ON CULTURAL CAPITAL AND TASTE

ABSTRACT

Through the application of Bourdieu's ideas of culture and cultural capital to a specific city located in Southeastern Turkey, this article identifies the forms of cultural capital, including education and consumption, that became important in class formation since the end of the nineteenth century. The article identifies changes in the historical forms which symbolic and cultural capital have taken. In this city, as non-Western pre-capitalist culture was abandoned, partly due to forced modernization, previous patterns of hierarchies that generated the social groups/relations began to transform. While a nuanced set of practices were distinguishing features of social life, the whole set of practices of generosity, kindness or politeness was filtered through the prism of paternalist domination. From the end of the nineteenth century onwards, however, a symbolic struggle involved questions of taste and culture. Drawing on the struggle between the ‘old’ and ‘new’ wealth, this article scrutinises the role of cultural capital in class formation from a historical perspective in relation to family, embodiment and education.

Keywords:

• cultural capital
• symbolic capital
• education
• paternalism

Acknowledgements

This paper is developed from my dissertation fieldwork conducted during my PhD. I have thus benefited from the contributions of John Scott. Many thanks to John Scott, Leonore Davidoff and Ayşe Durakbaşa. I am grateful for the constructive comments of the anonymous referee. I thank Jessica Buchanan for English editing. I also thank the University Gaziantep Scientific Research Projects Unit.

Notes

1. The religious class.

2. The grant of lands or revenues by the Ottoman sultan to an individual for his services.

3. Before the foundation of the Turkish Republic, the city was called Antep-Ayintab. The founder of Turkish Republic, Mustafa Kemal, had given the title ‘Ghazi’ (Muslim warrior fighting for Islam) to the city to reward their success in fighting the French army during the First World War. Therefore, in the following pages, where the Ottoman period is discussed, the city is called Antep (Ayintap). Additionally, it is still very common among the city dwellers to call the city Antep. In fact, in most of the recollections respondents refer to the city as Antep.

4. Hamiyet was a nationwide famous singer of those years.