International Journal of Humanities and Social Science Vol. 7, No. 4; April 2017 104 An Analysis of Items Based on ‘Cult of Sun-Fire’ in Local Culture and Music in Turkey: Case of Adiyaman Province Assoc. Prof. Dr. Banu MUSTAN DÖNMEZ İnönü University Fine Arts and Design Faculty, Department of Musicology Malatya, Turkey Lecturer Mehmet Sadık DOĞAN Adıyaman University Faculty of Education, Department of Music Education Adıyaman, Turkey Abstract This study carries out a culture analysis of the items based on the cult of sun-fire in the local culture and music of Adıyaman region. Located in the South East of Turkey, Adıyaman is a city where the communities of two different cultures, Alevi and Sunni, as well as Syrians who belong to the Orthodox Christian denomination predominantly live. Moreover, it is the region where the Syrian Metropolitan resides. Kurdish is one of the most widely used languages in the region as well as Turkish. The primary research was carried out on the concept of “fire” in regional phrases and idioms in order to understand the reflection of the cult of fire on the culture. The second area of research addressed traditional clothing, scenes of folk dances, rituals of jumping over fire accompanied by music in Nowruz (new day/spring festival) celebrations, religious or secular music lyrics and musical-religious rituals of different faiths, and all these accounts were substantiated by images, photographs and musical notes in order to identify in what way the cult of fire is present in the culture. This study reveals that the repercussions of the cult of sun-fire are not only observed in the legends, phrases and expressions in the language, but also in unreligious-secular musical texts, religious-nonreligious musical practices, traditional clothing and scenes of folk dances of Adıyaman region. Doing so, the study analyzes the presence of the cult of fire in tangible and intangible cultural products and substantiates the findings using visual elements. + Keywords: 1. Adıyaman, 2. Cult, 3. Fire, 4. Sun, 5. Culture, 6. Folklore, 7. Music, 8. Turkey 1. Introduction There are various practices of cults based on fire and their derivatives in the socio-cultural structure of the different communities living in Anatolia. We can find Shamanism-related practices in the cults of fire introduced to Anatolia from Central Asia by the Turks. It is no coincidence that the communities that perform these practices include the elements of fire in their subconscious patterns of behavior carried to today by their protocultures in their historical backgrounds. These patterns of behavior present themselves in culture and music practices. Within this context, Boratav makes the following statement: “The traces of the cult of fire in Anatolia which, on the one hand, reach back to Central Asian shamanistic traditions and, on the other hand, to pre-Turkic Anatolian history, can also be seen in specific rituals and traditions of today’s society. A purifying force is attributed to fire; this is observed in a tradition called Betlem Bayramı (Betlem Celebration) also referred to as Betnem, Gavurküfrü (curse of the infidel) or Hasır küfrü (curse of the rush mat). This tradition, until recently, has been performed mostly by children, young girls and women during the Christian Easter. Participants jumped over a big fire started using juniper tree branches or old cushions. This action provided protection from diseases throughout the year. In Balıkesir and Bergama regions, domestic animals used to pass by a fire accompanied by their owners for protection from epidemics. This fire had to be started by two naked men rubbing two pieces of wood against each other and the stove fire which, died down in the meantime, used to be started again using the very same fire.