At the girl's home the public ceremony is usually restricted to several nights of dancing by a close circle of female kin and neighbors.

On the day of consummation, or the night before, a group of seven or eight women, relatives and neighbors of the groom are selected to be escorted by a party of men to the bride's home. When they arrive, the men and women are entertained and dined separately. Then amid much fanfair and weeping, the bride leaves in a procession with her new neighbors and relations to her new home. Ideally, she should make the trip mounted on a white horse, but in reality she may leave on a horsedrawn cart, on a donkey, in a taxi or truck, or on foot. The final ceremony at the threshold of the new household varies, but it always serves to end the festivities.

Before this final day an exchange of wealth between the two households takes place. The bride's household is responsible for providing the trousseau, usually containing such things as mattresses and bedding, home-woven donkey bags and rugs, a supply of clothes for the bride, and presents of clothing for all the members of the bridegroom's household and close kin, especially the bridegroom himself.

The bride price paid by the groom's household varies in worth depending upon the wealth of the respective households and the value of the bride's trousseau. It is usually paid in cash although in some cases gold ornaments may substitute for part or all of it. Between 1950 and 1955 inflation and other factors drove average bride prices up from around LT 500 to LT 2000 (LT 2.80 equalled US$1 during the period mentioned).

The payment of bride price does not constitute a sale as some educated, urban Turks believe. When such is suggested to villagers, they fiercely deny it with the question, "Are our daughters cattle that we should sell them?" The bride price is really regarded as a sort of quid pro quo for the trousseau, with which it is most often systematically evaluated and compared.

Divorce

The conflict of the two systems of law-civil and traditionalis again evident in divorce proceedings. The state recognizes only the civil one as legal, though most villagers ignore the law.

Women have the same rights to a civil divorce as men. Among the legal grounds for either party are adultery, desertion, insanity, incompatibility, and felony. Mutual consent is not sufficient grounds for divorce, but public opinion in both urban and village areas strongly favor its inclusion. Opposition to civil divorce procedures centers on the courts' generosity in granting maintenance

payments to women. It is objected that the payments are commonly more than a man can afford and that they are allowed to a woman who is herself the guilty party. Civil divorces have several built-in deterrents, such as court procedures, strict rules of evidence, delays, complicated procedures, and expenses.

According to traditional Islamic law a man may divorce his wife by pronouncing any words of dismissal three times. Once a woman is divorced, she should wait 100 days before marrying again. Actually, Islamic law is only loosely followed. A man may formally dismiss his wife only to realize that he cannot get on without her, and he will not hesitate in recalling her. No concern is made over the fact that according to Islamic law the couple is divorced and cannot remarry.

If a woman desires a divorce, she will simply leave her husband's household and return to that of her nearest living relative. In such a case neither civil nor Islamic law recognizes the divorce, but if reasons are satisfactory, the community sanctions it. In fact a prolonged separation of a man and his wife, initiated by either for whatever reasons, tends to be synonymous in meaning and consequence with divorce. The primary cause of divorce initiated by men is sterility of the wife. For those initiated by women, maltreatment on the part of the husband or bad feeling between the wife's and husband's kin group are two chief reasons.

Urban Patterns

Family patterns in urban areas are generally characteristic of the direction in which rural patterns are changing. There are still significant differences between the two, but it is gradually lessening. The scope and significance of kinship relations in the cities are considerably less than in the villages. Friendship, neighbor, and business relations are more functional and relevant to urban life. Kin become relatively dispersed and new relationships, such as employer-employee, operate in circumstances which either do not exist or which are covered by kinship relations in rural areas (see ch. 6, Social Structure).

Nuclear family households are the most common household form in the cities and large towns. Economic specialization, which sends each male (and sometimes females) on their separate ways, does not require an extended family unit to provide for the needs of its members. Nevertheless, joint families still exist in small numbers in urban areas, although they are rarely fully extended.

Because of this, relationships within the household are generally limited to those of husband-wife, father-children, mother-children, and children-children. These relationships are not greatly different from those in rural areas, although the changes in the urban

woman's status has affected them. Finally, there is much more adherence to the Civil Code, with respect to marriage and divorce proceedings, than there is in rural areas. Since 1950, there has been something of a resurgence of religious marriage ceremonies in urban areas, but they are always accompanied by a civil ceremony.

CHAPTER 8

LIVING CONDITIONS

Western influences have become predominant in the cities and towns of Turkey, and old tradition no longer plays a central role in determining the urban manner of living. From the cities and towns, change is spreading to the relatively static society of the villages. The process has been slow, but a growing rate of urbanization since the early 1950's has been accompanied by increasing change in the way of life of many of the people. New trends are giving rise to a dynamic commercialized order of the kind that developed earlier in Western Europe. The radio, motion pictures, newspapers, and improved transportation have all been factors contributing to change.

Despite a trend toward the cities a majority of the people still live in villages. The typical peasant is the central Anatolian who owns just enough land to support his family. He is rugged, dour and reserved, sensitive to criticism, and normally abides by a strict set of moral values. He is slow to accept change and patterns of living in the villages reflect his conservatism. Lacking most modern amenities such as electricity and central water supply, isolated by poor communications, the village way of life offers few of the material advantages enjoyed by the residents of the relatively modern and well-developed cities and larger towns.

Under the Ottoman Empire health care was left largely to a few charitable and religious organizations and, except in the larger cities where up-to-date private facilities could be found, health services consisted of folk medicine or religious prescriptions. Since establishment of the Republic the government has taken a lead in combating disease and establishing modern health services and facilities. Mass preventive campaigns have virtually eliminated the severe epidemics that once caused heavy losses in the rural areas. Educational programs and public works have raised the standard of sanitation and public hygiene. Improved hospitals and other medical facilities have been established and a professional staff has been built up. By 1968 the cities and larger towns had access to good health care, although total medical resources were spread rather thin. Rural health facilities were limited both in scope and coverage.