YÖRÜK SACKS

Abstract

Turks who raise sheep and goats in rural areas migrate to the village in winter and to the plateau in summer. Turkmens living in this way of life are called Yörük, which means constantly walking. During these winter-pasture migrations, clothes and provisions are loaded onto camels with sacks, and sacks are covered over them. It can be understood which Oghuz tribe these Turkmens belonged to from the decorations on their sacks and sackcloths and the stamps they made on their animals.

The story of the sacks begins with the bride’s dowry. Dowry sacks are called alaçuval, which means colorful and decorated. Alaçuvallar is the most important item in the dowry of every young girl. Because the dowry items were carried in these sacks and then used as garment sack her home. One or more of the dekorative weaving techniques such as kilim, cicim, zili and sumak were applied together on these sacks, these are the wonders of Turkish traditional hand weaving arts.

In addition, there are sacks of foodstuffs such as flour and bulgur. The foodstuffs sacks were also woven with cotton, bristle and wool yarn in various sizes and with the cicim technique. Harars are the largest sized sacks used as a wheat warehouse. In black tents, the sacks are arranged on the back, their decorated surfaces forward and covered with cicim or zili-sili weaving. In the villages sacks of clothes are placed in wardrobe and jijim curtain is hung in front. In the 21st century, a Sarıkeçili tribe remained in the Taurus Mountains, which lived a nomadic life, and the sacks took their place in museums and private collections. Therefore, alaçuval and foodstuffs sacks, together with their stories, are the material cultural heritage of the intangible Yörük culture.

The purpose of the paper is to take attention to this important ethnographic material. The content of the paper was obtained from the data compiled in the field researches made by me in the Yozgat, Tarsus, Sivas, and Burdur regions between 1997-2015 and from the written literature. Examples that can be reached in these regions; It has been given in the text with photographs by making certain classification according to the way of use, weaving technique and decoration features.