Background Information:
Approximately 500,000 Mongolian Buryats make up the largest indigenious group in Siberia. The Buryats are the major group of the Mongols. They are known for their nomadic-herding way of life and date back past the 13th century.
Geographic Location:
An Inner-Asian ethno-linguistic group, the Mongolic people belong to the Buryat ethnic group that predominantly live as minorities in Northern-Asia, including Russia and China.
Values:
The specific origin of the Mongols language is unclear. They range from speaking Mongolian to Buryat dialects or other forms of Russian or Mandarin Chinese as inter-ethnic languages.
Some values they hold rest in their religion, that of which being the Buddhism faith.
The traditional Mongol family was patriarchal - Wives would be brought for the sons and daughters would be married off to other clans.
The inheritance system was very much prevalent - The eldest son would receive part of the family livestock as he married resulting in the younger sons receiving much smaller portions.
Monday, November 25, 2013
Tuesday, November 5, 2013
Buryat Horticulture
The Buryat people have a unique way of life that has become
quite rare in today’s modern age. The Buryats are nomadic Mongols that make
their living by moving from place to place herding their cattle and living of
their livestock to survive. Their local population can be found between Russia and China, where there are tons of mountains and valleys that allow them to raise
their livestock. Their habitat has both cold and wet environments as well as hot and dry climates almost similar to deserts.
The Buryat people heard sheep, goats, and other cattle for nourishment but they also herd horses and camels to get around but they have also been known to use other animals such as elks, and dogs. Most of their nutritious meals comprise of milk, cheeses and meat all provided by their livestock.
The Buryat people have also been known to do a little farming but they are never large crop fields rather small gardens that provide some herbs and vegetables. The Buryat people use both horticulture and hunting to survive depending on their situation, location, and season. The Buryat people are also well known traders and merchants, or at least they used to be. The Buryat people have used their cattle to trade and obtain currency in order to buy their other necessary sources. they have been known to trade with both Russia and China.
The Buryat people also manufacture many different fabrics from horse horse, or goat hair that are well known for their quality all around the world known as Kashmir fabrics. They use these fabrics as well as wool for trade along with their cattle.
In recent years, the Buryat people have become a little bit more modern and have adapted their life style to a more modern one and have been known to sell their cattle, milk, and cheeses to gain access to more modern tools such as motorized vehicles, electronics, clothing and other products. This has made their lives much more difficult since they require more interaction with the modern wold and modern world resources such as gas and electricity. Since the Buryats are nomads and do not have houses but rather robust tents that they move from location to location, they do not have access to a power grid or pluming, and are required to obtain their power from batteries which run out quickly and require them to interact with the modern world much more than they have in the past.
The Buryat people heard sheep, goats, and other cattle for nourishment but they also herd horses and camels to get around but they have also been known to use other animals such as elks, and dogs. Most of their nutritious meals comprise of milk, cheeses and meat all provided by their livestock.
The Buryat people have also been known to do a little farming but they are never large crop fields rather small gardens that provide some herbs and vegetables. The Buryat people use both horticulture and hunting to survive depending on their situation, location, and season. The Buryat people are also well known traders and merchants, or at least they used to be. The Buryat people have used their cattle to trade and obtain currency in order to buy their other necessary sources. they have been known to trade with both Russia and China.
The Buryat people also manufacture many different fabrics from horse horse, or goat hair that are well known for their quality all around the world known as Kashmir fabrics. They use these fabrics as well as wool for trade along with their cattle.
In recent years, the Buryat people have become a little bit more modern and have adapted their life style to a more modern one and have been known to sell their cattle, milk, and cheeses to gain access to more modern tools such as motorized vehicles, electronics, clothing and other products. This has made their lives much more difficult since they require more interaction with the modern wold and modern world resources such as gas and electricity. Since the Buryats are nomads and do not have houses but rather robust tents that they move from location to location, they do not have access to a power grid or pluming, and are required to obtain their power from batteries which run out quickly and require them to interact with the modern world much more than they have in the past.
