Clothing as an Integral Part of the Bashkir Kalym
https://doi.org/10.26907/2541-7738.2024.4.192-203
Abstract
This article examines the Bashkir institution of kalym (bride price) in the 18th–19th centuries. Using the materials from the National Archive of the Republic of Bashkortostan (fund I-295 “Orenburg Mohammedan spiritual assembly”) and published sources, differences in the composition of kalym are identified depending on the local distinctions among the Bashkirs, as well as their economic and cultural types and socio-economic status. These differences were most apparent in the so-called “smaller” kalym, which consisted of summer and winter clothing with jewelry, headwear, and coin-coral pectoral ornaments. The results of the literature and archival analysis yield a deeper understanding of the specifics of clothing and jewelry included in kalym. A pivotal role of the institution of kalym and dowry in the life of the Bashkirs is shown. The garments in the Bashkir kalym had both practical and symbolic functions — they regulated property rights and indicated the material well-being of a young family. Varying from one to another Bashkir settlement, they also shared similarities with the costumes of neighboring peoples, such as the Tatars. The exchange of clothing garments between the marrying parties, including members of different Bashkir clans and tribes, ended up in the formation of a unique cultural layer.
Supporting agencies: This study was performed as part of state assignment no. 122041900118-5 to the R.G. Kuzeev Institute for Ethnological Studies, Ufa Federal Research Center, Russian Academy of Sciences.
About the Author
A. R. Makhmudov
R.G. Kuzeev Institute for Ethnological Studies, Ufa Federal Research Center, Russian Academy of Sciences; M. Gafuri Memorial House – Branch of the National Literary Museum of the Republic of Bashkortostan
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Ufa, 450077
Ufa, 450078
References
1. Polnoe sobranie uchenykh puteshestvii po Rossii, izdavaemoe Imp. Akademieyu Nauk, po predlozheniyu ee prezidenta [The Complete Collection of Scientific Travels in Russia Published by the Imperial Academy of Sciences, at the Request of Its President]. Vol. 4: A continuation of Academician Lepekhin’s travel notes. Pt. 3: A journey from Tabynsk to Yekaterinburg. St. Petersburg, Imp. Akad. Nauk, 1822. 436 p. (In Russian)
2. Georgi I.G. Opisanie vsekh obitayushchikh v Rossiiskom gosudarstve narodov: ikh zhiteiskikh obryadov, obyknovenii, odezhd, zhilishch, uprazhnenii, zabav, veroispovedanii i drugikh dostopamyatnostei [Description of All Peoples Living in the Russian State: Their Everyday Rituals, Customs, Clothes, Dwellings, Occupations, Pastimes, Faiths, and Other Features]. Pt. 2: About the peoples of the Tatar tribe and others of undecided origin in the Northern Siberia. St. Petersburg, Imp. Akad. Nauk, 1799. 178 p. (In Russian)
3. Popov N.S. Khozyaistvennoe opisanie Permskoi gubernii po grazhdanskomu i estestvennomu ee sostoyaniyu v otnoshenii k zemledeliyu, mnogochislennym rudnym zavodam, promyshlennosti i domovodstvu, sochinennoe po nachertaniyu Imperatorskago Vol’nogo Ekonomicheskogo Obshchestva [An Economic Description of the Perm Governorate According to Its Civil and Natural State in Relation to Agriculture, Numerous Ore Plants, Industry, and Household Management as Composed by the Free Economic Society for the Encouragement of Agriculture and Husbandry]. Pt. 3. St. Petersburg, Imp. Tip., 1813. 355 p. (In Russian)
4. Yuluev B.M. On the Bashkir ethnography: Wedding traditions in the Orsk district of the Orenburg governorate. Etnograficheskoe Obozrenie, 1892, nos. 2–3, pp. 216–223 (In Russian)
5. Shile. Bashkirs. An ethnographic essay. Priroda i Lyudi, 1879, Mar., pp. 1–16 (In Russian)
6. Rudenko S.I. Bashkiry: Istoriko-etnograficheskie ocherki [Bashkirs: Historical and Ethnographic Essays]. Ufa, Kitap, 2006. 376 p. (In Russian)
7. Isyangulov Sh.N. Sem’ya i brak u bashkir v period srednevekov’ya. [Family and Marriage among Bashkirs in the Middle Ages]. Ufa, Mir Pechati, 2018. 162 p. (In Russian)
8. Galieva F.G. Semeinye obryady i obychai bashkir v polikul’turnom prostranstve [Family Rituals and Customs of the Bashkirs in a Multicultural Space]. Ufa, Kitap, 2020. 296 p. (In Russian)
9. Asfandiyarov A.Z. Bashkirskaya sem’ya v proshlom: XVIII – pervaya polovina XIX v. [Bashkir Family in the Past: From the 18th to the First Half of the 19th Centuries]. Ufa, Kitap, 1997. 99 p. (In Russian)
10. Asfandiyarov A.Z., Rakhimov R.N., Khisamitdinova F.G. (Eds.) Dokumenty i materialy po istorii bashkirskogo naroda: (1790–1912) [Documents and Materials on the History of the Bashkir People (1790–1912)]. Ufa, IIYaL, 2012. 544 p. (In Russian)
11. Bikbulatov N.V., Fatykhova F.F. Semeinyi byt bashkir, XIX–XX vv. [Bashkir Family Life. 19th–20th Centuries]. Moscow, Nauka, 1991. 189 p. (In Russian)
12. Zelenin D.K. About levirate and some other customs of the Bashkirs in the Yekaterinburg district. Etnograficheskoe Obozrenie, 1908, no. 3, pp. 79–87. (In Russian)
Review
For citations:
Makhmudov A.R. Clothing as an Integral Part of the Bashkir Kalym. Uchenye Zapiski Kazanskogo Universiteta Seriya Gumanitarnye Nauki. 2024;166(4):192-203. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.26907/2541-7738.2024.4.192-203
Views:
104
Email this article 