Rituals of Gender Identity:

Markers of Siberian Khanty Ethnicity, Status, and Belief

MARJORIEMANDEISTAMBALZER
Harvard University

Sibenan Khanty (Ostiak) menstrual taboos and related rituals of birth, naming, and marnage are analyzed, in order to explore cross-cultural theories of menstrual restriction,
gender strati/ication, and female conservatism. Emphasis is placed on Mary Douglas?
idea that conflicting norms of male dominance and female independence can encourage
pollution beliefs. The importance of ancestresses, female shamans, and postmenopausal
women in Khanty d u a l indicates that there is no male monopoly on concepts of culture,
power, the sacred and the public. Khanty ideas about women, changing with Russian
injluence, are discussed in terms of slowly shifting definitions of kelfand ethnicity. Data
result f r o m 13 months in the Somet Union, including a summer ethnographic expedition
to the Northern Ob River. [symbolic anthropology, pollution beliefs, gender stratification, ethnicity, Siberian Khanty (Ostiak)]

INTRODUCTION

IN 1976, WHILE STUDYING THE UGRIAN

KHANTYon a Soviet summer ethnographic expedition in northwestern Siberia, I became involved in an incident that illustrated the degree
to which traditional Khanty perceptions of gender identity have persisted, despite the
Soviet cultural milieu. Eager to see a Khanty attic where ancestral idols are sometimes
kept, I thought my opportunity had arrived when a Khanty elder offered to show me
reindeer equipment stored in his attic. Misunderstanding my welcome, I tried to follow
the elder up a ladder. He began gesticulating madly for me to get off, and later declared
women simply must not go either on the ladder or into the roof-forbidden, forbidden.

MARJORIE MANDELSTAM BALZER is a Fellow at the Harvard University R u d a n

Research Center. Her Ph.D. in anthropology is from Bryn Mawr (1979). and her B.A. is
from University of Pennsylvania (1972). She has taught at Grinnell College and as a
Visiting AYitant Professor at University of Illinois (Champaign-Urbana), Her interests include circumpolar culture change, American Indian politics, and nationalities issues in the
Soviet Union. She has written several articles on the Siberian Khanty. based in part on
ethnohistorical and field research in the Soviet Union in 1975-76. and is writing a hook on
ethnic relations and acculturation in Siberia.

Copyright @ 1981 by the American Anthropological Association

000~-7294/81/040850-18$1.30/1

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A young man in another village confirmed that women are not permitted in attics even
to put out a fire.
By the time this incident occurred, I knew that Khanty women were considered impure, particularly by Khanty men. Several women had already described restrictions
because of menstruation that until the 1930s were nearly universally obeyed by Khanty
females. Some of these taboos still obtain today for Khanty, especially for reindeer
breeders who live a nomadic life in the tundra, but also for some Khanty who live more
settled lives in fishing villages which are Soviet collective centers.
In this article, taboos that my female Khanty consultants explained as resulting from
menstruation are outlined and analyzed. Related birth, naming, and marriage rituals
are discussed, with emphasis on the sacred and powerful roles of elderly Khanty women.
These rituals, which are markers of gender identity, are then placed in a perspective of
culture change, sex role analysis, gender relations symbolism, and ethnicity theory.
Following Clifford Geertz (1973:112) and Victor Turner (1977:69-70), ritual is considered here as symbolic action through which crucial, often sacred, values may be
reflected, reinforced or changed. Important male and female self-concepts are seen as
shaped and maintained through ritual, which in turn is viewed as a focus of ethnic identity. The study of Khanty birth, naming and marriage therefore can lead to an understanding of how ritual buttresses a peoples sense of ethnicity and what role concepts of
gender and age might play in this process. At the same time, the Khanty, having
elaborated ideas of female pollution, provide a test case for theoretical explanations of
menstrual taboos and female solidarity in traditional cultures.
CULTURALBACKGROUND
The Northern Ob River Khanty, who are often called Ostiak in Western literature,
speak an Ugrian (Finno-Ugric) language. Their clan organization is traditionally
patrilineal and their households are predominantly patrilocal and patriarchal, although
such norms should be viewed as social principles often ignored in flexible individual solutions to social grouping. Such pragmatism, while known in the past, has been especially
common in recent years of Soviet rule and increased contact with Russians.
The Khanty live very near the Arctic Circle, in an area divided by the Soviets into
reindeer-breeding, hunting, fur-farm and fishing collectives. Collective work brigades
of six to nine men include both Khanty and Russians. Some of the Russians come from
Siberian-Russian peasant backgrounds, while others represent a more recent influx of
Soviet-Russian cadres. With the exception of the nomadic reindeer breeders, both Khanty and Russians live in small villages characterized by Russian stores, schools, medical
facilities, day-care centers, and Communist Party clubhouses. Nonetheless, Russian
cabins are usually clustered together in specific sections of a given village, while some
outlying villages within a given collective jurisdiction are populated solely by Khanty, or
by their Ugrian neighbors, the Mansi (Vogul).
In this polyethnic situation, Khanty have maintained aspects of their traditional
religion, especially life-crisis rituals. Their graveyards are filled with evidence of belief in
an afterlife and they still express open respect for certain sacred animals like the bear.*
Male elders, admired in their communities, are likely to be both patriotic Soviet citizens
and believers in ancient Khanty cosmological concepts.
While retaining many traditional values, Khanty have also been willing to accept
material benefits, like salaries and electricity, from the Russians. A few Khanty brigade
leaders own snowmobiles, and many families have motorboats. Khanty today use Soviet
hospitals and attend Soviet schools, where both Russian and Khanty languages are used.

