The Strategy of Turkish Boys Verbal Dueling Rhymes

ALAN
DUNDES,
JERRY W. LEACH and BORA OZKOK
The Strategy of Turkish Boys' Verbal Dueling Rhymes
of specific traditionalverbal encountershas not much attention from and folklorists. Anthropologists received anthropologists in general,but rarelydo they speak at length of joking or teasing relationships describein detail actualverbal duels or provide anythingremotelyresembling who tend to be text- rather thancontext-oriented, de texte. Folklorists, explication of do at least presentreasonably texts and retorts.Howinsults, taunts, complete orderother ever, more often than not, these texts are presentedin no particular of the than the arbitrary one imposed by the collector.Given this presentation even an approximate idea of a live data, it is virtuallyimpossibleto reconstruct verbal battle in which the texts might appropriately be employed.For example, in Roger Abrahams'valuable study of the Dozens, the classic AmericanNegro example of verbal dueling, he firsts lists thirty different Dozens insults ("raps") and then follows them with a separatelist of twelve Dozens replies ("caps").' It is conceivable,of course,that it really doesn'tmatterwhich reply follows which initial insult. Yet, thereis obviouslya particular orderor sequence in any one actual dueling encounter.For those studentswho are interestedin folk rhetorical understanding strategy(for example,what strategicfactorsinfluence a verbalduel participant to chooseone retortratherthan another), it seems clearthatknowledgeof the particular of exchanges is absolutely essential. sequence Thus full transcriptions of observedor at least participant-reported hypothetical verbal duels must be collectedif we are ever to attemptto analyzeunderlying strategies.
THE UNDERLYING STRATEGY
1
Roger D. Abrahams, "Playing the Dozens," JOURNAL OF AMERICAN FOLKLORE, 75 (1962),
209-220.
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ALAN DUNDES, JERRY W. LEACH AND BORA OjZKOK
The study of strategyin verbal duels is part of what has been termed "the of speakingfolklore."2 The ethnography of speakingfolklorerefers ethnography to the rules governing the use of both whole genres of folklore and particular exemplarsof those genres.Thus it is not just a matterof describingthe general functionof one typeof insult,butalsoof describing the particular rationale underthe of one to use one another insult individual lying by parparticular particular ticularindividualon one particular factors occasion.Admittedly,the determining involvedmaynot be in the conscious mind of the duel participants. Nevertheless, like so many of the "rules" of culture, they may be articulatedafter careful or of the transmission analysis.If thereis to be any fruitfulstudyof the dynamics communication of folklore, then the particulars of the processesin which folkloristic materialsare employed must begin to receive the critical attentionof If folklore is a code, then folkloristsmust confolkloristsand anthropologists. sider the rules of usage of that code by examiningthe concretecontextsof that of speakingfolklore,"we shallbriefly code.As an illustration of "theethnography examineone typeof verbalduel foundthroughout Turkey. Among Turkishboysfrom aboutthe age of eight to aroundfourteen,thereis a traditionalform of ritual insult exchangewhich depends upon an individual's skill in rememberingand selecting appropriateretorts to provocativeinsults. While it is possiblethat some of the initial insults or cursesmight be known by girls and women, it is quite unlikelythat the retortsare similarlyknown.Moreit seemsdoubtfulthatthe elaborate of evidenceto the contrary, over,in the absence contextsare familiarto mechanicsand tacticsof engaging in these linked-retort of this verbaldueling the existence that Turkish females. For matter, very many traditionseems to be little known by professionalstudentsof Turkishculture Mostprobably, literature. judgingby lackof allusionsto it in the Turkishscholarly the same obscenitywhich keeps the traditionout of the reachof most Turkish Still it seemsincrediwomen has tendedto keep it out of the provinceof scholars. fieldwork who have conducted ble that none of the anthropologists ethnographic in Turkeyhaveso muchas mentionedthe tradition. The traditionincludesthe following generalprinciples: One of the most importantgoals is to force one's opponent into a female, passiverole. This may be done by definingthe opponentor his motheror sister If the male opponentis thusdefined,it is usuallyby as a wantonsexualreceptacle. meansof castinghim as a submissiveanus, an anuswhich must acceptthe brunt is to disparage of the verbalduelist'sattacking phallus.A moreindirecttechnique or threatenthe opponent'smother or sister, which is a seriousattackupon his himself or male honor.Thus the victimeitherhas to submitto phallicaggression else watch helplesslyas phallic aggressionis carriedout upon his female extensions, his motheror sister.Of course,the victimnormallydoes not simplyremain in a passive,femalerole.Much passive.Ratherhe triesin turnto placehis attacker of the skill in the duelingprocessconsistsof parrying phallicthrustssuchthatthe would-be attackingpenis is frustratedand the would-be attackeris accusedof receivinga penis instead.Accordingto this code,a youngboy defendsand asserts
2E. Ojo Arewa and Alan Dundes, "Proverbs and the Ethnography of Speaking Folklore," American Anthropologist, 66: 6, part 2 (1964), 70-85.
THE STRATEGY OF TURKISH BOYS' VERBAL DUELING RHYMES
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the his virile standingin his peer group by seeing to it that his phallusthreatens to play the activerole anus of any rival who may challengehim. It is important in a homosexualrelationship; it is shamefuland demeaningto be forcedto take the passiverole. The retort must end-rhymewith the initial insult. This is a criticalstylistic notedabove. or contentrequirement principleas opposedto the overallstructural It clearlyinvolvesa fairlydemandingand restrictive rule. In mostinstances, there are specificrhymedretortsfor given insults, and, if one is the victim of such an traditionalretort. insult, he is expectedto come backwith the most appropriate It is thus to an individual'sadvantage to memorizeas manyof such traditional armshim againstany sudden retortsas possible inasmuchas such memorization invite a scathingcomment attack.Failureto respondin rhymewill almostcertainly from one's opponent. On the other hand, even worse than not answeringin rhymeor in what is adjudgedgood rhymeis not answeringat all. If one does not or cannotretortto a phallicinsult,one essentiallyadmitsthat he is reducedto the femalereceptive role. of content(one'sphallusmustenter Within the generalnecessary requirements retort must rhymewith the immediately texture and one's opponent'sanus) (the there room for individualskill. This skill entails is still some precedinginsult) verbalthrustandalso makingeditorialjudgments uponthe qualityof the previous formulaor a sufficient attack defense makinga judiciousselectionof eitheranother formula from the large fund of availableformulas.So long as one fulfills the one cancontinueto duel. In someof the minimalcontentandrhymerequirements, must often be able to fairly lengthy sequencesof linked retorts,the participants seize upon an actualor an alleged mistakein the attacker's previoustext. Often it is justone wordor the qualityof the rhymethatformsthe basisfor the selection of an appropriate traditional responseformula.In one sense, an individualis almost honor-bound whereverpossibleto takepartof the previoustext as the point of departure for the continuation of the duel. With sucha folk estheticprinciple, two evenlymatched youthsmayproducequitean extensiveseriesof linkedretorts. to keep the linkagegoing. In considerable wordplay maybe required Frequently, an of the would seem to entail selectinga then, important summary strategy part retort from the repertory, the selection to be based in part upon one or more "weak"elementsof one's opponent'stext as well as upon the exigenciesof the cleverso as At the sametime, the retortshouldbe sufficiently rhymerequirement. not to provide the opponent with potential ammunitionfor a good thrust in return.In addition,the pace is fast and the retortsare supposedto be quicklyand flawlesslydelivered. Before examiningsome examplesof the lengthierstrings of linked, rhymed retorts,it might be well to considerseveralbrief exchanges: A: Ayl Speaker bear B: Sana girsin keman yayl Speaker youto enterlet it violin bow
Ayz meaning "you bear"is a commonlyused insult in Turkey.Bear connotesa
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ALAN DUNDES, JERRY W. LEACH AND BORA OZKOK
clumsy, big, and supposedly stupid animal. The conventional reply, "May the bow of a violin enter your ass" illustrates the rhyme requirement: yayz ("bow" in the possessive form) rhymes with ayl (bear). In theory, there are many other word forms that rhyme with ayZand that could have been used. However, there are in fact only two traditional retorts that we know of to the ayl insult. The bow of a violin is particularlyappropriate because of its length, its smoothness, its unusualness in this context, and possibly even because the nuances of the repeated bowing motion suggest the possibility of repeated penetrations of the opponent's anus. The motion of the bow thus gives it an advantage over more stationary potential phallic symbols such as a winnowing fork or a hoe. (Of course, the latter are ruled out by the rhyming pattern.) One informant when asked to comment on the violin bow image suggested that the most habitual homosexuals-that is, the ones with larger or extended anuses-would "require the longest and biggest instruments." Another traditional retort to ayzis: sana koysun you to put let him dayt own first name) mother'sbrother (speaker's
which means roughly, "Let a real man like (B's name) put his prick in your ass." Incidentally, day:, the mother's brother, in terms of the quality of the relationship is the familiar uncle, the uncle with whom one can joke. This is in contrast with amca, the father's brother, the more formal uncle, to whom one must invariably show respect. Another example of a brief exchange is the following: SpeakerA: Hiyar cucumber
uyar SpeakerB: G6tiine Ass yourto fits Hzyar meaning "you cucumber" is a pithy insult. There are, as a matter of fact, a number of idiomatic usages involving the cucumber. Hiyara to cucumber bak! look at
etme! Hiyarhk cucumberness act not "Look at that cucumber" or "Don't act like a cucumber" are representative. "Cucumber" is an insult, not because of any literal sense, but rather because of the cucumber's fancied resemblance to the male organ. "Cucumber" basically implies stupidity. A speaker who is called a cucumber (somewhat analogous to being called a "prick" in American argot) must reply under pain of admitting that he is indeed a cucumber. By using the traditional retort Gitiine uyar, he neatly turns the insult back upon his opponent inasmuch as he has asserted that the "cucumber" fits the insulter's anus. At this point, B, the second speaker, having rhymed uyar with hzyar and having placed his phallus deftly in his opponent's anus, has earned the advantage of the verbal duel.
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Althoughmost of the brief exchangesdo not involve a greatdeal of choiceon the part of the boy tryingto retort,there are some insults that may be answered Forexample,if speaker A tells speaker B: by quitea varietyof standard responses. Has siktir Comeon, penised get B may choose one of a numberof possibilities.While has siktir literally refers to "getting penised," that is, "fucked,"figurativelyit is normallyused to tell will normally someoneto "getthe hell out of here."However,the secondspeaker use the literalsenseas the basisof his comeback. He might say: mum diktir! Siktirdigin yere got thatyou placeto candle setup penised which means "put the candle at the spot where you got yourself fucked." The secondspeakerthus impliesthathis opponenthas alreadybeensexuallyassaulted, and he specifically that the place where this occurred,for tells him furthermore example, a particularroom, a clearing in the woods, or wherever,should be memorializedby placing a lighted candle there. This mockinglysanctifiesthe "holy"place.The brief exchangemayend at this point,butthe firstspeakercould reply: varsa bana siktir! Ablan oldersister your thereis if meto penised get which says, "If you have an older sister,let me fuck her." Here the firstspeaker wishes to avoid the passiverole as signalledby having a lighted candlemarkthe in the habitof acceptinga male phallus.So instead spot wherehe was supposedly he launchesa would-bephallicattack againstthe oldersisterof the secondspeaker. motheror older sisteris a tacticcommonly A verbalsexualattackon a speaker's resortedto in these duels. It should be noted that not all the traditionalretortsto has siktir are in strict rhyme.One suchalternative responseis Has sik istiyorsan Istanbula git! to go if you Istanbul want good penis which informs the initial speakerthat if he wants a good penis, he should go to Istanbul,the latterpresumably being the hometownof the secondspeaker.Once with the threatof being again,the obviousprincipleis thatwhen one is confronted in turn. one attemptsto sexuallyassaultthe attacker sexuallyassaulted, is Still another retort to has siktir possible zannettin ? Tabii siktir kemigi mi pagac think did Of course penisit is butcher's shinbone (question marker) you
(Pafacz kemigi is the sheep's shinbone, obtained from a butcher, used to make broth.)
This might be rendered:"Of courseit's a prick!Did you think it was a sheep's

