Matriarchal remnants among Bashkirs in the 9th to 16th centuries
In the 9th to 16th centuries patriarchal-patrimonial relations, with monogamous family and virilocal marriage, prevailed completely among Bashkirs. At the same time numerous remnants of matriarchy were evidently preserved. This problem still remains poorly studied in historiography. Attention was concentrated on identifying the remnants of matriarchal relations in the epic heritage of the Bashkir people dated back primarily to ancient times or, in the best case, to the early Medieval period (prior to the 10th century). Scholars have also studied the traces of matriarchy in the family rituals of the Bashkirs (secret premarital visits of the groom to the bride, wedding celebrated first in the bride's natal home, return home custom of the young wife, avoidance relationship between the son-in-law and the parents-in-law, traces of the avunculate, etc.). In general, the problem of the remnants of matriarchy among Bashkirs in the 9th to 16th centuries was not specially formulated and studied in historiography. This article discusses such remnants of matriarchy among the Bashkir people of that period as the traces of uxorilocal marriage, matrilineal descent pattern, inheritance of social status and some other issues. In the 9th to 16th centuries, marriages in the Bashkir society were surely virilocal, although the remnants of uxorilocal marriage were still preserved. Not infrequently, women participated in male sport games and military actions. There are legends about female warriors. Sometimes medieval burial grounds contain individual graves of armed women. Female graves like male burials are often accompanied by horse remains. The latter circumstance (horse remains found in the female graves) is indicative of the fact that women’s social status was not lower compared to men. Perhaps armed women were involved in battles as part of light infantry, as is evidenced by saddles and other horse equipment. Some of the data bear witness to possible conservation of matrilinearity among Bashkirs at that time. This can be assumed from double burials of women and babies. Sometimes the succession of power and social status was implemented matrilinearly. The Bashkir legends tell of women who were at the head of state formations and tribal structures. The reasons for a relatively high women’s status lie in the existence of semi-nomadic cattle-breeding economy, slow spread of Islam and peculiarities of ethnogenesis and ethnic history of the Bashkirs in the period under investigation.