Secret Societies and Dönme Secrecy

1887 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Some consequences of secret society

Secret Societies and the Dönme secrecy

Simmel (1906) argues that secret societies are an alternative community that provide invisibility and protection to its members. The protective function of secrecy is a central feature in secret societies. This central feature is recognized on a dual contingency: (1) members of the community are concerned with the protection of ideas, objects, activities, and/or sentiments to which they attach a positive value; (2) the members pursue this protection by controlling the distribution of information about the valued elements . Simmel further emphasizes that because their secrecy creates public suspicion regarding their actions, secret societies are usually seen as a threat: ‘The secret society, purely on the ground of its secrecy, appears dangerously related to conspiracy against existing powers.’

The most significant aspect of the Dönme community is the fact that it is a secret society (Nefes 2013). Similar to what Simmel observes, The Dönme community has been subject to serious public suspicion as well as many conspiracy theories. An increasing population of the Turkish reading public believe atheist Jews dethroned the Ottoman sultan, ruined his Islamic empire, replaced it with an anti-Muslim secular republic led by the ‘secret Jew’ Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and they believe that still today this secret community controls the country (Baer 2010). The popular articulation of the ‘secret Jew community’ leans on Turkey’s hidden reality, a group of people who are named as ‘the Dönme’. This paper intends to shed light on this particular group by exploring the structure of secrecy that enabled them to maintain their identity. In the first section I will historically analyze the Dönme’s commu...

... middle of paper ...

...n Turkey’’. The Sociological Review 61: 247–264.

Nefes, Türkay Salim. 2012. ‘‘The history of the social constructions about Dönmes (converts)’’, The Journal of Historical Sociology, 25 (3): 413–439.

Neyzi, Leyla.2002. ‘‘Remembering to forget: Sabbateanism, national identity and subjectivity in Turkey’, Comparative Studies in Society and History, 44 (1): 137–158.

Sisman , Cengiz. 2010. ‘Cortijo de Sevi: Kültür mirası Sabetay Sevi’nin evi’nin geçmişi, bugünü,geleceği’, Toplumsal Tarih, 196: 14–25.

Simmel,Georg. 1906. ‘The sociology of secrecy and secret societies’, American Journal of Sociology, 11 (4): 441–498.

Yakın Tarihimiz. 2014.M.Kemal’in muallimi Şemsi Efendi Kim? Retrieved 26 March, 2014. http://yakintarihimiz.org/m-kemalin-muallimi-semsi-efendi-kim.html

Wikipedia. 2014. The Dönmeh. Retrieved 26 March, 2014. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%C3%B6nmeh)

Show More
Related

  • secrets in faulkner's as i lay dying

    628 Words  | 2 Pages

    The word secret can be interpreted in two ways, as either an adjective “not known or seen or not meant to be known or seen by others” or a noun “something that is kept or meant to be kept unknown or unseen by others”; both with generally the same mean...

    Read More

  • Figurative Language In What Secrets Tell By Luc Sante

    749 Words  | 2 Pages

    In his article, “What Secrets Tell”, writer Luc Sante, Columbia University graduate accredited with multiple awards in writing and literature, discusses the unique types of secrets in the world along with reasoning people need to know, conceal, and reveal secrets. During the time of the publication of “What Secrets Tell” in the year 2000, America experienced low unemployment, the economy was strong, and America was not at war. Besides these positives at the time, America’s society had still not experienced the frightening and unforgettable event commonly known as 9/11. Sante develops this discussion by describing secrets through figurative language along with implementing historical and cultural allusions relating to United States lifestyle

    Read More

  • American Intelligence After World War II

    2548 Words  | 6 Pages

    Prados, John. Safe for Democracy The Secret Wars of the CIA. Chicago, IL: Ivan R Dee, Publisher, 2006.

    Read More

  • Privacy In Peter Singer's Possible Man

    1162 Words  | 3 Pages

    Peter Singer’s Visible Man: Ethics in a World without Secrets addresses the complicated notions of privacy in relation to technology. Singer goes on to elaborate the advantages and disadvantages of the surveillance of individuals, corporations, and government institutions. PostSecret is an ongoing community mail art project, created by Frank Warren in 2005, in which people mail their secrets anonymously on a homemade postcard. PostSecret together with various technologies has changed what society regards as private and how anonymity changes the concept of security. Privacy depends on the ability to keep information secret, however, technology and surveillance have made security unobtainable.

