According to the constructivist ritual approach; Rituals are an organized system, like language, with many of its elements and some rules that regulate the connections between its elements. This system; It is regarded as an integrated, interconnected set of interactive processes, and each element in the system is thought to have a task conditioned by the purpose of the ritual. The understanding, which sees the ritual in this way, uses the method of determining how each of the elements contribute to the whole by considering each of the elements as a method in order to analyze the functioning and meaning of the rituals. While doing this, the meaning of each element emerges only in relation to the whole, in which it fulfills a special function in the system, and the meaning and function of the elements are determined according to the ritual context, based on the assumption that the meaning and function of the elements cannot be understood without knowing the meaning and function of the context. In other words; ritual elements do not have a meaning on their own like letters or words in texts, their meanings emerge with the relations they establish with other elements and the whole. The wedding phase of marriage rituals, which is a type of rites of passage organized for important stages of human life, transitions people who are exposed to the transition from being single to being married gradually, in patterns consisting of intertwined processes. Dances are one of the important elements of weddings. It is well known that dances performed ritualistic functions in archaic times; however, nowadays they lose these functions and are thought to be just a means of entertainment. In this study, which aims to show that the dances performed in a traditional wedding scenario fulfill some functions; Do dances at weddings have a meaning and purpose that goes beyond entertainment? Moreover, are these meanings and purposes related to the purpose of the ritual process? If so, how is it? Answers to their questions were sought. As a method, first of all, it has been acted from the structuralist point of view, which argues that the ritual is a systematic structure, that all the elements in the structure must have a function, and that the meaning and function of these elements can be determined according to the symbolic coded meaning and purpose of the ritual process. In order to make sense of the symbolic code of the ritual process, the three-stage structure of the rites of passage; The path of the stages, formulated as separation, threshold and merger, has been taken into account. The data of the study were obtained by the field study method from the places that could preserve the traditional weddings of the Amasya region. In the field study, interview and observation techniques were used . Keywords: Rites of passage, Structuralism, marriage/wedding, dance, Amasya.
Rites of passage, Structuralism, marriage/wedding, dance, Amasya.