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This provokes chauvinist sentiments, interethnic, religious and armed conflicts.
The author notes that the radicalization of the Crimean Islamist movement has a rather long history - up to 2014 there were "public organizations" in the peninsula which functioned quite openly in conjunction with all and sundry emissaries of various extremist and terrorist organizations popularizing radical ideas and recruiting new members for extremist organizations. When the Crimea has become part of Russia the activities of quite a few radical cells was stopped, however, some of them went underground, seemingly supporting the authorities, even receiving financial assistance and placing their representatives in the republican bodies of power, but pursuing quite different aims. They are striving to get access to financial, organizational, media and other resources and step up the spreading of radical ideas in society.
Author of the abstract - Elena Dmitrieva
2019.01.004. ZAREMA TAUKANOVA ETHNIC FACTOR OF GENDER RELATIONS AND PROCESSES: THE CAUCASIAN PERSPECTIVE // "Gumanitariy Yuga Rossii," Rostov-on-Don, 2017, Part 6, № 6, P. 317-325.
Keywords: gender, ethnos, structure of ethnic society, gender processes, gender relations, intergenerational relations, relations of rivalry and solidarity, institute of senior.
Zarema Taukanova,
Postgraduate Student, Philosophy Department, Kabardino-Balkarian State University
In the article the author analyzes particularities of gender relations in the Caucasus. Speaking about history of studying of the matter at the beginning of article the author gives a short historical review of gender perspective. Since 50-60s of the 20th century gender studies get systemacity and activity under the
influence of the feminism originating in the same years against the background of post-colonial transformations of the world.
Russia remains a place of the special civilization including tens of traditional ethnic cultures along with the Europeanized culture of megalopolises, but realities of the global world interfere in life of ethnoses, adjusting all aspects of ethnic culture, including models of gender relations that was brightly developed in sociocultural transformations at the beginning of the 90s of the XX century.
In this article the author makes an attempt to give the analysis of a gender factor in the context of Post-Soviet transformations of the Caucasian ethnoses. It is referred to the results of long-term observations of sociocultural transformations of a number of ethnic communities of the Caucasus (Kabardinians, Balkarians, Adygeis, Circassians, Chechens, etc.). The listed communities are studied and described in details in generally excepted ethnographic measurements, but the problem is that in the Russian ethnology and gender studies the Caucasian ethnoses are taken today as conservative, immune to innovations and progress also as hermetically consumed with the archaic cultures. There is a prejudice about female secondariness in the Caucasian cultures and "captivity of women."
Ironically, for many years of existence of the Soviet system the Soviet model of equality of men and women which literally equalized all did not catch on in the Caucasian ethnoses. The Caucasian women throughout all the Soviet era up to the 90s remained in "space of the second sex" - tutors of children, teachers, saleswomen in shops, housewives; they didn't strive to occupy "men's" professions that prompted to consider the Caucasian ethnic communities and their cultures as "backward," "medieval" where enslavement is prepared for women.
The situation changed considerably in the 90s of the last century. The answer to a question how it became possible, is in accounting of specific features of sociocultural life of the Caucasian ethnoses. The author points out three such features.
1) An exclusive role and importance of the horizontal and sectoral relations in the Caucasian ethnosocieties. Such structures of the Caucasian ethnosocial life as family (community of families of cousins and brothers and sisters, nephews and grandsons having common ancestors), family line, teip, tukhum, actively (financially and morally) encourage any member, protecting him in difficult situations and ills of life including excessive pressure of external factors and circumstances (the opinion formed outside this community, religion and even government institutions).
2) Legitimation in the considered ethnoses of only one form (model) of marriage and new family formation - in the form of marriage. It is all about that in the Caucasus a woman literally marries, i.e. leaves her family and moves to her husband's family though at the same time she still has clanship from where she leaves, and support of this clan. Thus, active carriers and builders of relations between clan and patrimonial sectors of ethnosocial space are women that is hardly coherent with the role of "the second sex."
