Clothing Hygiene of the Nomads of the Great Steppe in the 13th–16th Centuries
https://doi.org/10.26907/2541-7738.2023.1-2.70-84
Abstract
This article considers the clothing hygiene of the nomads who lived in the Eurasian steppes during the 13th to 16th centuries. The analysis is based on the written sources from various epochs describing the life of the nomads in the Great Steppe, as well as on the data from archaeological surveys, ethnographic materials, and certain areas of medicine. The objective and subjective factors that determined the hygienic practices of the nomads in caring for their clothes are identified. The nomadic costume was designed to meet the needs of the nomadic life: it was practical and comfortable. Most garments were made of natural materials of animal origin and were therefore difficult to wash. For this and some other reasons, the nomads wore their clothes until they were completely worn out and cleaned them using drying, airing, shaking out, and freezing. The clothing hygiene of the noble nomads differed from that of the ordinary ones, mainly in how often they changed garments. Spiritual and ideological factors (prohibitions, superstitions, and omens) also played a certain role, but this needs to be explored in more detail. Since little is known about personal hygiene habits of the nomads, some of the conclusions made here may be controversial, which in turn will fuel further research on the traditional culture of life support among the nomads of the Eurasian steppes.
Supporting agencies: A special thanks to the archaeologist and art restorer Tat’yana Nikolaevna Krupa for useful discussions and valuable advice on the preservation of the materials used by the nomads to sew their clothes during the period under study.
References
1. Abzalov L.F. Hygiene culture of nomads in the Eurasian steppes during the 13th–15th centuries. Uchenye Zapiski Kazanskogo Universiteta. Seriya Gumanitarnye Nauki, 2020, vol. 162, no. 6, pp. 22–34. doi: 10.26907/2541-7738.2020.6.22-34. (In Russian)
2. Khripunov N.V. Clothing of the nobility of the Great Mongol Empire in 1207–1266. In: Zolotoordynskaya Tsivilizatsiya: Sb. st. [The Golden Horde Civilization: Collected Articles]. Kazan, Inst. Ist. im. Sh. Mardzhani Akad. Nauk RT, 2012, no. 5, pp. 363–393. (In Russian)
3. Karimova R.R. Elementy ubranstva i aksessuary kostyuma kochevnikov Zolotoi Ordy (tipologiya i sotsiokul’turnaya interpretatsiya) [Elements of Decoration and Accessories of the Golden Horde Nomads Costume (Typology and Sociocultural Interpretation)]. Kazan, Inst. Ist. Sh. Mardzhani Akad. Nauk RT, 2013. 212 p. (In Russian)
4. Yamilova R.R. Hats of the nomads of the Golden Horde. Izvestiya Rossiiskogo Gosudarstvennogo Pedagogicheskogo Universiteta im. A.I. Gertsena, 2009, no. 89, pp. 118–124. (In Russian)
5. Lane G. Daily Life in the Mongol Empire. Westport, London, Greenwood Press, 2006. 312 p.
6. Polos’mak N.V. Vsadniki Ukoka [Riders of the Ukok]. Novosibirsk, Infolio, 2001. 337 p. (In Russian)
7. Kubarev G.V. Kul’tura drevnikh tyurok Altaya (po materialam pogrebal’nykh pamyatnikov) [Culture of the Ancient Turks of Altai (Based on the Materials of Funerary Monuments)]. Novosibirsk, Izd. Inst. Arkheol. Etnogr. Sib. Otd. Ross. Akad. Nauk, 2005. 400 p. (In Russian)
8. Usova I.A. The nomadic costume of Southern Siberia and adjacent territories in late antiquity and the early Middle Ages. Extended Abstract of Cand. Hist. Diss. Barnaul, 2012. 24 p. (In Russian)
9. Lobacheva N.P. About some features of regional community in the traditional costume of the peoples of Central Asia and Kazakhstan. In: Traditsionnaya odezhda narodov Srednei Azii i Kazakhstana [Folk Costume of the Peoples of Central Asia and Kazakhstan]. Moscow, Nauka. 1989, pp. 5–38. (In Russian)
10. Pallas P.-S. Puteshestvie po raznym provintsiyam Rossiiskogo gosudarstva [Travel to Different Provinces of the Russian State]. Pt. 1. St. Petersburg, Izd. Imp. Akad. Nauk, 1773–1788. 657, 116 p. (In Russian)
11. Bichurin N.Ya. Sobranie svedenii o narodakh, obitavshikh v Srednei Azii v drevnie vremena [A Collection of Information on the Peoples Who Lived in Central Asia in Ancient Times]. Vol. 1. Moscow, Leningrad, Izd. Akad. Nauk SSSR, 1950. 382 p. (In Russian)
