Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Folklor/Edebiyat, cilt.30, sa.117, ss.201-220, 2024 (ESCI)
In Türkiye, a country where Muslims comprise the majority, circumcision is performed on male children due to traditional and religious grounds. In this article, we explored Turkish circumcision ceremonies as a rite of passage related to hegemonic masculinity. Our aim was to uncover the traditionally accepted form of masculinity and analyse how it is reproduced in feast invitations. We conducted a descriptive analysis of 64 circumcision feast invitations obtained from the websites of six printing houses in Turkey. Through coding to examine the messages on the invitation cards, we identified three main topics: traditional and religious motives, the ritual of cutting, and the transition into masculinity. The invitations delineate what it means to be "a man" in a conservative, patriarchal society. In the analysed invitations, masculinity was constructed based on three main characteristics. Firstly, it is a state contrary to childhood. Secondly, it is distinct from and superior to womanhood. The third characteristic is courage, often expressed in the form of militarism, emphasized as the "manly" trait. We observed that circumcision serves not only as a religious obligation but also as one of the cornerstones in the cultural construction of masculinity and a significant cultural symbol.