Jacob Dale

Cultural Anthropology

Dr. Carpenter

28 April 2014

Cultural Experience

For my cultural experience I visited the Raindrop Foundation’s Turkish

Festival on April 26th. The event was held at the Raindrop Turkish House at 4444 N

Classen blvd. in Oklahoma City. On Classen some boys dressed in traditional Turkish

garb consisting of gold and red fabric greeted me with signs. Merchants were selling

their wares outside the building as well as inside, although all the food was indoors.

The food stalls were set up to accept tickets, which you bought at the front, as

payment. They served doner sandwiches, kebabs, stuffed grape leaves, baklava and

much more. There were stalls selling ceramics, fabrics and ones displaying the art of

Ebru (water-marbling) and calligraphy.

I asked for Professors Bilal or Vahap, but they must not have been there

when I was. Next I asked for the director, but he was either not there at that moment

or unavailable. I ended up talking to a man who was helping to sell the tickets whose

name was something like “Durook” (I couldn’t quite catch it). Talking about the

reason for the festival, he explained that their mission was to encourage friendship

with the community by sharing culture. He said that the Raindrop Turkish House

does not just celebrate Turkish culture, but tries to incorporate everyone’s cultures.

They held events celebrating Black History and Native American dance to name a

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few. The event was but a celebration of their small role in the context of a larger

community. He said to make sure to watch the ebru.

As this was an event designed to increase understanding of Turkish culture,

it mainly expanded my cultural knowledge. For instance, I watched an elderly

woman performing ebru, which is a traditional art form using ink and water to

generate a print. The woman explained that ebru is a traditional form of therapy in

Turkey. There is a specific type of music the artist must listen to while making the

art; otherwise it is not true ebru. The music informs the artistic piece and the artist

is supposed to reach some sort of spiritual/emotional state by doing this. Sufism, a

prominent brand of Islam in Turkey, focuses on the connections between religions

(Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism) and humanity’s connection to the divine through

periods of ecstasy. Ebru seems to be one method for reaching this state of divine

connection, but whirling dervishes are the most well known example from a

Western perspective. Although I did not see the whirling dervish, the posters

advertised such a performance. The whirling dervish combines prayer and dance to

reach a level of ecstasy - spiritual closeness with God.

I also exhibited cultural perseverance through my intrinsic and extrinsic

interests toward Turkish culture. I genuinely enjoyed learning about ebru, but

especially enjoyed trying new foods. I have always been so excited about trying new

foods and if I could I would exclusively eat “ethnic” food. I tried the doner sandwich,

which was a little different (more plain) than the doner kebabs I would eat in

Vienna; the stuffed grape leaves, which were thinner than other dolmadakia I have

tried; gozleme, which was a potato-filled flatbread that tasted similar to a Ukrainian

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pierogi (a potato-filled dumpling); and, of course, delicious baklava. Relative to

some of the patrons of the event, I think I showed a strong level of cultural

perseverance. Lots of the white people awkwardly sat at tables the whole time, even

when not eating. I made sure to check out the ebru station, the calligrapher, the

dough cooking, and the Turkish coffee area (although I did not partake).

I used a little bit of behavioural and interpretive cultural intelligence during

my interactions with event planners and participants. Because the event was

designed specifically to be accessible to an Oklahoma crowd, there was not much to

interpret and there was no intense pressure to behave differently. When I listened

to others speak I became much more aware of my smiling and nodding to make sure

they knew that I was actively engaged. I wanted to make them feel proud of their

culture through my sincere interest in it. I had also gone into the event expecting

something similar to the Christmas Bazaar a local Greek Orthodox Church holds

every year in my hometown. Thus I had a general “checklist” I would check as I

encountered new things. I expected baklava and food similar to Greek food. I had

experienced the diamond or square-shaped baklava (both walnut and pistachio

variations), but they had a variety including “Asian baklava” and “twisted baklava.”

Additionally, the doner was quite different from the many I ate while in Europe. It

was dryer and did not have any toppings (I was really hoping for some tzatziki or

yoghurt sauce).

Overall it was a really interesting experience and I wish I had more money to

eat more of that delicious food!

Word Count: 810

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