shinbone?" In this case, there is a play on the word siktir which can mean "get fucked" as the causative form of the verb sikmek (to penis) but which can also
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mean, "Indeedit is a prick."The secondspeakerpretendsto ignorethe firstand more usual meaning in favor of the second meaning. By so doing, the second speakerimplies that the firstspeakeris stupidlyunableto recognizea penis when he sees one. It is perhapsworth noting that the retorttraditionis so well entrenched that sometimesroutine, innocuousstatementsare convertedinto excuses for an exchangesuchas the following: A: Hayrola Speaker What's goingon? B: Gb*tiine girsin Speaker karyola assyourto enterlet it bedstead In this instance,the simple innocentquestion "What'sgoing on?" is answered with "Sticka bedsteadup yourass." However,this is almosta play on the whole retortconvention,and it probably would not be takenseriouslyas an invitationto duel by eitherparticipant. In true duels,thereis a seriousatmosphere of jousting insult. In this case, there was absolutelyno offense meant by the initial remark and its utilizationas an excusefor a retortis facetious.Nevertheless,the rulesof the conventionare observed:karyola (bedstead) rhymeswith hayrola (what's going on?), and a large unlikely object is shoved up the victim's anus. Boys familiar with the retorttraditionmust always be alert for playful traps of this kind. In practice,almost any word or phrasecan lead an unwaryboy into committing himself to the dupe'srole. For example,when one of the authorsof this paperwroteto a friend of his in Turkeyfor examplesof the retorttradition,the authorhimself was "victimized." The friend, after giving some examplesof the thatis bringing endedhis letterbyasking,"Bora,youknowthis airplane tradition, saidyesto himself, expectingsomecomment about you this letter?"Boranaturally the airplane. The next line in the letterwas Sana girsin! youto enterlet it the same danger meaning "Maythat stick up your ass." In casualconversation, The not to evet defense is or when someonesays, prevails. only say (yes yeah) "Do you know the carwe're drivingin?" "Do you know the weathertoday?"If one silently nods ratherthan saying "yeah,"the attackercannotshove the car, victim'sanus. weather,or otherobjectsup the prospective Before proceedingnow to the extendedexchanges, that it shouldbe mentioned in a few instances, with a list of the secondspeakersimplyburiesthe firstspeaker to replyat all. rhymes.In these cases,the firstspeakeris not given an opportunity He must standand take the punishment. One suchexampleis afforded by the use of the precipitatinginsult inek, one of the many Turkishinsults involving an animaltermof abuse.
Speaker A: Inek COW
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B: Ostiine Speaker topyourto Daga mountain to