    Read More

  • The Turkish Pogrom of 1955 and the Elimination of the Greek Minority of Istanbul

    2537 Words  | 6 Pages

    ...itly the Christian Orthodox and Jews, which were the largest minority groups from Turkey. In addition, according to nationalist elites, these minorities were assimilable thus, were not capable of becoming part of the Turkish nation. Also, they stated that, the Non-Muslim minorities, mainly the Greek, were not composed of loyal citizens but possible traitors to the Turkish state (Guven 2006). Adnan Menderes believed that was national and extremely important responsibility of every Turk to implement the Turkification, in an attempt to establish an independent Turkish state. A corollary of this concept was the effort of assimilation of the Greek minority by force, exercising a policy of discrimination and restrictions against it. In this context, the language, culture and desires of Non-Muslim minorities had to be connected with the history and dignity of Turks.

    Read More

  • The Influence and Role of the Islamic Tradition in Turkey

    2529 Words  | 6 Pages

    17Kili, Dr. Suna. ?Islam and Secularism in Contemporary Turkey.? Voice of Ataturk: Ataturk Society of America. Web. Dec. 10 2013.

    Read More

  • The Inquisition and the Crypto-Jews

    1599 Words  | 4 Pages

    Hordes, Stanley. To the End of the Earth: a History of the Crypto-Jews of New Mexico. New

    Read More

  • The Sande Society

    1427 Words  | 3 Pages

    Most Americans have probably only heard of a small fraction the many African countries, and even less have heard of the tiny country of Sierra Leone, and most likely do not know anything about it. Those people are missing out on knowing all of the vibrant culture the country has to offer. And the glue that holds the cultures together is the Secret Societies of Sierra Leone, who created all the traditions that are in place today. Secret Societies were always a part of the Mende people’s culture and have influenced the entire country in many ways.These secret societies are just as mysterious as they are well known, and have existed for over a thousand years, but people still know so little about them today.

    Read More

  • A Life of Lies: The Facts and Fiction of Espionage

    1198 Words  | 3 Pages

    Espionage has always been a subject that has captured the thoughts and imaginations of many people. The idea of the glamorous life of espionage agents and spies with grand parties, high tech gadgets, and world destroying villains have led to the belief that spies live a life of adventure and almost science fiction. Real agents live far from that life in reality. Many live in constant fear of imprisonment or execution. The facts and fiction of espionage have become distorted overtime.

    Read More

  • Two-State Solution vs. One-State Solution

    650 Words  | 2 Pages

    Nisan, Mordechai. "The Druze In Israel: Questions Of Identity, Citizenship, And Patriotism." Middle East Journal 64.4 (2010): 575-596. Academic Search Premier. Web. 06 Nov. 2013.

    Read More

  • The Life and Death of Pan-Arabism Ideology

    2879 Words  | 6 Pages

    Hourani, Albert. A History of the Arab Peoples. Cambridge, MA: Belknap of Harvard UP, 1991. Print.

    Read More

  • Illuminati A Secret Society

    575 Words  | 2 Pages

    There is belief that there is a secret society that is even more precarious than the Freemasons. May 1,1776, Europe, during the American revolution there was a man named Adam Weishaupt who was a professor at the University of Ingolstadt in Bavaria. Weishaupt was the founder of the organization called The Illuminati. The Illuminati was a secret society set up in a very secluded way. The organizations main purpose was to infiltrate the Freemasons and take over the world.

    Read More

  • The Eleusinian Mysteries of Demeter and Persephone

    1104 Words  | 3 Pages

    "The Ancient Mysteries and Secret Societies." Secret Teachings of All Ages: , Part Three. N.p., 30 June 2007. Web. 04 Dec. 2013.

    Read More

  • The KGB

    2765 Words  | 6 Pages

    Throughout the years most country's governments have established some sort of secret police. No matter what the government called it, whether it is the United States' Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) or her Majesty's secret service (MI6), whatever name the government used, the international term of "secret police" could always be applied. Many agencies of secret police have had their success and failures, some more than others. The KGB, which in English means "the Committee of Public Safety," has had their share of both successes and failures. Most secret police agencies have been used primarily to obtain information from other countries. This was also a primary goal for the KGB, but one of their other goals, which was just as important, was to keep unwanted outside information from the Russian people. This was only one out of many the KGB's objectives. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to prove that the actions of the KGB were, all in all, a success.

    Read More

  • Gender Stereotypes in Fairytales

    996 Words  | 2 Pages

    BAYKAL, Nurulhude. "MURATHAN MUNGAN'in "ZAMANIMIZIN BİR KÜLKEDİSİ"Nİ MARKSİST KURAM ÇERÇEVESİNDE OKUMAK. (Turkish)." Milli Folklor 24.96 (2012): 137-147. Academic Search Premier. Web. 11 Nov. 2013.

    Read More

More about Secret Societies and Dönme Secrecy

Open Document