The Slavic patriarchy
In the previous post we discussed the position of pre-Christian Slavic women, so it is only fitting that today, in order to keep a balance between the sexes, we look into the roles and responsibilities of our male ancestors. And because we will be contemplating our ancestors, who, obviously, were fathers, we will not avoid the topic of patriarchy, so, generally speaking, the rule of fathers.
In the modern times patriarchy is considered to be not only an outdated or “backwards” way of organising a society, but also it is seen as… well, “ew”. Patriarchy is regularly dragged through mud, badmouthed and found guilty of almost all the problems of the modern world. But, if we look at it from the perspective of the early medieval history, although it might be hard to believe, this social system turns out not to be as bad as it is being painted. Quite the opposite, when done by our Slavic ancestors, patriarchy was a very useful tool to ensure stability, safety and self-fulfilment to all the members of the society, regardless of sex or social position.
The Slavic man
To address the present-day confusion with regards to differences between biological sexes, I want to define clearly what I mean, when I use the word “man”. A man – as he was known to our ancestors – is a human, whose genome contains a Y chromosome, and the expression of the Y chromosome is not affected by other genetical and/or developmental factors (like, for example, Klinefelter syndrome, androgen insensitivity syndrome, gonadal dysgenesis). Such a geno- and phenotypical man has testicles, that function properly and therefore produce and release androgens – sex hormones, causing, among other things, masculinization (development of the secondary sex characteristics) of the body.
The androgens increase the muscle mass and strength, the lungs’ size, the bones’ length (with exception of the bones of the pelvis) and density. They also reduce fear. It is worth mentioning, that androgen-related differences in physical strength can be appreciated even in children (before puberty), despite the fact, that after birth[1] and before puberty testicles produce very little androgens. Yet their effect can still be seen. So, it doesn’t take a lot of androgens to make a human taller, stronger, have better endurance and be more brave. But, it seems, it wasn’t only the height, strength, endurance and bravery that defined a man in the eyes of our ancestors.
In modern Slavic languages the word “man” is either an adjectival noun, created from the adjective “manly” (for example Polish: męski -> mężczyzna, Russian, Byelorussian: мужской -> мужчина) which is derived from Proto-Slavic *mộžь, or just a noun derived from Proto-Slavic *mộžь (Czech: muž, Bulgarian: мъж)[2]. And Proto-Slavic *mộžь meant both a man (an adult male human) and a husband. As an adjectival noun “man” (as in Polish mężczyzna or Russian мужчина) describes a person with characteristics of a man/husband (*mộžь), who not necessarily is an actual man/husband.
Similar linguistic mechanisms can be seen in the evolution of the proto-Slavic word *ženà (a wife or a woman), which in Russian developed into an adjectival noun женщина (a woman), and in Polish for example into an adjective żeński (female). It’s worth adding that the proto-Slavic word *ženà is “present” in pretty much all modern Slavic languages and, depending on the language, means either a wife or a woman or, sometimes, both.
The difference between the proto-Slavic *mộžь (a man or a husband) and *ženà (a woman or a wife) lies in the fact, that although proto-Slavic language had many different words to describe an adult female human (words like *nevě̀sta, *děvìca or *bàba), it had only one word - *mộžь – to describe an adult male human. And the very same word was used to describe a husband.
Such a low specificity in naming a family member is very unusual in Slavic languages. Pre-Christian Slavs lived in groups heavily based on kinship and were very precise in their language regarding family and blood ties. Words such as Polish: świekra (the husband’s mother), teściowa (the wife’s mother), dziewierz (husband’s brother), szwagier (wife’s brother), zełwa (husband’s sister), snecha (son’s wife) are common for all Slavic languages and indicate how specific were our ancestors with regards to naming the family members. Therefore, there must be no doubts that the double meaning of the word *mộžь (meaning a man or a husband) is not accidental.
It is hard to say why exactly in the society of our ancestors “a man” (*mộžь) meant both a husband and an adult human male. Perhaps, what is not as impossible as it might seem, only married men lived to adulthood, because all other males died trying to accumulate enough wealth, which was necessary to get a wife (I wrote about it here). Or perhaps our ancestors simply did not see bachelors (unmarried males) as men, which is also not that surprising, given that our ancestors considered the good of the community to be more important than the rights of an individual (about which I wrote here). Whatever the reasons were, it seems, that in the pre-Christian Slavic society only married men were seen as men. The rest of humans with uninhibited expression of the Y chromosome, in the eyes of the Slavs, were not men.
From a boy to a man
As I mentioned many times on the pages of this blog, children were the main purpose of the pre-Christian Slavic marriage. Due to the lack of available tests the “suitability” of women to fulfil wife’s duties (bearing children) could only be verified after entering into a marriage. However, things were different with the „suitability” of bachelors. Because the main responsibility of a husband (apart of procreation) was to provide for the wife/wives and the child/children, the selection for the role of a man/husband lasted for years or even decades and began long before the wedding ceremony.
