the ‘inside’ other 93
And because of exactly this reason the Turkic visual canon as well as
that of representation had been obviously influenced by religion, a fact
which makes easier to explain the existence not only of the females’
statues but also their representation always wearing a hat. These hats
were modeled as tiaras (with elements similar to denticuli) or fur caps,
but without displaying any kind of hair.^28
After the dissolution of the First Turkic khaganate the memorial
cult among the western Turks definitely saw some development and
because of this reason people started paying devotion to both male
and female ancestors. Then, along with the male statues, there also
appeared female ones, a tradition, which is later to become typical for
the Cumans. It has been already mentioned that this tradition, after
the eleventh century, will be displayed by those same Cumans in the
western part of the Eurasian steppes including the area north of the
Black Sea and Azov Sea.^29
The woman’s foreigness is visible most probably in the notions of
the married woman who has two main functions and roles—to be wife
and mother.^30 After the wedding ceremony she leaves her clan and
thus becomes foreign. But she is not ‘at home’ in her new clan as well
since she is an alien coming from the outside, i.e. she is potentially
linked to ‘chaos’ and thus she was thought she was dangerous. It is
hardly a coincidence that in the Turkic-speaking people’s folklore the
foreign country/foreign space is usually presented as alien, as a space
not suitable for life and the people there—as ones that are definitely
inferior beings. Such a woman, therefore, is already lost for her own
clan and for her own space.^31 That is why, according to the tradition
and old models of behavior, the woman had to be neglected as if she
(^28) Motov 2001, 145–151, esp. pp. 145, 147–149.
(^29) Borisenko and Khudiakov 2000, 223.
(^30) D’iakonov 1990, 89–91, passim, makes a differentiation of the mythologic charac-
ters 31 in two categories—‘warriors maidens’ and ‘matrons’ (i.e. mothers and wives).
Sagalaev and Oktiabr’skaia 1990, 18, 55. It is interesting to make a comparison
to the Chinese civilization too. In China, people looked at the young girls as “flying
away” from their clans and because of this fact the girls were not let to know the
secrets of the families’/clans’ handicrafts—for this see, Maliavin 2000, 543. Among
the Turks it was thought that woman’s maturity came only when the woman moved
to her husband’s house, i.e. outside her native home (= own world); because of this
reason, moving to the alien space (of the husband’s family) was possible only after
definite rituals had been performed accordingly—as if a border had been crossed by a
shaman or a hero; in such situations, the woman was thought as being dead or sleep-
ing and she was covered, etc. (details see in, Traditsionnoe mirovozzrenie 1988, 76).