Seni sikek
binek ridelet's gidek go let's
you penislet's which freely translatedwould involve speakerA calling speakerB a cow-a femaleanimal-followed by B's reply,"Letme rideyou;let'sgo to the mountain; and there let me fuck you." In a variantfrom Adana,the retortis binek Ostiine to topyour ridelet's Halebe gidek Aleppoto go let's Halep yikildi Aleppo flattened tlkildl Igine insideyourto stickin whichmaybe translated as Letmerideyou Let'sgo to Aleppo Aleppowasflattened It [Aleppo]wascrammed inside[yourass] This impliesthat the opponent'sanusis so largethatnot only couldan entirecity fit in it, but, a city totallyflattened,with all its ruins (collapsedwalls), could be accommodated. Whetheror not the flatteningof Aleppo is supposedto be caused the of by severity A's sexualassaulton B is opento question. The buryingor overwhelmingof an initial attacker may consistof more than four lines. A fairly elaborateresponseof this type is the following replyto still anotherdomesticanimalinsult: A: Egolegek Speaker son of a donkey B: E?og'lu E?gek baban Speaker sonof donkey father donkey your Seni Siken coban you penising shepherd
Coban da ben shepherd so me Aldin mi get did you (questionmarker) Yedin mi eat did you (questionmarker)
agzinin payini mouthyour share kilhl hairymother's daylml brothermy
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sdzlerini atlatirim O that wordsyour make jump I Gotun tavaya ass your frying pan to sizlerin havaya O that wordsyour air to Gotun tavaya ass your frying pan to cam cam K6prii alti bridge below glass glass Seni siken amcam you penising paternaluncle my boy boy Kbprii alti bridge below length length Seni siken kovboy you penising cowboy This, freely translated, runs as follows: Your fatheris the son of a donkey The shepherdwho fucksyou That shepherdis me. Did you get yourmouth'sshare?[You suregot the answeryou deserved] Did you eat my hairyprick Your wordsdon'tget to me. I burstyourass [by meansof a massiveejaculationj Those wordsthatyou gave me go to the air [meannothingto mel Your assgoes into the fryingpan. Beneaththe bridgeis lots of brokenglass My uncle [father'sbrother)fucksyou. Underneath the bridgearevaryinglengths The cowboyfucksyou. First of all, it should be noted that, although the whole retort can be used as a single reply, it actually consists of separate sections. Speaker B might well have paused after "Did you eat my hairy prick?" to see if A had anything to say. The following atlatirim/patlatirim couplet could be held in abeyance to squelch anything A did say. The same is true for the havaya/tavaya lines and for the final four lines concerned with koprii (bridge). In other words, B might elect not to use so much ammunition at once but rather save some of his salvos for the duel which may ensue. On the other hand, B's rattling off such a list of retorts might, tactically speaking, be the most effective course of action. In this elaborate retort sequence are a large number of allusions that are not clear at first glance. The shepherd, for instance, seems to have special significance because he lives his life alone, often far from human society. Frequently he has only animals for companionship. According to one informant, it is the shepherds'
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presumed sexual relations with donkeys and dogs which are thought to make their penises larger than normal. Thus speaker B, by assuming the identity of a shepherd, takes on superphallic characteristics. (The same informant also indicated that it was a sin to have sexual relations with animals that one eats. Hence there was supposed to be no intercourse with cattle or sheep. Donkeys and dogs, however, are not eaten and thus may serve as possible sexual partners. Assuming that intercourse with any animal is in some sense a "sin," the distinction between animals one eats and animals that one does not eat is a most interesting one.)3 The reference to "mouth's share" in "Did you get your mouth's share?" refers to an answer in kind. In other words, your mouth issued a verbal challenge or insult; now it is being paid back in kind. It may or may not also refer to fellatio. Certainly the next line, "Did you eat my hairy prick?" does suggest oral-genital contact. However, the informant said that it was the anus that "ate" the hairy phallus. The allusion to bursting the victim's anus is a self-congratulatory bit of hypermasculinity. One's phallus is so large and so powerful that the opponent's passive anus cannot contain it and consequently the poor anus quite simply falls apart. The explosion patlatirim implies orgasm and more precisely it is the power of the orgasm or ejaculation that destroys the victim's anus. The broken glass under the bridge is somewhat obscure. Possibly broken glass cam cam was introduced primarily for rhyming purposes. On the other hand, the area under bridges in Turkey-as elsewhere-is often a favorite trysting place for homosexuals and homosexual activities do occur there. The broken glass may suggest certain physical danger (castration?) to the body. Probably the varying lengths "under the bridge" refer to various sized phalluses which might also cause pain. The reference to the American cowboy may be like the reference to the shepherd. The cowboy, like the shepherd, spends much of his time alone with animals with whom he is thought to enjoy sexual intimacies. A cowboy is tough; he carries a gun; he has a large phallus. Thus B heaps ignominies upon A by having A submit to sexual attacks from shepherds, cowboys, and B's father's brother. Having sampled several short examples of rhymed retorts, one may be better able to appreciate what is involved in an extended duel. Here is an example of such a duel. Individual A, angered at individual B, tells him: Ananin motheryour ami cunt
This is a serious insult and B, the addressee, may respond in one of several ways. He may go and physically strike A; or he may reply using exactly the same words; or he may elect to respond with a retort. If he chooses the latter alternative, he has to end rhyme with amt. B could reply to A: Babamin fathermy kllh dami hairy roof
SFor a consideration of the possible correlations between edibility and sexuality, see Edmund Leach, "Anthropological Aspects of Language: Animal Categories and Verbal Abuse," in Eric H. Lenneberg, ed., New Directions in the Study of Language (Cambridge, 1966), 23-63.
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This retort stresses the role of B's father as the protector of B's mother. The parts of the retort which carrymeaning are "father" and "hairy." Together they mean that the retorting person has a father with a hairy penis and that this father, acting as the protector of the mother, will sexually assault the first speaker as a matter of revenge. The word dam: ("roof" in the possessive) is used primarily for the sake of rhyme. However, in the context of this retort, dam:, following as it does the words Babamin kllh, takes on the meaning of "phallus." Also, since a roof covers a house, the implicit reference may even be to A's having been tcovered" by B's father, that is, that A has submitted to a phallic attack from B's father. Now A is on the spot. Having started by mentioning the vagina of B's mother, he suddenly finds himself attacked by the hairy phallus of B's father. He must try to retort in turn. Examining B's rhyme, he quickly realizes that one part of it makes little sense. B said dami which literally means roof and this gives A an opportunity to criticize B's retort. A could say, Onu 6yle demezler that this way say don't they Peynir ekmek yemezler cheese bread eat don't they Ben de seni sikmezsem I too you penis don't if I Bana [Speaker'sname] demezler me to [Speaker'sname] say don't they This means roughly They don't say it thatway They don't eat breadand cheese If I don'tfuck you nameis] They won't call me Ahmet [or whateverthe speaker's A tense and fast-moving duel is now in progress. B must now come up with another answer. He realizes that now he himself as well as his mother is under possible sexual attack. A has criticized his preceding retort and has articulated the guiding principle of the dueling code: "If I (A) don't fuck you (B) they, the other males, our peers, will not honor me by calling me by my name." B, sizing up the situation, spots the weak point of A's rhyme. "They don't eat bread and cheese" as a part of A's retort has little to do with the context. It apparently has neither literal nor figurative relevance and is there perhaps only because yemezler (they don't eat) provides a rhyming base for demezler (they don't call) in this particularrhyme scheme which involves end-rhyming in lines one, two, and four. With this potential weak spot in mind, B mounts a new assault: yan gitti Uyduramadmn makeup couldn'tyou side went it Ananin motheryour amina [or amindan] kan gitti blood went cunt to [from]