12. Potanin G.N. Ocherki Severo-Zapadnoi Mongolii. Rezul’taty puteshestviya, ispolnennogo v 1876– 1877 godakh po porucheniyu IRGO [Essays of Northwestern Mongolia. The Results of the Travel Arranged in 1876–1877 by the Imperial Russian Geographical Society]. St. Petersburg, Tip. V. Kirshbauma, 1881, no. 2. 182 p. (In Russian)
13. Bichurin N.Ya. Zapiski o Mongolii [Notes about Mongolia]. Vol. 1. St. Petersburg, Tip. Karla Kraiya, 1828. 231 p. (In Russian)
14. Gomboev G. About the ancient Mongolian customs and superstitions. Trudy Vostochnogo Otdeleniya Imperatorskogo Russkogo Arkheologicheskogo Obshchestva, 1859, pt. 4, pp. 236–256. (In Russian)
15. Maiskii I.M. Sovremennaya Mongoliya: otchet Mongol’skoi ekspeditsii, snaryazhennoi Irkutskoi Kontoroi Vserossiiskogo Tsentral’nogo Soyuza Potrebitel’nykh Obshchestv “Tsentrosoyuz” [Modern Mongolia: The Report of the Irkutsk Branch of the All-Russian Central Union of Consumer Societies “Centrosoyuz”]. Irkutsk, s.n., 1921. 333 p. (In Russian)
16. Sodnompilova M.M. Traditional clothing of the Mongolian peoples in ritual and as a tool of socialization. Izvestiya Irkutskogo Gosudarstvennogo Universiteta. Seriya Geoarkheologiya. Etnologiya. Antropologiya, 2013, no. 2, pp. 152–165. (In Russian)
17. Anikeeva T.A. The ideas of purity among the Turks of Central Asia in the 11th–12th centuries. Vostok (Oriens), 2020, no. 5, pp. 196–204. (In Russian)
18. 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, Houses, Activities, Games, Faith, and Other Memorable Characters]. Vol. 4: About the Mongols, Armenians, Georgians, Indians, Germans, Poles, and the ruling Russians, with all the names of the Cossacks, and the story of Little Russia, as well as Courland and Lithuania. St. Petersburg, 1799. 385 p. (In Russian)
19. Przheval’skii N.M. Mongoliya i strana tangutov. Trekhletnee puteshestvie v Vostochnoi Nagornoi Azii N. Przheval’skogo [Mongolia and the Tangut Country. Three Years of N. Przheval’skii’s Travel in Eastern Highland Asia]. Vol. 1: With route survey. St. Petersburg, Tip. V.S. Balasheva, 1875. 383 p. (In Russian)
20. Delyagin V.M., Rumyantsev A.G., Shugurina E.G. Scabies and pediculosis: Old problems in the new time. Lechebnoe Delo, 2007, no. 4, pp. 10–19. (In Russian)
21. Musyrgalina F.F. Meditsinskaya parazitologiya [Medical Parasitology]. Ufa, Izd. BGMU Minzdrava RF, 2018. 279 p. (In Russian)
22. Myandina G.I., Tarasenko E.V. Meditsinskaya parazitologiya [Medical Parasitology]. Moscow, Prakt. Med., 2013. 256 p. (In Russian)
23. Dode Z.V. The costume of the North Caucasian peoples of the 7th–17th centuries (a reconstruction of ethnosocial history). Extended Abstract of Doct. Hist. Diss. Moscow, 2007. 62 p. (In Russian)
24. Abzalov L.F. Muslim hygiene among the nomads of the Eurasian steppes of the 13th–16th centuries. Tyurkologicheskie Issledovaniya, 2021, vol. 4, no. 3, pp. 21–33. (In Russian)
25. Bashkuev V.Yu., Bashkueva E.Yu., Nanzatov B.Z., Sodnompilova M.M., Bashkueva U.V. Geomeditsina i politika zdravookhraneniya v Baikal’skom regione: istoriya i sovremennost’ [Geomedicine and Health Policy in the Baikal Region: History and Modernity]. Irkutsk, Ottisk, 2016. 306 p. (In Russian)
26. Chkhaidze V.N., Druzhinina I.A. Reflection of social stratification in the funeral ceremonialism of nomads of steppe Ciscaucasia in the Golden Horde time: Discussion continuation. Povolzhskaya Arkheologiya, 2013, no. 2, pp. 171–178. (In Russian)
27. Yurchenko A.G. Elita Mongol’skoi imperii: vremya prazdnikov, vremya kaznei [The Elite of the Mongol Empire: The Time of Celebrations, the Time of Executions]. St. Petersburg, Evraziya, 2012. 432 p. (In Russian)
28. Radlov V.V. Iz Sibiri: Stranitsy dnevnika [From Siberia: Diary Pages]. Moscow, Nauka, 1989. 749 p. (In Russian)
29. Vainshtein S.I. Mir kochevnikov tsentra Azii [The Nomadic World of Central Asia]. Moscow, Nauka, 1991. 296 p. (In Russian)
Review
For citations:
Abzalov L.F. Clothing Hygiene of the Nomads of the Great Steppe in the 13th–16th Centuries. Uchenye Zapiski Kazanskogo Universiteta Seriya Gumanitarnye Nauki. 2023;165(1-2):70-84. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.26907/2541-7738.2023.1-2.70-84
Views:
193
Email this article 