Traders As (Inter) Cultural Agents: Turkish-Romanian Relations

Year 2022, Volume: 5 Issue: 1, 97 - 114, 31.07.2022

Asena Boztaş , Marinică Tiberiu șchiopu , Selma Kılıç Kırılmaz

https://doi.org/10.55065/intraders.1125421

Abstract

The study aims to explore the complex relationship between trade/traders and culture. Since ancient times, traveling traders have helped the increment of intercultural dialogue, so, their work could be seen as an “osmotic” process. They have not only circulated goods but also ideas, concepts (from the field of science, religion, or philosophy), and vocabulary (they brought words from one nation or ethnic group to another, blending languages). One can assert that international trade is not a mere exchange of products but an occasion for mutual cultural enrichment. The main research question of the current paper is: “How can international traders sustain the intercultural dialogue?”, from this point the analysis will research the complexity of relations established by merchants among different cultures across numerous periods of time. In the study, we will mainly focus on the commercial relationship between Turkey and Romania. The used methodology includes historicism, cultural studies, interculturality, imagology, along with a literature review and analysis of the intercultural trading interaction between Turkey and Romania.

Keywords

Culture, Intercultural Dialogue, International Trade, Turkey, Romania

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