The Yomut Turkmen: A Study of Social Organization Among a Central Asian Turkic-speaking Population

203 Pages·1975·9.212 MB·English

by  William Irons

anthropological papers
*
MUSEUM OF ANTHROPOLOGY, UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
NO. 58
THE YOMUT TURKMEN:
A STUDY OF SOCIAL ORGANIZATION
AMONG A CENTRAL ASIAN
TURKIC SPEAKING POPULATION
BY
WILLIAM IRONS
ANN ARBOR
THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN, 1975
SJ
anthropological papers
MUSEUM OF ANTHROPOLOGY, UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
NO. 58
THE YOMUT TURKMEN:
A STUDY OF SOCIAL ORGANIZATION
AMONG A CENTRAL ASIAN
TURKIC-SPEAKING POPULATION
BY
WILLIAM IRONS
SH A N Q Q U Z
KO LEKSiYO NU
ANN ARBOR
THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN, 1975
PREFACE
THIS monograph is based on field research conducted among the Yomut
Turkmen in 1965-67 and 1970. Most of the material presented here was
contained in a doctoral dissertation submitted at the University of Michigan in
1969. Many members of the faculty of the University of Michigan guided and
encouraged me in various stages of the work leading to the writing of this
monograph. The most important of these were William Schorger, my disserta­
tion advisor, Richard Beardsley, Napoleon Chagnon, Mervyn Meggitt, Eric Wolf,
and Henry Wright.
Also I am grateful to the institutions which supported my research
financially. The Foreign Area Fellowship Program supported eighteen months
of field research in Iran (July 1965-August 1966 and October 1966-April
1967) and seven months of data analysis and writing in the United States
(November 1967-May 1968). The University of Michigan Center for Near
Eastern and North African Studies supported six months of research in Iran
(May 1967-October 1967) and five months of analysis and writing in the
United States (June 1968-October 1968). The Johns Hopkins University
financed three months of research in Iran (June 1970-August 1970).
During my residence in Iran (June 1965-August 1966; October
1966-November 1967; June 1970-September 1970), I was shown hospitality
and given assistance by innumerable individuals and it is impossible to thank
them all. By far my greatest debt of gratitude is to the Turkmen of Aji Qui.
Although I doubt that any of them will ever read these words, I would like to
say that they lived up to their tradition of hospitality to outsiders in a
manner that won my admiration. Among the many others to whom I am
grateful are the following: Hushang Purkarim of the Ministry of Culture and
Fine Arts, Office of Anthropological Research, Mahmud Khaliq!, Director of
the same office, Ihsan NaraghI, then Director of the Tehran University
Institute of Social Studies and Research, Nadir Afshari NadirT, then Director
of the Section for Tribal Studies of the above Institute, David Stronach,
Director of the British Institute of Persian Studies, Brian Spooner, then
Deputy Director of the British Institute, William Sumner, Director of the
American Institute of Iranian Studies in 1970, Eugene and Marjorie Garth-
iii
THE YOMUT TURKMEN
iv
.. , nf T„hran November 1966-April 1967, ’Ati’ullih Mu'tadil,
Of .he Iranian Offlce of Community Development, TaghJn
Mubammad Shamsf, then Dlhyar in KalSleh, and Barkley Moore Peace Corps
Volunteer in Gunbadl Kavus from 1964 to 1970. Also I wtsh o thank two
individuals who assisted while doing four months of archival research in
Tehran: Dr. Traj Afshar, Tehran University Reference Librarian, and Hajji
Unsayn ’Aqa Malik, owner of the Malik Library.
Since completing the research on which this monograph is based, I have
undertaken additional research among the Turkmen of northern Persia. This
research is designed to elaborate and test some of the hypotheses discussed in
this study. 1 have been able to undertake this current research because of
generous grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF Grant GS-37888
for 1973-74), and the Ford and Rockefeller Foundations Program in Support
of Social Science and Legal Research on Population Policy (1974-75).
