Cultural Memory Of Turkish Handicrafts: Handicrafts Of Antep

Abstract

The folk arts are a cultural memory. In addition to carrying the material and moral values unique to the society they were created, each of them are presentations where the environment, nature, emotions, way of thinking of the society are transformed into tools by interpretation. Many fields such as clothing, apparel, weaving, adornment and architecture were found to fulfill the primitive needs of humankind and in time, they became folk arts. The sense of admiration of the society lies at the base of this situation. Additionally, the sense of admiration of the society is parallel to the artistic interpretation of the society and this is a significant knowledge for artistic interpretation. The formation process of artistic admiration caused the multiplication and diversification of handicraft products with combination of emotion, thinking, technical and aesthetics styles of societies in time. The handicraft transferred from mother to daughter as dowry, kept in chests and defined as handicraft and designed by women became a significant part of the Turkish culture. Handicraft of Antep, belonging to Gaziantep region as an important representative of this heritage has a historical and cultural accumulation in addition to being a difficult embroidery technique accepted as an occupation taught by lady master and novice relation. The information regarding history and cultural value, purpose, usage place, embroidery phases, techniques and materials of Handicraft of Antep obtained as a result of field research and source scanning are given in this article. The status of this handicraft obtained as a result of findings are evaluated today and suggestions are presented to communicate the Handicraft of Antep to next generations as an important part of Intangible Cultural Inheritance.