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Many Khanty speak Russian as a second language, but quite a few middle-aged and older
Khanty, especially women, do not.
Khanty women are markedly conservative in both dress and behavior. Many wear colorful, beautifully embroidered and appliqued clothing, and they work furs, using traditional skills. While they are capable of hunting, fishing, and reindeer breeding, their
economic roles still center on processing the products of these traditionally male activities. Some Khanty women will not work for Soviet collectives, refuse to see Soviet
films, and consciously avoid using the Russian language. In ritual life, older women are
most likely to insist on strict traditional forms.
There have, however, been some notable changes with Soviet influence. Gathering
of food now takes place more often in stores than in forests, and some women work on fur
farms and in dairies. Bride price, which was traditionally offset to some extent by
dowries, is curtailed by law. Perhaps most significant, women no longer retreat to birth
and menstrual huts, which they themselves describe as small, chilly, uncomfortable, and
unclean.
FEMALE RESTRICTIONS

Although birth and menstrual huts are obsolete and illegal, at the onset of puberty
girls in many Khanty families still learn the rigors of what it means to be considered
unclean. While today this is accomplished through coaching in individual households,
traditionally rituals introducing a girl to menstrual huts and purification were practiced.
Menstruation is believed to be a personal danger to men and to male ability to procure
food. Menstruating females are also described, by both men and women, as abhorrent
and insulting to spirits and ancestors. On the basis of Khanty comments and some observations, female prohibitions fall into three interrelated categories: the threat to food procurement, the threat to social propriety, and the threat to spiritual life.
Regarding the threat to food procurement, women should not tread over nets,
weapons, or the lead runs of sleds. They may not cross in front of a herd of deer. They are
enjoined from preparing the flesh of certain pure and sacred animals, such as red fox
or bear. Women may not eat the sacred or left side of the bear, the side with the heart.
Women should never know when a bear hunt is being planned or conducted, or the hunt
is sure to be spoiled. Men must never allow themselves sexual satisfaction before any hunt
or during any menstrual period, and should be conscious of any hanging clothes or shoes
of women which could harm them. The burden of responsibility for female impurity,
however, lies squarely with women, and it is their obligation to be alert. Contaminating
women who have improper relations with men are considered to offend animals and fish,
who will not give themselves up to men.
Improper female conduct is also a threat to social propriety, since female pollution
extends particularly to certain male relatives who must be especially careful not to have
face-to-face contact with certain categories of women. Male in-laws are considered
especially vulnerable to the unclean powers of women, and must therefore be protected
from them by rules of female propriety. Again, the burden is on the female, who constantly must be prepared to bury her face modestly in her head scarf. Formerly, women
were also expected to turn their backs to male in-laws both outdoors and indoors, and required to avoid direct address when talking with male in-laws.
A womans expulsion from her immediate family and ostracism from her husbands
patriclan were the penalties that traditionally reinforced face covering. In the 1920s, the
Soviet ethnographer Startsev (1928:76) was told that even a married womans own
parents might disown her, saying What kind of woman are you, that you do not properly

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hide your face? With a great deal of Soviet pressure, including special open face
ceremonies throughout the 1950s and 1960s, some Khanty women have stopped veiling
themselves in front of male in-laws. However, I observed both middle-aged and young
women covering their faces in 1976.
Face covering is perhaps a symbolic means of keeping out of sexual contact and attraction with men who should not ruin the marriage of their clan member. Veiling may also
enable women to gain a safe social distance from their male in-laws, who often live in
uncomfortably close proximity to them (cf. Murphy 1964:1257-1274). Traditional
Khanty themselves consider veiling to be a gesture of respect for male in-laws. One of my
female consultants, who is a Communist Party member, explained that her brothers-inlaw and father-in-law opposed her recent marriage because they knew she would not
observe face-veiling restrictions.
A proper, reserved Khanty woman should have minimal contact with all males,
especially strangers, even in her own home. It is therefore still considered preferable for a
woman capable of childbirth to sit on the female side of her cabin. This womans portion is an area near the door, including the stove, and extending to a line near the center
of a cabin or tent. I was shown cabin demarcations by several women and told that sometimes they are enforced by placing a board as a boundary on the floor.
The corresponding male part of the cabin includes the sacred corner, where
household idols and Russian Orthodox icons are sometimes kept, and the attic, where images of patriclan ancestors are periodically given food, clothing, and coins by
candlelight. Because the male part of the cabin is considered sacred, the third, or
spiritual realm of female prohibition is revealed. Not only are females socially and sexually dangerous to males, they are also threatening to spirits and gods, and to male relations with these spirits and gods.
Since places considered sacred to men should not be traversed by women, we can see
that there are spatial correlates to the concept of contaminating woman that reveal
concrete behavioral mechanisms protecting men from female pollution (cf. Goodale and
Chowning 1971; Goodale 1980:130; Keesing 1976:398-401). It is considered exceptionally dangerous for a woman to walk above the main floor of her house, because this defiIes
everything below. This is one of the reasons that Khanty balk at living in multistory
buildings.
The most sacred male domains (off bounds to females and young boys) are mens
sacrificial groves, situated deep in the forests or along river banks. In these groves, for
hundreds of years and well into the 20th century, Khanty have worshipped large wooden
idols, despite the shocked disapproval of Russian Orthodox missionaries and of Communists. The idols are a conglomerate of images of gods, spirits, and clan ancestors,
especially shamans.6 I was told that the reason women are not permitted to see these images is that they would ruin the efficacy of sacrifices to sacred grove images. Such
sacrifices are increasingly rare, given Soviet restrictions on killing workhorses and
reindeer, but offerings to idols in these groves do still occur, and Northern Khanty men
continue to forbid women even to step on any river bank that is near a sacred grove.
THEORIES OF MENSTRUAL RESTRICTIONS:
CONFLICT, CONTROL, EXCHANGE, OR ENVY?

