Anthropological Study of a Young Perm Family

The article considers the gender culture in the family, one of the most closed and local socio-cultural institutions. The relevance of this topic is determined by the anthropological turn in modern humanitarian knowledge, and the involvement of new data in scientific circulation, which is obtained as a result of the use of case-study semi-formalized techniques for interviewing respondents. Thus, on the basis of the interviews received, there are reconstructed contradictory forms of gender identity in a young married couple in Perm. The article presents the materials of the respondents’ interviews in the form of narratives consistently presenting the key stages of the relationship. Gradually, the narrative’s characters begin to construct a gender identity in a new cultural institution – their own family. There can be seen a conflict between the characters’ symbolic self-identity and their real practices. The man takes a dominant role in the beginning of the relationship. He objectifies the woman and alone decides when to start the relationship. Then the situation changes. The man’s dominant role is replaced with a passive one. The initiative goes to the woman, who repeats the man’s behavior. At the same time, it turns out that in everyday life, the respondents fill the roles of the husband and wife with special content. The wife’s role includes the mother’s behavior towards her husband, and the husband’s role includes the child’s behavior towards his wife. The family is an inverse patriarchal type of relationship. The woman has a dominant role, but identifies herself as an obedient wife.

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