Daily life of a Greek woman in the North Azov sea region and her role in preservation of Greek ethnical identity at the end of XVIII – beginning of the XX century

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of everyday life of Greek women in villages of the North Azov region. It was also concluded that family served as a main social unit, which kept the ethnic uniqueness of Greek people on the micro-level when surrounded by other ethnicities, and the function of the keeper in the family was assigned, first of all, to a woman. Most of the Greeks residing in the North Azov region at the beginning of XX century obeyed to the tradition of endogamy. Marriages were concluded mostly between the members of the ethnic group – this helped to preserve homogeneity of the family. It was proved that the main functions of a woman in Greek society were childbirth to provide for future generations, adaptation and preservation of the Greek identity, keeping of traditions, arrangement of traditional family celebrations, thus a Greek woman was the main ‘means’ in support and transfer of the experience and ethnic traditions from ancestors to descendants. Women played the role of so to say preserving agent in the society, thank to which the traditional peculiarities of culture, ethnic consciousness and uniqueness of Greeks everyday life were preserved.