DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4752#0040
30 TURKISH VILLAGE LIFE IN ASIA MINOR
will talk of horses, game, soldiering, farming, etc. ;
and from them the traveller may pick up a good
deal of useful information. But in these days (1878),
sooner or later the conversation is sure to turn upon
the iniquity of the ruling classes, and the Sultan, the
Grand Vizier, the provincial governors, great and
small, all will come in for violent abuse ; and, as the
same story is told in each village, it becomes
monotonous."
It is, of course, an absolute necessity to avoid
touching their deep-lying feelings as regards religion,
family life, and women. But if you feel in your
own heart a real sympathy for the people and
respect for what is best in them, you will never find
it necessary even to consciously think about how
to avoid violating their feelings on these subjects
(except in cases of sudden change to a different
and strange race, as on p. 120). No rule can be
given except to feel sympathetic, but no other
rule is needed, if you feel so.
Most of what I have to say on these subjects
belongs to the period before the recent Moham-
medan revivalJ had begun, or at least before it
affected the villagers. A serious change has been
prepared and brought about by degrees ; and I am
fully prepared to learn that the archaeologist's
trade has become a much harder one. And, as
1 See chapter vii.
will talk of horses, game, soldiering, farming, etc. ;
and from them the traveller may pick up a good
deal of useful information. But in these days (1878),
sooner or later the conversation is sure to turn upon
the iniquity of the ruling classes, and the Sultan, the
Grand Vizier, the provincial governors, great and
small, all will come in for violent abuse ; and, as the
same story is told in each village, it becomes
monotonous."
It is, of course, an absolute necessity to avoid
touching their deep-lying feelings as regards religion,
family life, and women. But if you feel in your
own heart a real sympathy for the people and
respect for what is best in them, you will never find
it necessary even to consciously think about how
to avoid violating their feelings on these subjects
(except in cases of sudden change to a different
and strange race, as on p. 120). No rule can be
given except to feel sympathetic, but no other
rule is needed, if you feel so.
Most of what I have to say on these subjects
belongs to the period before the recent Moham-
medan revivalJ had begun, or at least before it
affected the villagers. A serious change has been
prepared and brought about by degrees ; and I am
fully prepared to learn that the archaeologist's
trade has become a much harder one. And, as
1 See chapter vii.