In order to become a man/husband, a pre-Christian Slav had to present his future wife with a valuable wedding gift. The gift was expected to be of such value, that some bachelors had to ask family members (for example a father or brother) for help in preparing the gift. The family members who contributed to the wedding gift, were seen as co-husbands, and were given the right to share the marital bed with the co-wife. A ruler (like a prince or a kniaź) could also contribute to the wedding gift or even cover its full value, as, for example, did Mieszko I, whose responsibilities towards the soldiers of his drużyna (retinue) included paying a wedding gift if one of his soldier wished to get a wife. So here we already see that one of the skills that a pre-Christian Slavic man/husband was required to master, was the ability to find and keep allies, able to support him (and his future family) in the times of scarcity or financial hardship.
But not every Slav had a rich family or a place in the kniaź’s drużyna. Those who did not have the support of the affluents, had to acquire wealth in another way, for example through a looting raid. Such raids were a test of not only strength, endurance or bravery, but also of other skills. Let’s not forget, in the times of our ancestors, military raids were not done singlehandedly by one person. Every single wealthy (so worth raiding) settlement, town or a merchant’s convoy were well guarded and hence impossible to raid/loot by a single, even most skilled warrior. Therefore, in order to go on a looting raid, a Slavic bachelor had to learn how to cooperate in larger groups, how to follow orders, execute plans and, if our Slav wanted to distinguish himself, even come up with his own military strategies.
Another, more “peaceful” way of acquiring wealth was producing it with own hands. That could be done by trading, crafting, cultivating the land or exploiting other types of natural resources (mining iron, amber or even beekeeping). Such pacifistic ways of getting rich are not particularly appreciated nowadays, and most certainly not by obsessed with warrior culture modern Rodnovers/reconstructors, but they were highly regarded in the times of our ancestors. After all, without cultivation of the land, no one, including the brave warriors, would have any food to eat. If it wasn’t for miners, there wouldn’t be any iron to make weapons. Without blacksmiths, boatbuilders, bowyers and other highly skilled craftsmen, there wouldn’t be swords, boats or bows, or more “plain” (and more important) items such as ploughs, buckets, cauldrons or even knives. Of course, as in the case of getting rich through looting, getting rich through trading, crafting or cultivating land required from Slavic bachelors abilities and skills such as strength, endurance, bravery, but also: determination, common sense, negotiation skills, counting, building and nurturing interpersonal relations, cooperation etc.
So, we see now that the wedding gift offered to the future wife was not “only” a proof of material wealth. In the society of our ancestors, in the times when mother nature continuously verified not only physical strength, endurance or health, but also mental strength, ingenuity or capability, in those times the wedding gift was a proof, that the future husband was able to look after himself and his material wealth, which in turn meant that he probably could also look after his wife and future children, so – look after his *rȍdъ – his family, bloodline or clan.
There can be only few
The wedding, although extremely important, was only a beginning of a Slavic man’s life. The ceremony of swadźba (the Slavic wedding) was in a way an initiation ritual, allowing the bachelor to enter the world of the real, adult men. The evidence of this we can still find the Slavic languages, in which words describing bachelors (like Polish: młodzieniec, junak or chłopak) are derived from words describing youth and immaturity (*moldenьcь – a child, *jûnъ – young) or low social standing (Polish chłop, meaning a serf).
In the times of our ancestors a male human could become a man only after successfully going through the initial selection of young, immature boys. The selection was designed to pick up those boys, who were able to look after themselves in a way that not only allowed them to survive (looting raids or trade expeditions), not only required them to build strong interpersonal bonds (with brothers in arms, with their leaders/rulers, other merchants or craftsmen), but also to ensure material/financial stability for themselves and their future wives (through the wedding gift which enabled a good start for the newly married). It is worth noting here, that being accepted/initiated into the circle of men/husbands was only the beginning of a series of tests, tasks and challenges put in front of men by the society of our ancestors.
The first tasks of a pre-Christian Slavic man/husband was to father a child/children and to provide and keep safe the wife/wives and child/children for long enough to allow the next generation of Slavs to grow up. In order to achieve that a man/husband had to provide:
- Food – gathered by cultivating the land, keeping farm animals, hunting, fishing and/or trade;
- Shelter – provided by building a house and then ensuring the house stays in a good, working order;
- Safety – achieved by keeping away wild animals, bandits, enemies etc.
It’s not difficult to guess, that in order to fulfil only the three tasks listed above, the man/husband had to master all the skills “tested” in his youth (before getting married), as well as develop new skills, such as:
- Organisation of: agricultural work, defence/sentries around the family house/land, deliveries of raw materials (in the case of craftsmen) etc:
- Planning of: agricultural work, trading routes, looting raids etc;
- Forecasting of: weather, land productivity, military plans/moves of neighbours or enemies etc.