Gender Issues in Buryat Society
The Buryats are a patrilineal society, as Lawrence Krader (1954:322) discusses in his article "Buryat Religion and Society." Society is "centered around joint principles of patrilineal descent and agnatic [related or descended through the male side] relationship." Kin is very important in Buryat society,and serves as the basis for social organization, so fathers and relationships through male relatives play a prominent role: the "nomadic kin village ulas" are based on male relations.
However, gender norms and relations in Buryat society are not necessarily analogous to our own. Krader also discusses the shamans so integral to Buryat culture, and that the shaman is frequently a "transvestite who may be of either sex."
Caroline Humphrey (1994:70) relates the historical role of women in Buryat society. Up into the 1970's, rural Buryat society centered around an "exogamous patrilineage." Wives were "brought in," and daughters were "sent out" to their new husbands' families. There was a belief that "the woman injects life or vivacity into the strength of the patrilineage."
The patrilineal and largely patriarchal nature of Buryat society has created a division between man and woman in the past. In Darima Nikolaeva's article "Archaic Mythoritual Ideas about Women in Traditional Buryat Family and Daily Culture," the author asserts that in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, "the position of women was characterized by patriarchal relationships that dictated the immense taboo space based on a misogynic...standard" (2009:43). The "taboo space" was codified via the Buryat "Codes," "Judgments," and "Laws" in different jurisdictions.
According to Nikolaeva, "women enjoyed fewer rights" than men. The tradition of kalym, or bride price, worked like a reverse dowry, and was important to any woman who had the prospect of marrying. However, marriage was not generally left up to the woman: "her father gave her in marriage at his own discretion and set the amount of kalym." Women were also "extremely limited in [their] rights of inheritance" and could not often receive the same amount of land or property as their brothers did, in another example of codified practices that limited women. Women also had less legal ability to leave the marriage than their husbands did and as a whole were not permitted to participate in public meeting or suglaan.
However, it would be near-sighted to claim the experience of Buryat women has always been one of oppression. There is an "identification of women with mastery of language and intelligence" in Buryat society. In Buryat stories and songs, father-in-laws would test the new wives with games and riddles, setting the foundation for this stereotype. Women are also under much more pressure than men to keep up tradition, and are discouraged from marrying non-Buryats (the same is not true for Buryat men) (1994:70-71).
Furthermore, women "sometimes held a high position," usually due to her social success represented by marriage, or her reproductive prowess (2009:44). Just because they did "women's work" did not mean their efforts were completely disregarded (although women were often forced to perform domestic duties at night because the day was reserved for the ostensibly more important work of farming): "the role of the homemaker was significant...the mother's position in the family was at least as high as that of her husband." The woman of the house was responsible for organization, maintaining the household, rearing child, instilling traditional ideologies, and more. The mother's voice "was sometimes decisive" in the all important tasks of arranged marriage of her children and dividing up family property.
The most revered of the Buryat women is the one who receives the title "Fortunate." She has "children, grandchildren, prosperity, and health" and essentially becomes the clan matriarch. Her prominent role in society is represented in a special ceremony that involves her taking on a new style of braiding her hair, which will demonstrate to all her status.
Women have played a vital role in Buryat social life. They interact with house guests of either gender and all social statuses and receive all guests when their husbands are away. They are also "important in public calendar rituals and rites of passage," noteworthy since rituals are so integral to the traditional and spiritual Buryat culture (2009:45).
The Buryat people have a complex understanding of gender that cannot be reduced to American ideas of "progressive" or "regressive." Their beliefs and customs associated with gender shed light not only on women's lives, but on the depth of their culture as a whole.
Humphrey, Caroline.
1994 Casual Chat and Ethnic Identity: Women's Second Language Use among Buryats in the
USSR. In Bilingual Women: Anthropological Approaches to Second Language Use. Shirley
Ardener, Pauline Burton, Ketaki Kushari Dyson, eds. Pp. 65-76. Berg Publishers.
Krader, Lawrence.
1954 Buryat Religion and Society. Southwestern Journal of Anthropology 10(3):322-351.
Nikolaeva, DarimaA.
