BİR ŞAMATA BİÇİMİ OLARAK EŞEĞE TERSİNE BİNDİRİLME RİTÜELİ

Abstract

Stith Thompson's Motif Index of Folk literature includes the motif of making one mounting a donkey backwards as a form of punishment. Emine Çakır, in an unpublished essay titled, “Why did Nasreddin Hodja mount the donkey backwards? Who knows…”, gives some definitions of the equivalent of this motif in Turkey. The motif in question, which is frequently encountered in Western and Eastern cultures and used in different fields such as literature, history, law, art, apart from folklore (especially in the carnival tradition), varies according to the context in different countries. Hence, while working on the perception of the motif in question, it is necessary to consider the following distinction: "Mounting a donkey backwards" and "being forced to mount a donkey backwards" are two different acts. The former is related to an idea of "will", while the latter is related to an idea of “involuntary”. One is active while the other is passive, respectively. In the active, the subject is the real subject of the action; in the passive, the real subject is someone else (the people); the apparent subject is the one which is exposed to the action. The active one should be evaluated from the perspective of ethics, morality, tolerance, belief (religion); the passive one is suitable to be evaluated from the perspective of morality, belief (religion) as well as violence (humiliation, ridicule, punishment), and therefore justice. The motif of mounting a donkey backwards in Nasreddin Hodja is suitable for the first definition. In Western cultures, the recurring similar motif (mainly action) fits the second definition. Different subjects and different actions naturally open the door for the differentiation of motivations. For example, while the motif comes to the fore in Nasreddin Hodja more of a respect/disrespect dilemma, in Western cultures (especially in France) it appears as an image/act (and ritual) of "punishment" from the Middle Ages until the end of the nineteenth century. In this article, it will be focused not on the question of why Nasreddin Hodja mounts the donkey backwards (a lot has been said about it), but rather on the applications and meanings of the motif of mounting the donkey backwards in France as well as in some other countries and works.