Abstract
The experience of peddling in Dersim under the determinant forces of trade and security-oriented politics: The case of Zerenik village
Among the priorities of the state towards places identified with its ethno-cultural characteristics was to put these places under surveillance and control and thereby try to acquire data from them. Functioning within this given framework, the state tried to makes use of all the aspects-agents who maintained communication relations with the people living in this place. In this regard some economic agents while professing their trade functions were forced into a situation in which they came to serve for that prior demand of the state. In this way these economic agents have assumed different functions beside their main professions. Even these different functions make the main profession of these agents quiet grey. Under these circumstances perceptions towards this profession were shaped through utterly different reference points and as was became a subject of discussions with its new content. The experience of peddling (çerçilik) in Turkey as it was in this previous sense assuming different functions than simple trading became a subject of several perceptions and discussions. This article attempts to clarify the state of the differentiating functions of peddling in the context of security politics which has been a binding activity till our late history through the case of Dersim known with its particular ethno-cultural characteristics. As part of a wider perception in Dersim, based on a case study of village what sort of a process lie behind in the emergence of peddling and security oriented politics was clarified through analysis of the form of relations between peddlers and villagers.
Keywords
Peddler, Social Space, Security Politics, Economics, Dersim