2009 Archaic Mythoritual Ideas about Women in Traditional Buryat Family and Daily Culture.
Russian Social Science Review 50(3):42-45.
However, gender norms and relations in Buryat society are not necessarily analogous to our own. Krader also discusses the shamans so integral to Buryat culture, and that the shaman is frequently a "transvestite who may be of either sex."
Caroline Humphrey (1994:70) relates the historical role of women in Buryat society. Up into the 1970's, rural Buryat society centered around an "exogamous patrilineage." Wives were "brought in," and daughters were "sent out" to their new husbands' families. There was a belief that "the woman injects life or vivacity into the strength of the patrilineage."
The patrilineal and largely patriarchal nature of Buryat society has created a division between man and woman in the past. In Darima Nikolaeva's article "Archaic Mythoritual Ideas about Women in Traditional Buryat Family and Daily Culture," the author asserts that in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, "the position of women was characterized by patriarchal relationships that dictated the immense taboo space based on a misogynic...standard" (2009:43). The "taboo space" was codified via the Buryat "Codes," "Judgments," and "Laws" in different jurisdictions.
According to Nikolaeva, "women enjoyed fewer rights" than men. The tradition of kalym, or bride price, worked like a reverse dowry, and was important to any woman who had the prospect of marrying. However, marriage was not generally left up to the woman: "her father gave her in marriage at his own discretion and set the amount of kalym." Women were also "extremely limited in [their] rights of inheritance" and could not often receive the same amount of land or property as their brothers did, in another example of codified practices that limited women. Women also had less legal ability to leave the marriage than their husbands did and as a whole were not permitted to participate in public meeting or suglaan.
 | |
| Buryat Women in holiday attire (photo form China-Pictorial) |
Furthermore, women "sometimes held a high position," usually due to her social success represented by marriage, or her reproductive prowess (2009:44). Just because they did "women's work" did not mean their efforts were completely disregarded (although women were often forced to perform domestic duties at night because the day was reserved for the ostensibly more important work of farming): "the role of the homemaker was significant...the mother's position in the family was at least as high as that of her husband." The woman of the house was responsible for organization, maintaining the household, rearing child, instilling traditional ideologies, and more. The mother's voice "was sometimes decisive" in the all important tasks of arranged marriage of her children and dividing up family property.
The most revered of the Buryat women is the one who receives the title "Fortunate." She has "children, grandchildren, prosperity, and health" and essentially becomes the clan matriarch. Her prominent role in society is represented in a special ceremony that involves her taking on a new style of braiding her hair, which will demonstrate to all her status.
Women have played a vital role in Buryat social life. They interact with house guests of either gender and all social statuses and receive all guests when their husbands are away. They are also "important in public calendar rituals and rites of passage," noteworthy since rituals are so integral to the traditional and spiritual Buryat culture (2009:45).
The Buryat people have a complex understanding of gender that cannot be reduced to American ideas of "progressive" or "regressive." Their beliefs and customs associated with gender shed light not only on women's lives, but on the depth of their culture as a whole.
Humphrey, Caroline.
1994 Casual Chat and Ethnic Identity: Women's Second Language Use among Buryats in the
USSR. In Bilingual Women: Anthropological Approaches to Second Language Use. Shirley
Ardener, Pauline Burton, Ketaki Kushari Dyson, eds. Pp. 65-76. Berg Publishers.
Krader, Lawrence.
1954 Buryat Religion and Society. Southwestern Journal of Anthropology 10(3):322-351.
Nikolaeva, DarimaA.
2009 Archaic Mythoritual Ideas about Women in Traditional Buryat Family and Daily Culture.
Russian Social Science Review 50(3):42-45.