Robert Lowie (1931), in early research on the issue of women and religion, noticed
that taboos in numerous societies either implicitly or explicitly relate to menstruation. He
was impressed that in some of these societies such taboos did not preclude female participation in certain sacred activities, nor did they prevent development of considerable,

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especially postmenopausal, female influence. Lowie thus enumerated some of the prob lems that were to become central to anthropologists in later years, but he did not offer explanations for menstrual taboos.
More recently, anthropologists have sought such explanations in psychology, ecology,
functional ideas about male dominance and marriage exchange, and in symbolic theories
of value conflict. These concepts will be briefly summarized here to explore which pertain to the Khanty.
Psychological theories of menstrual taboos stem from assumptions of varying degrees of
castration anxiety in men (Stephens 1961:391; Freud 1949: 92-93), or from hypothesized vaginal envy in men (Montgomery 1974:149-151; Bettelheim 1954:ZO; cf.
Douglas 1975:65-71). Since these deep-seated and supposedly universal feelings are difficult to measure cross-culturally, both Stephens and Montgomery have sought more accessible cultural traits that might support their positions. Some of the customs that
Stephens (1961:411) suggests may help develop both an Oedipal complex and menstrual
taboos are: postpartum sex restrictions, masturbation punishment, strong pressure for
childhood obedience, strictness of physical punishment, and aggression training.
Stephens concedes there are methodological problems in determining antecedents for
menstrual restrictions: not all of his tests suggesting castration anxiety or the Oedipus
complex relate well to prevalence of menstrual constraints. Following Whiting,
Kluckhohn, and Anthony (1958:359-370), his most persuasive correlation is long
postpartum sex restrictions with extensive menstrual taboos, but neither necessarily explains the other. Each link in the correlation chain appears too weak to prove either
widespread castration anxiety or Oedipal relations (Young and Bacdayan 1965:236;
Deleuze and Guattari 1977:252-253; Lacan 1971:103-115).
Montgomery (1974: 149), beginning with Bettelheims idea of vaginal envy, is concerned with relating active male participation (ideological and behavioral) in the procreation and birth process to mild or absent menstrual taboos. Montgomerys correlation
succeeds better than Stephenss, since it deals with observable practices more relevant to
the conscious level of native explanation. Nonetheless, in neither case do we gain an
understanding of the rich variation of gender status contexts in which menstrual taboos
are found. Montgomerys hypothesis (1974:149), that the degree to which a man is
regarded and regards himself to be integral to the processes of procreation and to the sexual functions of women will modify the ambivalence and jealousy he feels toward those
functions, provides a basis from which to explore further. The ambivalence and
jealousy of Khanty men regarding womens functions might help to explain their fear of
menstrual blood and their imposition of numerous menstrual taboos, but not why women
themselves cooperate in observing menstrual taboos.
Shirley Lindenbaums ecological theory (1972:241-253) would perhaps satisfy this requirement, but raises other problems. Using Melanesian data of Mervyn Meggitt, Jane
Goodale, and Ann Chowning on the Mae Enga, Kaulong, and Sengseng, Lindenbaum
(1972:248) considers that fear of pollution is a form of ideological birth control. Sexual
union is seen as limited by menstrual taboos, thus keeping population density to a
manageable level in these horticultural societies (cf. Sanday 1981:108- 109). The strong
causal relationship of pollution ideas with constrained sex and ecological success is difficult to prove for diverse, often fertility-oriented Melanesia (Goodale, personal communication, March 31, 1980). It seems particularly questionable for the reindeerbreeding Khanty, who were traditionally able to support multiple wives with increased
reindeer herds as they expanded into Northern tundra and forest lands.
Sociological explanations for menstrual taboos have been especially common, with
ideas focusing on the social dominance of males in many cultures, and the passive role
of women. Thus restrictions related to menstruation are seen to occur in societies that

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best fit the LCvi-Straussmodel of women as exchange objects (1968:551). Women are the
focus of social bonding between exogamous groups and as such are valued, feared, and
in between (cf. Strathern 1972:183, 301). The fear of marrying strange women could
therefore explain the strict menstrual taboos of the patri-virilocal Mae Enga (Meggitt
1964:207-208). This kind of reasoning is suggested by Evelyn Kessler (1976:74), who concludes: A fruitful problem for research would be to determine whether menstrual taboos
occur more frequently and/or more stringently among people who consciously marry
their enemies, such as the Mae Enga and the Sarakatsani of Greece, than among people
who contract marriages among friendly groups.
This approach is indeed useful for finding sources of mens suspicion of women, but it
should not imply a lack of eventual female participation in new patri-virolocal environments. Additional cases also need to be explained, since cultures such as the
Kaulong with stress on female aggressiveness in courtship and marital unity may also
have menstrual restrictions (Goodale 1980:135). Kessler herself (1976:74) notes that the
matrilocal and matrilineal Bemba studied by Audrey Richards (1956: 19) have strict
menstrual taboos. In contrast, the Khanty share kin structural characteristics with the
Mae Enga, but cannot be said to marry their enemies. Clearly, a broader explanation is
required, given the multitude of cultures with menstrual taboos.
Frank W. Young and Albert A. Bacdayan (1965:225-240) have attempted such a
broad sociogenic theory in a cross-cultural study of 58 societies. They argue that
menstrual taboos are rooted in social rigidity, which is defined as a lack of communication between sexes, and is measured in markers of male dominance and male solidarity
such as mens houses and male sacred groves. This promising theory seems to cover only
half the necessary ground, however, since no attempt is made to analyze female solidarity. Such solidarity among Khanty derives from ritual participation, exclusive sacred
groves, joint labor activities, and gossip. Young and Bacdayan (1965:236-237)
themselves admit their interpretation is tautological since menstrual taboos are by
definition an aspect of rigidity.
To take into account male dominance, female solidarity, and the widespread combination of fear and value that accompanies male perceptions of women, a more complex
theory is necessary. Recognizing the role of social conflict in ideology, Mary Douglas
(1966: 142) suggests a direction for such a theory:
When the principle of male dominance is applied to the ordering of social life but is contradicted
by other principles such as that of female independence, or the inherent right of women as the
weaker sex to be more protected from violence than men, then sex pollution is likely to flourish.

