Gender Socialization of the Child in the Ukrainians’ Traditional Culture (Late 19th – Mid-20th Century)

Abstract

The article is dedicated to one of the important aspects of Ukrainian traditional culture, namely the gender-role education of a child, his or her gender socialization. The relevance of the topic is specified with the high interest in the peculiarities of Ukrainian folk culture, its evolution and transformation, the need to understand the determining factors of the existence of Ukrainians of previous generations, a wide range of issues related to the social influence on the human personality in the past and present. A person’s adoption of a social role, acquisition of certain psychological traits, determined by society depending on gender, is a process of gender socialization. In traditional society, in particular Ukrainian one, this process has taken place through upbringing, using ritual and magical actions, designing a successful life scenario for the child. At the same time, ritualism is combined with practices related to the child’s appearance. The processes of gender-role socialization are reflected vividly in the ethnographic material of the late 19th and mid-20th centuries concerning maternity rites, norms related to the child’s appearance and initiation practices. Children’s clothing culture has largely reflected and consolidated the established norms of upbringing, social role. The change of the child’s status has been taking place with his or her maturity, especially with the attraction to economic activities. The social division of labour into women’s and men’s has been reflected both in the rites related to new-born children, through the use of appropriate attributes, and in attraction to corresponding work. Clear observance of symbolic rites has been combined with less regulated standards of appearance, those haven’t reflected a clear gender difference of children in certain periods of life. The process of raising a child in Ukrainian traditional culture implies the modelling of clearly regulated roles of adults, the symbolic consolidation of gender and the designing of a successful social role in the future.