The Construction of National Identity through Cybernetic Process: The Example of “K’na” Dance Event in Greek and Turkish Thrace

Abstract

Abstract The research field of this paper is the area of Thrace, a large geopolitical-cultural unit that was divided – due to political reasons – in three subareas distributed among three different countries: Bulgaria, Turkey and Greece. A dance event that used to take place before the border demarcation but is still performed in the Greek and Turkish Thrace is that of “K’na”, a wedding dance event danced by the people of both border areas, despite of the changes in their magical-religious beliefs and the changes brought by socio-economic and cultural development. In particular, the aim of this paper is the study of the “construction” of the national identity of inhabitants both of Greek and Turkish Thrace, as this is manifested through the dance practice within the wedding event of “K’na”, through the lens of sociocybernetics. Data was gathered through ethnographic method as this is applied to the study of dance, while its interpretation was based on sociocybernetics according to Burke’s identity control theory. From the data analysis, it is showed that the “K’na” dance in Greek and Turkish Thrace constructs and reconstructs the national identity of the people who use them as a response to the messages they receive via the communication with “the national others”. In conclusion, the “construction” of the identity results from a continuous procedure of self-regulation and self-control through a cybernetic sequence of steps.