This focus on contradictory norms within social systems permits consideration of

numerous cultural variations of male-female relations. Pollution orientation can be described as relatively acute depending on the degree of tension generated by ambiguity in
male dominance and female independence, value, or solidarity. The nature of the tensions needs to be examined carefully for each culture. Thus the Mae Engas particular
ambivalence toward marrying strangers is fit into a flexible comparative framework, as
are the Bembas tensions arising from matri-uxorilocality. Comparison of numerous
cultures using detailed life-crisis data may well yield a better understanding of those
aspects of male-female relations that most frequently produce social tensions leading to
pollution-oriented practices. The Guttman scale of Young and Bacdayan (1965:226-227)
measuring menstrual restrictions provides a first step in pinpointing which cultures (e.g.,
Arapesh, Cheyenne, Kwakiutl, and Papago) have especially marked pollution practices.
Using Mary Douglass theory, pollution beliefs can be seen as both allowing a separation of sexes in ;eligious, social, and economic spheres, and creating a symbolic restriction of women in attempts to assert imperfect male control. It is conceivable that women

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might emphasize the separation dimension of this model, while men would focus on the
restrictions. Tensions resulting from conflicting norms might explain widespread emphasis on spatial boundaries between the sexes. In addition, separation is both reflected
in and fostered by sexual division of labor. Thus, Ernestine Friedls (1975:30) observation
that menstrual taboos are frequent in those societies where mens hunting and womens
gathering are independent activities becomes logical. In modern contexts, symbolic
restrictive aspects of menstrual taboos make understandable why some pollution-related
practices have been given up, while potential advantages of separation may explain some
female (and male) conservatism.
Possible objections to this theory are that it is too general and susceptible to exceptions.
Mary Douglas (1966:142-145) accounts for exceptions by discussing societies (e.g., the
Nuer and Nayar) where there is enough legal flexibility (legal fictions) to give individuals leeway in social relations. Such leeway breaks down the social rigidity that
Young and Bacdayan discuss (1965:225-240). This would perhaps explain why European
cultures gradually lost many restrictions related to pollution beliefs, as they gained legal
scope. The continuity of some pollution orientations in European gender symbolism and
marriage practice, however, reveals that these concerns still permeate many aspects of
culture (cf. Skultans 1970:639-651; 1979:77-97).
Concern with exceptions detracts from the importance of refining the pollution theory
of conflicting norms. It is crucial to return to specific data in order to decipher patterns
in the ways that males are dominant and females are independent, cooperative, powerful, and/or valued. This could, in turn, lead to an understanding of how gender conflicts
might develop or be resolved. While Mary Douglas (1966:158) sees such resolution in
ideas of purity and virginity, I am inclined also to look toward concepts of ancestral unity, ethnicity, and old age.
GROWING OLD AND SACRED

Mary Douglass (1966) theory of contradictory gender norms applies well to Khanty.
Khanty patriarchy is indeed muted by concepts of female value. Khanty men are at once
dominant in public decision-making and susceptible to informal female pressure. Traditional Khanty women both observe menstrual restrictions and participate in important
religious activities, with female power becoming stronger as women grow older.
Some of the images in Khanty male ancestral clan groves are themselves female. One
Khanty man admitted to me that it is ironic to worship spirit females and yet not permit
women in the flesh to see their images. A partial explanation of this conflict is that older
postmenopausal women and ancestresses are suitable foci of spiritual respect, whereas
menstruating women are, in contrast, dangerous. To follow this line of reasoning, it is
necessary to examine the important role old women play in Khanty spiritual life.
For Khanty, the realms of the sacred and profane are not neatly divided into male versus female. A traditional Khanty woman has opportunities to grow sacred as she becomes
old.8 When a Khanty woman stops menstruating, she loses most, if not all, of her stigma
as unclean. She is enormously respected for her expertise in raising a family, her
knowledge of the mysteries of birth and death, her skills in making beautiful clothing,
and her ability, in some cases, to specialize in making sacred objects like birth-divining
dolls or doll-images of the dead. A few older women also are considered specialists in
midwifery, tattooing, and preparing bodies of the deceased. Some become shamans, renowned for curing.
When the Finnish ethnographer of religion Karjalainen (1927:241) visited Northern
Khanty at the turn of the century, he found that a few old women were allowed to sit in
mens seats during rituals honoring household idols. He was explicitly told this was ac-

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ceptable because older women "do not do the doings of women anymore" (Karjalainen
192794 1).
Perhaps the most significant role that Khanty women traditionally played, and to some
extent still play, was during birth and naming ritual, when they presided over the proper
purifications for mother and child and they practiced divination to determine the reincarnated identity of newborn Khanty children.
KHANTY CHILDBIRTH

Traditional Khanty childbirth was entirely the province of women, and was administered by older midwives and women from both the maternal and paternal sides of a
family (Startsev 1928:74). Before birth, a small birch-bark doll was made by either the
mother-to-beor an older woman, to serve as an offering to the Khanty birth goddess, an
ancient gray-haired spirit called Pugos (midwife) or Vaneg-imi (old woman of birth).
Dangling the doll on a ribbon provided a means of divining the fate of the mother and
the sex of the child. Khanty mothers prayed and still pray for a male child.
When delivery time drew near, the Khanty mother traditionally withdrew to a village
hut, taking her birch doll, her sewing, clean clothes, and a birch-bark basket cradle.
During birth, a mother was expected to confess her transgressions to an assembled group
of older women: her cursing, scolding, violations of female prohibitions, and any
adulteries she might have committed or lusted for (Startsev 1928:74). Only in cases of extreme difficulty was a shaman sent for, preferably a woman but sometimes a man.
Once a child was born, washed, and placed in a birch-bark cradle lined with rabbit
and reindeer fur, the mother began a long process of purification and ritual activity.
Within the first week, she was expected to expose her skin to frost in winter or pestilent
mosquitoes in the summer.
After a week she switched her baby to a more substantial birch-bark cradle and put her
old and contaminated clothing in the first cradle. Together with older female relatives,
she took this cradle to a nearby females-only sacred grove, where the cradle was hung as
high as possible in a birch tree. While in the grove, the women shared a small meal of fish and
cooked meat and, led by the midwife. gave offerings to the gray-haired Birth-Mother Spirit and
the ancient female Spirit of Fire (Karjalainen 1927:59-60). (It is significant that Northern
Khanty names for these spirits, Vaneg-imi and Tut-imi, end in imi,meaning old woman.)
Some Khanty still perform this females' sacred grove ceremony, and believe that children will
live through their first difficult years if their birch cradles stay well up in trees for a long time
(Kazym consultants).
T o end her seclusion period, which traditionally lasted as long as two months, the
Khanty mother needed final ritual purification. Elderly women prepared a long narrow
fire over which the mother jumped three times. Beaver skin was added to the smoke of
the fire, resulting in a pungent cleansing musk odor. Hot water was poured onto stones to
create steam, while mother and child bathed in warm water into which smouldering
birch bark (including the birth-divining doll) and chewed beaver skin were placed. (According to Mansi ethnographer E. I. Rombandeeva (1968:77-78), the Northern Mansi,
Ob Ugrians closely related to Khanty, say that a woman is impure up to her shoulders
while menstruating, unclean in her big toe between periods, and contaminating
everywhere except her hair while giving birth.)
Smoke, water, and beaver are still considered by Khanty to have purifying power and
are used by some women after they return from Soviet maternity homes, after
menstruating, and in some bear festivals to protect sacred bears from the contamination
of women. Although Khanty women no longer deliver their children in birth huts, some
believe that they avoid polluting their own homes when they go to Soviet maternity homes

