The Persistence of a “Traditional” Practice: Turkish Tea Encounters Glocal Changes

We examine how a mundane practice, such as tea-drinking in Turkey, can persist in the global era of changes and diversity, and against the projects and values of modernity and globalization. We find that it survives through the ethos of “traditional” Turkish tea, (re)presenting Turkish culture - values of sociality, characteristic artifacts, and institutions such as the family. It continues by flexible interpretation and practice of canons which in turn afford measured inclusion of new materials and discourses; and through fleeting and/or punctuated enactments of sociality. We show that a routine can persist by becoming special in some spaces and at certain times. However, such transformation does not preclude its ongoing existence as a mundane practice. That is, the ordinary and the special are not divided realms.

Citation:

Olga Kravets and Guliz Ger (2011) ,"The Persistence of a “Traditional” Practice: Turkish Tea Encounters Glocal Changes", in E - European Advances in Consumer Research Volume 9, eds. Alan Bradshaw, Chris Hackley, and Pauline Maclaran, Duluth, MN : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 35-36.