Gender Roles as Seen Through Wedding Rituals in a Rural Uyghur Community, in the Southern Oases of the Taklamakan Desert

Year 2016, Volume: 22 Issue: 85, 203 - 228, 15.01.2016

Mettursun Beydulla

Abstract

Sociologists have distinguished between sex and gender. Sex refers to whether a person

is considered female or male, based on the kind of body they have. Gender describes the idea

and practices that constitute femininity and masculinity. This paper describes gender roles

through the wedding practices among Uyghurs communities in Xinjiang and the extent to

which these have affected the role and status of men and women in contemporary Uyghur

society. Modern marriage among Uyghur, and the procedures adopted in choosing partners,

have changed radically since 1980. Changes such as these are easy to observe. However,

traditional ideals continue to form the coexistence of traditional gender models and modern

ideals. This paper examines the roots of gender roles in traditional culture as seen through

wedding rituals, and will then return to a consideration of the contemporary. Weddings are

not just for the two families, but are important gatherings for the entire village. Uyghurs

perceive the act of marriage as a series of rituals taking place over many months, even

years sometimes. Some of the more unusual rituals will be described and links will be

made between the rituals and differing gender roles in the society. As Uyghur society shows

much equality at times, this is reflected in the mutual exchange of toylaq (gifts) between the

girl’s side of the family and the boy’s side. However, the superior role of the husband in thehousehold can be seen in other rituals such as elchi evetmek (match making) qizning altigha

tash kuyup ogzidin mangmaq (put a stone under the bride and running on the rooftop), an old

custom that shows the dominance of the groom over his bride. Also the qizni gilem ustide

oyge ekirmek (carrying the bride in a carpet to her husband’s house) is an old custom that

can be seen as showing respect to the bride. Other customs, such as qiz qachumaq (wife

kidnapping), while seemingly putting the bride in a position of no agency, is almost always a

mutual decision by the young couple to avoid obtaining permission from unwilling parents.

Suzini bermek or hetini bermek (divorce) is not uncommon and in this case, the bride may

keep her gifts and the bride price, except under unusual circumstances. This paper will

describe these more unusual rituals and customs and will compare an isolated village with its

more modern urban counterparts. It will show that gender is socially constructed by using the

sociological and anthropological explorations of how gender has meant different things and

how roles have been expressed differently in different times and places.

Keywords

Gender roles, Wedding Rituals, Femininity, Masculinity, Sexuality, Rural Uyghur, Uyghur Identity

References

• Hebibulla, A. (1993) Uyğur Etnografisi (Uyghur Ethnography). Urumchi: Xinjiang Peoples Press, Urumqi.
• Balaman, Ali Rıza (1982) Akrabalık ve Evlilik Türleri (Kinship and Marriage Type), Izmir: Ileri Kitap Press.
• Beller-Hann, Ildiko., (2008) Community Matters in Xinjiang 1880-1949, Toward to Historical Anthropology of the Uyghurs. BRILL. Leiden & Boston.
• Clark, C.W. (1999) Convergence or Divergence: Uighur Family Change in Urumqi (Ph.D. Diss), University of Seattle.
• Clark, C. W. (2001): Childbearing Strategies among the Uighur Urban Educated Elite in Ürümqi, Asian Ethnicity, 2:2, 225-237.
• Delaney, C. (1991) The Seed and the Soil: Gender and Cosmology in Turkish Village Society. California University Press.
• Dautcher, J., (2009) Down a Narrow Road: Identity and Masculinity in a Uyghur Community in Xinjiang China. Cambridge, Massachusetts & London : Published by the Harvard University Asia Center Distributed by Harvard University Press.
• Erikson, T. H., (2010) Small Places, Large Issues: An introduction to Social and Cultural Anthropology (Third Edition),New York: Pluto Press.
• Evans, Harriet. (1995) “Defining Difference: the ‘scientific’ Construction of Sexuality and Gender in the People’s Republic of China.” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society No. 20 (1995): 357-94
• __________(1997) Women and Sexuality in China. New York: Continuum; Susan L. Mann , Gender and Sexuality in Modern Chinese History, Cambridge University Press.
• Gerholm, T. (1988) On Ritual: A postmodenist view. Ethnos 3-4: 190-203
• Gusafsson, B. (1999. Traditional and Maternities in Gender Roles: Transformation in Kinshship an Marriage among the M’buke from Manus Province. Canberra: The National Research Institute.
• Harris, C. (2004) Control and Subversion: An Exploration of Gender Relations in a Muslim Central Asian Republic. London: Pluto Press.
• Horton, Robin. (1982) Tradition and Modernity Revisited. In Rationality and Relativism, M. Hollis and S. Lukes (ed), Oxford: basil Blackwell, 201-260.
• Imam, A. M. (1997) ‘The Muslim Religious Right (Fundamentalist) and Sexuality’, Women Living under Muslim Laws. Dossier 17. Available from: http://www.wluml.org/node/277
• Inan, A, (1998). Al Ruhu Hakkında” (Evil spirits). Makaleler ve İncelemeler (Articles and Research), Ankara.
• Liu Jieyu (2007) Gender and Work in Urban China: Women Workers of the Unlucky Generation. London: Routledge.
• Karpat, K.H 1964. Introduction: Opening Remarks in Central Asian Survey, Vol. 3, No.3. 3-10
• Kon, I.S. (1995) The Sexual Revolution in Russia, from the Age of the Czars to Today(translated James Riordan), New York and London: the Free Press.
• Megoran, N (1999) “Theorizing gender, ethnicity and the nation-state in Central Asia” Central Asian Survey, 18(1), 99-110.
• Millward, J. A., 2007. Eurasian Crossroads, History of Xinjiang. Columbia University Press.
• Monger, George P (2004). Monger, Marriage Customs of the World: from Henna to Honeymoons. ABC-ClIO Press.
• Moore, H.L. (1988) Feminism and Anthropology. Cambridge Polity Press.
• Nock, S. L. (1998). Marriage and Men’s lives. New York: Oxford University Press.
• Örnek, S. V. (1971) Etnoloji Sözlüğü (Ethnology Dictionary), Ankara: Ankara University Language, History and Geography Press.
• Pahlen, K. (1964) Mission to Turkistan. London: Oxford University Press.
• Steil, J. (1997). Marital Quality. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage
• Werner, Cynthia (2004). “Women, Marriage, and the Nation-Sate, the Rise of Nonconsensual Bride Kidnapping in Post-Soviet Kazakhstan”, The Transformation of Central Asia, Sate and Societies from Soviet rule to Independence, Pauline Jones Luong (ed), Cornel University Press, 59-89
• Xiao, W.Z. (2011) Islam, Family Life, and Gender Inequality in China.London and New York: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group.
• Zha B & Geng W. (1992) Sexuality in Urban China, Australian Journal of Chinese Affairs, No. 28, 1-20