L'oncle et le député : circuits de ressources et usages de la parenté dans un lignage sacré en Turquie

Abstract

The Çelebi/Ulusoy are supposed to be the descendants of the Anatolian saint Hacı Bektaş. This family has long controlled different kinds of resources (religious, economic) reinforcing each other, this circuit being secured by its integration in the Ottoman imperial system. The closing of the bektashi brotherhood in 1925 caused both the diminution of the resources they controlled collectively, and conflicts about the distribution of these - most importantly the spiritual leadership[mürşitlik] -- inside the family. Consequently, the strategies that appeared aiming to increase and convert these resources into other sectors (mainly politics) became individual, and were mostly initiated by persons marginalized from mürşitlik. These initiatives caused both an increase and diversification of their personal resources and, since some of them were considered illegitimate, the decrease of the value of the collective resources (family authority, reputation). In the same way that family resources determine the strategies and margins for action of each of its members, their individual initiatives also have effects on the collective resources. At the same time, these individuals aiming to come closer to the core family have built centripetal alliances, thus contributing to produce a bounded family more favourable to them during future decades. As sacred as it may be, and even if based on something as tangible as blood, family remains a social construct and the product of collective action, at the crossroads of multiple tensions.