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

Sociologists have distinguished between sex and gender. Sex refers to whether a personis considered female or male, based on the kind of body they have. Gender describes the ideaand practices that constitute femininity and masculinity. This paper describes gender rolesthrough the wedding practices among Uyghurs communities in Xinjiang and the extent towhich these have affected the role and status of men and women in contemporary Uyghursociety. 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 modernideals. This paper examines the roots of gender roles in traditional culture as seen throughwedding rituals, and will then return to a consideration of the contemporary. Weddings arenot just for the two families, but are important gatherings for the entire village. Uyghursperceive the act of marriage as a series of rituals taking place over many months, evenyears sometimes. Some of the more unusual rituals will be described and links will bemade between the rituals and differing gender roles in the society. As Uyghur society showsmuch equality at times, this is reflected in the mutual exchange of toylaq (gifts) between thegirl’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 altighatash kuyup ogzidin mangmaq (put a stone under the bride and running on the rooftop), an oldcustom that shows the dominance of the groom over his bride. Also the qizni gilem ustideoyge ekirmek (carrying the bride in a carpet to her husband’s house) is an old custom thatcan be seen as showing respect to the bride. Other customs, such as qiz qachumaq (wifekidnapping), while seemingly putting the bride in a position of no agency, is almost always amutual 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 maykeep her gifts and the bride price, except under unusual circumstances. This paper willdescribe these more unusual rituals and customs and will compare an isolated village with itsmore modern urban counterparts. It will show that gender is socially constructed by using thesociological and anthropological explorations of how gender has meant different things andhow roles have been expressed differently in different times and places.

Anahtar Kelimeler:

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

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