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or hospitals. Some Khanty women still consider the confession of traditionally defined
sins to be both purifying and of value in hastening birth. Although mothers are no
longer secluded for two months, it is believed dangerous for them to have contact with
outsiders, especially males, for at least that long.
According to Khanty women, some females-onlybirch groves still exist. The groves are
perceived as sacred for women, but dangerous for men. They are places where women go
to share wine and food over campfires and also to make offerings to the birth and fire
deities. Woman go to these groves when they feel sick, have had a bad dream, or are concerned about something they wish to discuss with others (cf. Sokolova 1976:84). I believe
such sacred groves could greatly foster womens solidarity in a given locale and increase
the power of older women. The groves today do not attract all of the women of a given
Khanty community and thus do not serve informally to offset male political dominance in
separate villages, as they once might have.
FEMALE SOLIDARITY AND POWER

A focus on sacred groves as bases of potential female power relates directly to Michelle
Rosaldos (197458) statement that pollution beliefs can provide grounds for solidarity
among women. Nonetheless, a distinction should be made between pollution beliefs and
byproducts of these beliefs. The byproducts can be seen by women as positive (sacred
groves) or negative (menstrual huts). Depending on the cultural context, menstrual huts
could alternatively themselves be sanctuaries (Rosaldo 1974:38). Solidarity resulting
from pollution beliefs must also be viewed critically, since for menstruating women the
authority of older women could be overbearing in some cultures or situations and inspiring in others.
Despite these caveats, it is clear from the ethnographic literature that women have
traditionally had, or have been able to develop, considerable power, both informally in
the domestic domain and formally through legitimized public authority in groups and
as individuals (cf. Rosaldo 1974:17-42; Sanday 1974:189-206; 1981:113-1Y4; Leacock
1975:601-616; Hoffer (MacCormack) 1974: 173- 187; Schlegel 1977: 1-40; Reiter
1977:5-24; Weiner 1976:236). This does not mean womens power has exceeded that of
men in a given society, although it has for some groups been complementary, for example, among the Hopi (Schlegel 1977:245-269) and the Sherbro and Mende (MacCormack
1977:93-100). Perhaps those societies where power is truly complementary are less likely
to develop strong pollution beliefs. The Hopi appear not to have strict menstrual taboos
(Stephens 1961:413), while Sherbo and Mende impurity is taken care of in Sande initiations (MacCormack 1977:98).
For the Khanty, informal female influence seems not to have extended to formal
political authority, even with sacred groves as potential forums of organization. Male
dominance has not been equally balanced by cultural definitions of female value and
cooperation. Sacred authority, however, has been particularly meaningful in naming
ritual.
NAMING
Although females sacred groves are declining in importance, the authority of older
Khanty women continues to be strong during Khanty ceremonies of divination and naming. Traditionally, while a woman was still in the birth hut, divining and naming rituals
were held exclusive of men except, on invitation, male shamans. Today such ceremonies
occur after a mother has returned from a Soviet maternity home. If a respected female
shaman is available, she is considered most able to practice divination. Khanty still say

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that children without teeth can talk with shamans. A shaman can thus learn crucial information regarding what ancestor a child embodies in reincarnation.
If a suitable shaman cannot be found, elderly women can perform nearly the same
divining and naming functions. During divination, they suggest names of ancestral
shades, dead within their memory, and they try to lift the cradle at each name. They
place under the cradle an iron knife, important symbol of strength, continuity and
spiritual power for the Khanty. If the cradle sticks to the floor and the baby stops crying
at the mention of a particular name, it is believed that the child has taken hold in the
direction of that name (Chernetsov 1963:26). The chosen ancestor is invariably of the
same sex as the child.g After the ancestral name, called lzuksys, has been divined, Khanty
place beads (made by old women specialists) on the wrists and ankles of the child.
Without beads, it is said a child will not grow. Most Khanty continue to wear these
talisman beads throughout their lives.
The practice of divining for ancestral names reveals a cherished aspect of Khanty identity. It is this ritual, whether directed by a shaman or elderly female relatives of the
newborn, which insures the continuity of the Khanty as a people, linked in time through
the sharing of ancestral souls. The Khanty community recognizes the relationship of a
person with his or her ancestral soul by sometimes calling that person by the kin term of
the ancestor. Thus a young Khanty woman recently explained to Soviet ethnographer
Sokolova (1976:llO-112) that she is considered to have the soul of her grandmother and
for this reason her aunt calls her mother (anka).
MARRIAGE
In the 20th century, patterns of Khanty marriage have changed more thoroughly than
restrictions for unclean women. Khanty remember a whole range of marriage experiences, from abduction, to strict bride-price arrangements for very young girls, to
Russian Orthodox weddings, to Soviet official registration. A pre-1930s pattern of first
marriages is outlined here to elucidate norms and conflicts underlying Khanty gender
relations, and their symbolic expression.
In summarizing a traditional marriage, such as her now deceased mother and father
had, a middle-aged Khanty matron somewhat sarcastically explained:
The bride was sold, arranged for, and then, after about a year of preparation, delivered. She was
sold for kalym [bride price] at about age seventeen. Any earlier, a girl did not know how to do
housework properly. What would she do in her parents-in-lawshome? Play?

