Feminist Ethnography As A Study of Oral History: Tattooed [Deq] Women of a Generation

In this study, I conduct a discussion using a feminist ethnographic methodology on “what connections should be sought and how” between women’s experiences and gendered realities. The study adopts a qualitative research method involving ten women over the age of sixty living in villages near Hilvan District in Şanlıurfa and focuses on traditional Deq (Tattoo). Through open-ended questions based on in-depth interviews, I bring their past experiences into the present within their micro-habitats. Instead of viewing women who are illiterate and do not speak Turkish as “exotic objects” or “victimised others,” I consider them as “knowing subjects” and make a note in feminist history. I transfer how the body is interpreted not only biologically but also culturally, politically, and in terms of imagery by listening to the women of the region and documenting their narratives. Through this, I preserve the history of women with Deq, countering the fleeting nature of oral traditions. In exploring the motivations behind the inscriptions on the bodies of Deq-bearing women, who belong to the third and final generation of this tradition in the region, the framework of my study is grounded in ‘feminist ethnography’. This workplace places women at the centre and is shaped by insights derived from a feminist perspective. According to the principle that the body “does not merely exist as an essence, but also reveals a functional truth”, the scope of this study is framed by a ‘feminist perspective’, encompassing “nomadic journeys on the pathways of the skin”. This perspective prioritises the need to consider women’s experiences in tandem with their emotional and bodily practises within their specific contexts, emphasising that women should articulate their own experiences. I interpret the storytelling unique to women, which challenges patriarchal power and fosters emotional connections, as a rich resource of oral history. From this standpoint, Deq has been interpreted in its original sense as a means of self-beautification and adornment, claiming ownership over one’s body, resisting the father, expressing difference, a general cultural practise of a certain era, and emulating peers.