history. Some are in
their regional costumes. These, and all that they embody, are a reflection of an
extraordinary diversity and cultural wealth. But when these people first began
to weave these cloths, and to wear clothing of these particular cuts, and for
hundreds of years thereafter, they never saw, or rarely saw, any other kind of
cloth, or any other style of cut. The existence of local and national traditions
(and the identities shaped within them) in many ways results from restricted
knowledge of anything “other.” For the sake of the economy of words, I refer
here to dress only; of course, this is true for all areas of life. Everything from
dress to music, from production techniques to housing construction is
evidence of different human communities’ responses to their environments
and circumstances, of the ways they have found to maintain their existence,
and of their creativity as they strive to enrich life. While traditions are
extremely valuable in this respect, they are at the same time products of
“isolation.” Meanwhile, the communication possibilities that have developed
at an unbelievable pace ever since the Industrial Revolution have greatly
eliminated this very isolation. It seems to me that “fusion” will be the defining
principle of the upcoming era.
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That said, in closing I’d like to refer to the Monod quote that I employed
previously, but this time in reference to the anthropological richness reflected
in these photos: “They have every right to be this way; but they don’t have to
be, and neither are they obligated to remain so.”
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