Countries of the World/COUNTRYS.BIN/dp/0244/02443.txt

Text File | 1991-06-25 | 31KB | 494 lines

$Unique_ID{COW02443}
$Pretitle{276}
$Title{Mongolia
Chapter 5A.   Family}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Trevor N. Dupuy, Wendell Blanchard}
$Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army}
$Subject{family
relationship
kinship
relatives
economic
relationships
brothers
social
traditional
brother}
$Date{1973}
$Log{Children Waiving*0244301.scf
}
Country:     Mongolia
Book:        Mongolia, A Country Study
Author:      Trevor N. Dupuy, Wendell Blanchard
Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army
Date:        1973

Chapter 5A.   Family

[See Children Waiving: Courtesy Embassy of Mongolia, Washington DC.]

     The Mongolian family traditionally consisted of kinsmen reckoning descent
on the male side, and cooperating in living together and giving each other
economic support. Mongolia had passed the bounds of a simple tribal society
even in the days of Genghis Khan, since his iron determination welded feuding
tribes into a Mongol nation of warriors, who regardless of tribal origin were
proud to call themselves Mongols. Nevertheless, the traditional family
constituted the individual's primary group, made up of those persons with
whom he was likely to undertake most of his daily activities. The family also
provided the individual with his position in the larger society, especially
with respect to hereditary class (see ch. 4, Social Structure).

     Today the family plays a role of declining importance in the life of the
average citizen, for the state rather than the family has become the central
architect of the individual's social milieu. The breadth of family composition
has shrunk, with less importance attached to relationships outside the nuclear
family. Government policies, both direct and indirect, have greatly reduced
the family's role, for the state now controls the economy, education of the
young, health care, and cultural activities. The determinative influence the
family once held over the individual's socioeconomic position has largely
disappeared as a result of state policies to develop a society based on
prescribed, rather than ascribed, status positions.

     Nevertheless, much of the traditional content of Mongolian family life
has survived as of late 1968, particularly among the steppe arats
(herdsmen-see Glossary) who constitute a considerable majority of the
population. Although various traditional forms and customs, such as polygamy
or the payment of bride price and dowry, have died out or been abolished, many
intimate aspects of traditional behavior still appear. They impart much of
what is uniquely Mongolian in flavor to the character of daily life in the
Communist state. These aspects include behavior toward children and the aged,
the style of relationship with certain kinsmen, and elements of behavior
between the sexes. It is the survival of such pre-Communist values which makes
the understanding of the traditional family and kinship organization of more
than historical importance.

Traditional Kinship Structure

     Mongolian society, like all the pastoral societies of the Central Asian
steppe, was based on the principle of kinship traced through males,
conceptualized as "kinship in the bone." All Mongols were at least assumptive
kin, sharing a common ancestry. The unity of decent of all Eastern Mongols of
both Inner and Outer Mongolia is asserted in a chronicle written shortly after
Genghis Khan's death, and traces through 24 generations before Genghis Khan,
back to the mythical, totemic mating of a "blue" wolf and a "white" doe, which
begot the first Mongol.

     The traditional structure of patrilineal kinship did not include the
principle of primogeniture, the automatic inheritance of headship by the
first-born. It is not known whether this was strictly true in the matter of
the successions of tribal and clan chiefs, and carried on into the days of
conquest initiated by Genghis Khan. There was, however, one principle that
remained firm through the centuries-that while the elder married sons could
request of their father parts of his holdings, and with his consent move from
the home locality, establishing their own families, the youngest son, who
could be called the "guardian of the hearth," always received, at his death,
their father's residual holdings in herds and warriors. This did not convey
headship in a clan or tribe, which was decided at a khuraltai (council of
family and leaders), held after a period of mourning, at which the headship
was decided in full council, on the basis of ability, past success and
demonstrated leadership qualities. Genghis Khan himself did not break this
tradition. At his last khuraltai, soon before his death, he felt secure in
leaving the homeland and the home army of Mongols to Tuli, the youngest. To
the other sons he awarded conquered territories, and could do no more than
suggest that Ogatai, his thrid son, be Kha Khan (Great Khan). This was
eventually made the decision of the great khuraltai held 2 years later. This
tradition survived for centuries, even into Manchu times, and sometimes as
conditions worsened as to divisible property, the result was the preeminence
of the youngest son as principal inheritor (see ch. 3, Historical Setting).

     Mongolian society remained divided into two estates, representing
distinct political, military, and economic functions: the so-called "white"
(noble) and "black" (commoner) bones. In Outer Mongolia, Khalkha Mongols and a
number of Western Mongol groups, as well as the Buryats and certain Turkic
groups including the Kazakh, were characterized by this unique blend of state
and kinship organization (see ch. 4, Social Structure).

     By the late 19th or early 20th century, however, most non-basic elements
of this structure had crumbled away. Membership in a geographically defined
unit became increasingly important in the individual's identity. The decline
in kinship affiliation was caused by several factors. First, the Manchu
system of civil administration usurped many functions of the larger kinship
structures. The civil authorities by-passed the kinship groups, dealing
instead with individual family heads and appointing many officials regardless
of traditional kin-group procedures. Secondly, the Buddhist religious
establishment contributed powerfully to the breakdown of kinship authority, as
within its own structure it provided channels for individual mobility
unrelated to kinship affiliation. In addition, it developed relations which
tended to replace kin-group functions, such as mutual aid between a monastery
and its subjects, or between a family and its monk son's teacher (see ch. 4,
Social Structure).

     Thus the functioning and importance of kin-groups underwent considerable
decline. By the early 20th century, even the use of a patrilineally inherited
surname and proof of ultimate patrilineal relationship among persons had
almost ceased. The largest kin unit still recognized was the patriclan, or
torel, but this was significantly different from the traditional patriclan.
Structurally it was no longer defined identically by the various segments of
society. Among commoners, the torel tended in practice to include only those
comparatively few persons with whom relationship could actually be traced. Its
scope became increasingly limited as early as the second decade of this
century by dwindling general interest in such matters. Among nobles, on the
other hand, the torel continued to be of great social importance, since
membership in the noble (Borjigin) torel validated all claims to aristocratic
status. Thus, among nobles in prerevolutionary times, the torel still
corresponded in structure to the traditional patriclan; that is, it included
all patrilineal relatives (all those of the Borjigin clan), since nobles are
said to have been able to trace their patriclan relationships almost
indefinitely through genealogical records kept for the purpose.

     For both commoners and nobles, however, the torel survived primarily as a
classificatory device, a social mechanism for determining the individual's
affiliation for p