A man or a woman?
(identifying the gender of anthropomorphic stone statues)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.52967/akz2024.3.25.45.56Keywords:
Central Kazakhstan, Toguzbaykol, Early Iron Age, Middle Ages, statues, attribution, sexual characters, breastAbstract
The article discusses one of the aspects of attributing anthropomorphic stone statues created by ancient and medieval nomads of the Eurasian steppes – identifying the gender of the depicted characters. The author considers the issue based on the case of a statue from the Toguzbaykol site in Ulytau (Central Kazakhstan). The study of this original statue is complicated by the discrepancy in the information published about it. The use of archival materials made it possible to clarify the cultural and chronological attribution of the statue – it was identified as an artifact of the Tasmola culture of the early Iron Age. A comparative analysis of the methods of depicting such a sexual sign as breasts in the iconography of plastic art works from different periods made it possible to challenge the existing idea that the statue from Toguzbaykol depicts a woman. The established cases of identical stylization of female and male breasts presumes that this feature alone cannot be considered an absolute identifier of gender. The emphasis on this bodily attribute in the iconography of anthropomorphic male and female images is due to its significance and the concepts attached to it. The author questions the validity of researchers’ identification of the gender of statues having no obvious sexual characters based on the recognition of their facial features as masculine or feminine.
References
Adrianov, A. V. 1886. Puteshestvie na Altai i za Sayany, sovershennoe v 1881 godu po porucheniyu Imperatorskogo Russkogo Geograficheskogo Obshhestva chlenom sotrudnikom A.V. Adrianovym (Journey to Altai and beyond the Sayan Mountains in 1881 on behalf of the Imperial Russian Geographical Society by its staff member A.V. Adrianov). St. Petersburg: Imperial Academy of Sciences (in Russian).
Beisenov, A. Z., Torgoev, А. I., Duisenbay, D. B., Akhiyarov I. K. 2018. In: Povolzhskaya arheologiya (The Volga River region archaeology), 3 (25), 103-117 (in Russian).
Vassilkov, Y. V. 2009. In: Rodionov, M. A. (ed.). Aziatskiy bestiariy: Obrazy zhivotnyh v traditsiyah Yuzhnoy, Yugo-Zapadnoy i Tsentralnoy Azii (The Asian Bestiary: Animal Imagery in the Traditions of South, Southwest and Central Asia). St. Petersburg: Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography of the RAS, 47-62 (in Russian).
Veselovskiy, N. I. 1915. Sovremennoe sostoyanie voprosa o “kamennyh babah” ili “balbalah” (Current status of the issues of ‘stone babas’ or ‘balbals’). Odessa (in Russian).
Valodzina, T. V. 2006. In: Antropologicheskiy forum (Forum for Anthropology and Culture), 4, 264-285 (in Russian).
Evtyukhova, L. A. 1952. In: Materialy i issledovaniya po arheologii SSSR (Materials and Studies on the Archaeology of the USSR), 24, 72-120 (in Russian).
Ermolenko, L. N. 2004. Srednevekovye kamennye izvayaniya Kazahstanskih stepey (tipologiya, semantika v aspekte voennoy ideologii i traditsionnogo mirovozzreniya) (Medieval stone sculptures of the Kazakh steppes (typology, semantics in the aspect of military ideology and traditional worldview)). Novosibirsk: Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography SB RAS (in Russian).
Ermolenko, L. N., Kasenova, A. D., Kurmankulov, Z. K. 2021. In: Vestnik Kemerovskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta (Bulletin of Kemerovo State University), 23 (3), 613-623 (in Russian).
Ermolenko, L. N., Kurmankulov, Z. K., Kasenova, A. D. 2016. In: Bobrov, V.V. (ed.). Arheologicheskoe nasledie Sibiri i Tsentralnoy Azii (problemy interpretatsii i sohraneniya) (Archaeological Heritage of Siberia and Central Asia (Problems of Interpretation and Preservation)). Kemerovo: “Kuzbassvuzizdat” Publ., 129-135 (in Russian).
