Proposal for Sabbatical Research in Northern Cyprus

Janurary, 1998.

Since a Turkish lesson last June in Lefkoßa was interrupted by the automobile horns of a circumcision celebration, I have been engaged by the question of why this apparently religious ritual continues in a culture which although nominally Islamic is predominantly secular. Boys are circumcised in Northern Cyprus between the ages of four and ten in a ritual called sunnet (Arabic: khitin); all the adult male Cypriots and Turks I talked to about this in December (admittedly university-connected and middle class) remembered their circumcisions and had stories to tell. I was convinced then that there was some important first-hand research to do here.

A colleague in the Turkish Language and Literature Department at Eastern Mediterranean University has been most helpful and encouraging. He tells me that there is little written in Turkish on this subject, and since he has a personal interest in the area, is willing to help me with this aspect of my work. There would appear to be little written specifically in English on the Turkish experience, and nothing on circumcision in Northern Cyprus. This is especially important given the scholarly consensus that Muslim rites in general and circumcision in particular are difficult, if not impossible, to generalize about:

Some transitions marked by rites of passage, including birth, naming, circumcision, ... death, and mourning, are not specific to the Islamic world. These rites show an especially wide diversity of form and content because they incorporate major elements of local belief and practice. [Eickelman, 398]

Beidelman [512] is more direct: "Even in respect to a single society generalizations about circumcision may be formulated with difficulty...."

I am still reviewing the literature, but everything I have read so far indicates that there is much work to be done in this area, even just to describe the variety of circumcision rituals of the Islamic world.

While a description of circumcision in present-day Northern Cyprus is my first goal, I have an inkling of a more significant methodological conundrum raised by circumcision studies. Rites of passage are those rituals, often religious, that both mark and effect a change of life status. When single people become married, when girls become women, when boys become men, when individuals are born and die, the passage from one state of existence to another is most often marked by a rite of passage. In his classic 1908 work, Arnold van Gennep identified three phases of a passage ritual -- separation, limen, and incorporation. Victor Turner some sixty years later explored especially the middle phase, the limen, transition, or threshold, in work that has come to anchor the field of ritual studies. From the perspective of one voice in the academic conversation about circumcision, sunnet is a classic rite of passage:

... for most families circumcision still takes place when a child, toward the age of six or seven, prepares to assume the responsibilities of an adult Muslim, including the daily prayers and the Ramadn fast. ... the possession of reason ('aql) informed by accepted Islamic practice implies the ability of Muslims to subordinate their "natural" passions or personal inclinations (hawa nafs) to God's will. Children are said to be "ignorant" (jhil) because they lack knowledge of the Islamic code of conduct and the capacity to abide by it. Thus, when circumcision occurs at the traditionally preferred age of six or seven, it marks the beginning of full participation in the Islamic community. [Eickelman, 400-01]

According to this scholarly perspective, then, circumcision both marks and effects the passage of a Muslim individual from religious childhood to religious adulthood (or adolescence).

There is another voice in this conversation, however. According to Vincent Crapanzano, the "classical rite de passage" exists, but circumcision in a Muslim context is not an example of one. He calls it instead a "rite of return." Crapanzano says:

I mean simply to suggest that there may be rituals, traditionally described as rites of passage, that do not involve passage or only give the illusion of passage. ... the description of a certain class of rituals as rites of transition, rites de passage, may reflect less the reality of the ritual than the culture of the anthropologist. [Crapanzano, 15]

As far as I can tell few scholars, despite Crapanzano's significant reputation, have taken up his challenge. My larger research goal, then, would be to address this larger issue of whether circumcision in Northern Cyprus functions as a rite of passage, or something else.

One objection that might arise is it would seem that this circumcision research takes me far from my current work on the stereotype of the "Indian." In one way this is true. Work on the nature of circumcision ritual is not work on the stereotype of the "Indian." I would argue, however, that it is not far from an abiding interest of mine. In the preface to my The Forest Setting in Hindu Epics: Princes, Sages, Demons I wrote:

The central thesis of this study is that the tripartite process of transformation, first observed in rites of passage, operates in the forest-related sections of the Mahbhrata and Ramyana, that process' middle or threshold phase centering in the forest. The forest, then, acts as a threshold across which the epic heroes and heroines pass as they move from one life-stage to another, or as is more often the case, from one state of existence to another. [vii]

And David Kinsley, in his forward to the book states, perhaps a bit hyperbolically, "Parkhill makes innovative use of Victor Turner's idea of liminality." [v] While these words were written in the early 1990s, the rest of the book was written in the late 1970s. My point is that my interest in rites of passage is over twenty years old, finding its origins in my graduate work.

There is a further argument I would make regarding my expansion of research focus to include circumcision rituals in Northern Cyprus. I find myself there essentially by accident. Were it not for my spouse's career, I would not travel to Cyprus. Since I am there, it seems silly not to take advantage of the happy accident to conduct research that might prove valuable to the field of religious studies and to my hosts. I am certain it will prove valuable to my teaching. I currently offer a three-credit hour course in ritual studies each year; in the future I may be offering two such courses. This research cannot help but inform my teaching of that course.

[not updated since Janurary, 1998]