Türk ve Japon Modernleşmesi: 'Uygarlık Süreci' - Birikim

36■Turkish and Japanese modernisation: A comparisonin terms of the concept of ‘civilizing process’This paper analyses the eclectic cultural patterns which combined Western andindigenous culture in the everyday lives of the Meici Japanese and the OttomanTurkish elites during the nineteenth century. The uses of dress, home interiors,and etiquette by elites are discussed in the comparative framework of NorbertElias’ “civilizing process” that engendered the modern individual in the West,The paper argues that the individual in both countries underwent a new “civilizingprocess” due to the introduction of Western culture to an existent milieu ofcivilization. The introduction engendered the politically charged symbolism ofbi-cultural forms. In the process of constructing a “modern persona”, the individualin both societies faced the “double” tension stemming from the self-perceptionof the rational in Western and traditional culture representing “civilizedbehavior” in public spheres. Unlike the standard arguments that see traditionas the emotive haven of security from the tension of modernity, the individualin Japan and Turkey found emotive refuge in alternative eclectic cultural environmentswith less defined cultural boundaries in private interior spheres.