Original scientific paper
REVIVAL AND LOCAL MEANINGS OF CUSTOMS: KUMPANIJE ON THE ISLAND OF KORČULA
Zorica Vitez
; Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Reseach, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
After almost fifty years of non-performance, kumpanjija has been revived in 1997 in the
village of Pupnat. It is a custom known to four more villages on the island of Korčula. A
non-professional folklore expert Vido Bagur has played a significant role in this revival.
The custom has been revived in 1966 in the village of Žrnovo, which was strongly
influenced by the ethnochoreologist Ivan Ivančan, the author of the book on kumpanijecustom
on the island of Korčula. Ivančan has, with his book and as Vido Bagur's teacher,
indirectly influenced the revival in Pupnat.
The Žrnovo and the Pupnat revivals have taken place with thirty years in-between.
They are connected by the same revival model: singling out the parts of kumpanija that are
"presentable" by themselves and thus usable as a theatre scenes for the audience (the drama
prologue, dance with swards and old dances). Other contents of the custom have also been
partly revived, but they do not carry this kind of significance. The common point of all the
kumpanija-customs from Korčula used to be the decapitation of an ox, which has been left
out of the custom in the villages of Blato, Smokvica and Čara long ago.
The performance of the revived kumpanija in 1966 in Žrnovo was adjusted to the
usual model of public displays of the time: it was organized to honour the "25th
anniversary of the Revolution", followed by "placing wreaths" on the monuments of the
communist government, and including the speeches that were held at the festive dinner of
kumpanija, which were a representative example of political rhetoric of those times. The
decapitation of the ox did not provoke any reaction.
The Pupnat kumpanjija was revived in the post-war, independent Croatian state, in
the atmosphere of new social and political values, followed with the increased attention by
the media and the omnipresent desire for Croatia to participate in political, social and
cultural community of Europe. The decapitation of the ox calls for a public scandal.
The defenders of the decapitation are in the first instance the inhabitants of Korčula
(but not only they), among which were the participants in the revival. Their arguments are
respect for tradition, and their attitude is based on the local understanding of the custom,
formed by the legends and the values of the past times. The opponents of the decapitation
of the ox use contemporary, globally proclaimed values as animal protection as their
arguments. The local is probably going to lose the battle of the two attitudes.
The revived kumpanija is not identical to the former tradition, for it has been
folklorized for the purpose of public display, but it still remains a symbol of the local
identity, the grounds for the social life in the small communities of Korčula and the cultural
heritage usable for the purposes of tourism.
Keywords
kumpanija; sward-dance; ox decapitation; revival; Korčula; Pupnat; Žrnovo
Hrčak ID:
33383
URI
Publication date:
4.12.2000.
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