On the history of the social organization of the Turkic peoples of Southern Siberia

In this paper we consider seok a social term. In the sense of "a group of blood relatives," it is found only among the Turkic peoples of Southern Siberia. The accumulated materials of ethnographic, historical and legal nature allow to speak about seoks of South Siberian Turks as a social institution formed under the influence of Mongol legislation in XIII-XVIII centuries. Mongolians have a similar term yasun bearing the same semantic load. In other modern Turkic-speaking ethnic groups the term is absent in a similar sense, though it is able to illustrate some of the social categories (Kyrgyz, Kazakhs). But the Turks of Southern Siberia were under the legal systems of government and social organizations of Mongolian (Altyn-Khan, Oirat) states, so they perceived a then terminology. If you continue with a retrospective look at the pre-Mongol period, the preliminary conclusion may also be in favor of the opinion of the absence of the peoples of the ancient circle of social organization based on "generic" or "tribal" relationships. Available sources on the worldview of the ancient Turks, Kirghiz, Uighurs and Kipchaks did not indicate the dominance of "tribal ideology." The terms designating over family social structures, it is extremely vague and uncertain. It is no accident that this circumstance contrasts Orkhon and Yenisei inscriptions, the richest vocabulary of social relationship. The most important connection of individuals are concentrated in the categories of family relationship and not a "tribal" interaction. It is obvious that the concept of consanguine kind is not suitable for the analysis of the social organization of the Turks of Southern Siberia. This leads to a archaization of the views of researchers about the communities that have a long historical period were familiar with more complex types of social order. Universalism principles of kinship allowed to use it in other forms of social structuring. Categories of relationship were a kind of matrix, which were imposed and the government, political institutions.

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