Institution of Kirvelik in the Context of Social Capital Theory and Fictive Kinships in Sivas / Sosyal Sermaye Teorisi ve Sanal Akrabalık Bağları Kapsamında Sivas’ta Kirvelik Kurumu

• Main Author: Emrah Tunç
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cyprus International University 2021-05-01
• Series: Folklor/Edebiyat
• Subjects: social capital theory; kinship; fictive kinship; institution of kirvelik; sivas
• Online Access: https://www.folkloredebiyat.org/Makaleler/1298020582_fe106-5.pdf
• ISSN: 1300-7491; 1300-7491

It is seen that the concept of “social capital”, which is used in the social sciences literature to reference the resources and potentials, embedded in human relations in general and which over time form a detached faction of its own in social theory, tries to fill the structural gaps of Marxist social theory that has a normative character and explain the nature of social practice through “social networks” by centering on human relations. In this respect, it is understood that fictive kinships such as “blood brotherhood” or “kirvelik”, which are based on the symbolic roles of kinship and turn friendship relations between individuals into an institutional pattern, are directly related to social capital theory and appear as a very important field of study in terms of theory with the resources they contain or their potential for conversion to other capital. Therefore, in this article, the situation of the kirvelik institution in Sivas city center, which is seen mainly in the eastern and southeastern provinces of Turkey and connects people tightly by bringing friendship relations to an institutional basis, was discussed through social capital theory and the functions of this tradition for the local people were tried to be analyzed in detail based on the field research conducted in 2012.