몽골의 가정생활 문화에 관한 일고찰

A Study of the Family Life Culture in Mongolia: Focusing on Women s Folklore

In this paper investigate the family life culture in Mongolia. For this research four major areas such as, folk tales, historical materials like the Secret History of the Mongols , proverbs and riddles, and everyday life space are analysed. Mongolian women always used to be regarded as precious figures inside family life in the traditional nomadic culture. In this regard, Mongolian women are usually believed to have plenty of courage and wisdom in order to adopt themselves into their husbands kin groups as well as new environment in the steppe. Firstly, when we analyse Mongolian women s folklore through folk tales, the relationship between sisters is very distinctive. Inside folk tales it is interesting to see the relationship between daughter-in-law and father-in-law to be described as more flexible than that of daughter-in-law and mother-in-law. Furthermore, in the occasion of an unfaithful and unreliable husband, Mongolian women often punish them strictly and rigidly without any mercy. Secondly, the Secret History of the Mongols shows that Mongolian women played a significant role in family and kinship matters. For example, both Alun Gua(one of Chinghis Khan s old female ancestors) and Höelün(Chinghis Khan s mother) were the best known Mongolian women in this regard. Not only did they overcome all kinds of obstacles without their husbands, they also got over disharmony and hostility among their offspring with wisdom and strong leadership. Similarly, many Mongolian proverbs and riddles metaphorically describe Mongolian women as being gentle in appearance but sturdy in spirit . Thirdly, Mongolian women and men have their own space inside Mongolian tents. The gender division of space inside Mongolian tents indicates the efficiency of domestic labour. Any Mongolian woman, who has three sons after marriage, gains the honorable title darhan ber(literally means the master of daughter-in-law) and she then will be revered with special respect. In addition, Mongolian women usually actively try to extend their social network. As a result of this involvement they strengthen their status inside the domestic domain.