Creating Fairy Tales: Children’s Discovery of Unity in a Yoga Class in Turkey Cover Image

Masallar Yaratmak: Türkiye’de Bir Yoga Sınıfında Çocukların Birlikteliği Keşfi
Creating Fairy Tales: Children’s Discovery of Unity in a Yoga Class in Turkey

Author(s): Fazıla Derya Agış
Subject(s): Anthropology
Published by: Bilim ve Kültür
Keywords: peace education; anthropology of sport; anthropology of education; expansive education; conflict management

Summary/Abstract: I conducted fieldwork among yogi children in Ankara, Turkey in April 2011; in this paper of mine, I analyze the tales created by the yoga instructor in order to make the children perform some healthy yoga body poses. As body poses are based on Indian myths, I will explain these first. However, as the children were required to create their own tales, depicting the unity and equality of all human beings, I will touch upon the metaphorical meanings of these original fairy tales successively. Plushies, game cards, props, and yoga actions performed individually or within a group of two have various hidden metaphorical meanings. I wish to observe how children learn to build peace and resolve conflicts during their yoga sessions, discovering that they are equal, regardless of their cultures, religions, and social classes within the framework of the theory of expansive education developed by Sigal Ben-Porath (2006).

  • Issue Year: 2013
  • Issue No: 02
  • Page Range: 68-82
  • Page Count: 15
  • Language: English