Women’s Wedding Headdresses in Tuvan Material and Spiritual Culture: Functions and Semantics

Abstract

Introduction. The article aims to study key types of Tuvan women’s wedding headdresses as signs associated with certain stages of the wedding ritual. Materials and methods. The research is mostly based on pre-revolutionary historical and ethnographic materials from the Aldan-Maadyr National Museum of Tuva and the authors’ field data. The method of historicism employed for the analysis proves helpful in capturing the elements of culture in dynamics. The work also uses the comparative typological and field research methods that are traditional enough for ethnography studies. Results. The paper analyzes historical, ethnographic, and folklore materials to reveal the semantics of the Tuvan traditional wedding ritual and identify symbolism of wedding headdresses and their semiotics, materials used for their manufacture and decoration, local variants in terms of pragmatism and specific characteristics. Conclusions. The research indicates that despite some differences in several parameters (presence or absence of a particular rite or its functional significance), the traditional wedding ritual across different territories of Tuva is characterized by commonality of their basic structural and typological components, including matchmaking (Tuv. kudalaashkin and kudalai koor), bride show (dugdeeshkin), and wedding proper (kuda-doi). Accordingly, wedding clothes from different districts of Tuva have common ritual elements along with some specific local peculiarities. So, the paper focuses on key types of headdresses once used in wedding rites.