The speaker, like many Khanty women, has adopted the opinion of the Russians that
traditional brides were pawns, sold to be slaves. Why sell a human being? they ask.
Whether brides were actually pawns, with absolutely no say in whom they would marry,
is unlikely to be resolved in the current milieu. Brides mothers seem to have had considerable ability to influence marital choice and encourage proper sexual behavior on the
part of both brides and grooms. An early proof of informal female power in adversity
comes from the explorer-scientist P. S. Pallas (1794:142-143):
Though the uncivilized Eastjaik (Ostyak) [Khanty] does not consider his wife but as a necessary
domestic animal, and scarcely favours her with a good word for all her hard labour, yet he dares
not strike her, even for the greatest crime, unless he has consent of her father: for, in such a case,
the provoked wife would run to her parents and persuade her father to return the kalytn [bride
price] to his son-in-law, and she would marry some other man (cf. Czaplicka 1914:127; Zuev
1947 :59- 64).

Partial female value and influence is also indicated by the offsetting of traditional
bride price with dowries: money and goods that were considered the brides property,

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which she brought to the marriage settlement. Tobolsk records for 1884 confirm the
reciprocal nature of marital exchange, since some dowries are documented as being as
great as bride price (Dmitriev-Mamonov and Golodnikov 1884:17). A folktale related to
me by a reindeer breeder reveals an ideal of generosity in bridal dowries. The bride involved receives a dowry of seven sleds, numerous sable furs, and skis from her three
brothers. The ratio of dowries to bride price varies greatly depending on the individuals
involved, the region discussed and the demographic imbalances between men and
women.l0
To begin proceedings for obtaining a wife, members of the grooms patriclan traditionally met together to decide upon an appropriate matchmaker. Sometimes more than
one was chosen, for example two uncles. Occasionally, the mother and father of the
groom insisted on supplicating the bride-to-bes father themselves. The groom was not
supposed to be consulted, despite a tradition of grooms love songs. The bride was chosen
on the basis of her exogamous clan identity, potential wealth, ability to work, reputed
sexual propriety, and her age, which was ideally between 12 and 20. Some Northern
Khanty families still take these criteria seriously, encouraging marriage between compliant children of appropriate clans.
The next stage of bridal arrangements involved a visit of the appointed matchmakers
to the father of the bride. Through matchmaking riddles and praise of the potential
bride, the father was supposed to realize the purpose of the visit. Taking care that his
daughter remained hidden, he was expected to entertain his guests lavishly, preferably by
killing a reindeer. Negotiations between the brides and grooms patriclans could last for
months, as bride price, consisting of reindeer, dogs, sleds, cloths, money, household
goods - anything, was haggled over (Kazym elder).
The actual wedding occurred when the groom was finally sent to meet his future
wife, sometimes for the first time. Special reindeer-skin bedding was prepared for him,
and he was invited to lie next to the glowing hearth to wait for his bride. Sometime during the night, the bride would slip into the bed. In the morning, her mother would ask
the groom if he was satisfied. If he said yes, he would immediately begin payment of
the bride price with goods he and accompanying relatives had brought with them. If he
said no, the brides father would instantly give him gifts and send him away.
Once the groom publicly accepted his bride, the brides mother took the bedclothes in
which they had slept and tore them into tiny pieces, scattering them around outside. This
must have been a multipurpose signal: it announced to the community successful consummation, it rid the household of virgin blood, and it was a metaphor for the breakup of
the household caused by the daughters imminent departure.
While the couple was still with the brides parents, reindeer brought by the grooms
family were sacrificed, and additional gifts were exchanged, cementing alliance on
both spiritual and economic grounds. A Khanty widow explained that there was a great
party, with dancing and feasting. . . . then the bride was brought to live in the home of
the parents of her new husband. The veiled bride was expected to wear great finery, the
symbols of her clan, and, especially, a red applique dress; red being associated with
blood, vitality, fire, and beauty.
When the bride arrived at her husbands household, amidst renewed festivities, she was
placed in an ambiguous position. For as long as three days, she was expected to sit quietly
behind a curtain in a corner, during which time her groom danced and played with
well-wishing guests (Shavrov 1871:13; cf. Dmitriev-Mamonov and Golodnikov 1884:19).
This single requirement symbolizes all the tensions accompanying a marriage exchange. The bride, considered unclean and dangerous as a female, is doubly so as the
member of another patriclan. Although not an enemy, she may be a stranger. She is
the object of both hopes and fears for social and economic security. She must prove her

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restraint and respect for her in-laws by sitting behind the curtain, not showing her face.
She must eat only leftovers. She must not demand the attention of her husband, in competition with his relatives. She is truly and symbolically alone, away from members of her
own patriclan, who are usually not present at this final party. She is not yet part of a network of informal female solidarity. When she does emerge from behind the curtain, i t is
to begin work as a new member of her husbands family.
CONCLUSION: ISSUES OF CULTURE CHANGE,
FEMALE CONSERVATISM AND ETHNICITY