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This may be translated: "You couldn't fit in the rhyme; it [what you said] went to the side [missed the target] and blood went to [came out of] your mother's cunt [in the process]." This is a good thrust and a good rhyme. The only problem is that the same word gitti is used at the end of each line to produce the rhyme. Here is a good point upon which A might base his counterattack.A's retort, using the I, 2, and 4 line end-rhyme scheme, could be: Uyduramadin yanciglna makeup couldn'tyou side its to Bin devenin kancigina ride camel's female to Anan ?amasir yikarken Motheryour laundry washingwhile Sabun kagmi? amacina soap escapes cunt her to This may be rendered: You didn'tmakea verygood rhyme. You ride a female camel; While yourmotherwas washingclothes, Soapslippedinto her cunt. First, A tells B that his rhyme is inferior (referring to the double use of gitti). Then he insults him further by saying that B is not even able to ride a male camel, only a female one. The subsequent reference to B's mother implies that her vagina is so large that anything-even the soap used in washing clothes, can gain access to it. At this point, B cannot argue about the quality of A's rhyme. It is clear that the rhyme in B's previous retort (which used gitti twice) was not up to par and that A has used a very good rhyme yancigina, kancziina, and amczg'nain his last retort. B therefore changes tactics and retorts as follows: laflari atlattik O that words makejump did we Ananin amini patlattik motheryour cunt blew up we. which means: Those wordsdon'thave anyeffecton me. We blew up yourmother'scunt. It would appear that B is on the defensive. He may be running out of rhymes, and he is seemingly helpless against the onslaught of a good rhyme from A. This may be why, instead of basing his rhyme upon a selected aspect of A's previous rhyme, B retreats to the position that A's entire retort doesn't make sense, taking
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care to rhyme atlattik and patlattik. B does, however, attempt to burst A's mother's vagina. A in replying to the challenge that his words don't make any sense and to the phallic attack on his mother, might offer the following:
laflar havaya
that words air to Tagaklar tavaya testicles frying pan to Bir g6t ver bana One ass give me to Ahmet [or speaker's name] a'aya Ahmet [or speaker'sname] Mr. to which may be rendered: Those wordshave no meaning. Testiclesgo into the fryingpan; You give a piece of yourass To me, Mr. Ahmet [or speaker's name). Note the high quality of the rhyme in this retort: lines i, 2, and 4 with havaya, tavaya, and agaya. A implies that B is no good and is so unmasculine that he does not need his testicles. B might therefore just as well cut off his testicles and put them in a frying pan and cook them. A thereby castrates B. Having emasculated B, A then completes the humiliating process by asking B to present his anus for penetration. A has thereby converted B from a male to a female. If B is unable to reply in kind to this excellent rhyme, then in some sense A is the "winner" of the verbal duel. Let us now turn to the strategy of another extended verbal duel. Suppose A calls B ibne, which means passive homosexual. It is extremely important to note that the insult refers to passive homosexuality, not to homosexuality in general. In this context there is nothing insulting about being the active homosexual. In a homosexual relationship, the active phallic aggressor gains status; the passive victim of such aggression loses status. This distinction between homosexual roles in which it is only the passive, female role that brings discredit is not limited to Turkish culture. It is found, for example, in Mexican verbal dueling known as albures.4 In any event, B might respond to A's calling him ibne as follows: Speaker A: Ibne passive homosexual bana ne? Speaker B: Sen ibneysen me to what if a you queer you B could answer A's "You queer" with "What is it to me if you are a queer?" Note that B ends with ne thereby rhyming with A's initial Ibne. As described earlier, the individual attacked tries to make the initial attacker the victim of an
4 John Michael Ingham, "Culture and Personality in a Mexican Village," unpublished doctoral dissertation in anthropology, University of California, Berkeley (1968), 236.
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attackinstead.It is analogousto children'sdisputesin Americanculturein that the rhetoricaldevice consistsof repeatingthe initial insulter'spronounso as to refer backto him. One child saysto another,"You'recrazy."The secondmight reply, "That'sright, you're crazy,"pretendingthat the first child's exact words are correct,but correct only when utteredby the secondchild in referenceto the first child. The device is not terriblysophisticated, but it seems to be reasonably effective.In this case,B says,if it is A who is the one who is queer,what is that to me? In otherwords,B not only callsA a passivehomosexual, buthe completely disassociates himself from A's problem.It is then A's turn.He might, with a new tack not reallyconnectedto the precedingcouplet,insult B by using one of the manyanimalinsultssuchas: It o'lu it son of dog dog A callsB a "sonof a dog."If B is alert,he mayreply: Iti Allah yaratmig the God created dog amini kim kanatmlg ? Ananmn Mother your cunt who madebleed This in free translation yields, "God createdthe dog. Who made your mother's cunt bleed?"The logic of B is that a dog is certainly (like all of us) a Godcreated,legitimateanimal.There is nothingwrong with a dog. A dog is a legitimate being and the son of a dog is likewise a legitimatebeing. But while it is perfectlyall right for Allah to makea dog, it is obviouslynot all rightfor anyone to makeA's mother'svaginableed. The vaginableedspresumably becauseof the greatphallic force appliedto it. The implicationis that A's motheris a prostitute who sleeps with anyonewho comesalong. A couldparrythis insult in the following way: Anamin sahibi var Mother is my owner there Bacinin da arm dar sisteryour so cunt tight Bahgeden balcan getirip Garden from eggplant bringand Bacinin armna sokarlar Sister your cuntto stickthey whichmight be rendered as: hasanownerfmeaning A's fatherj. Mymother
Your sisterhas a tight cunt.
fromthegarden. Theybringeggplant sister's cunt. Theystickit in your Firstof all, we can see that A has duplicatedthe techniqueemployedby B in B's
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that B had responded to A's initial "sonof a dog" insultin last retort.Remember two steps. He beganby settingthe recordstraightwith respectto being a son of A's mother.In this retort,A doesmuch a dog, and he endedby going on to attack the recordwith respectto the questionof the the same. He startsby correcting ownershipof or accessto his mother'svagina.A points out that his fatheris the one and the only one who "owns" A's mother and her sexual parts. Having answeredB's attack,A goes on to an attackof his own, in this case an attackon the virginityof B's sister. The virginity of a male's sister is almost sacredin terms of Turkishfamily norms.The honor of the family dependsupon it. A penis entersher only when she marries,and the penis is that of her husband.When A refersto B's sister's tight vagina he is referringto her virginity,but when he mentionsthat an "eggplant" has enteredB's sister'svagina, he is sayingthat B's sisteris no longer a virgin. B's allusion to A's sister'sinitial virginityis not so much a compliment the contrasting ruthless violationof thatvirginity.(The as a meansof underlining in is and which thin.) B mustnow defendthe honor grows Turkey long eggplant retort: of his family.Perhapshe canonly musterthe following rathermediocre Baciyi karntirma don't the mention sister amina koydurma Ananin to don't your cunt placecause mother of defeat.He asksA This is almostan indirectadmissionby B of his acceptance to not to mention his sister. Still, he does make a last effort insult A by saying thatif A doesmentionhis (B's) sister,then B will be forcedto retaliate by having with A's mother. intercourse One final example of an extended series of linked retortsshould sufficeto tradition.In this example, there demonstrate the nature of this extraordinary andallusion.Frequently of the use of metaphor instances areespeciallyinstructive not in verbalduels, it is the nuancethat is most important.It is the connotation, subtleties these thatmaycausethe greatestconcern. the denotation, Unfortunately, are not always obvious from an examinationof the text alone. This is why informants must be encouragedwherever possible to spell out "oral literary words of particular and understandings criticism,"that is, their interpretations and phrases.5 In this exampleof an extendedverbalduel, therearenot only cryptic suggestive descriptionsthat the uninitiatedwill probablynot easily compremetaphorical hend, but there are allusionsto other specificverbal dueling routines.In other words, one of the duel participants may test his opponent'sknowledgeof the entire traditionby referringto one or more of the shorterdiscreteretortsequences, of the following verbalduel severalof which have been discussedabove.Readers from may decide for themselveshow much or how little they could understand justthe texts alone. Two young boys,sayabouttwelve yearsof age, aretalking.The subjectis their penises. One claimsthat his penis is big (an obviouspoint of pride amongboth
5 Alan Dundes, "Metafolklore and Oral Literary Criticism," The Monist, 50 (1966), 505-516.
339 and The other contends that his is as boys men). boy penis just big. Now the firstboy,A, shouldsaysomethingelse, somethingmoreabouthis penis,something So he says: "impressive." Kara ka1ih black eyebrowed
A says "blackeyebrowed" meaningthat his penis has blackhair aroundit. The of abundant at or least sufficient acquisition pubichair is anotherpoint of phallic is pride among young boys. "Eyebrow" immediatelyunderstoodby the second boy, B, to refer to the hair aroundA's penis. He may be a little overwhelmed, but his answer,which rhymeswith the first boy's boast, is just as impressive. He says: Sogan ba?h1 Onion headed This refers to anotherdesirablephallic attribute,namelythat the head of his penis is just as big as an onion. B has therebymatchedA's boastwith a boastof his own. It is worth noting here that there is a well-knownboys' song that lists thesephalliccharacteristics:
--,.
1-
6-s
1 fl . *,
?o-lckA
j.
-j-
.-
bi
,
*- .!
-i--
