Most villagers realise more or less clearly that urban educated society contains a very large number of roles that are distinct both socially and in the skills they demand. Yet they do not apply this knowledge systematically. They expect the highly educated to know everything, to be able to cure the sick, mend radios, give legal decisions and so forth. In particular, they assume that all educated Turks are knowledgeable about Islam, and frequently asked educated visitors questions about religion.
This foreshortening has an interesting effect on changes in taste and techniques. The urban world itself happens to be changing very rapidly, particularly the world of the local towns. In these many people still live more or less traditional urban lives, using the customs and the material culture which the village has for generations associated with the towns. But at the same time Western dress, schoolgirls with uncovered heads, motor-cars, blocks of modern flats and a host of other things represent a new and totally different tradition. This tradition is European and still to most villagers infidel. This unstable blend in urban society is misleading and confusing to the villagers. On one occasion a man of Sakaltutan brought his wife to town. I met him and offered him and two companions tea, and embarrassed everyone by offering tea to his wife also. She turned away into the corner to drink in order to uncover her mouth without being seen. I pointed to two educated Turkish women in Western dress and cosmetics who were passing. `They are not Turks,' she said, `they are foreigners.'
One of the villagers had recently completed a new guest room. It was a modern one, with a divan running right round the wall. `It's the new style,' I was told, `alafranca (i.e. European), like the towns.' A style of building already out of date among town Turks was justified by a villager as being town-like, and a typical Middle East room was called European.