3) The polar nature of the relations is solidarity - competition in communities of men and women in the Caucasian ethnoses. The situation here is that in the relations of men (between men) competition dominates up to its sharpest forms while between women (in their public relations) solidarity does.
Further the author attacks a key aspect of the analysis -culture which is first of all the all-embracing mechanism of adaptation of a person to living conditions (natural, social) and ups and downs of conditions of life of any social community are the challenge demanding an answer from this community, i.e. active actions from its party, say, of evolution of forms and mechanisms of the life, changes in culture. It concerns also the Caucasian ethnoses, including also gender culture.
History of the considered ethnoses developed so that during the 20th century they were propelled into a situation of radical change of socio-political living conditions twice, i.e. in situations of
an acute challenge. In particular, this refers to the revolution of 1917 and "shock" reforms of the 90s.
How did social life and cultures of the considered ethnoses, including their gender component react to these challenges?
Paradoxically, but radical changes in culture, in particular in gender balance, in the Caucasian cultures, occurred not during the time of the Soviet reforms under the constructivist slogan "We Will Build the New World," but in the 90s. In this context it is necessary only to note that Post-Soviet reforms were a more radical challenge to traditional norms, forms and ways of ethnic life. Reforms of the 90s led to erosion of national economy and its domestic markets. In this situation so-called shuttle business which was developed in the conditions of total absence in the country of market infrastructure strong banks, available credit, marketing, consulting, logistic services) became the dominating form of economic activity in the country for some period. How to get starting money, to buy goods abroad and deliver them home, to ensure at the same time own safety and safety of the commodity-money operations? It turned out that all these issues can be resolved, having stepped over a psychological barrier of fear of the unknown by the name of "shuttle business" - with a support of female solidarity and collective interaction inherent in the Caucasian ethnic cultures while the men competing among themselves did not manage to do it. At the same time modest money from sale of the (women's) jewelry saved in rather poor Soviet period became the starting capital quite often.
So, in extreme conditions of the 90s when the Russian population was threatened by mass hunger, in ethnocultural space of the Caucasus there was something outstanding - "gender revolution" when women got positions of "the first sex" and supporters of the family, having removed the man for roles of "the second sex" who needed only to look after the house and children. However, this revolution (to be exact - gender inversion) was followed by serious charges - fast growth of alcoholism among men that was not before among Caucasians. This negative aspect
overshadowed an essence of the gender inversion which happened inside the belly of the Caucasian ethnosocial life in perception and interpretations of regional (local) ethnology.
The most important thing in this case is in another - the course of the Russian ethnosocial history in the 90s put a stop to the popular myth about archaism of the Caucasian cultures (including gender culture), so, their impermeability for innovations, changes, progress in regards to response to challenges, self-correction, development.
The gender inversion in the Caucasian ethnocultural world which happened against the background of Post-Soviet transformations of Russia has nowadays a bulk of consequences which are shown in culture and everyday life in the most various forms - in fashion, dynamism of everyday life, the behavioural strategy of female population. So, according to our observation, Nalchik (the capital of Kabardino-Balkaria) in number of women driving cars or girls in fashionable trousers and denim clothes, it will compete with any Russian megalopolis.
But the strangest and hard - to - explain in the history of the Caucasian gender inversion is the fact that it did not happen in Soviet period. The ideology and the strategy of the Soviet system placed a premium on social constructivism - formation of the new person free from any vestiges of the past, i.e. from patterns of ethnic cultures, first of all from their gender models which were interpreted as vestiges of the past and characteristics of underdevelopment. Focus on policy of "national autonomy," on the one hand, and on rural economy - on the other one, did not give revolutionary effects in the sphere of family morals and manners and gender relations in life of the Caucasian ethnoses.
It is revealing that by the 90s of the 20th century, i.e. on the eve of the Soviet system collapse, urban population in the republics of the North Caucasus did not exceed 40-50% of the population, i.e. most of the population of these regions remained in archaic and communal way of rusticity and culture.
