For the Love of Cats in Turkey
Why Read This
What Makes This Article Worth Your Time
Summary
What This Article Is About
Anthropologist Gideon Lasco recounts his encounters with community cats during a trip to Turkey, where felines roam freely in cafes, restaurants, and even mosques. In the town of DoΔubayazΔ±t and the city of Istanbul, he observed how these cats are “owned by no one but cared for by many”βa phenomenon explored in the 2016 documentary Kedi. This widespread acceptance fascinates Lasco because it exemplifies how human culture is fundamentally shaped by relationships with nonhuman species.
The article traces the historical and cultural roots of Turkey’s feline affection, including Islamic traditions dating to the Prophet Muhammad, who reportedly loved cats, and Ottoman-era practices where cats controlled rodents and were cared for in designated hospitals and gardens. While acknowledging tensionsβincluding medieval European persecution of cats and contemporary concerns about feral cat overpopulationβLasco concludes that Turkey’s enduring bond with cats reveals deeper truths about interspecies relationships and what qualities of independence and emotional honesty draw humans to these enigmatic creatures.
Key Points
Main Takeaways
Culture Through Nonhuman Relationships
Turkey’s cat culture demonstrates that human societies are fundamentally shaped by relationships with nonhuman species, challenging purely anthropocentric understandings of culture.
Islamic Influence on Cat Care
Islam’s favorable view of cats as ritually clean animals, combined with traditions from the Prophet Muhammad, significantly shaped Turkey’s cultural embrace of felines.
Ottoman-Era Stewardship Traditions
Sixteenth-century Ottoman society established cat hospitals and feeding gardens in Constantinople, creating stewardship practices that persist across demographics today.
Feline Independence Fascinates Humans
Unlike dogs shaped by breeding, cats retained independence from wild ancestors, creating an inscrutability and imperviousness that make them simultaneously fascinating and endearing.
Historical Tensions Exist Worldwide
Medieval European persecution of cats as demonic led to rat overpopulation and plague spread, while modern concerns include disease transmission and wildlife threats.
Community Cats Enrich Urban Life
Istanbul’s 100,000-plus community cats represent a model of collective care where animals are owned by none but nurtured by many across social boundaries.
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Article Analysis
Breaking Down the Elements
Main Idea
Interspecies Bonds Shape Culture
Turkey’s deeply rooted tradition of caring for community cats illustrates that human culture cannot be understood in isolation from relationships with nonhuman species. Through historical traditions from the Ottoman Empire, Islamic teachings, and contemporary practices, the article demonstrates how interspecies relationships reveal fundamental aspects of human societiesβfrom religious values to communal care practices that transcend individual ownership.
Purpose
Exploring Cultural Meaning Through Observation
Lasco uses personal narrative and anthropological analysis to explore what Turkey’s treatment of cats reveals about human-animal relationships more broadly. By weaving together his own encounters with historical context, religious influences, and cross-cultural comparisons, he invites readers to consider how care for other species reflects deeper cultural values and to recognize the agency and emotional complexity of nonhuman beings.
Structure
Personal Narrative Framing Historical Analysis
Anecdotal β Historical β Comparative β Reflective. The article opens with Lasco’s personal encounters with kittens in DoΔubayazΔ±t, then broadens to examine Istanbul’s cat culture and the documentary Kedi. It transitions into historical analysis of Islamic and Ottoman influences before addressing global tensions around human-cat relationships. The piece concludes by returning to the personal, with Lasco’s final reflections on friendship and emotional honesty.
Tone
Reflective, Curious & Appreciative
The tone balances personal warmth with scholarly inquiry. Lasco writes with genuine affection for the cats he encounters while maintaining anthropological distance to analyze broader cultural patterns. He acknowledges complexities and tensions without judgment, presenting multiple perspectives on human-cat relationships. The writing is accessible yet intellectually engaged, inviting readers into both emotional and analytical responses to interspecies bonds.
Key Terms
Vocabulary from the Article
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Tough Words
Challenging Vocabulary
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The responsible care, management, and oversight of something entrusted to one’s care, particularly emphasizing ethical obligation and long-term sustainability.