In a reindeer-breeding and fishing center called Kazym, I was invited into a house in
which four women of various ages ranging from around 30 to 70 were sewing fur boots,
kneading skins, chewing sinew, and talking. After discussing female restrictions, one
woman exclaimed: But now women are leaders themselves and those ways are gone.
Her outburst set up a clamor of debate, with one middle-aged woman maintaining that
even young women obey many of the restrictions derived from menstrual impurity, while
another argued that only the older and feebleminded do so. Still another said that malefemale house divisions are frequently observed, while a fourth sneered, That is only for
people who are afraid. The matrons who proclaimed that women are becoming leaders
could point to a Khanty woman who is a Party Secretary. The women who claimed tradition still reigns could give examples of young females who still hide their faces before
their male in-laws.
Clearly the issues involved here are not fully resolved by the participants themselves.
Relations between men and women and womens own images of themselves are in flux.
As the importance of older women shamans and midwives has diminished, some younger
women have found new Soviet routes to power and prestige. Yet despite Soviet education,
a choice exists for women concerning when to follow conservative or modern patterns. My
perspective on these choices is subjective without statistics, but it appears to me that more
women obey at least some of the impure restrictions than do not. This is only partially
because men impose boundaries, for example on attics and sacred groves. It is also
perhaps because the women themselves can find security and subtle power in the old
ways.
Most significant, crucial aspects of both male and female concepts of self are still
bound up with traditional naming ritual which is presided over by elderly women. While
concepts of self may be somewhat different according to gender (E. Ardener 1975:l-27),
there is considerable agreement regarding crucial values in most societies (DeVos and
Romanucci-Ross 1975:363-390). For Khanty, reincarnation, proper in-laws, respect for
elders and bestowal of ancestral names are vital values relating directly to their definitions of ethnicity. The few young women who work as collective librarians or as Communist Party Secretaries themselves participate in Khanty naming, birth and burial
ceremony, probably because they still consider themselves to be Khanty and their
children to be reincarnated ancestors. For the Khanty, ritual functions as a means of
maintaining ethnic identity and women play important roles in enabling it to do so. In
addition, it appears that women, particularly old women, are often strong forces within
Khanty culture, urging men to maintain traditional values and life-styles. Therefore,
women themselves seem to be active agents of channeling ethnic identity in the Northern Ob River polyethnic society (cf. Barth 1969:17).
This conservative role of women as keepers of cultural tradition is undoubtedly not new
in Siberia, but it has become especially obvious as men become increasingly bilingual and
bicultural. Observers of this kind of process in other societies have seen it as part of colonial or postcolonial oppression which led to a decline in female status (Reiter 1977:5-24:

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Leacock 1975:601-616; Boserup 1970:57). While this is frequently valid, each case needs
to be researched before Engels-derived generalizations about previous high status for
women or subsequent handicaps can be made. For Khanty, patriarchy and pollution
beliefs were probably dominant cultural themes long before material development and
extensive Russian influences may have exacerbated male-female differences.
Since female conservatism actively contributes to cultural survival and the
maintenance of ethnic identity, its roots are worth exploring. Female conservatism is indeed often a reflection, by default, of limited female opportunities to share or provide
fruits of new resources, when men have had the most prominent chances for power, advancement and change in culture contact situations. But it can also be strong where
women have traditionally been restricted in their range of social or economic options,
and have therefore focused their definitions of self on permissible cultural values, such
as the sacred and powerful status of old women. Shirley Ardener (1975:xvii) has noted
that women (and the poor) are frequently more conservative than members of dominant
groups, even clinging to models which seem to disadvantage them.
Restricted ranges of female concepts of self are discussed by Sherry Ortner (1974:85) in
the context of her argument that females are universally viewed as being closer to nature
than males, who represent culture and its valued achievements (cf. MacCormack
198O:l-24; Jordanova 1980:51). It is not necessary to accept the universality of Ortners
model to agree that socially engendered conservatism and traditionalism of womens
thinking is another . . . mode of social restriction, and would clearly be related to her
traditional function of producing well-socialized members of the group (1974:85). Ortners analysis, however, provides only a partial explanation for Khanty, since it places the
bedrock of female conservatism in the domestic sphere.
The Khanty case is significant because it reveals no sharp gender divisions between
culture and nature, public and domestic, or even sacred and profane,
despite quite real female restrictions. The very process of socialization enables female
participation in public, sacred and cultural activities -life-crisis rituals. These rituals are
frequently led by older women (sometimes shamans), who seem to be mediators between
the kinds of dualities of Uvi-Strauss (1967:133, 143). Thus in traditional Khanty society,
female compensations for male dominance (whether adequate or not) have focused
primarily on aging. Concepts of female value, independence and mutual cooperation
have in turn contrasted with ideas of male dominance, which perhaps originally led to
Khanty pollution beliefs (Mary Douglas 1966:142).
A comparison of Khanty gender relations with European traditions highlights some
assumptions implicit in this discussion. Tensions engendered in male-female relationships are seen as symbolically and variously expressed in numerous aspects of culture,
particularly marriage. WhiIe complex European gender associations cannot be imposed
on different Khanty ideology, some of the social processes which generated them may be
shown to be similar (cf. Bloch and Bloch 1980:39). Analysis of the polysemy of 18th- and
19th-century European thought about female nature, purity, frailty, modesty,
hysterics, and danger reveals that images of women are neither uniform nor maintained
solely by male imposition (Skultans 1970:639-651, 1979:77-97; Bloch and Bloch
1980:25-41; Jordanova 1980:42-69; Foucault 1976:136-151). Definitions of marriage
preference, status and upward mobility often are buttressed by female participation in
cultural standards of sexual propriety. Male and female self-images are then integrally
tied to continuity of these standards, and reinforced by their symbolic expression.
As options for womens roles widen within a given polyethnic society, there may well be
a corresponding decline in womens ability or desire to support certain traditional values
related to female pollution. The alacrity with which Khanty gave up menstrual huts
(once Soviets declared them illegal) indicates the huts were more confining than
liberating in traditional contexts. On the other hand, attempts may be made to retain

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certain aspects of traditional female solidarity a n d respect for elders. As women sort out
their priorities with increasing self-consciousness, they themselves may become active
agents in t h e process of changing values and rechanneling ethnic identity along new lines.