BaS? sogan gibi headits onion like Ortas yllan gibi middleits snake like Dibi orman gibi bottom its forest like Bambilibilibilibom Here is a valuableinsightinto Turkishbodyesthetics.The head of a penis should resemblean onion. (It is too dangerous,by the way, on the basis of a single Turkishtext to speculateaboutthe Slavicand Moslem-not Turkish-architectural practiceof placing an onion-like bulb on the tops of many minaretsand spires.) The middle of the penis should be as round and as smooth as a snake. The bottom should have a "forest"of pubic hair aroundit. The last line Bam bili bili bili bom is nonsense,but it does connotehappiness.In this case,the hapof an ideal piness is that of a boy attainingthe three stated requisiteattributes the appropriateness of the termsof the verbal penis. This boy'ssong thus confirms duel. In any case A, realizingthat B has matchedhis boast karakaqliwith sogan bafli,triesa new gambit:
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A zmi aati mouth its opened female sex "Openedits mouth"in this contextmeansthat the secondspeakers's Sincethe secorganhas openedits mouthas a gestureinvitingsexualintercourse. is a male, the retortreverts ond speaker to his wife. However,sinceB is too young to be married,the insult indirectlyappliesto his motheror sister.B immediately answers: Iine kagti insideits to escaped it this means "it slippedinside."The retortmeansthatthe second Freelytranslated sticks his penis into the "open mouth." He therebychangesthe boy suddenly intendedmeaningof A's retortby makingit soundas though A has said thathis (A's) own mother'ssexual organhad opened its mouth to him (B). A realizes thathe is obligatedto impressB with a new rhyme.He offers: Dedi hastayim said sickI Dedi meaning "said" is a semiliterary word, a kind of formal quotative.It is used minstrels at the beginning of sentencesin their by wandering especially Here it no other that of a child imitatingan elder. has than poems. significance "I am A he with love or as we might put it means that is "sick" sick," By saying in Americanslang, sexually"hot"for B's motheror sister.However,B is quick to counter with: Dedi ustayim said expert I Note that the rhyme requirementis strictly observed: ustayim rhymes with hastayim.B, by statingthat he is the expert,tells A that he, B, is a great lover and thathe would accordingly be greatlyappreciated by A's motheror sister.One menthat and realize even should "sister"are not specifically though "mother" tioned,they are definitelyimplied. and becomemorea At this point, the duel mayceaseto be a matterof strategy matterof memorytesting. In this form of the duel, thereis no absolutewinning or losing per se. Nevertheless,there are some governing unwrittenrules with He begins respectto gaugingthe outcome.It is the firstboy who is the aggressor. with an initial boastor insult. The secondboy must comeup with an appropriate rhymedretortor an acceptable portion thereof. The first boy can only "win" if the secondboy fails to respondwith a rhymingretort.So long as the secondboy succeeds,the first boy must go on proposingother retorts,each time posing a differentword which the secondboy must counterwith a properrhymingword. The first boy is, however, obliged to use only traditionalretortsequences.He cannot make up new retorts.Thus in effect, the first boy tests the secondboy's knowledge of the verbal dueling tradition.The Dedi routine might continue in the following mannerwith A saying:
Dedi inek said cow
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A by calling B a cow is testing B's familiaritywith the standardretortsto the cow insult.If B knowsa retort,he will simplysay: Dedi binek said ridelet's retort The "Let'sride" (binek) is the crucialrhymingportionof the traditional to the inek insult. B has "won"thatportionof the match.A may continue: Dedi siktir said penised get he mayreply: Again,if B knowsone of the usualretorts Dedi mum diktir said candle setup In this unusualform of the duel, the retortneed not be linked. In fact, the order of the retort coupletsmay be quite loose. In essence, A is simply testing B's knowledgeof the whole tradition.So whatB needsat this point is a good memory ratherthana good senseof tacticsandstrategy. Presumably only boysveryfamiliar with the tradition and very well armed with a considerablerepertorywould conduct the duel in this fashion. The fact thatone boy can,in the courseof a duel,test a secondboy'sknowledge of the differentretorttraditionssupportsthe notion thatthese traditions arewell establishedand well known. To be sure, there may be some Western-educated Turkishyouthswho are not familiarwith this type of verbal duel, but there is evidencethat the traditionhas permeatedTurkishmale youthculture,including urbanyouth. For instance,the traditionfinds expressionin the graffitifound on bathroom walls, that is to sayin whathas been termed"latrinalia."6Interestingly the of the oral same kind of verse linkage so prominentlycharacteristic enough, encountersoccursin the latrinalia.A commonlatrinaliaverse in Turkey,found writtenin variousboys'publicschoolbathrooms is as follows: Bunu yazan Tosun This writingone Tosun kosun Okuyana writing oneto placelet him This boastingtaunt,"This was writtenby Tosun;anybody who readsit is fucked by him," has both the rhymeand contentfeaturesof the oral insult. Tosun is a man's name as well as a word for young male ox. It implies masculinitybut it also has a slightly humorousconnotation.Naturally, the key reason for using Tosunis thatit conveniently with kosun. rhymes
Now if someone enters the men's rooms and reads the insult, he will if he is well versed in the tradition be tempted to reply. He would almost certainly write the following traditional retort:
6 Alan Dundes, "Here I Sit: A Study of American Latrinalia," Papers of the Kroeber Anthropological Society, 34 (1966), 91-105.
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Okudu bunu Molla read this Molla Tosun g6tiinii kolla Tosun ass your watch for This means, "This was read by Molla; Tosun, you watch out for your own ass." Here are the familiar elements. The first verse contained the phallic attack. The reply warned the attacker that the attackers's anus might be the anus attacked. It is clearly the "my penis up your anus" strategy, and furthermore, like the oral duel, it may continue. A third person may enter the bathroom and take note of the exchange thus far. He may assume the role of the first writer and address a retort to Molla, the second writer. He might write: Oglum son my Tosun Tosun Molla sen toysun Molla you inexperienced sana yine koysun you to again place let him
This gives the advantage back to the initiator of the exchange: "My son Molla, you are so inexperienced; let Tosun fuck you again." Notice the skillful word play. The original rhyme was on Tosun and kosun. This third verse rhymes toysun and koysun. Note also that the third person does not add a new name. Rather, since the duels are almost invariably dyadic and it is "Tosun's" turn to answer, the third person speaks on behalf of Tosun. Still another indication of how well known the verbal duel rhyming tradition is may be found in a Hodja folktale. The Hodja figure is, of course, the national character of Turkish folklore, and there are scores of tales about him. In a striking example of metafolklore, the very nature of the dueling rhyme tradition becomes the subject of a humorous folktale.7 One day Hodja, riding his donkey, is coming home from the forest, with wood he had cut for the day. A friend of his stops him and asks what he is carrying. Hodja answers, "Odun [woodi." The friend immediately replies with a rhyme: Ben de sana kodum I so you to placedI (So I fucked you.) Hodja is really mad at his friend. But he just can't come up with a rhyme like his friend's in order to put him down. So finally he says, Bugiin giinlerden ne? Today daysfrom what (What dayof the week is it today?) His friend answers, "Parzartesi [Monday]." "Ben de sana kodum [So I fucked youj," says the Hodja. The friend protests, "But Hodja, the rhyme doesn't fit." Hodja, red from anger, answers:
7 For a discussion of metafolklore or folklore about folklore, see Alan Dundes, "Metafolklore and Oral Literary Criticism."
343
Uysada
kodum
uymasada
kodum
fit if even placed I fit notif even placed I (I fuckyouif it fits;I fuckyou[evenj if it doesn't fit!) As in so many of the Turkish Hodja tales, the Hodja, in childlike or fool in the adultworld.Yet he is no ordinary fashion,is unableto operatesuccessfully fool; he is a wise fool as are so manytrickster figures.Althoughhe is slow witted a couldn't think of he is also (he rhyme), quick witted (he made a good retort The is with to the rulesof verbaldueling. anyway). opposition exemplified respect On the one hand, the Hodja takesit upon himself to ignore or violate the established norms; he forgets about the rhyming requirement. On the other hand, when questionedaboutthis breach,the Hodja has the last word by which means he in fact conformsto the norm,thatis, he successfully threatens placinghis penis in the anusof his friend. Perhapsthis suggeststhat the phallicthematic principle takespriority overthe stylisticrhyme principle. The Hodja narrativealso temptsus to speculatethat there may be a symbolic and the entirepenis-in-anus parallelbetweenthe rhymerequirement image. One has to place his penis in his opponent'sanus, but he has to make this threatin anusarethe limitingboundaries rhymeform.The rhymeformlike the opponent's into which the phallic thrustmust go. Just as the penis must be boundedby the anus, so the verbalinsult must be couchedin rhymeform. With this reasoning, there does seem to be precedentfor Hodja's violating the rhymerule. Judging from some of the verbalduel texts previously cited,one can see thata particularly is of the anus. If burstingone's opponent'sanus strongphallus capable bursting is an assertionof hypermasculinity, then the Hodja's breakingthe rhyme convention may possiblybe similarlyconstrued.He is so phallic that he penetrates his opponentwhetherit ("it" being the contentin the rhymeschemeandperhaps the presumably largephallusitself) fitsor not. At this point, regardless of the validityof the suggestionthatthe rhymescheme be may symbolically parallelto the anus with respectto containingor restricting thatthe verbalduelingtradition phallicthrusts,therecanbe no doubtwhatsoever existsin modern-day Turkey.In fact,thereis evidencethata similarif not cognate traditionthrivesin modernGreekfolkloreand northernAfricanArabiccultures. Most probably, this form of maleverbalduelingoccursthroughout the Near East. It also sharessome featuresin commonwith verbal dueling in Africa generally and also with the African-derived form of verbal dueling found in the United Statesknownas "playingthe Dozens"amongotherterms.PhilipMayer's description of insultexchanges amongyoungboysin an EastAfricansocietyclearlypoints to the Africanoriginof this American Negro formof verbaldueling.Mayereven remarksthat one of the greatestinsults is the unequivocal"copulatewith your mother."The strikingsimilarity of the EastAfricanverbalritualwith the Dozens in termsof bothformandcontentstronglysupports an Africanoriginhypothesis.8
