On the Usage of Animals and Plants as Measure Units in Turkic Culture Through Its Historical Development

Abstract

Animals and plants are referred to as symbols or cults in almost all societies as a mean of expression, and this contributed to the making of social structures. They played an eminent role in the daily life of the Old Turkic society, like in all peoples. Turks have been familiar with various animals and plants throughout history, changing according to circumstances of the climates in which they have lived, and their relations with the nature varied in accordance with the changing social structures. Before accepting the heavenly religions, Turks lived as hunter-gatherers and then in pastoral society form, thus accordingly developing a nomadic or semi-nomadic culture. Lastly they turned to be farming society by adopting sedentary life. Though changes in social life were great, Turks were not influenced by them in terms of conceiving the cosmos. But relations with different societies started cultural interaction and influenced role of animals and plants on the human destiny. As a result of those cultural interactions, there appeared new necessities, and therefore new cultural productions. It is possible to find traces of this close interaction, which was consequence of the steppe culture with the predatory society, in many cultural products from literary production to the calendar systems. This survey deals with view of the Turks on animals and plants in this sense, and pays attention to the 12-animal Turkic calendar and other elements used in chronometry as time measuring units.