Zuev, V. Y. 1993. In: Gracheva, G. N. (ed.). Ad polum. Pamyati L.P. Hlobystina (Ad polum. In memory of L.P. Khlobystin). St. Petersburg: “Farn” Publ., 95-102 (in Russian).
Kovalev, A. A. 2012. Drevneyshie statui Chemurcheka i prilegayushchih territoriy (The oldest statues of Čemurček and surrounding areas). St. Petersburg (in Russian).
Lim, S. C. 2013. In: Gumanitarnye issledovaniya v Vostochnoy Sibiri i na Dalnem Vostoke (Humanities research in the Russian Far East), 3, 105-112 (in Russian).
Margulan, A. K. 1948a. In: Izvestiya Akademii nauk Kazakhskoy SSR. Seriya istoricheskaya (Proceedings of the Academy of Sciences of the Kazakh SSR. Historical Series), 49 (4), 119-145 (in Russian).
Margulan, A. K. 1948b. In: Vestnik Akademii Nauk Kazakhskoy SSR (Bulletin of the Academy of Sciences of the Kazakh SSR), February, 2 (35), 53-60 (in Russian).
Margulan, A. K. 2003. In: Margulan, D. A., Margulan, D. (eds.). Sochineniya (Works). Vol. 3–4. Almaty: “Dayk-Press” Publ. (in Kazakh, Russian).
Margulan, A. K. 1966. In: Margulan, A. K. (ed.). Witnesses of ancient culture. Almaty: “Kazakhstan” Publ., 8-52 (in Kazakh).
In: Scientific archive of the Margulan Institute of Archaeology. D. 78 (in Russian).
In: Scientific archive of the Margulan Institute of Archaeology. D. 114 (in Russian).
Olkhovskiy, V. S. 2005. Monumentalnaya skulptura naseleniya zapadnoy chasti evraziyskih stepey epohi rannego zheleza (Monumental sculpture of the population of the western part of the Eurasian steppes during the Early Iron Age). Moscow: “Nauka” Publ. (in Russian).
Olkhovskiy, V. S., Evdokimov, G. L. 1994. Skifskie izvayaniya VII–III vv. do n.e. (Scythian statues of the 7th–3rd centuries BC). Moscow: Institute of archaeology RAS; Institute of Archaeology of the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (in Russian).
Pletneva, S. A. 1974. Polovetskie kamennye izvayaniya (Cuman stone statues). (SAI. E4-2). Moscow: “Nauka” Publ. (in Russian).
Ragulenko, S. A. 2013. In: Bzarov, R. S. (ed.). Voprosy otechestvennoy istorii i arheologii (Problems of Russian history and archaeology). Vladikavkaz, 60-83 (in Russian).
Fedorov-Davydov, G. A. 1966. Kochevniki Vostochnoy Evropy pod vlast’yu zolotoordynskikh khanov (Nomads of Eastern Europe under the rule of Golden Horde khans). Moscow: Moscow University (in Russian).
Charikov, A. A. 1980. In: Pletneva, S. A. (ed.). Srednevekovye drevnosti evraziyskih stepey (Medieval antiquities of Eurasian steppes). Moscow: “Nauka” Publ., 213-234 (in Russian).
Yatsenko, S. A. 2000. In: Stratum plus, 4, 251-272 (in Russian).
Yatsenko, S. A. 2001. In: Klimov, K. M. (ed.). Etno-natsionalnye dominanty v kulture i iskusstve narodov Uralo-Povolzh'ya (Ethno-national dominants in the culture and art of the peoples of the Ural-Volga region). Izhevsk: “Udmurt University” Publ., 99-114 (in Russian).
Edelberg, L. 1960. In: Arts Asiatiques, VII, 4, 243-286 (in French).
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2024 Ermolenko, L., Kasenova, A.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
