TRADITION AND MODERNITY IN KABARDIAN MATERNITY CULTURE

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.32653/CH203720-730

Keywords:

maternity culture, natal ethnography, rituals of the birth cycle, female everyday life, Kabardians

Abstract

This article examines elements of the maternity culture among the Kabardians in contemporary society. It analyzes diverse cases, including older respondents’ accounts of traditional practices and younger women’s innovative experiences regarding this subject. The study incorporates the author’s field materials collected over several years from villages and towns in Kabardino-Balkaria. The selected evidence includes ethnographic information about previously hidden aspects of private female life, specifically pregnancy, childbirth, and the early infancy. Employing participant observation and a phenomenological approach, this research gives voice to women, acknowledging their subjectivity and allowing them to express deeper aspects of consciousness. While existing literature primarily focuses on general attitudes towards young mothers and first-year rituals, this study addresses the research gap by exploring previously neglected aspects of the natal cycle in scientific discourse. It provides a rich ethnographic description of women’s attitudes towards pregnancy and childbirth, including their expectations, disappointments, anxieties, and hopes. The study identifies elements of traditional rural obstetric practices, arguing that modern society exhibits two concurrent processes: the erosion of traditional attitudes in maternity culture and the preservation of some traditional elements. Both the consistencies of everyday culture and their temporal variations are explored.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biographies

  • Madina Anatol'evna Tekueva, H.M. Berbekov the Kabardino-Balkaria State University
    Bio Statement: DSc. (in History), Associate Professor, Head of the Department of Ethnology, the History of the Peoples of the KBR and Journalism Researcher focus: Ethnography of the North Caucasus, gender studies, the history of everyday life
  • Elena Aniuarovna Nal'cikova, Kabardino-Balkarian State University named after H.M. Berbekov
    Candidate of Historical Sciences, Head of the Department of Youth Work Organization
  • Andrej Anatol'evic Konovalov, Kabardino-Balkarian State University named after H.M. Berbekov
    Candidate of Historical Sciences, Associate Professor of the Department of Russian History
  • Marina Habasovna Gugova, Institute for Humanitarian Research Kabardino-Balkarian Scientific Center of RAS; Kabardino-Balkarian State University named after H.M. Berbekov
    Candidate of Historical Sciences, Associate Professor, Senior Researcher of the Sector of Contemporary History; Associate Professor of the Department of Ethnology, History of the Peoples

References

Girtz KD. Interpretation of Cultures. Moscow: Rossyiskaya Politicheskaya Entsiklopediya, 2004. (In Russ)

Karavashkin AV., Yurganov AL. Experience of Historical Phenomenology: The Difficult Path to Obviousness. Moscow: RSUH, 2003. (In Russ)

Konovalov AA., Kumakhova Z.Kh. World view of a Circassian Woman of the 19th Century: Methodology and Research Directions. Electronic Journal “Caucasology”. 2017; 3. Available at: https://kbsu.ru/nauchnye-izdaniya/zhurnal-kavkazologiya/ (accessed: 12.04.2024). DOI: 10.31143/2542-212X-2017-3-140-154 (In Russ)

Malinovsky B. Selected Works: Dynamics of Culture. Moscow: Rossyiskaya Politicheskaya Entsiklopediya, 2004. (In Russ)

Evans-Pritchard E.E. Nuers. Moscow: Nauka, 1985. (In Russ)

Mid M. Culture and the World of Childhood. Moscow: Nauka, 1988. (In Russ)

Oakley A. Interviewing Women: A Contradiction in Terms. In: Roberts H. (ed.). Doing Feminist Research. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1981.

Oakley A. The captured womb: A history of the medical care of pregnant women. Oxford; New York: Blackwell, 1984.

Oakley A. Essays on women, medicine and health. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1993.

Dye NS. History of Childbirth in America. Signs. 1980; 6(1): 97-102.

Pushkareva NL. Private Life of Russian Women: Bride, Wife, Mistress (10th – early 19th Century). Moscow: Ladomir, 1997.

Pushkareva NL. Mother and Child in Ancient Rus’ (Attitudes to Motherhood and Maternal Education in the 10th–15th Centuries). Etnograficheskoe Obozrenie. 1996; 6: 72-79.

