in 2002. Historians and ethnologists often use the additional appellative 'Yörük
Turcoman' or 'Turkmens' to describe the Yörüks of
Anatolia. In Turkey's general parlance today, the terms "Türkmen" and "Yörük" indicate the gradual degrees of preserved attachment with the former semi-nomadic lifestyle of the populations concerned, with the "
Turkmen" now leading a fully sedentary life, while keeping parts of their heritage through folklore and traditions, in arts like carpet-weaving, with the continued habit of keeping a
yayla house for the summers, sometimes in relation to the
Alevi community etc. and with Yörüks maintaining a stronger association with nomadism. These names ultimately hint at their
Oghuz Turkish roots. The remaining "true" Yörüks of today's Anatolia traditionally use horses as a means of transportation, though these are steadily being replaced by trucks. The Yörüks are divided in a large number of named endogamous patrilineal tribes (aşiret). Among recent tribes mentioned in the literature are Aksigirli, Ali Efendi, Bahsıs, Cakallar, Coşlu, Qekli, Gacar, Güzelbeyli, Horzum, Karaevli, Karahacılı, Karakoyunlu, Karakayalı, Karalar, Karakeçili, Manavlı, Melemenci, San Agalı, Sanhacılı, Sarıkeçili, Tekeli and Yeni Osmanlı. The tribes are splintered in clans or lineages, i.e.
kabile,
sülale or
oba. •
Anatolian Yörüks: Mersin Yörüks, Alaiye Yörüks, Tekeli Yörüks,
Bursa Yörüks, Haruniye Yörüks,
Maraş Yörüks, Ankara Yörüks, Eğridir Yörüks, Araç Yörüks, Taraklı Yörüks, Murtana Yörüks, Nacaklı Yörüks, Nasırlı Yörüks, Eski Yörüks, Toraman Yörük, Tacirleri Yörüks, Tor Yörüks.
Sarıkeçili Yörüks The
Sarıkeçili or "Yellow Goats" are the last Yörüks maintaining the nomadic way of life. They mainly live in
Mersin Province in the central-eastern parts of the
Turkish Mediterranean coast and consist of about 200 families. Their winter camps are in the coasts of
Silifke,
Gülnar and
Anamur. In summer they live in the districts of
Beyşehir and
Seydişehir in
Konya Province. Their nomad tents can be seen throughout the Mediterranean coastal sides of Turkey. This is a very common practice among old Turkic tribes in central Asia even nowadays. A
throat singing tradition, known as “Boğaz Havası” or “Boğaz Çalma”, has an important aspect in the culture of the Sarıkeçili Yörüks, it is performed by pressing the throat with a finger while singing with a sound.
Manavlı Yörüks Manavlı tribe or
Manavlı Yörüks is a Yörük tribe living in
Antalya,
Adana,
Aydın,
Manisa and the
Taurus Mountains. The Manavlı tribe appears in
Ottoman records as "Manavlı, Manavlu, Manavlar Perakendesi." Their settlements are listed as
İçil, Saruhan, and Alaiye
Sanjaks. It is believed that the Manavlı Yörüks took their name from the fact that they lived in old times near the town of
Manava, a
Byzantine settlement now lost and located near the modern
Manavgat. There is also the Manavlı Goat of the Yörüks.
Lifestyle French historian and
Turkologist Jean-Paul Roux visited the Anatolian Yörüks in the late 1950s and found that the majority of them were practicing
Sunni Muslims. The tribes he visited were led by elected officials called
muhtars, or village headmen, rather than hereditary chiefs, although he did note that village elders maintained some social authority based on their age. For the majority of the year, they lived in dark wool tents called
kara çadır. During the summer, they went up to the mountains, and in the winter they came down to the coastal plains. They kept a variety of animals, including goats, sheep, camels, and sometimes cattle. The focus of each tribe was the family unit. Young men would move directly from their family's tent to their own upon marriage. The Yörüks married
endogamously; that is, they married strictly within their own tribe. Children were raised by the tribe as a whole, who told Roux "we are all parents." Although the Yörüks had acquired a reputation for being deliberately resistant to formal education, Roux found that a full quarter of Yörük children he encountered were attending school, despite the difficulties of living a nomadic lifestyle in remote locations with limited access. ==Balkans==