Post-disaster Memory and the Making of Myth

Abstract The earthquakes of 6 February 2023 profoundly shook not only the urban fabric of Hatay but also the meaning-making frameworks of its diverse religious and ethnic communities. This article examines the mythic and religious narratives that emerged in the aftermath of the disaster as cultural practices through which social resilience and the continuation of identity are reconstituted. Based on a two-phase ethnographic fieldwork carried out in Antakya, Defne, and Samandağ, the study explores how discourses of sin–warning–purification and the reconceptualization of sacred space as a protective agency provided a meaningful framework against the pervasive sense of uncertainty and loss. The article argues that myth does not operate as an irrational retreat or a superficial “return to religion”, but as a world-making strategy that fills the ontological void opened by catastrophe. The case of Hatay reveals that myth constructs not only a memory of the past but also the very possibility of the future.