Mukhina ZZ. Abortion and contraception in the traditional peasant culture of European Russia. Etnograficheskoe Obozrenie. 2012; 3: 147-160.

Mukhina ZZ., Pushkareva NL. The prenatal period and childbirth in the life of a peasant woman in post-reform Russia (mainly in the central provinces). Scientific Bulletin of Belgorod State University. 2012; 7: 161-168.

Pushkareva NL., Mitsyuk NA. Modernization of reproductive behavior of educated Russian women in the second half of the 19th – early 20th centuries. Woman in Russian Society. 2016; 3: 73-89. (In Russ)

Pushkareva NL., Mitsyuk NA. Midwives in the History of Medicine in Russia. Bulletin of the Smolensk State Medical Academy. 2018; 17(1): 189-189. (In Russ)

Mitsyuk NA., Pushkareva NL., Belova AV. The History of Childbirth as a Subject of Social and Humanitarian Research in Russia. History of Medicine. 2019; 3: 153-157. (In Russ)

Solinger R. Pregnancy and Power: A Short History of Reproductive Politics in America. New York: NY University Press, 2005.

Kitzinger S. The Politics of Birth. New York: Elsevier Butterworth Heinemann, 2005.

Abazov AKh., Anchabadze YuD., Kushkhabiev AV., Pashtova MM. (eds.). Adyghe: Adyghe. Kabardians. Circassians. Shapsugs. Moscow: Nauka, 2022. (In Russ)

Mafedzev S.Kh. Intergenerational transmission of traditional culture of the Adyghe in the XIX – early XX centuries. Nalchik: Elbrus, 1991.

Mambetov GKh. Traditional culture of Kabardians and Balkars. Nalchik: El-Fa, 2002. (In Russ)

Botashev MD. Roles of men and women in the family-kinship organization of the Karachais. Man and woman in the modern world: changing roles and images. Moscow: Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology, RAS. 1999: 233–242. (In Russ)

Smirnova YaS. Family and Family Life of the Peoples of the North Caucasus, the Second Half of the 19th–20th Centuries. Moscow: Nauka, 1983. (In Russ)

Shamanov IM. Rites and Beliefs of the Karachais Associated with the Birth of a Child (19th – Early 20th Century). Problems of the Ethnic History of the Peoples of Karachay-Cherkessia. Cherkessk: B. I. 1980: 72-94. (In Russ)

Karaketov MD. Myth and Functioning of the Religious Cult in the Conspiracy-Incantation Ritual of the Karachais and Balkars. Moscow: Staryi Sad, 1999. (In Russ)

Belova AV., Pushkareva NL., Mitsyuk NF. A Giving Birth Human. History of the Maternity Culture in Modern Russia. Moscow: Novoe Literaturnoe Obozrenie, 2022. (In Russ)

Nogmov ShB. History of the Adyghe people. Nalchik: Elbrus, 1994. (In Russ)

Khan-Girey S. Notes on Circassia. Nalchik: Elbrus, 1978. (In Russ)

Abaev MK. Balkaria. Nalchik: Elbrus, 1992. (In Russ)

Gardanov V.K. (comp.). Adygs, Balkars and Karachais in the news of European authors of the 13th–19th centuries. Nalchik: Elbrus, 1974.

Family registers of settlements in the Nalchik district. 1886. Nalchik: El-fa, 1999. (In Russ)

Family registers of settlements in the Nalchik district. 1886 and 1905. Nalchik: El-fa, 2000. (In Russ)

Karaketov RK. (comp.). Family registers of villages in Malaya Kabarda for 1886. Nalchik: Print Center, 2020. (In Russ)

Karaketov RK. (ed.). Karachais. Balkars. Moscow: Nauka, 2014. (In Russ)

Downloads

Published

2024-09-15

Issue

Section

Ethnography

How to Cite

1.
Tekueva MA, Nal'cikova EA, Konovalov AA, Gugova MH. TRADITION AND MODERNITY IN KABARDIAN MATERNITY CULTURE. ИАЭК. 2024;20(3):720-730. doi:10.32653/CH203720-730