Turkish Village
Copyright 1965, 1994 Paul Stirling. All rights reserved.
Paul Stirling
CHAPTER ELEVEN
GROUPS, FEUDS AND POWER
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Tonga villages were political units. Segments of a village can maintain hostility over log periods without destroying the political system because this does not depend on village unity. The danger that one's enemies will attempt murder makes life difficult, but in practice even this applies only to the principals of the feud, and these usually absent themselves, or are in gaol, or move to another part of the village and take special precautions. A fresh quarrel is always possible, but in a quarrel everyone is, or pretends to be, sure he can look after himself. Feuds therefore may be exceedingly unpleasant to live with, but they do not render life impossible.
To sum up then, every village contains a number of active lineages involved in blood feuds with other lineages of the same village. In theory, vengeance is mandatory and the feud unresolvable. In practice some cases of feud are allowed to die out, and reconciliation is possible, often by giving a woman in marriage. Often a relationship of hostility depends on chance incidents for its continuance, though in fact it makes these incidents more probable. But an absence of incidents may in time permit social relationships to be re-established. Moreover, new quarrels are likely in time to set up new alignments in the village which may force people to make allies of their old enemies.
The Headman
One of my surprises during my first visits to Turkish villages was the youth of the headmen I met. I had expected the headman to be the most senior and powerful man in the village, yet I met few headmen over forty and several much younger. The turnover in headmen was high. The term of office was four years before 1950, when it was reduced to two. Many failed to last it out; I only ever knew one man who took a second term. The reasons for all this became obvious. The headman was no longer the top of the village but the bottom of the official State hierarchy. It was not a pleasant position to hold.
The headman's immediate senior in the hierarchy was the District Officer, Nahiye Müdürü, a high school graduate who shared the values and prejudices of the educated governing class. The headman, who was often illiterate, belonged himself
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