“Many of these traditions of ‘stewardship,’ as Hart refers to them, persist today.”
Evolved together in a mutually influential relationship, where two or more species reciprocally affect each other’s evolution over time.
“This has to do with how they co-evolved with humans.”
Occurring or existing between different biological species; involving interaction, relationships, or phenomena that cross species boundaries.
“As with any kind of interspecies relationship, human-cat relations have not been without tensions.”
Religious beliefs and practices outside the major world religions, often polytheistic or nature-based, historically used by Christians to describe non-Christian religions.
“Cats were sometimes treated with suspicion because of their associations with paganism and witchcraft.”
The selective removal or killing of animals from a population, typically to control numbers, prevent disease spread, or protect other species.
“The government has taken the controversial measure of culling millions of feral cats.”
Broken fragments of stone, brick, or other building materials, especially the debris left after destruction, demolition, or natural disasters.
“News reports featured stories of people going to great lengths to rescue cats caught in rubble.”
Reading Comprehension
Test Your Understanding
5 questions covering different RC question types
1According to the article, the historical origins of cat reverence in Turkey are rooted more in cultural memory and legends than in documented historical facts.
2What does the article suggest about why cats are particularly appealing to humans compared to dogs?
3Which sentence best captures Lasco’s anthropological perspective on cats in Turkey?
4Based on the article, determine whether each statement about historical human-cat relationships is true or false.
During the Ottoman Empire, Constantinople had cat hospitals and gardens where locals fed stray populations.
Medieval European cat killings helped reduce plague outbreaks by eliminating disease carriers.
In the 1830s, a cholera scare in Turkey led to cats being killed despite the culture’s general cat-friendly traditions.
Select True or False for all three statements, then click “Check Answers”
5What can be inferred about Lasco’s view on the nature of human-animal emotional connections?
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
Kedi features the everyday lives of Istanbul’s community cats who are owned by no one but cared for by many. The 2016 documentary reveals how the world looks from a feline perspective through ground-level shots, while also charting the various ways humans care for these catsβfrom making them snacks to bringing them to veterinarians. As critic John Powers noted, the film shows that these cats not only are wondrous creatures themselves but also enrich the entire city through their presence and the communal care they inspire.
Islam, adhered to by 98 percent of Turkey’s population, historically favored cats as ritually clean animals, contrasting with the ambiguous attitudes some Muslims have toward dogs. The Prophet Muhammad is said to have loved cats, establishing a religious precedent for their care. This religious foundation combines with practical considerationsβcats controlled rodents in Ottoman householdsβto create enduring traditions of stewardship. Today, Istanbul even has a “cat-friendly imam” who welcomes felines to his mosque, citing Islamic duty to care for these animals.
The comparison highlights that dogs have been profoundly altered through breeding and socialization to fit into human society, while cats changed much less from their wild ancestors and retained their independent spirit. This evolutionary difference explains cats’ inscrutability and imperviousnessβqualities that make them simultaneously fascinating and endearing to humans. Unlike dogs bred for obedience and social integration, cats maintained autonomy even while living alongside humans, creating a different type of interspecies relationship based on mutual choice rather than domestication-driven dependence.
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This article is classified as Intermediate level. It combines personal narrative with anthropological analysis, requiring readers to follow how specific observations connect to broader theoretical insights about culture and interspecies relationships. The vocabulary includes some specialized terms like “inscrutability,” “imperviousness,” and “stewardship,” though the writing remains accessible. Readers must integrate information across multiple sectionsβfrom personal anecdotes to historical context to cross-cultural comparisonsβto grasp how the article builds its argument about what human-cat relationships reveal about cultural values.
While celebrating Turkey’s cat-friendly culture, the article honestly addresses complications. Medieval Europeans killed cats due to associations with paganism, inadvertently increasing plague-carrying rat populations. During disease outbreaks like the 1830s cholera scare or early COVID-19 pandemic, fear led people to abandon or kill cats. Currently, some Istanbul residents see stray cats as incompatible with modern urban aspirations, and feral cat overpopulation threatens wildlife globallyβAustralia has controversially culled millions. The article also notes that despite cultural affection, some community cats live in miserable conditions, presenting ongoing challenges for animal advocates.
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