The Turkish Online Journal of Design, Art and Communication - TOJDAC April 2016 Volume 6 Issue 2 Submit Date: 10.03.2016, Acceptance Date: 27.03.2016, DOI NO: 10.7456/10602100/013 Copyright © The Turkish Online Journal of Design, Art and Communication 193 EVIL EYE BELIEF IN TURKISH CULTURE: MYTH OF EVIL EYE BEAD Bilgen TUNCER MANZAKOĞLU bilgentm@gmail.com Saliha TÜRKMENOĞLU BERKAN Doğuş University, Industrial Product Design Department turkmenoglu_saliha@yahoo.com ABSTRACT Evil eye belief is found in many parts of the world and it plays a major social role in a large number of cultural contexts. The history of evil eye bead usage dated back to ancient times, but upon time it’s meaning have been re-constructed by culture. This paper focused on an amulet based commodity “evil eye bead” used against evil eye and for ornament in Turkey. In order to analyze the myth of evil eye bead, two-sectioned survey was conducted. First section determined evil eye belief rate, participant profile and objects against evil eye. In the second section, the semantic dimensions of evil eye bead was analyzed in the myth level encompassing its perception and function as a cultural opponent act. This paper interrogated the role of culture, geography, and history on the evil eye bead myth. Keywords: Evil Eye Bead, Culture, Myth, Semiology. TÜRK KÜLTÜRÜNDE NAZAR İNANCI: NAZAR BONCUĞU MİTİ ÖZ Nazar inancı dünyanın bir çok bölgesinde bulunmakta ve kültürel bağlamda önemli bir sosyal rol üstlenmektedir.Nazar boncuğunun kullanımı antik zamanlara dayanmakla birlikte, taşıdığı anlam zaman içerisinde kültür ile birlikte yeniden inşa edilmiştir. Türkiye’de hem süs eşyası hem de kem göze karşı kullanılan nazar boncuğu bu makalenin ana konusudur. Nazar boncuğu mitini analiz etmek için iki aşamalı anket çalışması yürütülmüştür. İlk aşamada nazara inanılıp inanılmadığı, katılımcı profili ve nazara karşı kullanılan nesneler belirlenmiştir. İkinci aşamada ise, nazar boncuğu, nazara karşıt etken olarak semantic boyutları ile birlikte irdelenmiştir. Anahtar kelimeler: Nazar boncuğu, Kültür, Mit, Semiyotik EVIL EYE BELIEF When you feel completely happy, or love someone above all else, or laugh too much, or everything goes quite well in the same period, do you ever possessed of fear to lose it? The evil eye phenomenon is the simple belief, based on the emotion of jealously, envy, desire, or admire to someone or something. Someone can cause harm by looking at another’s property or person. This kind of belief is found in many parts of the world, and it plays a major social role in a large number of cultural contexts around the world (Maloney, 1976). The evil eye is commonly associated with envy, and conveyed by a look, touch or verbal expression of envy or by excessive admire and praise without a blessing (Elworthy 1895, 1-43). In Turkish culture, there is also similar approach on the basis of evil eye beliefs, named as ‘nazar’. The origin of the word is Arabic, means ‘to look, to look at’ (Er M., 2005:13; Hançerlioğlu, 1984). The term ‘nazar’ is used by means of ‘eye touch’ to be cause damage to human, livestock or object (Er M., 2005:13; Pakalın, 1972; Marcais 1960, 784-6). In ancient Turkish dictionary ‘Divânu Lügati't- Türk’, Kaşgarlı Mahmud defines evil eye as a fatal power that comes into being from bad effects and to ward it off “egit” – a kind of medicine, used for protection from evil eye - and “moncuk-boncuk”-