The family in Turkey: the battleground of the modern and the traditional

Abstract

Turkey is a secular, Muslim society with rapid social change (Aytaç, 1998; World Factbook, 2006) and the uncommon combination of a European modernism and traditional agrarian patterns like those found in developing nations (Aykan & Wolf, 2000). Urbanization, industrialization, employment in the service sector, and the demographic shifts leading to a larger number of children and young people (even as the population ages) all have brought about changes in family structure and life in the last decades (Aytaç, 1998; Vergin, 1985). Rural-tourban migration has produced the mixture of Islamic traditionalism with urban-based Western values and lifestyles (Erman, 1997). Governmental reforms, resistance by some groups, and the process of social change results in a society characterized by both modernism and traditionalism (Aykan & Wolf, 2000; Aytaç, 1998) with Islamic traditions evident in some regions (e.g., eastern and southeastern areas, in smaller communities, and among the less educated). Indicators of traditionalism are seen in arranged marriages, paying of bride price, religious weddings, attendance at religious schools, and women’s head coverings (Aytaç, 1998).