Buryat Language
The Buryat language is a branch of the Mongolic language, and is considered by many to be a dialect of Mongolian. With the Buryats being the largest subsidiary of the Mongolian people, their dialect is the second most prominent language in the Mongol and Inner Mongolian areas. It is estimated that there is a population of over 400,000, mainly concentrated by the northern border of Mongolia, which speak the Buryat language. Among this population, there are several different dialects which incorporate Russian, Chinese, and Turkic influences. These sublanguages are often based on their geographical location in comparison to neighboring cultures. Although there is still a definitive distinction between the Russian and Buryat language, modernization and cultural assimilation are causing a decline in both their language and identity. Being so close to the border of Russia, Buryats not only have a heavy Russian influence in their dialect, but also are encouraged to adopt the Russian language as it is more useful in everyday life. Even parents that grew up speaking Buryat will communicate to their children in Russian for these reasons. Also, being a minority in both language and culture inhibits the Buryat people from expressing and expanding their cultural identity. These problems influence laws and policymakers’ decisions which further reduce the Buryat language. Surprisingly, there are laws in place that state, “Names of all settlements, streets and squares must be written in Russian and Buryat” (Khilkhanova). These laws, however, are usually either overlooked or just completely ignored. Modernization has also heavily affected the Buryat language. By incorporating Western ideals to their previous nomadic way of life, the Buryats have skipped over crucial developmental stages for their language to become a polyfunctional language that serves all the communicational formats of a modern society.
In the
modern era, many cultures assimilate into each other, usually for the
betterment of both societies, but that is not always the case. The United
States, for instance, is a melting pot for all different types of cultures,
where, for the most part, cultural identities are protected and naturally assimilated.
In this situation, assimilation is healthy and somewhat necessary for society
to grow. Modern societies, however, can and have stepped over the line when it
comes to cultural assimilation. Eastern cultures think that because they are
doing well as a civilization that they need to impede their way of life on indigenous
peoples. The Buryats in Mongolian and Russian territories are currently going
through this type of situation, specifically with their language. Often times,
these situations go unnoticed due to either the lack or realization of what is
happening or lack of communication between the two cultures. Language is an immense
part of who you are in society, as it is the chief form of expression between
two people or groups. By incorporating the Russian language into the Buryat
language, they are not only beginning to lose a language, but also the history
and essence of the culture.
Erzhen Khilkhanova
2004 Language and
Ethnic Identity of Minorities in Post-Soviet Russia: The Buryat Case Study.
Journal of Language, Identity, and Education 3(2):85-100.
The Buryat Population
The Buryat people reside across Russia and their population has fluctuated over the years. At about roughly 500,000 accounted Buryat's currently, they make up a large portion of Russia's population.
Decreasing over the years, the Buryat population is not as big as it once was. As of the 2010 census, their population is at around 500,021 with an annual population growth of -0.1% and still decreasing. The proportions of males and females is split closely with roughly the same number of males and slightly more females. Still, they remain to be the largest indigenous (aboriginal) group of people in Siberia, Russia.
During the "Dark and Bloody" years of Stalins rule, many Buryats died in purges and battle as he declared collectivization on the Mongols and many subgroups. They tried to flee to Mongolia to find refuge to little avail. As a factor of this event, no one is sure of exactly how many Buryats died but it has impacted their population to this day.
"Buryat History." Buryat History. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Nov. 2013.
The Buryat Name
People have lived in Siberia for at least 300,000 years, a time span that precedes the development of modern humans. One people that has called Siberia home is the indigenous Buryat group, who now inhabit a wide region of Eurasia, including parts of Russia, Mongolia, and China.
According to the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs, Centre for Russian Studies (2007), the name "Buriyat" was first mentioned in 1240, in the Mongolian work The Secret History of the Mongols.
The Golomt Center for Shamanic Studies (1997) traces the earliest Mongolian peoples to "the Lake Baikal basin, Angara River Valley, and the Tunken valley of the Eastern Sayan Mountains." Following the tradition of Buryat Mongolian mythology, these people were called "the Burte Chino" or "Blue Wolf People." Their furthest ancestors were the man Burte Chino and his wife Goa Maral ("Beautiful Red Deer"). "Burte," sometimes spelled "Bured," "meant 'wolf' in the ancient dialect of the region, and from this word comes the name Buryat." Today, the "wolf clan" is a recognized group among the Buryats.
