U368 Mongol Conquest Lecture

Week 3, Monday:  Mongolian Clan-Patriarchal Society

Note:  Map Quiz on Wednesday!

1. Descent and Patrilineages
   1. Descent
      1. Somewhat like inheritance
      2. But involves group membership and rights to group property
      3. Animals held by individuals, pastures held by lineages, families
   2. Descent types
      1. Patrilineal--you belong to your father's group--Mongols
      2. Others by mother's group, or mixture, or voluntary
      3. Patrinineal dominant among world's pastoralists, plough farmers
   3. Genealogies
      1. Membership in lineage gives economic rights
      2. Genealogy becomes way of thinking about all relationships
      3. "Segmentary Opposition" (cf. appeal in §105)
      4. Historic (genealogical links) match current relations
   4. Vengeance
      1. Why brothers need to stick together
      2. Long-standing feuds
      3. Loyalty is a key virtue (because treachery is so common)
   5. Nested units
      1. Extended family--smallest unit--1 to 10 yurts together
      2. Named lineage or clan--medium unit--c. 200-600 households
      3. Tribe-largest unit--average 20,000-30,000 households
2. Marriage and reproduction of the lineage
   1. Exogamy
      1. Mongols, Chinese, exogamous (Bedouin lineages endogamous)
         1. Women join husband's lineage, esp. after childbirth
      2. Marriages key recruitment for the group, arranged by heads
         1. Marriage gifts--bridewealth, indirect dowry
      3. Cross-cousin marriage--lineages alliances, quda (cf. §61-65)
      4. Household division of labor
      5. Polygamy; wealthy men had many wives, children all legitimate
3. Lineage religion
   1. Ancestor worship main form of public religion
      1. Joint clans sacrifices each year brought lineages together
      2. Only participants in meat (and liquor?) members: §43-4, 70-71
      3. Household cult, felt dolls, sprinklings, transmitted to children