Chasing the Food, Chasing the Names: An Interdisciplinary Approach to the Culinary Culture of Turkic Peoples of Eurasia

This thesis takes a critical stance on the conventional approaches to the nomadic societies based on the historical sources written by the agents of the sedentary entities and interrogates the dominant discourse regarding the nomads. It examines an essential part of the culinary heritage of the Turkic peoples in Eurasia by focusing on the primary Turkic lexical sources available. It attempts to discover the culinary and linguistic interaction among the ancestors of Turkic peoples, “the pastoral nomads” of inner Asia, and between them and their sedentary neighbors. It focuses on pastry food items consumed by these peoples since the misrepresentations of the historical accounts about the nomads tend to define and marginalize them with their alimentation. Thus, this thesis tries to challenge one of the most common arguments underpinning the traditional approach to the nomadic peoples and also means to test its validity by examining the essential lexical material available.