Veiled Islam: A deconstructive Sufi formation

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Tezin Türü: Yüksek Lisans

Tezin Yürütüldüğü Kurum: Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi, Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü, Sosyal Antropoloji, Türkiye

Tezin Onay Tarihi: 2012

Tezin Dili: İngilizce

Öğrenci: AYŞE SERAP AVANOĞLU

Danışman: Çağatay Topal

Özet:

This thesis describes and analyzes the practice of Sufism in a contemporary setting in Ankara from the insider point of view. The research deals critically with various approaches to Sufism in the field of anthropology, and introduces the Sufi scene in Turkey. The subject of the study is a Sufi formation which eludes categories in the field of Sufism, presenting close master/disciple relationships instead of institutional structures and normativity, and avoiding dichotomies such as modern/traditional, sacred/profane or unity/multiplicity. The research focuses on the interaction between its lack of form and the content of this particular Sufi practice, on the levels of the individuals and the group, and contextualizes it within the tradition of Islam. It also analyzes the processes of change occurred in the formation and within individuals during the time with the master and after his death. Plurality, respect for individual and cultural differences, deconstruction of existing categories –such as being, religion, the self, power and hierarchy-, ambiguity, the processuality and the open-endedness of experience and signification processes are important characteristics of the formation. Participants in the ethnographic research are restricted to the educated middle-class members of the formation. The applied method of research is Multi Grounded Theory enriched with the phenomenological mode of interviewing and collaboration of the members of the formation.