The Relationship of the Sexes in Traditional Kazakh Society and their Reflection in Family Rituals at the end of the XIX century

Abstract

The article raises the problem of gender relations in the traditional Kazakh society in the second half of the XIX century. The issues of family and marriage forms among Kazakhs, intra–family relations and etiquette, family rituals and traditions have always been in the focus of attention of Kazakh ethnographers, and also received comprehensive coverage in the narrative of pre-revolutionary authors – scientists, travelers, representatives of the tsarist administration and others. Meanwhile, due to the limited sources, the problem of the relationship between men and women in premarital and marital relations, the reflection of the erotic principle in the rituals of the family cycle, sex education, sexual and gender identification, the phenomenon of transvestism, the influence of the social status of a married woman on her personal relationship with her husband and his family circle, the canons of morality for men has become a poorly developed field of research and women, adultery and punishment. As we can see, the sphere of family and marriage relations of the traditional Kazakh society has many little-explored aspects, to shed light on which through the prism of a new approach of social inclusion, which provides for the integration of society through the formation of a culture of tolerance to all members of society, their social and gender equality. Having revealed the reasons for the social exclusion of women, their vulnerability in traditional society, the deprivation of their right to freedom of expression of intimate feelings, in this article we will show that these institutions are of a historical social nature, they should not be preserved and transferred to modern reality, hiding behind the need to revive traditional culture.