The Buryats are officially recognized by this name, although other peoples (such as the Barga Mongols) have been absorbed into the Buryat fold, or are recognized as part of this group. There is some variation in spelling, but both outsiders and the Buryats themselves have agreed on this name, although it is important to remember the diversity within the group and the other peoples and identities represented within.
NUPI - Centre for Russian Studies:
2007 Buryats. http://www.nupi.no/cgi-win/Russland
/etnisk_b.exe?Buryatian, accessed November 4, 2013.
The Golomt Center for Shamanic Studies
1997 History of Buryatia (Ar Mongol). http://www.tengerism.org/Buryat_History.html, accessed
November 4, 2013
According to the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs, Centre for Russian Studies (2007), the name "Buriyat" was first mentioned in 1240, in the Mongolian work The Secret History of the Mongols.
The Golomt Center for Shamanic Studies (1997) traces the earliest Mongolian peoples to "the Lake Baikal basin, Angara River Valley, and the Tunken valley of the Eastern Sayan Mountains." Following the tradition of Buryat Mongolian mythology, these people were called "the Burte Chino" or "Blue Wolf People." Their furthest ancestors were the man Burte Chino and his wife Goa Maral ("Beautiful Red Deer"). "Burte," sometimes spelled "Bured," "meant 'wolf' in the ancient dialect of the region, and from this word comes the name Buryat." Today, the "wolf clan" is a recognized group among the Buryats.
The Buryats are officially recognized by this name, although other peoples (such as the Barga Mongols) have been absorbed into the Buryat fold, or are recognized as part of this group. There is some variation in spelling, but both outsiders and the Buryats themselves have agreed on this name, although it is important to remember the diversity within the group and the other peoples and identities represented within.
NUPI - Centre for Russian Studies:
2007 Buryats. http://www.nupi.no/cgi-win/Russland
/etnisk_b.exe?Buryatian, accessed November 4, 2013.
The Golomt Center for Shamanic Studies
1997 History of Buryatia (Ar Mongol). http://www.tengerism.org/Buryat_History.html, accessed
November 4, 2013
Monday, November 4, 2013
Marriage and Family in Buryat Culture
Most buryat
families were patriarchal, patrilineal and patrilocal. Wives were brought for
each of the sons, while daughters were married off to other clans. In the
traditional Buryat family, each son received a part of the family herd as he
married, with the elder son receiving more than the younger son. The youngest
son would remain in the parental tent caring for his parents, and after their
death he would inherit the parental tent in addition to his own part of the
herd. Each son inherited a part of the family's camping lands and pastures,
with the elder son receiving more than the younger son. The eldest son
inherited the farthest camping lands and pastures, and each son in turn
inherited camping lands and pastures closer to the family tent until the youngest
son inherited the camping lands and pastures immediately surrounding the family
tent. Family units would often remain near each other and in close cooperation,
though extended families would inevitably break up after a few generations. After
the family, the next largest social units were the subclan and clan. These
units were derived from groups claiming patrilineal descent from a common
ancestor, ranked in order of seniority.
By the Chingissid era this ranking
was symbolically expressed at formal feasts, in which tribal chieftains were
seated and received particular portions of the slaughtered animal according to
their status. The paternal descent lines were collaterally ranked according to
the birth of their founders, and were thus considered senior and junior to each
other. Of the various collateral patrilines, the senior in order of descent
from the founding ancestor, the line of eldest sons, was the most noble. In the
steppe, no one had his exact equal; everyone found his place in a system of
collaterally ranked lines of descent from a common ancestor. It was according
to this idiom of superiority and inferiority of lineages derived from birth
order that legal claims to superior rank were couched.
The Buryat kinship is one of a
particular patrilineal type classed as Omaha, in which relatives are grouped
together under separate terms that crosscut generations, age, and even sexual
difference. Thus, a man's father's sister's children, his sister's children,
and his daughter's children are all called by another term. A further attribute
is strict terminological differentiation of siblings according to seniority.
Compared to our society today, the Buryat’s
way of family and marriage were really different than what we as American’s are
used to. There system seems a lot more complex than our but that’s what they
are used to. In the end, the Buryat’s ways of family and marriage are similar
in same ways but very different in others
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