The Turkish custom is, however, apparently more similar to the Mexican albures than to the American Negro Dozens.9
Philip Mayer, "The Joking of 'Pals' in Gusii Age-Sets," African Studies, io 9 For an account of albures, see Ingham, 231-236.
8
(I95I),
27-41.
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It may be worth noting what seems to be an importantdifferencebetween Turkish verbal dueling and the AmericanNegro Dozens. In the Dozens, the primaryemphasisseems to be on attacking,sexually,one's opponent'smother. There are occasionalallusions to homosexualactivities,but they are relatively rare.In contrast,in the Turkishtradition,the majortheme seems to be a homosexualone. Certainly thereappearto be few insinuations in the Turkishduel that one's opponentis a "motherfucker," a commonepithetin American Negro duels. One reasonfor this might be that to label a rivala motherfucker would be tantamount to acknowledginghis phallic ability whereas, as we have shown, the strategyin the Turkishduel consistslargelyof denyingany such activity.If this is a reasonably accurate then it becomesclearthatthe possible partialcomparison, of verbal is not more than the contentspecifics dueling "universality" important in of particular traditions cultural contexts. dueling particular The questionof the distribution of verbal dueling among the peoples of the matteraltogether. worldis another Evenif verbalduelingas a formwereuniversal, the specificcontentwould surelyvarywith individualcultures.The issue thus is the significance of the traditionas it is found in Turkishculture.What culturalneeds does the traditionattemptto fill? Here we must enter the psychological areaof interpretation. The empiricalevidenceof the tradition's ever-treacherous existenceis clearenough;the meaningof the traditionin the contextof Turkish cultureis not as obvious.Nevertheless,we assumethat the thematiccontentof the linked rhymingretortsmust be intimatelyrelatedto Turkishpsychology. concerns or personality One of the most curiousfeaturesof Turkishpsychology is said to be an apparent the Turkish On one fatalistic, worldview hand, paradox. so that individualsare almosttotallydependentupon the wishes and whims of a higher power, for example, the Will of Allah and the inevitabilityof Kismet (fate). On the other hand, there appearsto be a very positive attitudetoward aggression.Courageand strengthare highly valuedmale ideals. One of the most popular national sports is wrestling, and military deeds are greatly esteemed. to theirmilitaryservice. ManyTurkishboyslook forwardwith greatanticipation The questionlies in determining whetherTurksare fatalistic-dependent, actively aggressive,or both. Is it possible for an individualto be docile and obedientto would regardas obsequiousness, his seniors,often to the pointof whatWesterners in time and at the same be actively engaged proving his manliness through caused Is therein facta culturally varioussociallysanctioned formsof aggression? contrainsolubleproblemarisingfrom any attemptto reconcilethese seemingly dictorybehavior pattters? We believethatone of the originsof, or shouldwe say,one of the contributing exis the enculturating factorsto the formationof specificworldviewparadigms of in sets in the or dominant relationships parent-child perienceimplicit explicit of worldthe to relevant is the childhood culture. If study experience any given
view, then it is logical to look into the Turkish boy's childhood for possible precursors for the "dependent-aggressive" conflict. In the Turkish childhood experience, it is clear that sex and age are critical social factors. In Turkish culture, there is considerable sex segregation. Furthermore, men decidedly dominate women. Publicly women are definitely subordinate to men. There is also the factor of age.
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to the old; childrenare subordinate The young are subordinate to parents.How doesall this affectthe youngTurkishboy? The Turkishboy learnsthat,sincemen dominatewomen,he canasserthimself with respectto his sistersand even his mother.In the world of women, even a little boy has status.But just as soon as this little boy leavesthe world of women to join the segregatedsocietyof men, he suddenlyfinds that he has junior,very junior, status.He is at the bottomof the socialpeckingorder.He discoversthat men do rankone another.For example,in the ruraloda, the roomin somevillage he learnsthat rankingoneself with houseswhere men and only men congregate, regardto one's peers is crucialand that even the seating order in the oda may Thus thoughthe boy reflectthe publicevaluationof any one individual'sstatus.'0 wantsstatus,he findshe doesn'thavemuch. It is possiblethatthe boy'sextremely low statusin the men'ssocietyis essentially or status of women. In other words, little boys to the low equivalent analogous relalearnthatmen shouldbe aggressive and forcefulwith regardto male-female tions and they act so while they live in the world of women. But once having enteredthe world of men, the little boys soon realizethat theirown relationships to older men must, in fact, entail the assumptionof a passive, deferentialrole quite similarto the role of womenvis-a-vismen. Yet thereis an additionalcritical featureof Turkishboyhoodthat may well bear upon the specificnatureof the verbalduelpattern. This featureis circumcision. The circumcision of boyswas traditionally typiperformedwithoutanesthesia, cally when the boy was in the four- to eight-yearage range." There can be little doubtthatthis is a veryimportant, eventin the life of a Turktraumatic, probably ish boy.'2In this light it is entirelyappropriate for Pierceto havebegunhis Life in It has been suggestedthat a TurkishVillage with an accountof circumcision.'3 circumcision at this be by may performed age perceived the child as an aggressive effectsof circumin his interestingstudyof the psychological attack.' Cansever, cision on Turkishboys, suggeststhat circumcision, perceivedby the child as symbolic castration, to lead confusion may concerningsexual identitysuch that boys later to assume feminine also indicatedthatsome boys tend traits.'Cansever may circumthe females rather than of the castrative males as regarded perpetrators in a often fact male circumcision is cision, although by (in villages, performedby the barber). Cansever explainedthat the Turkishchild'sinitial close contactwith the motherin contrastwith the child's relationship with a distantfather (Bradburn's study16indicatedthat Turkishmales find their fathersto be "stern,for10 Paul Stirling, "Social Ranking in a Turkish Village," British Journal of Sociology, 4 (1953), 31-44. 11 For details, see Orhan M. Oztiirk, "Folk Treatment of Mental Illness in Turkey," in Ari Kiev, ed., Magic, Faith, and Healing: Studies in Primitive Psychiatry Today (New York, 1964), 343-363; and Gocke Cansever, "Psychological Effects of Circumcision," British Journal of Medical Psychology, 38 (1965), 321-331. 12 Oztiirk, 346. 13 Joe E. Pierce, Life in a Turkish Village (New York, 1964), 4-8. 14Cansever, 322, 326. 15 Ibid., 322, 325. 16 Norman M. Bradburn, "N. Achievement and Father Dominance in Turkey," Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 67 (1963), 464-468.
