{"id":8477,"date":"2021-08-26T00:28:32","date_gmt":"2021-08-25T23:28:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mesopotamia.coop\/?p=8477"},"modified":"2021-08-26T00:28:33","modified_gmt":"2021-08-25T23:28:33","slug":"kurdish-farmers-tradition-of-collective-harvesting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mesopotamia.coop\/kurdish-farmers-tradition-of-collective-harvesting\/","title":{"rendered":"Kurdish farmers\u2019 tradition of collective harvesting with sickles and song stands the test of time"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Kurdish Farmers in \u015e\u0131rnak follow tradition and sing &#8216;stran&#8217; in chorus and harvest in harmony.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the rough terrain around Turkey\u2019s eastern city of <a href=\"https:\/\/mesopotamia.coop\/cities\/sirnak-sirnex\/\">\u015e\u0131rnak<\/a> (\u015eirnex), where combine harvesters cannot go, villagers harvest their crops collectively by hand using sickles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To be able to harvest crops efficiently, this old farming tradition requires much physical strength, but more importantly, harmony of movement among the workers. This last is ensured by the workers utilising another, tuneful tradition, to make their difficult job easier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Farmers harvesting wheat line up side by side and set to with their sickles. They keep the rhythm with the iron bars they use to protect their hands from stems and thorns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As they gather the bunches of wheat and lie them on the ground, they chant in unison: \u201cMay it be plentiful!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Osman \u0130rmaz is a farmer who leads the wheat harvesting chorus in the traditional Kurdish songs known as \u2018stran\u2019 as he works in the fields.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He has worked in the fields for over 30 years. He told&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/mezopotamyaajansi35.com\/tum-haberler\/content\/view\/139660\">MA<\/a>&nbsp;that the workers find it easier to perform the hard task at hand when they sing in unison, and they do not understand where the time goes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI did some work alone the other day, and I did not get much done. But when my friends come and we sing stran all together, we harvest the crops faster and it is much easier.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kurdish Farmers in \u015e\u0131rnak follow tradition and sing &#8216;stran&#8217; in chorus and harvest in harmony.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8481,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[232,304],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8477","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ecology","category-mutual-aid-bakur"],"acf":[],"wps_subtitle":"This report was published by <a href=\"https:\/\/medyanews.net\/kurdish-farmers-tradition-of-collective-harvesting-with-sickles-and-song-stands-the-test-of-time\/\">Medya News<\/a> on 29 June, 2021","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mesopotamia.coop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8477","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mesopotamia.coop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mesopotamia.coop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mesopotamia.coop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mesopotamia.coop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8477"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/mesopotamia.coop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8477\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8484,"href":"https:\/\/mesopotamia.coop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8477\/revisions\/8484"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mesopotamia.coop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mesopotamia.coop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mesopotamia.coop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mesopotamia.coop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}