Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
MILLI FOLKLOR: INTERNATIONAL AND QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF FOLKLORE, cilt.18, sa.140, ss.155-167, 2023 (AHCI)
Food, one of the most central elements of human life, is not only a biological requirement, but also a cultural need. It performs a variety of functions for society or the community due to its social , cultural connotations. It becomes more than just a biological requirement because of these functions , it develops into a field of study with symbolic implications. As a result, foods that appear simple at first glance can reveal a great deal about the community they come from. For instance, culinary culture plays a significant role in defining the boundaries between communities, that is, in creating identity, remembering who the community's members are , in the connection to the past, , thus in the dissemination of social memory. In this regard, concentrating on a community's culinary culture can reveal a lot about its identity and memory. This study examines the culinary culture of the refugees of Selanik, who came from different places in Kozana, Kesriye and Grevena in Greece as a part of the forced population exchange agreement signed during the Lausanne Peace Conference on January 30, 1923 and were settled in 15 different places (province center, districts, and villages) in Nigde. In the study, it is determined that the community's forced population exchange experience led to cultural trauma and diffraction. In this study, it is attempted to comprehend how Selanik refugees remember the past with the assistance of various foods they eat, how they construct the present and their identity as Selanik refugees using the past, and how they define the boundaries between their community and other communities using food. During the nearly a year fieldwork, 97 individuals (29 women and 68 men) from 16 distinct places in Nigde participated in semi-structured interviews. Some of these interviews were recorded with a voice recorder, several rituals and events were observed and photographed by participating in them. In addition to the interviews with Selanik refugees, the study also included interviews with Nigde's local people and other refugee groups. According to the study's objectives, a list of dishes made by Selanik refugees was prepared and assessed. As a result, it is seen that Selanik refugees, who live in Nigde today, remember this traumatic experience vividly through their culinary culture, even though nearly a hundred years have passed since the forced population exchange of their ancestors. Selanik refugees are reconstructing the past while adapting to space and time through their food culture. In addition, the narrative of traumatic forced migration experienced by the ancestors is transferred to the next generations through food and activities such as chickpea bread, muhacir bread, bide - pita / borek, muhacir tarhana and Halva Festival. For this reason, each food, cooking technique and the ingredients included in the meals has an important place in creating identity and memory for the Selanik refugees living today in Nigde. In addition, the unique culinary culture of Selanik refugees has changed over time in terms of ingredients and cooking technique. However, its refer-ences to memory and identity continued and maintained the narrative until today.