THE CRIMEAN TATAR WOMEN AS A CONVEYOR COMPONENT IN THE TRADITION OF CRIMEAN TATAR MUSIC: “APAKAYS AND KARTANAYS”

Abstract

The studies of musical/cultural identity includes two different basic subjects aswoman and man in the context of gender. According to the perception that isgenerally accepted , while these two different subjects are considered inhierarchical order, the men are appraised as the former or the anterior; the women,on the other hand, are appraised as the secondary or the posterior. The feminist approaches that have basically been developed as a reaction to this perceptionalhierarchical order aim to change this sense which is in the favor of the men bygetting the women to be taken up in the same level with the former.Women gender in the Crimean Tatar social life has not been abstracted from thesociety, restricted through hard norms or confined in any field. Especially, in termsof maintaining the musical tradition The Crimean Tatar women have taken part in avariety of musical performances from playing instruments to vocal forms anddances. The fact that the young women are called as Apakays and the old ones arecalled as Kartanays, accordingly with their age categories in the language of TheCrimean Tatar and these Tatar women have active roles in carrying and transferringtheir cultural identity by means of music constitutes the main topic of this article.The inadequate number of the written literature related to this topic has forced thearticle to the data that will be able to be obtained from the area and has limited itwith them. Therefore, this article has been formed in the light of the observations,interviews and music compilations in relation to the studies of this area performedin Turkey (Eskişehir, Çatalca and Ankara/ Polatlı) and in the Crimea Region of theUkraine.