From ritual to rural theater: "The Shishman Performance" on the sample of the village of Bagdeshen, Ardahan district

Abstract

In ancient times, people performed certain rituals, believing that they could control nature. People thought that these rituals would change the seasons, bring abundance and fertility to the harvest, and help establish power over natural phenomena. Rural theatrical performances, a holdover from these rituals describing man's struggle with nature, have survived to this day as they are fueled by shamanism, Islam and mythology. Rural theater productions have also undergone some changes in accordance with the culture and beliefs of the community in which they exist. Rural theater performances, which continue to exist mainly in the theatrical environment of Anatolia, are an indicator of our cultural wealth and fulfill a function of ensuring social cohesion. Rural theatrical performances that we carried over from the past to the present have lost their former functions and today they are used only for entertainment purposes and are on the verge of extinction. ―The Shishman Performance‖ in Ardahan is one of such rural theatrical performances. As a result of field research in the Ardahan region, we identified the remnants of rituals and studied the contribution of the performance of "The Shishman Performance" to the culture of this region, through observation and interviews in the environment of oral culture.