A brief comment is necessary concerning the spelling of Persian and
Turkmen words used in this study. Whenever possible I have used spellings
that appear in The American College Dictionary, or Webster’s Geographical
Dictionary. For Persian words which have no standard English orthography, I
have used the system of transliteration employed by Ann S. K. Lambton in Land­
lord and Peasant in Persia (see pp. x-xii of that study). For Turkmen words, I have
used a system of transcription which is explained in Appendix III. However, I have
made a few exceptions in cases of words which, although not found in any
English dictionary, appear extensively in various relevant sources. Thus, I have
spelled “Basseri” as it appears in Fredrik Barth’s Nomads of South Persia and
I have used the spellings of Turkmen names which appear in V and T
l,ant UOn * V' V- Ba,,h0ld's "A of the Turkmen
I coplc. In using V. and T. Minorsky’s spellings I have replaced with “i ”
The diacritics necessary for Umbton’s system of transliteration and for
my system of transcription make it impractical to follow the usual practice of
italicizing fore.gn words. In order to be consistent, 1 have not itaheiz d any o
the foreign words that appear in the text. italicized any ot
William Irons
Pennsylvania State University
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
PREFACE ...........................................................................................................................................................................................iii
LIST OF TABLES ......................................................................................................................................................................vii
LIST OF FIGURES......................................................................................................................................................................vii
LIST OF PLATES...........................................................................................................................................................................viii
I. INTRODUCTION..................................................................................................................................... 1
The kinship system and its environment......................................................................... 2
The ethnographic setting............................................................................................................ 4
The recent history of the Turkmen..................................................................................... 8
Data and research methods ..................................................................................................... 13
U. ECOLOGY..................................................................................................................................... 21
Traditional ecology and economy......................................................................................... 21
Recent changes .................................................................................................................................. 27
The current ecology of Aji QuT.............................................................................................. 30
HI. POLITICAL STRUCTURE.................................................................................................................... 39
Descent groups........................................................................................................................................ 40
Residence groups ................................................................................................................................ 46
The relationship between descent groups and residence groups ................. 49
Peace, war and feud............................................................................................................................ 61
Sacred lineages......................................................................................................................................... 65
Relations with the Kajar government................................................................................... 66
The office of Utaqlau.................................................................................................................... 67
Nomadism and politics................................................................................................................. 69
71
Nomadism and feud.............................................................................................................................
Nomadism and relations with the state ...........................................................................
The recent political history of Aji ..........................................................................................
IV. DOMESTIC GROUPS.......................................................................................................................................... 83
The normal developmental cycle .............................................................................................. ®
v
THE YOMUT TURKMEN
vi
Exceptional patterns of household development . . . 88
Household types in a particular oba ...................................... 90
Inheritance............................................................................................. 92
v. KINSHIP NORMS AND CATEGORIES............................................ 95
Parent-child ................................................................................................ 95
Grandparent-grandchild ................................................................... 99
99
Siblings............................................................................................................
Husband-wife ............................................................................................ 102
104
Affines ............................................................................................................
112
Uterine relatives..........................................................
The contrast between agnatic and non-agnatic kinship 113
The extension of kinship...............................• • •.................... 115
The place of deceased ancestors in the kinship system 118
Slavery and kinship......................................• • • ; ................... 121
The prominence of the father-son relationship . . . . 122
Kinship norms and domestic groups .................................... 125
VI. MARRIAGE 127
Choice of marriage partner..................................................................................................................127
Endogamy and agnation ..............................................................................................................132
Marriage negotiations..............................................................................................................................134
The development of a marriage.....................................................................................................136
Widows, widowers, remarriage and polygyny .......................................................................141
Divorce.............................................................................................................................................................142
The demographic context ..................................................................................................................143
Population regulation through social conventions: an hypothesis . . . . 150
VII. DOMESTIC ORGANIZATION AND ECONOMICS ................................................................155
Differential productivity and the distribution of wealth.......................................155
Livestock as a form of capital..................................................................................... 156
Shepherding contracts........................................................................... 157
Agriculture.................................................
158
Carpet weaving.........................................
159
Other secondary sources of income lJy
159
Wealth profile in a particular community.......................... 160
The relationship between family size and wealth ! '.......................................161
Leveling institutions............................... .................................................
