Matriarchy Elunchun

Snooping in an ancient librito on the minorities of Interior Mongolia I have discovered a very interesting article about the matriarchal clans of the Elunchunes and his transition to the patriarchal clans (1). In the above mentioned article the author affirms that the society elunchun, still in the state of very primitive development, shows many traces of matriarchal society, between which they stand out:

1. The word elunchun "yier", that is part of the name of many clans, and that is translated like "woman" or "women". What reflects that the primitive clans were forming concerning the women.

2. A saying elunchun says: "castrated horse does not have close, the man has no house." Since in matriarchal society the man was going to house of the woman and had no house but that of his wife.

3. The women elunchun even call to his houses "my root."

4. The uncles have preferable right of the marriage, for his children.

5. The fundamental role of the family of the fiancée in the marriage, where the fiancé usually spends a time before marrying (sometimes having children) and after marrying.

6. Also the custom exists that after husband's death the woman can marry his brother and vice versa.

7. Formerly the chiefs and the shamans were always women. Now the shamans are the half more or less of every sex. The women are shamans of the clan, one for each one, and on having died, his spirits return to someone of the clan.

8. The economic activity of the matriarchal clan also has survived up to recent epoch with the women gathering wild vegetables, what was providing most of the food, and the men hunting.

According to the author the end of the matriarchy elunchun took place with the arrival of the arch and the arrows, of the horse and the domestication of the reindeer, which supposed a revolution in the hunting, making her more effective (thanks to the arch), of major scope (for the mobility that brought the horse), and with possibility of transporting major charges (for the reindeers), which it placed to the man at the head of the productive activities. It begins then the decline of the situation of the woman, that when it is translated to the matrimonial ambience and the husbands begin paying two or three horses for his wife, they think it as if it was a possession for which they have paid. Of shaman and chief, the woman happens to be considered to be impure and infuriates of approaching the most sacred places of the housing, where his gods reside.

(1) Zhao Fuxing. - Shilun Elunchun zu mixi shizu ji qi Xiang fuxi shizu of guadu (On the Elunchun matriarchal clans and the transition to the patriarchal clan). In Minzu yanjiu lun wen xuan vol I - Inner Social Mongolia Sciences Academy - 1985
(2) The interested parties in the feminine mythology of the Elunchun, can read "The Girl of the Sun, origin of the Elunchunes." In my book "Legends of the Goddess Mother (and other myths and legends of goddesses and women of China Kapok tree. 2007

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