Karapınar (Malatya)

Karapınar is a village of Hekimhan district in Malatya Province, Turkey.

History

The word of "Karapınar" connotes as "Black Spring Water". Village's name stems from the village's main spring water. Although this village was established more than 400 years ago there is still evidence of old settlement believed to date back to Romans time. The villagers of Karapinar came here from different places during Ottoman Empire era.It is located at the south slopes of Yama mount. At the border of Malatya and Sivas provinces. Karapınar was located on the historical Silk Road. Almost all the area of the village is rough, stony and mountainous. There is no any river/creek in the area.Due to these geographic conditions, agricultural production of village is low.At 1995, Karapınar was relocated to the 10 km south of old village due to a landslip. Old Karapinar were located up in the mountains. On the score of this fact, it was very hard and gruelling for villagers to travel to towns and back. There were none or very limited means of transportation other than mules and horses. The houses in the old village were just clusters of dirt and stone with dirt-covered flat roofs. In winter times when it would snow you had to scrape it off or when it would rain you had to roll cylinder-shape cut stone all over the roof to stiffen the dirt in order to stop rain water go trough the roof and dribble down in house. It was so arduous life when you compare it with the life in the new village. The new village is more way closer to intercities highways. The new houses of the new village are made of reinforced concrete with tile roof on top. The construction of the new village started in 1993 and completed in 1995 and funded solely by the government.The new Karapinar consists of around 50 houses with a single mosque. There is no school since there are no school-age kids in the village. Karapinar has sewer system,telephone connection and drinking water network and had a stabilized road to Hekimhan, Malatya and Sivas.

Culture

Generally in Turkish culture and especially in eastern Anatolia of Turkey,household is highly important, everything mostly revolves around it. Within it, the main human physiological needs are met - shelter, rest, food legitimate intercourse - and the most intimate and emotionally important social relations played out. One reason for this is the very economic unity, which until recently united the main occupation of men as well as women closely to the household group. A second reason is the strict segregation of the sexes and the fierce attitudes to feminine honour,in Turkey, especially in the eastern part of Turkey mens' first and foremost duty they believe is to protect his family honour and to provide his family needs. Men form the permanent core of any normal household.Mens are the head of the family and they lead household. The senior man, father or father's father of the other male members, owns the fabric of the house, and usually owns most or all of the land. His sons and grandsons are born into and remain in the household until his death, when one of his sons, usually the eldest, remains in this house as head, and the younger sons, sooner or later, build up their own independent households.In Turkey's village culture, the father's authority is strongly emphasised. Sons are expected to obey their fathers, and on the whole they do. Respect is based on a series of formal rules. One does not answer back, one does not speak in public in one's fathers presence without specific invitation. Sons do not smoke in their father's presence. Schooling apart, fathers are almost entirely responsible for educating and training their sons in socially acceptable behaviour, and in the essential farming skills. Sons are expected from about the age of eight to watch, water and feed the household animals, and at about twelve they learn to handle a plough. I believe being a kid in the village was relatively much way tougher than being a kid in cities back in 80s and earlier. they used to grow uu in utmost poverty with scanty of clothes and black rubber shoes.

In village culture, brotherhood is very strong. More than any other kin, brothers are tossed together by the social system. If they are fairly close in age, they are likely to be lifelong neighbours, and the intimacy of a childhood under a common roof is likely to continue throughout life as neighbourly co-operation and mutual dependence. Bound by common interests in inheritance and common duties to their parents and to their close agnates, they very often maintain a flow of daily contact and mutual services throughout life.

The women are the owners and the core of the household, yet they work and talk and amuse themselves as far as possible outside it. The grown women of a household are strangers brought in as wives from some other household, except, rarely, for daughters or sisters due to marry out, or to return to their husbands. They are all, in one way or another, appendages of the core of male agnates. Adult women have rights and interests in more than one household, yet they belong unequivocally to none. In spite of this marginal position, they work and talk and amuse themselves largely within the household in which they reside, and their presence is indispensable to its daily routine.

Mothers and daughters. Women want sons, but this does not mean that they do not love daughters. Girls grow up with the women of the household, and learn their most important lessons from their mother, helping her in all the household tasks. This intimacy, greater than that between any other pair of different generations, is violently interrupted by the girl's marriage, which normally takes place about puberty or soon after. Marriage is a time of acute grief to the bride's mother. After marriage, a girl still looks to her own mother for help, advice and comfort. She visits regularly; if the distance is great, then for a month or so once a year; if her mother is in the same village, then frequently and casually. If she is ill, everyone expects her to be sent home to be nursed by her own mother.

Sisters. Before marriage, sisters are as close to each other as brothers; how this initial intimacy develops in later life depends on the physical distance and social relations between the households into which they marry. If they marry into the same household, or two very closely related households, or even if they are in the same village, they will normally maintain close co-operation throughout life.

Co- Wives; Co-wives live under one roof. The villagers did not have a common term for co-wives, but they had, and used frequently, a term for a second wife, a word which carried decidedly derogatory overtones,kuma. Only one or two men in Karapinar actually had two wives. It happens mostly due to infertility of previous wife. They just marry another woman in the sake of having kids in order to continue their family generation.Nowadays, since young population of village people dwell in cities above - stated form of life no longer could be observed in Karapinar village. The new generation mostly adapt themselves and their life style to the standards of city life.

Neighbour villages

Akmara and Kaymak village at east, , Kavacık and Akçamara villages at west, Yeşilkale village at south,Karacaören at southwest, Kutan village at north and Dereyurt at northeast.

Climate

Terrestrial climate is dominant in the area with hot and dry summers and cold, long and snowy winters.

Population

Starting from 1960s, Karapınar have gone through mass immigration due to economical circumstances. Most preferred cities were Malatya, İstanbul and some other cities around Turkey. There is also a small number of families in some European countries.In summer time, the population of Karapinar doubles up as people of Karapınar come over for family reunion and visits.

Economy

After 1960s generally in Turkey and particularly in Kaparapınar,more mechanization of agriculture and infrastructure was implemented in order to increase productivity and to grow the agricultural economy. At the same time, migration in Turkey and in Karapınar as well, began as people sought to find temporary or longer term work while the economy was weak at home. When rural investment for farming were expanded with the introduction of tractors and technical assistance of rural road system the economy and activities began to grow in Karapinar. However, despite this technical improvement, oxen-drawn plough plow remained in use for some time for the hard-to-reach places with tractors since most of the area of the village was rough, stony and mountainous.At present,main economical activities in village are; agriculture, stockbreeding and wool rope production.

ee also

[http://tr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karap%C4%B1nar,_Hekimhan]

References

"Turkish Village", Copyright 1965, 1994 (Paul Stirling)
"Research On History of Karapinar", 2005 (Recayi Ertan)