Bridewealth......................... ...................................................................................................
Other leveling institutions . ...............................................................................................
The overall effect of economic leveling..............................................................................
institutions.........................................168
Household size and economic viability
.......................................169
VIII. OVERVIEW
171
APPENDICES
I.
™ I ^ L™ profile OF ajT quI
»• income OF A pastoT aY V ” 1 w 175
HI- NOTES on rur i J° .RAL pAMlLY
NOTES on the TRANSLlTERATmM0L MEDlAN 179
BIBLIOGRAPHY ° N ° F TURKMEN WORDS...............................181
187
LIST OF TABLES
Page
Composition of AjI QuT Households ................................................................................................. 91
Consanguineal Relationships of Wives to Husbands in AjI QuT for First
Marriages......................................................................................................................................................................129
Consanguineal Relationships of Wives to Husbands in AjI QuT for Second
Marriages .....................................................................................................................................................................130
4. First Marriage and non-Yomut Descent in AjT QuT....................................................................130
5. Second Marriage and Non-Yomut Descent in AjI QuT................................................................131
6. Marriage and Sacred Descent: The Case of the Qara Makhtum.....................................132
7. Customary Bridal Payments.........................................................................................................................135
8. Age and Sex Composition of the Population of AjT QuT, August 1967 ................. 144
9. Dissolution of First Marriage and Remarriage.................................................................................149
10. Breakdown of the Yomut Population of AjI QuT by Age, Sex, and Marital
Status..............................................................................................................................................................................152
11. Wealth Profile of AjT QuT..................................................................................................................................160
12. Holdings of Capital in AjI QuT......................................................................................................................175
13. Capital, Labor Resources, and Other Sources of Income in AjI QuT.........................177
14. Estimated Income for an AjTQuT Family of Approximately Median Wealth . . 179
LIST OF FIGURES
Page
1. Principal Turkmen descent groups ....................................................................................................... 6
2. Ecological zones and predominant modes of economic production before 1950 23
3. Approximate pattern of Yomut migration before 1930 ...................................................... 24
4. Predominant modes of economic production among the Yomut of the Gurgan
Plain in 1967 .............................................................................................................................................................. 31
5. Migratory pattern of AjT QuT residents................................................................................................ 33
6. Descendants of Oghurjlk according to a written genealogy.............................................. 41
7. Genealogy of the Yomut................................................................................................................................... 42
8. Genealogy of the Dath....................................................................................................................................... 43
9. Genealogy of the Aq-Atabay ...................................................................................................................... 45
10. Locations of tribes in the Gurgan Plain before 1930 50
IF Distribution of Yomut tribes in 1967 ................................................................................................. ^
12. Agnatic relationships of household heads in AjI QuT, 1967 .............................................. 5
13. Lineage A of the Chenthulf......................................................................................................................... ^
14. Distribution of dominant descent groups among Dath obas ..........................................
THE YOMUT TURKMEN
viii
Segmentary political system of the Gurgan... ..Y....o...m.....u...t.. .... . 59
15.
Location of Sherep and Chom tribes..................... .......................... 64
16.
......................100
17.
......................101
18.
19. Affinal kinship terms: relatives of spouse................................................................ ......................108
20. Affinal kinship terms: affines of consanguineal kin ....................................... ......................109
21. Ages at first marriage for 133 individuals in AjT QuT....................................... ......................146
22. Labor resources and wealth for the households of Aji Q u i...................... ......................162
LIST OF CHARTS
1. Turkmen vowels........................................................................... ............................................................ lfi")
2. Turkmen diphthongs............................................... ........................................................ 189
3. Turkmen consonants....................
LIST OF PLATES
(following page 193)
1.
A Yomut woman assembling her family tent after
2. migration
A Yomut woman milking a sheep
3.
A Yomut man hunting in the GOkcha Hills
4.
Preparing a hide after the slaughter of a goat
5.