NOTES
Acknowledgments. I am indebted to the International Research and Exchanges Board which
made 13 months in the Soviet Union on the 1975-76 cultural exchange possible, and to Leningrad
University, which enabled me to go on a summer ethnographic expedition to Northwestern Siberia.
I am also grateful to IREX for providing preparatory fellowships in the summers of 1973 and 1974.
to the American Association of University Women for a Helen Wood-Pearl Hogrefe Fellowship in
1977- 78, and to the Washington, D.C.. Alumnae Association of Bryn Mawr College, Sigma Xi.
and the Harvard Russian Research Center for generously providing additional support.
I am deeply grateful to Rudolf Ferdinandovich Its, head (and founder) of the Leningrad University anthropology department and to Valery Andreevich Kozmin, leader of the 1976 expedition to
the Khanty-Mansisk National Region. They are, however, not responsible for any non-Marxist interpretations of my data. Neither are my friends in the Khanty villages of Tegy and Kazym. I wish
to thank Jane C. Goodale, Frederica de Laguna, and Judith Shapiro of Bryn Mawr College, and
Jonathan Andelson (Grinnell College), Harley D. Balzer (Harvard Russian Research Center),
Michael M. J. Fischer (Harvard), Ildiko Lehtinen (National Museum of Finland), and Demitri B.
Shimkin (University of Illinois).

Our expedition, consisting of six students and one superbly knowledgeable leader, stayed in two
villages, Tegy on the Little Ob River, and Kazym. on the Amnia River, in July and early August
1976. I was free to seek my own consultants, who ranged widely in age and were predominantly, but
not exclusively, women. Russian was the main means of communication, although I learned some
key concepts in Khantesky.
For more information on the cultural persistence of Khanty religion, the polyethnic situation in
Northern Siberia, variations within Russian culture in Siberia, and on ethnohistorical Russian interaction with Khanty, see research of the contemporary Soviet ethnographer of the Khanty Z. P.
Sokolova (1971, 1976), and Balzer (1979, 1980).
This provides a striking exception to the frequent pattern of the left side being associated with
the profane, and the right, with the sacred (Needham 1973). Khanty sacred animal prohibitions depend in part on clan affiliations, thus certain totems (beaver, frog, cat, wolf, falcon, red fox,
hare, and bear) are particularly protected. Many clan taboos regarding these animals are going out
of practice, but the sacredness of certain animals is still upheld by some Khanty.
The categories of males for whom women should veil their faces are: egos husbands father (un),
any brothers-in-law (uen), egos husbands grandfather (obras), brothers of egos husbands grandfather ( a k u ) , any husband of egos sisters-in-law (ueng), and the husband of egos daughters
(Sokolova 1971:212, from Kunovat Khanty data).
This explanation for veiling follows some of the Islamic justifications for purdah, in that it
stresses the male-perceived. potentially inflammatory nature of sexual relations (cf. Mazharul Haq
Khan 1972:19: Mernissi 1975:2-5). Daisy Hilse Dwyer (1977:43) describes Moroccan separation of
the sexes as sanctioned by Allah and established for the purpose of limiting sexual interest and
thereby maintaining spiritual purity.
It is no accident that these categories are merged, since over time clan ancestors have become
linked with spirits and gods. I am indebted to National Museum of Finland Curator, Ildiko
Lehtinen, for first calling this to my attention. The first introduction to clan ancestors for a boy
came traditionally through a male initiation (Chernetsov 1968: 102-1 11). Evidence of initiatory
symbolism continues in some aspects of bear ceremonialism, but Khanty seem to have given up (or
kept very quiet) this important ritual of male identity. While some sacred mens groves have recently been liquidated, with their idols removed to museums in Tobolsk and Khanty-Mansisk, others are
still functioning.

The Guttman scale used by Young and Bacdayan (1965:226-227)

is revised from Stephens

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(1961:393-395) and utilized by Montgomery (1974:152) and Sanday (1981:104-110). It is formulated as: (0) informal belief in menstrual danger; (1) sexual intercourse prohibition during
menstruation: (2) personal restrictions for menstruating women (from food taboos to no loud
laughing); (3) prevention of contact by menstruating women with male hunting and ritual equipment; (4) cooking restrictions for menstruating women; (5) menstrual hut seclusion. Extensive
nonmenstrual period, pollution-related restrictions should also be noted for some groups. Gillian
Gillisons (1980: 143-173) account of New Guinean Gimi gender relations, life-crisis symbolism and
pollution beliefs is an excellent example of the kind of data needed to refine Mary Douglass theory.
Peggy Sanday (1981) has recently provided a complex cross-cultural perspective, revealing both
statistical trends and cultural contexts of female power and male dominance.

Hammond and Jablow (1976: 130) have noted strong-mindedness combined with seniority
makes for a formidable woman, and they give two eloquent examples from Blackfoot Indian and
Chinese data. However, their emphasis on individual personalities and the idea that older women
have nothing to lose downplays the potential cross-cultural significance of female aging (Dwyer
1977:62) and avoids the question of whether women become increasingly formidable as religious
authorities (e.g., Gillison 1980:144; Sanday 1981:123, 190).
The issue of Khanty ancestral names is complex, given changes over time with Russian influences and an ancient practice of calling children by additional cover names to protect them
from soul-theft (cf. Sokolova 1975:42-52). An 18th-century ethnographer, Zuev (1947:66). collected a number of Khanty male names and mistakenly claimed that females were not given any
names at all, probably because these were carefully withheld from strangers (Balzer 1979:87-91).
l o Some male-female population imbalances may have been caused by female infanticide, which
perhaps was once offset by male losses in hunting and war. Scarcity of appropriate brides would
tend to increase bride price and decrease dowries (Balzer 1979:141-148). Bride price, however, was
occasionally substituted with bride service and a period (one to three years) of matrilocality for the
groom.

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Submitted 16 May I980
Revised manuscript submitted 8 May 1981
Accepted 22 May 1981