Those who did not master the responsibilities and social role of a man/husband, fell into poverty or/and died. But those who fulfilled their responsibilities most diligently, those with the most fertile wives and thus – most children, those who gathered most wealth, slaves and mercenaries, those men/husbands, after their strength and endurance diminished due to age, were allowed to join the circle of elders, to continue serving their family/community with their wisdom and life experience.
Contrary to opinions of some of the modern “researchers” of the history of the Slavs, the society of our ancestors was not organised by the rules of communism, but by the rules of democracy. Decisions affecting the future of an opole or a tribe were made on a wiec (a public meeting like Old English Moot, or Germanic Thing), where elders – the most mature, experienced and “manly” of men - played a significant role. But it wasn’t enough to be old in order to be allowed to join the elders on the wiec. To become and elder, one had to be a real, Slavic man/husband, who willingly took upon himself the responsibility for others. One had to fulfil the responsibilities of a man/husband so well, as to provide his family with safety and material stability not for a year or two, but for decades. One had to be a man/husband for whom the future of the family was more important than own comforts, security or peace of mind. One had to prove with the legacy of his own life, that he is capable of looking after himself, after his family, his land and his wealth, and through this – prove that he does have the knowledge and experience necessary to look after the land, wealth and the future of his opole or tribe.
Vasili Maksimovich Maksimov “The Blind Husband”
Man – deconstructed
The original pre-Christian patriarchy developed and worked efficiently in a world, where strength, determination and competence of men/husbands were regularly verified by the reality. For our ancestors their children, the most important goal of pre-Christian, Slavic marriages, were their future, the only guarantee of long-term survival. The name of *mộžь, a man and a husband, was reserved for those, who used their strength, endurance, bravery and all other skills and talents, to build, care and secure the future of their family and, more broadly, their *rȍdъ. And only the man who was most successful in fulfilling these responsibilities, could become a patriarch – the head of the family/*rȍdъ.
With the spread of Judeo-Christian and feudal ideas, with the progress of science and technology, the patriarchal system developed by our ancestors slowly but surely became deconstructed. The original definition of a man/husband was forgotten, the men’s responsibilities were pushed away and replaced by the rights of men. Some of the “men’s rights” were gained by taking them away from girls, women and wives. Patriarchy – originally understood as the rule of experienced and responsible fathers – now is based on a completely irrational belief, that humans with full phenotypical expression of Y chromosome, regardless of their achievements and skills, are somehow “naturally” better than the rest of humanity. Without the initiation rituals, without clearly set goals and responsibilities of a man/husband, nowadays the value of a “man” is defined by his “manly” looks. More and more often “men” avoid responsibilities, stay away from challenges and don’t care for building any future, neither for themselves, nor for anyone else. Life experience and achievements are not required to rule over others or to gain a high social status. According to the standards set by our ancestors, we are ruled by boys and we don’t even care. We also don’t care that the responsibilities, which in the times of our ancestors belonged to men/husbands, nowadays more and more often are taken on by women and girls, who, ironically, as single mothers are seen as worse, deplorable and not worthy.
But we should care. The modern deconstruction of the Slavic concept of man/husband should bother and anger us. Particularly if we want to follow the laws and traditions of our ancestors. Particularly if we want to organize wiecs (popular gatherings) of Rodnovers, and on those wiecs we want to listen to the “elders”, who are supposed to share with us the “wisdoms” of our ancestors. And most certainly this state of affairs should bother Rodnovers who have a fully phenotypically expressed Y chromosome. Because many of those Rodnovers still believe that being a “man” means waving a sword and working out, and therefore being “better” than the rest of the humanity, including being entitled to tell women who to be and how to live.
And now there’s only one question left. A question that can only be answer by you, the modern, Slavic adult male human. Have you achieved enough to have the right to call yourself a man? Have you built something worthwhile and important enough to last through generation? Have you taken responsibility for yourself and others? Are you a real Slavic man, or are you still just a young and immature boy?
Slava!
Bibliography:
„Ibrahim ibn Jakub i Tadeusz Kowalski w sześćdziesiątą rocznicę edycji”, edited by Andrzej Zaborski
K. Stock „Material Girls”
R. Derksen “Etymological Dictionary Of The Slavic Inherited Lexicon”
A. Brückner “Słownik etymologiczny języka polskiego”
М. Фасмер „Этимологический онлайн-словарь русского языка”
[1] Before birth, in utero, testicles are very hormonally active, produce and release high levels of testosterone, which is responsible for development of male anatomy of the baby. Without testosterone even the genetically male fetuses develop into female looking babies.
[2] The exception here is modern Ukrainian, where the word used to describe a man is “чоловік”. However in the olden times the word “муж” was used, as in all other Slavic languages.