A Fez of the Heart Prologue Response

Locals showed apprehension towards the traditional, now outlawed hat of Turkey.  When asked, one shopkeeper said "'My Boss like me to wear it... He think to bring tourists.'  From his disgruntlement, it was apparent that he was an unwilling fez wearer."  Later he commented that outside of tourist applications, wearing a fez is a big problem in Turkey.  From an American perspective, it is hard to imagine being arrested or killed by the government for a simple article of clothing.  The fez's only offense was being popular in the past, and not being seen as modern.


The text shows a stark example of how economics can rapidly change a culture.  The entirety of the values and customs of the town of Pomegranate changed within one generation.  They went from a highly traditional, agricultural community, where muslim traditions including women hiding their faces ruled the culture to a modern tourist attraction where topless women were a common sight.  These changes were largely because the inhabitants found they could make money from the Europeans who passed through their town.  Economics drove the transition from ploughs and manual work to fax machines and business suits.

Beyond this example, any tourist destination will have some degree of this conflict.  When economics dictates how a culture progresses, parts may be lost or shuttered away.  Tourists have a different perception of the location than the locals, and thus will emphasize or manufacture different parts of the culture.  Older cultures have economics, but do not compete on the scale of modern countries.  The world is constantly becoming smaller, and these old cultures interact with the new.  They meet, see that comparatively they are lesser economically, and seek to compete.  In order to compete, they replicate the new culture, leaving behind their own.