How were household duties split up between Mongol couples? Was cooking a gendered task? Did Mongol women control the household finances? Would the respected role of Temujin's wife and his mother as advisors be repeated in many Mongol households (as it was in the households of some of his descendants)?
Would Mongol girls receive the same education, whatever that meant in early 13th century Mongol society, as their brothers? When did girls start to be considered women and how did it compare to boys?
I'm particularly interested in the religious roles of Tengriist Mongol women. Were there certain religious or religio-social rituals or practices that were restricted just to them, or that they were considered particularly good at? Were they forbidden from certain Tengriist religious roles?
Thanks!
Hello, I'm currently studying the Mongols so I am by no means an expert but I can point you towards some primary sources if you're interested. Most as you say cover elite women, but you can get a few hints of the daily life of normal women elsewhere.
In the secret history of the Mongols, the only source probably composed by Mongolians, the early section covers chinggis early life when he is living dislocated from other tribes in extreme poverty. You can get some understanding of marriage customs and how poor women chipped in to surviving day to day from this but be careful as its quite mythological in some areas.
The mission of William of rubruk details his journey from the crusader states to qara qorum, partly as envoy to Louis IX, partly as a preacher. In an early part of the book he digresses from the linear narrative to describe his sysyemised view of Mongol society from his exposure to it whilst staying in many encampments from Crimea to Mongolia.
He has a chapter on the division of labour between men and women that might interest you. For example it is a women's job to milk the cattle and goats, but a man's job to milk the mares to produce their fermented mares milk drink because I'd the cultural importance of the horse and the status that came with that. When yurts are constructed they all ways place two idols at the entrance on the right a mares udder for the men and in the left a cows udder for women.
In general elite Mongol women control the orda or the camp of their husbands. They maintain this role even after the husband has died. Albeit this is for elite women but it does extend down somewhat to lower status women.
Ordinary women it seemed were also responsible for camp duties. When camps moved yurts would be deconstructed and placed onto giant four wheeled carts pulled by oxen hat Rubruck describes as having axles as big as ships masts. It is womens job to deconstruct these tents place them on the carts and actually drive the carts. When the Steppe is flat a woman will lash together 20-30 carts and lead from the first one. When the going gets rough she slows pace and guides carts individually
Mongol men and women's dress is very similiar except women's outfits are somewhat longer. The day after marriage women shave the tips of their heads and wear a big tunic ties at the waist with a cloth belt tied on the right side - distinguished from turks who tie on the left
They often wear a headdress called a bocca which as the bark of a tree as its base and its large and circular with the width of two hand spans, covered with silk and decorated with feathers such as peacock feathers. They ruck their hair inside the hollow area of this headdress. I suspect this is for elite women.
Women ride horses exactly the same as men astride and when they do so they bins their breasts down.
Rubruck describes Mongol women considered to be beautiful as plump or "wonderfully fat" and they "disfigured themselves hideously by painting their face"
Women's duties:
Drive carts
Load houses onto carts
Milk cows
Make butter + grut
Make clothes, sew them, thread made of animal tendons
Sew shoes socks and other garments
Never wash clothes (makes god angry and it would thunder if they hung them out to dry if so believed. those who wash clothes are beaten - and they turn out all strangers from the houss when this happens, hide and wrap in black felt until the thunder is over
Never wash dishes, only when the meat is cooked they pour boiling broth from cauldron into the bowl then put meat in it. Afterwards they put back the broth into the cauldron again
Make felt and cover houses with animal patterns and deiagns made out of felt applique
In charge of the yurt chest. This is a chest constructed out of twigs with a felt covering stretched on the top, this all ways stays on the cart and is a used to store belongings whilst the yurt is in transport
I encourage you to read rubruk to determine how accurate you think he is in all of this.
Most sources recount elite women.
You can read for example Jurvayni a Persian administrator of the ilkhanids who covers the reigns of khan's wife regents in intergnums between quriltais very loosely.
John of Plano Carpini also had experience in Mongol camps though I haven't ready any of him yet.
This is by no means exhaustive just some pointers on things I've read about the topic :)