Turkish Village
Copyright 1965, 1994 Paul Stirling. All rights reserved.
Paul Stirling
CHAPTER ELEVEN
GROUPS, FEUDS AND POWER
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Page 259
overtly hostile to each other, and very few issues arose to divde the village. Indeed, only once during my stay was the village split, and then fairly peacefully and casually.
The occasion for this was the election for headman which took place in 1950. For the first time ever the headman was to be chosen, not by confabulation between the leading men, but by a formal democratic election. Two candidates stood, Nureddin (K) from the Lower and Ibrahim (D) from the Upper quarter. Neither had a close elder kinsman to provide entertainment and a guest room for official visitors and village business, and hence Nureddin was backed by Haci Osman, his father's brother's wife's brother, and Ibrahim by Haci Omer, a not very close pseudo-agnate. Both candidates repeatedly declared their unwillingness to stand at all, and no one involved regarded the matter as one of much importance. When Ibrahim resigned after a year in office, it was, by an electoral accident, Ömer (G), Haci Osman's sister's daughter's husband, who succeeded.
These two men then were no more than the most influential among their neighbours. They were not in sharp rivalry, and neither held any office nor exercised any sanctions which gave them power to coerce unwilling villagers. Sakaltutan was conspicuous for the absence of authority.
Factions in Elbshï
Elbashï resembled Sakaltutan in the absence of a single source of authority armed with coercive sanctions, and in the independence and neutrality of many households. Some of the leaders were further removed in wealth and power from the village poor and more inclined to issue orders. Instead of two leaders one could name some eight or nine, or more, according to the criteria used. The situation was more complex than that of Sakaltutan, and I had less time to unravel it.
In one way Elbashï was sharply different from Sakaltutan. The village was seriously split, and fighting had taken place more than once in the years immediately before my visit. I failed to realise fully the importance and nature of this split at the time of the field work, and the account which follows is partly based on deduction and interpretation. The detailed
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