A COMMUNITY OTHERIZED BY CENTRAL INSTITUTIONAL AUTHORITY: ANSA BACILILAR

Ansa Bacililar is a significant part of Anatolian Alevism and traditional Turkish folk religiousness. The community known as Ansa Bacililar within Anatolian Alevism has been cited with reference to a charismatic leader named Ansa Baci who had lived in Acisu, a village of Zile in the 19th century. Before establishing its own ocak system, Ansa Bacililar was within Sirac-Alawite community connected to the ocak of Hubyar. However, in the first half of 19th century, Ansa Bacililar declared itself an independent ocak by terminating its allegiance to the ocak of Hubyar and its dedes because of their Sunni connection. Bearing the characteristics of a closed society based on unique social structure, system of values and kinship of faith and blood, Ansa Bacililar keeps their faith and practices alive. This study evaluates the discussions of the emergence of Ansa Bacililar as a separate community, and the otherization policies by the central institutional authority The main sources of the study depends on Ottoman archival documents and the qualitative data of the research still going on in the villages of Ansa Bacili in Zile and Cekerek. The data on the field research has been obtained by participated observatory and in-depth interviews. The data of written and verbal tradition has been tried to be interpreted. Thus, it has been concluded that the otherization policy of the central authority on Ansa Bacililar is a multi-dimensional phenomena in religious, moral and pressure-frustration regards.