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bidding, remote, domineering,and autocratic")may partiallyexplain why a female ratherthan a male is perceivedas the primarycastrator.17 The greattrust in the motherhas been betrayed.She is blamedfor having allowed the "castration" to take place. But whetherit is the fatheror motherwho is blamedfor the traumatic ritual,the fact remainsthat the "higherpowers"upon whom the child this trustwith respect dependedhave betrayedhis trust;and they have betrayed to a particular of the It is the that is attackedby the part body. boy's phallus "higherpowers." If circumcision is regardedby the young boy as a serious aggressiveattack, and this is preciselywhat Canseverfound from the resultsof standardpsychological tests, then it is not illogical for the young boy to focus upon this part of the body as a means of combattingfuture forms of aggression.In fact, from psychologicaldata alone, one might well be led to hypothesizethat boys would want to punishattacking malesby demonstrating to thesemalestheirconsiderable Thus to status male peer group, one would one's priapicprowess. gain among need to prove that one's phallus was in perfect working order and in fact was sufficiently powerful to place one's opponentsin the passive,feminine position. In addition, if some old men as practicingpederastsdemandthat young boys assumethe female position, then as these young boys becomeolder and seek to attaina man'sstatus,they must insist in turn upon the active,male role. In other words, the shift from the boy's female passiverole to the man'smale activerole is an intrinsic an adultmale. partof the processof becoming There is anotherfacet of the circumcision experiencewhich may be relatedto the verbalduelingtradition.If Cansever is correct(and he does have supporting data) in statingthat it is frequentlyfemaleswho areperceivedas the castrators,18 then it would be perfectlyappropriate for a young male to performsome act of retaliatory,damagingmutilationupon an analogousportion of the female anatomy.One such techniquemight be causinga vaginato burstor fall apart.Anothermight be to have the originalinjuredparty,the phallus,causethe vagniato bleed. After all, the bleedingof the newly circumcized phallusof the young boy was thoughtto have been causedby the castrating the repeated mother.Certainly referencesto making mother'svagina bleed can be more logicallyexplainedby this thanby, say,references to menstruation. Circumcision does then appearto be a criticalfactorin the boyhoodof Turkish males. And one cannothelp but noticethatit usuallyoccursat an age immediately in the verbaldueling tradition.Cansever precedingthe initial participation puts the problem caused by circumcision among Turkish youth in this way: "The Turkishmale, with his strivingstoward,on the one hand, bravery,courageand enduranceto pain, and on the other hand total submissionto authority, particularly father figures, might representa good example of the conflict between
masculinity and homosexuality."'9 In the light of all this, there does seem to be some basis for maintaining that the verbal dueling pattern among young Turkish males is a vivid dramatizationof
17 Cansever, 328. 18 Ibid. 19 Ibid., 329.
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the whole dilemma.It is in quasi-ritual an externalization, form a concretization, of what is undoubtedly a crucialinternalpsychological dilemmafor most young boys.The problemis that to belongto the world of men in Turkishculture,a boy needs to prove that he is a man, not a woman, and one of the ways of proving this is to demonstrate through act or symbolicwords that one has a powerful Yet is that to exist as such in the world of men the difficulty aggressivephallus. involves the danger of being put in the female position by a more necessarily societycando little morethan powerfulmale.Justas womenin a male-dominated serveas passivevictimsof male aggression,so boysand weakmen maybe forced bythe samesocietyinto similarpassiveroles.Young boys,threatened bythe fearof a fear culturally of circumcision, inducedby the misreading havingbeencastrated, mustdo theirbestto avoidbeinglike womenin servingas helplessvictimsof male phallic aggression.In this sense, Turkishmale personalityis not unlike that of Algerianmalesas described by Minerand De Vos. In analyzingthe psychological characteristics of Algerians,Minerand De Vos remark that "thefear of retreating into passive homosexualityis one of the dangers besetting an individual who retreatsfrom genital masculinityin the face of subconscious castration threat," and they also commenton the Algerian male's unconscious fear of being penetratedas would be the caseif one assumeda passivehomosexual role.20 Turkishmaleverbalduelingservesin partas a kindof extendedriteof passage. Like most if not all pubertyinitiation rites, the duel allows the young boy to repudiatethe female world with its passive sexual role and to affirmthe male world with its activesexualrole. The fact thatthe repudiation of the female role seems to involve the partialenactmentof that role by males is in accordwith Bettelheim'sgeneraltheoryof initiationrites in which males, enviousof female organs,seek to usurpfemale sexualpowersand activities.2' The verbalduel, then, offersthe opportunity of penetrating one's fellow male but also the dangerof being penetratedin turn by that same fellow male. The homosexualrelationship involvesdependence coupledwith mistrust:dependence upon friendswho will not attackbut mistrustin the fear that they might attack. Just as the "higher powers" upon whom the young boy depended suddenly launchedan emasculating attack(circumcision),so one's peers upon whom one threaten In the verbalduel, a boy must one's masculinity. dependsmay suddenly hand out at least as muchas-and hopefullya bit morethantry to aggressively he is forcedto take.To the extentthatTurkishworldviewcontainsanoppositional contrastbetweenfatalistic,passivedependence activeaggresand individualistic, the of of in situation makes both kinds the behavior verbal sion, presence dueling sense. The Turkishproverb,"Somesaid he was deli, some said he was veli" says much the same thing. Deli means "insane,"referringto destructive, aggressive of passivityand stability.22 behavior,while veli means "saint"with connotations
20 See Horace M. Miner and George De Vos, Oasis and Casbah: Algerian Culture and Personality in Change, Anthropological Papers, Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, no. 15 (Ann Arbor, I96o), 141, 138. See also Ingham, 236, for a similar statement. 21 Bruno Bettelheim, Symbolic Wounds. Puberty Rites and the Envious Male (New York, 1962), 45. See also Roger V. Burton and John W. M. Whiting, "The Absent Father and Cross-Sex Identity." Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 7 (1961), 85-95. 22 Oztiirk, 349.
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The point is thatan individualmustbe both.The inconsistency is consistent. Each Turkishmalemustbe bothdeli andveli. One last detail concernsthe Turkish male conceptof friendship.The most commonlyused word for "friend"is Arkadal.Without presumingetymological expertisein Turkish,one is neverthelesstemptedto remarkthat "arka"means amongother things the backsideof the bodyand dal is a suffiximplyingfellowor a backfellow.It A friendis thusliterallya backparticipant ship or participation. in someone who is can who therefore allowedto stand and be is, short, trustworthy behind one. One must be carefulwhom one allows to enter one's backzone. A nonfriendmight takeadvantage attack. of sucha positionto initiatean aggressive a true To to the can to so. trust friend or trusted not do be "backer" Only protectionof someoneis Birine arka vermek Ourto back giveto metaor to, literally,give one's backto someone.This andmanyothertraditional related the root that to a arka phors involving suggest friendshipis semantically safe backside.Among the traditional wordsand phrasesfound in A. D. Alderson and FahirIz, eds., The ConciseOxford TurkishDictionary(Oxford, 1959), and Mehmet Ali Agakay,ed., TiirkfeS0zliik (Ankara, 1966), which we might cite in supportof ourhypothesis are one who has protectors arkaszpek-literally,he has a lot of back;figuratively, or one who trustssomebodyor one who trustsin a strongplace. arkalamak-literally,to back,to support,or to backup someone;figuratively,
to helpbygivingtrust to someone.
arkadaldegil, arkatalz-literally, he's not a friend, he's a backstone (a stone in the back); figuratively, he's hardlya friend. This might be said aboutfriends who do one harm. wide open. ardinakadarafik-literally, open to the backside; figuratively, birinin arkasin:sivamak-literally, to plaster (as in construction)someone's to showgenuineaffection. back;figuratively, If these philologicalmaterials are relevant,and they would seem to be so, they would tend to supportthe idea that an activepenis attackinga passiveanus has in Turkishculturefor sometime. been a criticalpsychological configuration of an opponent'sanusis a In any event, whetherthe ritualphallic penetration traditionor not, it seemssafe to concludethatas the verbaldueling long-standing in twentieth-century exists Turkey,in cityand in village, it is hardlyan technique esoterica. Ratherit is a dynamicfunctioningelement of bit isolated,unimportant arenafor the playing of Turkishculture,an elementwhichprovidesa semipublic out of commonprivateproblems.The duel affordsthe young Turkishboy an
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to give appropriate vent to the emotionalconcomitants of the painful opportunity processof becominga man.23 Universityof California Berkeley,California
23 Although almost all the materials in this paper were provided by one of the coauthors, Bora Ozkbk, who was himself an active participant in the tradition, spot checking with more than twenty other Turkish students revealed that the same or similar texts were common in Istanbul, Ankara, Adana, Erzurum, and Izmir. Professor Ilhan Baga6z of Indiana University also had personal knowledge of the tradition, and we are indebted to him for several useful comments on the paper. The undoubted popularity of the tradition tempts us to speculate about the possibility of its relationship to the alleged sexual indignities suffered by the famed Lawrence of Arabia when he was captured by Turkish forces at Deraa. (See John E. Mack, "T. E. Lawrence: A Study of Heroism and Conflict," American Journal of Psychiatry, I25 [19693, 1083-1092.)
Wonderful folk tales from Poland Good Sense and Good Fortune
and Other Polish Folk Tales BORSKI By LUCIAMERECKA
ILLUSTRATED BY ERICAGORECKA-EGAN
co-author of The Jolly Tailor
Twenty-three delectable tales from the most representative sources of Polish folklore depict the wit and cleverness of the Polish people. The time-honored characters inherent in all folklore, enlivened by distinctive local touches are here-the wise and the foolish, peasants, kings, and animals, the curious and the sly, the wicked and the kind. Authentic pictures captureperfectly the humor and flavor of the tales. $3.95, $3.59*
* Hercules Guaranteed Binding
DAVID McKAY COMPANY, INC., New York 10017

