Neuro-Cultural Type Behavioral Pattern: Sample of Hacivat And Karagoz

Abstract

Language indicators are structured on binary antonyms. Humans can only involve an indicator, which they believe to be real, in their world of mind after they inspect it by its antonym. It is very difficult to embrace an indicator that they are not convinced to be real. Thus, the arrival of a folk narrative, in the field of oral culture, to the modern day by passing the time, its functioning as a source for the development of new narrative types, and its transformation by means of interacting with other fields are all related to its amount of reality it owns. Thus, bringing the present and the future in the field of culture economy by means of designing them based on the contemporary needs is possible by transferring the reality of cultural products. Shadow play, which has a continuum in the folk literature and has been living in the cultural memory for centuries, is structured on contradictions. What gives reality to this traditional theater is that Hacivat and Karagoz are contrary to each other. This contrast creates a complementary structure while adding a humorous style to the play. Further, the rapid developments in the branches of science in today's world open the door to the analysis of cultural productions through different perspectives. In order to carry the past to the present and to establish a bridge between the past and the future, we need to work on why the cultural products we have exist, what functions they perform, how they are utilized, and how they are managed. The aim of this study is to determine the neuro-cultural type pattern of Hacivat and Karagoz, which is a shadow play among our cultural products through document analysis technique. In accordance with this aim, Hacivat and Karagoz are considered within the scope of the right brain- left brain theory, which is a neuro-anatomical approach. This approach is based on the right brain-left brain theory which was founded in 1970s. In this study, the right brain- left brain theory was adapted to folklore and named as neuro-cultural approach. Within this context, in order to facilitate the examination of the types in folk scientific texts, the related literature was examined, folk narrative types and human behaviors exhibited in the natural flow of life have been observed and a neuro-cultural type pattern consisting of 17 items was created. The obtained data were analyzed and tabularized according to the neuro-cultural type pattern. Hacivat and Karagoz types were examined according to this behavior pattern. It has been determined that, between two neuro-cultural types, Karagoz represents the right neuro-cultural type due to the reactions and behavior patterns he displayed, and Hacivat is the left neuro-cultural type accordingly. Hence, this reveals the reasons for the remarkable attractiveness of the two opposite types, and clarifies how this contrast performs its functions and how it is complementary to each other. Moreover, this study can also be interpreted as the neuro-cultural structure analysis of the play, which is shaped by the behavior models of the types in shadow play.