EGT A Fez of the Heart

Prologue to A Fez of the Heart: Travels around Turkey in Search of a Hat by Jeremy Seal.

a. Choose one passage from the reading that you found particularly interesting.  Why was this interesting?

1. One passage that I found interesting was pages 11 and 12 when talking about fezzes and how people’s view on them have changed. I found it interesting that something that was once a cultural symbol and iconic of Turkish culture, had been frowned upon and discouraged to the point where it was forbidden for the people to wear them in daily life. I think that it was especially interesting that it was “bidden” for the fezzes to be worn to attract tourists, but not in normal life. I found it interesting that the emergence of tourism and Western culture, not only brought new ideas and culture, but that it discouraged traditional values and items. For example, when the author buys a fez the storeowner seems disappointed and disgusted in his product. When he says “ I think you are not modern”, it shows that the Turkish people have lost the value of their culture and their happiness, but are now focused on fitting in, making a profit, and are embarrassed of their traditional culture.

b. Use examples from this reading to illustrate the interaction between economics and culture.

2. The example of fezzes also showed an unfortunate interaction between economics and culture. A conversation the narrator has with a store employee tells the full story of what has become of the culture. Seal writes “My boss like me to wear it,’ he replied in English. ‘He think to bring tourists.’ From his disgruntlement, it was apparent that he was an unwilling fez wearer” (Seal pg 13). This conversation shows that although it is not values in society anymore and they do not care for it, the employee’s boss was ready to exploit the former culture, regardless of his opinion on it, as long as he could a make a cheap dollar off it. Another disturbing interaction I found was how easily the tourists cities abandoned their ideals and beliefs as long as they could make money. For example, bikinis were once greatly frowned upon and women were once stoned for wearing them in towns and cities, because it went against the culture of Pomegranate. However, as more and more tourists came and were willing to pay higher prices, the citizens stopped caring because they were making money and it helped their economy. In fact, the citizens soon turned completely against their beliefs and started advertising the bikinis and put signs by picture of bikinis saying “No Problem In Turkey”, by doing this they abandoned their culture in order to make money. This related well to Seal’s point about how life their was no longer fun, but now was just about business.

c. Beyond the specific example of this town in Turkey, what connections or conflicts do you see between tourism and economics or tourism and culture?

Outside of this example, I believe there are many connections between tourism and economics or culture. In India the environment and culture in the tourist cities and near tourist sites is very different than the culture in other areas of India. These areas are more developed and while they do focus on the traditional culture and Indian values, they do so while still incorporating many Western and modern values as well. For example in these areas English is a much more prominent language than it is elsewhere, and many people from tour guides, to waiters, to employee at shops must be fluent in English to provided for the needs of the tourists. In this case there is no negative effect of tourism on the culture, in fact the traditional monument and culture drive the tourism and economy in these parts.