Speaker: -

Abstract: »This paper explores discourse regarding female chastity in the 19th-century Qing Kharachin Middle Banner, Inner Mongolia, during a period of socio-economic transition. Mongol women have often been viewed as possessing stronger agency and higher status than their Chinese neighbors, a perception often linked to their nomadic lifestyle. However, in nineteenth-century eastern Inner Mongolia, particularly the Kharachin area, significant changes were experienced. The region saw a shift towards a semi-herding, semi-farming lifestyle, with many Mongols now living in houses rather than yurts, and interacting closely with Chinese settlers.
Using legal records from the Kharachin Middle Banner, kept at the Archive of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, this paper examines how rape cases were handled and how female chastity was perceived in legal discourse. Specifically, it analyzes the language used to describe rape, the attitudes and voices of the victim, the reporter, and the rapist, the procedures for defining rape, and the judges’ responses to different cases. It argues that while judges valued female chastity, commoner patriarchs often treated it as a form of property, particularly in the case of young maidens, to be used for economic gain.
While previous scholarship has overwhelmingly concentrated on Mongol noblewomen, this study investigates the experiences of ordinary women. It highlights the commodification of female chastity and the restricted sexual autonomy of young women, offering a nuanced view of how gender norms intersected with socio-economic changes in nineteenth-century Kharachin society.« (Source: Online Program)

Wikipedia: History of Asia: History of China / History of Mongolia, Qing dynasty | Sex and the law: Rape / Rape in China | Virtue: Chastity