The socio-cultural place of arrow and publication in Turkish culture history

Abstract

Arrows and bows are one of the oldest tools in human history and their examples can be found almost everywhere in the world since prehistoric times. In Turkish culture, the bow and arrow have a special place with the symbolic values they carry. Symbolically and objectively, shamanic traditions provide a very broad background for archery because these two objects are symbolic tools of the war against the world of evil and evil spirits. While the shaman's ecstasy was symbolically associated with the rise of the arrow to the sky, the motif of lifting up assumed the function of the bow. Mete Khan, the khan of the Asian Hun State, showed the direction with its strong sound and determined the target, as well as causing fear to the opponent, causing his morale to deteriorate, and also served as a kind of communication. Archery, which is almost identified with the Turks, expresses not only military and political but also social and cultural meaning. Cultural traces of the arrow, which was carried from the Turkish states established in Central Asia to the Seljuks and Anatolia with the Seljuks, are still up to date. The bow and arrow, which represent power, strength and might in general, have a special place in the understanding of state and dominance. The arrow was accepted as a sign of naturalness. In this sense, the bow and arrow, which is one of the internal and external dynamics of the state, describes a structure far beyond being a means of war, hunting and entertainment with the world of symbols and meanings it creates. In this study, socio-cultural examples of arrows and bows, inspired by medieval sources, are included. © 2024 Nova Science Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved.