Türk destancılık geleneği içinde mühim bir yer işgal eden Kırgız Türklerinin destancılık geleneği, mütekâmil seviyeye erişmiş ve zengin ürünler vermiş bir sözlü kültür geleneğidir. Dünya kültür hazinesine Manas destanı gibi muazzam hacimdeki bir epik anlatıyı kazandıran bu sözlü kültür geleneğinde Manas destanının yanı sıra birçok epik anlatı mevcuttur. Fakat Kırgız destan araştırmalarında daha ziyade Manas destanı merkezli çalışmaların yapılması, diğer epik anlatılar ile alakalı çalışmaların sayısını etkilemiştir. Yeterince araştırma yapılmayan veya ihmal edilen epik anlatılardan biri de Er Soltonoy destanıdır. Er Soltonoy destanı, Kırgız-Kalmuk savaşlarını konu edinen tarihi dönem Kırgız destanlarındandır. Toplumsal hayatın ve bilhassa aile kurumunun kurucu üyelerinden olan ve bir sosyal varlık olarak nitelendirilen kadınların sosyal hayatta cinsiyet temelli iş bölümü neticesinde üstlendikleri roller, cemiyet içerisindeki işlevleri, toplum ve karşı cins karşısındaki konumunun belirlenmesinde sözlü kültür ürünleri bize değerli malzemeler sunmaktadır. Bu bakımdan destanlarda yer alan kadın kahramanlar üzerinde ulaşacağımız hüküm ve tespitler, toplumun kadına dair bakış açısını ve sosyal ve kültürel zemindeki algıyı tespit edebilmemize imkân sağlar Bu makalede Er Soltonoy destanındaki kadın kahramanların destandaki sosyal mevkileri ve işlevleri esas alınarak incelenmeye tabi tutulmuştur. Yapılan tespit ve değerlendirmelerin neticesinnde Türk destancılık geleneğinin müşterek hususiyetlerinden olan kadın kahramanların tipolojik özelliklerinin Er Soltonoy destanında da yer alıp almadığı üzerinde durulacaktır

Taking an important place in Turkish epic tradition, epic tradition of Kirghiz Turks is a cultural oral tradition which has reached the matured level and produced rich works. There are many epic stories in this cultural oral tradition besides the enormous epic story it has brought to the treasury of world culture as epic of Manas. However, since the studies made on Kirghiz epics are based on epic of Manas, this affected the number of studies for other epic stories. One of these stories is epic of Er Soltonoy, which wasn’t studied adequately and ignored. Epic of Er Soltonoy is one of the historical Kirghiz epics which narrate the Kirghiz and Kalmuck wars. Being one of the founding members of the family and social life and defined as a social entity, women's roles as a result of the gender based labor division in the social life, their functions in the community, and oral culture products in specifying the location in the society and opposite sex provide us precious materials. In this scope, judgments and determinations that we have reached on the heroine in the epic enable us to determine the perception in the social and cultural sense and points of view of the society towards the woman. This article analyzes the social status and functions of the women characters in the epic of Er Soltonoy. Whether or not the typological features of the women characters in Turkish epic tradition also appear in the epic of Er Soltonoy will be emphasized according to observations and evaluations made Taking an important place in Turkish epic tradition, epic tradition of Kirghiz Turks is a cultural oral tradition which has reached the matured level and produced rich works. There are many epic stories in this cultural oral tradition besides the enormous epic story it has brought to the treasury of world culture as epic of Manas. However, since the studies made on Kirghiz epics are based on epic of Manas, this affected the number of studies for other epic stories. One of these stories is epic of Er Soltonoy, which wasn’t studied adequately and ignored. Epic of Er Soltonoy is one of the historical Kirghiz epics which narrate the Kirghiz and Kalmuck wars. This article analyzes the social status and functions of the women characters in the epic of Er Soltonoy. Whether or not the typological features of the women characters in Turkish epic tradition also appear in the epic of Er Soltonoy will be emphasized according to observations and evaluations made. Being one of the founding members of the family and social life and defined as a social entity, women's roles as a result of the gender based labor division in the social life, their functions in the community, and oral culture products in specifying the location in the society and opposite sex provide us precious materials. In this scope, judgments and determinations that we have reached on the heroine in the epic able us to determine the perception in the social and cultural sense and points of view of the society towards the woman. The movement of the heroine has been taken shape due to the power of the patriarchal structure in the epic that we can see the factors brought by the established culture and cavalier-nomadic life style. The heroine in epic do not show a warrior and brave alpine girl features but they are not also the types that are evaluated as an aesthetics identity in the perception of the opposite sex and playing indoor roles. It is indicated that women in epic do not play extremely passive roles since they are used in spying duties that are generally executed by the men and accepted as the important duties of the state. The examination of roles and functions of the heroine provides important data for determination of the perception towards the women in the Kyrgyz society. The heroine in the epic can be evaluated under the topic of mother, women as a partner, partner selection and marriage, servant, spy. The followings can be said upon the determination and evaluations. The heroines in the Er Soltonoy epic are the mothers, partners, assistant girl. The mother giving birth to a boy is always respected by the society. Similarly, epic hero always loves their mother with eternal love and respects her. The hero has the approval of the mother first for any kind of work. The mother is assigned to bring up the epic heroes well and make their children join "alplar" group by successfully fulfilling this duty. The woman heroines that dedicated their lives to their partners always help their partners at their difficult times and warn them against the dangers and advise them if required. Smart and wise women that can be qualified as the secret guide of their partners are influential for healthy and right decisions by the epic heroes by advising on and warning against smartly and intelligently even though they do not assist at the battlefield as ideal warrior women of the nomadic society. Being extremely loyal to their partners, these women play uniting and gathering role for reservation of the family and against separation even if their partners are taken captured for a long period of time. The skill that considered by the heroine in selection of the partner selection is heroine. Women's demand to marry with a valiant and hero man signals that the values dignified by the nomadic culture are valid. In return, it is possible to say that it is the influence of the settled life style that men select their partners by prioritizing the beauty. Marriage forms such as eloping, arranged marriage are the reflection of male-dominant society. The women depend on the preference of their fathers rather than their own will in their village. Servant women in the assistant roles in the epic are liable to serve to the daughter of the gentlemen and their movements in the epic text are extremely limited. Women are used in the spying in the epic. Making use of women with superior skills and abilities in spying business reflects that society has no strict perspective based on gender for some professions and the existence of belief that women can fulfill important duties. The heroines in the Er Soltonoy epic have the characteristics of a woman with limited actions and is of secondary importance beside the epic hero, have passive features of settled life rather than the women type having her own fate and character of cavalier-nomadic culture. However, the heroines do not reflect the woman typology of settled culture in full. As you can see in the text of the epic, they play a powerful and manager role with smart and intelligent skills, helping and warning her epic hero at every condition. Similarly, women are used in the "spying" duties that require a great responsibility and work conscious and closely related with the future of the state and nation. This preference is the signal of trust and belief to the women by the society along side with the benefiting from the skills of the women. In this respect, when we evaluate the roles and functions of the heroine that they take on and their typological features, we can say that they carry the features of passage period between the nomadic culture and settled culture.