Cultural values in traditional Turkish women's headdresses

Clothing carries symbolic value, expressing characteristics typifying social and cultural structures. Due to its geographical position, throughout history Anatolia has been a centre where the cultures of Asia, Europe, Africa, Egypt, and Mesopotamia intersect. The Turks preserved their traditional clothing styles after they arrived in Anatolia but, due to the exchange of ideas between cultures, they both influenced the characteristics of others and were influenced by them. This study explores styles of headdress worn by women, which relate to popular culture and folklore, rather than expressly to religious belief. Headdresses form the essential part of the clothing and styles of ornamentation of Turkish women. While a headdress may have the practical function of protecting the head, it may also be used to define the social status of the wearer and express an appropriate sense of style, particularly by the use of ornamentation which is often itself symbolic. Traditionally, Turkish women generally wore the fez and scarf combined as a headdress. These essential garments were ornamented in various ways in different regions. The importance of the headdress for Turkish women is expressed in a proverb as 'first head, then meal and then work, after waking up'. Each region, each village, each community, and each family may have their own traditional style of headdress with its associated meaning. The ornamented headdress provides a way of expressing social status, economic power, and the level of craft skill of its wearer. Styles of headdress may also reflect the emotions of the wearer through the choice of fabric and colour. © The Society for Folk Life Studies 2012.