Caucasian Women’s Inner World Of Emotional Experience

Abstract

Feminine space research in North Caucasian cultures brought the author to raising a question of sexual interrelations as a cornerstone of social constructs that determine power and obedience, cooperation and mutual suppression, behavioural latitude and individual self-image. The research focuses on Adyghe (Kabardians, Cherkess, and Adygeans), inhabitants of central and western areas of the North Caucasus who are bound together with common language, history, culture, and ethnic self-identification. The methodological framework is based on Pushkareva’s method; it presupposes “considering not only gender socio-historical phenomena, but also gender-related social reality with its mutations over space and time.” Analysis of field materials shed the light to Adyghe sexual history from prehistoric to modern-day patterns. The research contributes to adjustments in comprehending commonplace gender relations and discovers cultural norms that simultaneously restrict public acts of intimacy and empower women with relatively free mentality.