“It was (not) the right custom”. The ritual of left hand raising in the thanatological discourse of the Circassians diaspora

Abstract

The custom of raising the left hand has been preserved until recently in the thanatological practices of one of the Circassian diaspora communities in Turkey (Uzunyayla – Kayseri). According to the stereotypical narrative descriptions of the ritual, one of the groups arriving at the funeral slowly steps forward, taking three steps from the left foot, and slowly raises the left wrist to the level of the chin, temple, or crown. By raising his hand, the condolent publicly expresses the recognition of the social status of the deceased. According to informants, in the late 1980s, the custom was eradicated under the pressure from the Islamic clergy. Those who opposed its cessation understood this custom as a sacred one ‘brought from the ancestral homeland’ and bequeathed by Zhabagi Kazanoko (the folkloric and historical hero, philosopher, humanist and reformer of the 18th century).
The idea of “reviving” the ritual was initiated during the pandemic, when mass gatherings and physical contacts (handshakes and embraces, which are common in ordinary funeral practices) were prohibited. In particular, in relation to the Day of Remembrance of the Victims of the Caucasian War (celebrated by the Circassian community annually on May 21), it was proposed to hold an online campaign for posting photos with a raised left hand.
The explicit and hidden strategies of actualizing the ritual of raising the left hand as “our own”, “the primordial” and ‘undeservedly forgotten one’ are analyzed in this work on the material of the texts of classical folklore (heroic legends) and memoranda recorded by the author during fieldwork, as well as posts on the social media. The main aim of the research is to show how the bearers of the tradition reproduce (verbally and visually) the stable and changeable structures of a narrative / a ritual under the influence of certain ideological dominants.