1. SOCIAL STRATIFICATION
Classes and Castes:The most important
determinants of social status are wealth and
education. The basic categories include the
wealthy urban educated class, the urban middle
class, the urban lower class, the large rural
landowner class, and the general rural
population. A university education is the
minimum qualification for entry into the urban
educated class, in which there are numerous
substrata.

2. • Distinctions can be drawn between the urban upper and
urban middle classes. The urban upper class includes
several groups with high status determined by education,
political influence, and wealth. Wealthy businessmen are
accorded very high status, as are successful physicians,
cabinet ministers, and many members of the assembly,
directors of important government departments, and other
high-level officials. Since World War II, businessmen have
challenged the old military–bureaucratic elite for power
and social prestige. Members of the urban upper class are
generally westernized; most speak at least one Western
language, are well acquainted with European or American
life and culture, and have close contact with the diplomatic
and foreign business communities.

3. • The urban middle class includes most civil
servants, proprietors of medium-size businesses
and industries, many persons in service
occupations, some skilled workers, and university
students. These groups usually are less
westernized than the upper class and more
oriented to Turkish culture. The urban middle
class also includes virtually the entire upper
strata of the provincial cities. There is
considerable mobility within the urban educated
class.

4. • The urban lower class includes semiskilled and
unskilled laborers, low-paid service workers, and
the urban unemployed. The high rate of
migration of young villagers to urban areas makes
this the most rapidly growing class. Many
migrants have difficulty finding jobs, and others
work only seasonally. Many live in poverty in the
shantytowns that ring the major cities.
Urbanization continues as the rural population
grows and urban industry offers better incomes.

5. • Some 30 percent of the population are rural farmers,
often referred to as peasants. Improved
communications and transportation have brought
them into closer contact with towns and cities.
Educational efforts since 1923 succeeded in bringing
the national literacy level up to 82.3 percent by 1995,
although the rural literacy level is lower. Some eastern
rural areas are still dominated by large landowners,
traditional clan heads, and religious leaders. Young
villagers who migrate to towns and cities cannot find
their way into the middle class unless they receive
further education.

6. Symbols of Social Stratification
• Most men of all social classes have adopted Western
styles of dress, including trousers, shirts, and jackets.
Men and women in the upper and middle urban
classes pay attention to Western fashions. They also
live in high-priced apartments and try to possess
Western luxury items, such as cars, electronic devices,
cell phones, and computers. They have developed a
taste for Western literature and music and attend
musical events and plays. The upper class favors
European-language high schools and universities; the
middle class is more satisfied with standard Turkish
educational institutions. Both classes prefer to speak
an educated Istanbul style of standard Turkish.

7. • Most members of the lower urban classes live in
shantytowns. Only a small proportion have graduated
from high school ( lise ). The women tend to wear
traditional conservative clothing, including head
scarves and long coats, even in the summer. They favor
Turkish and Middle Eastern music. The peasant and
rural classes are the least exposed to Western and
urban influences in dress, styles, language, and music.
They, like the lower urban class, tend to speak Turkish
with regional accents and grammatical peculiarities.
The women wear conservative peasant dress consisting
of baggy pantaloons and head scarve

8. Marriage, Family, and Kinship
• Marriage. Turks expect adults to marry and have
children, and the vast majority do. Because men should
not lower their wives' standard of living, they are not
supposed to marry women of a higher economic class.
People generally marry within their own religious sect
and ethnic group, although interethnic marriages
among Sunni Muslims are not uncommon. In
traditional Turkish society, the selection of spouses and
the marriage ceremony were controlled by kin groups.
During the premarital process, the individuals to be
married played minor roles. The rituals, especially the
imam marriage ceremony, were essential for a morally
and socially acceptable marriage.

9. • In 1926, the revolutionary Turkish government abolished Islamic family law and
adopted a slightly modified version of the family law in the Swiss civil code. The
new Family Law requires and recognizes civil marriage ceremonies only. It requires
the consent of mature individuals for a binding marriage contract and prescribes
monogamy only. Even though the law prohibits parents from entering into
engagement or marital agreements on behalf of their children, arranged marriages
without the consent of the brides have been somewhat common. In a 1968 survey,
11.4 percent of women said their marriages had been arranged by their families
without their consent, while 67 percent said they had had family-arranged
marriages with their consent. The figures for the unconsented arranged marriages
ranged from 7.7 percent for women living in Istanbul, Ankara, and Izmir to 11.3
percent to 12.5 percent for women living in smaller cities, towns, and villages. An
impressive 49.9 percent of the husbands surveyed said their fathers or other
relatives had made the final decision about their marriages. This response
category ranged from 59.1 percent for village men to 15.3 percent for men in
Istanbul, Ankara, and Izmir. Today the vast majority of marriages occur with the
couple's consent, but families still play a role recommending and screening
potential spouses, especially for their daughters.

10. • Even though divorce is not considered an Islamic sin, it
occurs infrequently. Divorcees, especially men with
children, quickly remarry, usually to divorced women.
The new code eliminated a husband's Islamic
prerogative of verbal and unilateral divorce and
prescribed a court proceeding. The law recognizes only
six grounds for divorce: adultery; plot against life, grave
assaults, and insults; crime or a dishonorable life;
desertion; mental infirmity; and incompatibility. The
evidentiary requirements are so substantial that
establishing one of these grounds has proved difficult.
A couple cannot divorce by mutual consent.

11. • Domestic Unit, Inheritance, and Kin Groups. Traditionally, most
Turks traced their descent and passed on property, especially
homes and land, through the male line. Even though most
households have always contained only one nuclear family, the
ideal household, especially among the rural and urban wealthy, was
patrilocal extended, in which a son and his bride lived in his parents'
home after marriage. The basic kinship units are the family ( aile )
and the household ( hane ). Household members normally eat
together and share income and expenses. The next larger unit is the
patrilineage ( sulale ), consisting of relatives connected
intergenerationally by a common male ancestor. While patrilineage
is important to old, noble Ottoman families and tribal peoples, it is
of little significance to most Turks.

12. • The traditional Turkish household is
characterized by male dominance, respect for
elders, and female subservience. The father or
oldest male is the head, an authority figure
who demands respect and obedience. The
mother is also respected, but her relationship
with her children is warm and informal.

13. • Although supreme authority ordinarily rests with
the father, the household is usually mother-
centered. The mother, being largely confined to
the home, manages and directs its internal
affairs. The division of labor has traditionally
been clear-cut, with women having responsibility
for the internal home, and men providing the
income and representing the household to the
outside world. Before the 1960s, even grocery
shopping was a male duty.

14. • In recent decades, much of this has changed.
The new Family Law grants women equal
rights to private property and inheritance. A
larger percentage of women work outside the
home, and educated women demand more
equal rights.