Rutuls - Marriage and Family



Marriage. Marriage was arranged by parents, primarily by fathers. Young people, especially women, had no right to choose. Choice of a marriage partner was determined by the wealth of his family, the social status of his tukhum, and by his diligence and health. The marital age for girls was 15 to 16 years, for men 18 to 20 years. Marriages were contracted within the village, but intervillage marriages also were possible. The mediation of a matchmaker was usual, though there existed other possibilities: agreement from babyhood, abduction of the bride, and leviratic and sororatic marriages. The wedding celebration lasted for two to three days. It was a solemn, all-village occasion, consisting of a series of rituals and entertainments with games, competitions, songs, dances, and masquerades. All relatives helped, financially and physically, to organize the wedding.

Domestic Unit. Nuclear families were the norm, though there still were large patrilineal families in the nineteenth and the early twentieth centuries. They generally included several close relatives and their spouses living in one house as a common household. Families, both extended and nuclear, were patriarchal: women were fully subordinated to men, younger to elder, and all of them to the head of the family, who possessed unrestricted power.

Socialization. The rearing of children was both a family and a public responsibility. From early childhood the family taught moral norms, norms of social behavior, a system of values, and basic labor training. The family acquainted children with the native folklore, traditions, and rituals. The treatment of children was rather strict but just. The public aspect of upbringing consisted in involving children, especially boys, in such public affairs as games, competitions, and edifying conversations of elderly men in the kirns. The rearing of young men was completed in seasonally organized communities, shahiad majlis, a kind of survival of archaic male fraternities.

Inheritance. The division of inherited property was governed by the rules of Sharia (Muslim law) and adat (customary law). According to Sharia, upon the death of the father of the family his debts were paid first; afterward his parents received one-sixth of the property each, the widow received one-eighth, and the rest was divided between sons and daughters. Sons received twice as much as daughters. If the deceased had only one daughter, she received one-half of all the property, if several daughters they received two-thirds, and the rest was transferred to the patrimonial relatives of the dead. Men received twice as much as women. According to adat a woman could not inherit any type of immovable property—it was entirely inherited by males.


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