A nomad camp m the Gokcha Hills
6. Settmg up camp after a short migration
I
INTRODUCTION
IT could reasonably be argued that anthropology has contributed more to
the understanding of kinship than it has to any other facet of human social
relations. The topic has attracted the interest of a large number of anthro­
pologists for several generations and a voluminous literature now exists on the
topic. Yet, despite considerable progress, there are serious lacunae in the
existing literature. If we are to understand fully the role of kinship in
organizing human social relationships we should presumably strive to docu­
ment as wide a range of variations as possible in the form of kinship
organization. An important part of this documentation should consist of
recording as fully as possible kinship structures in the different geographical
regions of the world. Yet many areas of the world are represented only
scantily in the literature.
One group of societies for which documentation is insufficient is that
of the Central Asian Turkic peoples. There are a few good studies (Aberle,
1953; Hudson, 1938; Konig, 1962; Krader, 19636; Lattimore, 1962; Purkarim,
1966a, 19666, 1967, 1968a, 19686, 1968a, 1970; Vreeland, 1957), but these
arc only sufficient to indicate that these societies present some interesting
variations in the area of kinship. Many more such studies will be needed
before anthropologists can have a full picture of social organization and
kinship among these populations.
The primary objective of this monograph, therefore, is to provide a
description of the kinship system and social organization of one of these
societies, that of the Yomut Turkmen of northern Persia. In particular, an
attempt has been made to describe those aspects of social organization which
are most likely to be of interest for comparative purposes: the lineage system,
the developmental cycle of domestic groups, norms and modes of inter­
personal kinship relations, kinship categories, choice of marriage partner, and
the economic transactions accompanying marriage.
A second objective is to describe the ecological and social context in
which the kinship system operates, as well as the context in which it has
1
THE YOMUT TURKMEN
2
the recent past. Many aspects of the kinship system of the Yomat
°P*“ -tn have a definite relationship to certain features of their physical and
S environment. Several relationships of this sort are explored briefly ta
*is monograph: (1) the relationship between the hneage system and thc
external political relations of Yomut descent and residence groups, (2) ,he
relationship between the organization of domestic groups and the economy of
the Yomut, and (3) the relationship between certain practices surrounding
marriage and population growth.
THE KINSHIP SYSTEM AND ITS ENVIRONMENT
The Yomut, and other cognate Turkmen groups like the Goklen, Teke,
Salor, and Sarik, are organized into a segmentary system of territorial groups
which functions in a manner similar to that described for stateless segmentary
societies in other areas of the world (Evans-Pntchard, 1940; Fortes and
Evans-Pritchard, 1940; Middleton and Tait, 1958). This feature of the indig­
enous political structure of the Yomut and other Turkmen groups stands in
strong contrast to the political organization of other tribal groups in Persia
which tend to be sharply stratified in their political structure and have
traditionally been more closely integrated into the state organization (Irons,
1972). The hypothesis that such a political organization is especially suited to
predatory relations with neighboring groups seems to be borne out in the case
of the Yomut (Sahlins, 1961). There are, however, some peculiarities of the
Yomut segmentary system which appear to be adjustments to an emphasis on
the exploitation of nomadic mobility for military purposes. The Yomut have a
political system which makes it especially easy for families or entire lineages
to establish their residence in a new locality as a response to hostile political
relations in their original location. A number of features of the political rules
of the society make this possible. The implications of these rules are discussed
briefly at the end of Chapter III.
It should also be noted that this commitment to mobility for political
Tie * many other resPec‘s of the total way of
hfe of the Yomut. The most obvious manifestation of this is the fact that
their nomadic residence pattern itself is nnt ™ , .
economic conditions (as is often assumed to h P ?‘y 3 reSPonSe t0
Middle Eastern i a • . med t0 be umversaNy the case among
" ric? — *»• «■«*. * *
Household o ^ U o n a -o x P°1,,1Cal con<mio'“ <Iro"s' l974)'
appears to be an adjustment to , d aSpeC' °f the kinship sys,em which
dominantly pastoral community where m Z ol C"Cumstances- ln the pre'
a salient connection between household sizl / " W“ 8athered' the[e 'S
households are decidedly wealthier and 4 economIc Prosperity. Larger
comes closer to being the indeMndem „ SCms clear that, in this case, size
8 ‘"dependent variable. Another way of stating this is