Парные погребения статусных мужчин и женщин некрополей «новых городов» народа русь Восточно-Европейской равнины X столетия: гендерно-социологические аспекты

Электронный научно-образовательный журнал "История". 2024. Т. 15. № 5(139). Статья 13.

Фетисов А. А., Щавелев А. С.

The paper discusses the phenomenon of the so-called “paired burials” of men and women from burial grounds that accompanied the largest centres of urbanization of the East European Plain of the 10th century, associated with the settlement of the Rus’ people. Until now, practically no gender-sociological interpretations of this kind of burials have been proposed in historiography. Based on an analysis of a wide sample of burials from necropolises of various settlement centres of the East European Plain of the 10th century and some later Old Russian illustrative examples, it is concluded that in the communities of “new cities”, including groups of the Rus’ people, these were burials of completely equal men and women, most likely spouses (sexual partners) or relatives. The attribution of family burials shows that in these urban societies of the 10th century ideas of posthumous reunion of people connected by close and intimate relationships were widespread. It does not seem justified to associate the spread of these ideas only with the Christianization of the Rus’ people. In general, the elites of all these communities, including the Rus’ people, were distinguished by a high degree of equality of men and women; no clear signs of gender discrimination were found. The dominant hypothesis in historiography that the paired burials were burials of men and their forcibly killed slaves (concubines) is not confirmed by the analysis. 

Keywords: антропология, Русь, гендер, social anthropology, gender, феминизм, археология, archeology, история семьи, Old Rus, домонгольская Русь, creative feminism, антропология культуры, people Rus, народ русь, русь

Publication based on the results of: Interactions between homoarchical and heterarchical cultures in varying historical contexts (2024)