About Collection

This collection includes images, notes and diaries, and an extended geneaological map of nomadic Yörük tribal families collected during the fieldwork of ethnologist Ulla Johansen in Türkiye in 1956-57. Danish-born Ulla Johansen donated her collection to Koç University in 2014, which she created during her field study on Yörüks in Anatolia in 1956-1957. Yörüks coming from Central Asia via Iran is one of the relatively recently settled Turkish communities on horseback. Typically, they live in nomadic life and travel in tents set out on plains or plateaus. In Anatolia and Rumelia (Balkans), they maintained the same old lifestyle, but after the Islamization of some of the Oghuz tribes known as Türkmen, the nomadic lifestyle continued to be known as Yörük. The collection includes photographs taken during the fieldwork, negatives, diaries, notes, and an extended ancestry map of nomadic Yörük families. In 2015, the materials represented by the Anatolian Yörüks which constitute Ulla Johansen Anatolian Ethnology Collection, were digitized by the Koç University Suna Kıraç Library, became the basis for Johansen’s scientific publications and articles throughout her career.

Collection Summary

Title: Ulla Johansen Anatolian Ethnology Collection
Date range: 1956-57
Creator(s): Ulla Johansen
Institution: Suna Kıraç Library, Special Collections and Archives
Collection Number: UJ.01
Extent: 3 boxes
Language(s): German
Abstract: This collection includes images, notes and diaries, and an extended geneaological map of nomadic Yörük tribal families collected during the fieldwork of ethnologist Ulla Johansen in Türkiye in 1956-57.