The Strategy of Turkish Boys Verbal Dueling Rhymes

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The Strategy of Turkish Boys Verbal Dueling Rhymes

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ALAN

JERRY W. LEACH and BORA OZKOK

The Strategy of Turkish Boys' Verbal Dueling Rhymes

Roger D. Abrahams, "Playing the Dozens," JOURNAL OF AMERICAN FOLKLORE, 75 (1962),

ALAN DUNDES, JERRY W. LEACH AND BORA OjZKOK

THE STRATEGY OF TURKISH BOYS' VERBAL DUELING RHYMES

ALAN DUNDES, JERRY W. LEACH AND BORA OZKOK

THE STRATEGY OF TURKISH BOYS' VERBAL DUELING RHYMES

This might be rendered:"Of courseit's a prick!Did you think it was a sheep's

ALAN DUNDES, JERRY W. LEACH AND BORA OZKOK

THE STRATEGY OF TURKISH BOYS' VERBAL DUELING RHYMES

B: Ostiine Speaker topyourto Daga mountain to

binek ridelet's gidek go let's

agzinin payini mouthyour share kilhl hairymother's daylml brothermy

ALAN DUNDES, JERRY W. LEACH AND BORA OZKOK

THE STRATEGY OF TURKISH BOYS' VERBAL DUELING RHYMES

ALAN DUNDES, JERRY W. LEACH AND BORA OZKOK

THE STRATEGY OF TURKISH BOYS' VERBAL DUELING RHYMES

ALAN DUNDES, JERRY W. LEACH AND BORA 6ZKOK

THE STRATEGY OF TURKISH BOYS' VERBAL DUELING RHYMES

ALAN DUNDES, JERRY W. LEACH AND BORA OZKOK

THE STRATEGY OF TURKISH BOYS' VERBAL DUELING RHYMES

ALAN DUNDES, JERRY W. LEACH AND BORA OZKOK

THE STRATEGY OF TURKISH BOYS' VERBAL DUELING RHYMES

ALAN DUNDES, JERRY W. LEACH AND BORA OZKOK

THE STRATEGY OF TURKISH BOYS' VERBAL DUELING RHYMES

ALAN DUNDES, JERRY W. LEACH AND BORA OZKOK

THE STRATEGY OF TURKISH BOYS' VERBAL DUELING RHYMES

ALAN DUNDES, JERRY W. LEACH AND BORA OZKOK

THE STRATEGY OF TURKISH BOYS' VERBAL DUELING RHYMES

ALAN DUNDES, JERRY W. LEACH AND BORA OZKOK

THE STRATEGY OF TURKISH BOYS' VERBAL DUELING RHYMES

co-author of The Jolly Tailor

DAVID McKAY COMPANY, INC., New York 10017

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