Original scientific paper
The Scarves of the Našice Region
Ivana Jurković
Abstract
The Scarves of the Našice Region (Summary) While collecting items for the Country Museum of Našice and examining and gathering data about textile handwork of the Našice region, I have found that scarves and headcoverings which used to be worn in that territory were homemade on the weawing-loom. There are about fifty of them in the Country Museum of Našice. While I was doing the research I had the opportunity to observe the weaving and the forms of wearing the scarves in the course of eighty years. My field work is based on the aboriginal Croatian villages. There were two kinds of woven scarves: "zamotače" (binding scarves) i "široke marame" (wide scarves). The binding scarves are the oldest. They used to be worn until World War I, and soon afterwards women gradually ceased wearing them. During the thirties we find them worn only by the oldest women. They were woven out of cotton. Their form is square (about 80x82 cm). In order to achieve the desired form two halves are connected. Their decoration is a modest hem made on a waving-loom by several techniques: "usnivanje" (weaving narrow and wide threads in the walp), "pretkivanje" (reweaving) or "usnivanje" together with "boranje" (wrinkling) by the means of a board. The motive is geometrical. The decoration is made out of a single-coloured cotton and it may be white, red, black or blue. The binding scarves used to be the most universal. They were worn by women of all ages and also by girls at particular occasions. Those scarves were suitable for all occasions. The ones with the red hem were worn by younger women, while those with blue, black or white hem were worn by older women or by those which were crying for the dead and were in mourning. Such scarves are usually only hemmed and rarely with a lace. They were worn folded in a form of a triangle and tied in a single knot under the chin. They were put over "počelica" (a kind of a hood) or over "šamija" (a kind of a scarf) and never directly on hair, except if they were worn by girls. These scarves were also used to wrap the infants and also to cover a baby in a carved out crib. Around 1920 a new kind of woven scarves became fashionable. Those are "wide scarves". They were woven in one single piece (80x82 cm or slightly smaller). They were woven out of cotton in various colours and woven in two weaving threads. They were also decorated by "usnivanje" and "pretkivanje" forming a geometrical ornament with criss-crossed narrow and wide strips. They can be worn on any occasion and by women of all ages and they also mark village membership. According to the dominating colour they are divided into: "blue, black, red and mixed wide scarves". They are also worn as binding scarves. These scarves in most cases are also only hemmed, but if the hem is decorated then it is either in a form of modest "ekla" or braided wool and cotton or fringed. Red and mixed coloured wide scarves were worn by younger women, and black and blue by the oldest ones or those who were in mourning. Their usage was short-lived in the region of Našice. After World War II the wearing of the costume was abandoned, and also the scarves as its integral part. After the war they remained in usage as head-covers only by the oldest women. The last one who wore wide blue scarf died last year. Today they are not woven and can be found only in the wardrobes where they are kept as mementos of the past. The oldest women guard them jealously in order to take to their graves as it was customary.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
80054
URI
Publication date:
1.12.1978.
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