Original scientific paper
FOLLOWING A TRAIL OF AN INVISIBLE DANCER
Iva Niemčić
; Intitute of Ethnology and Folklore Research, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
In the first part of the text the author makes a critical review of the written documentation
from the 19th and 20th centuries about the Carnival on the island of Lastovo, especially of
the deficient descriptions of the female participants, the so called "lijepe maškare" (pretty
maskers). In spite of the fact that the Carnival of Lastovo has already been the topic of
ethnological, ethnotheatrological, and even ethnochoreological research, the author noted
and in her research and interpretation pointed out that in the Carnival events women are an
obligatory and irreplaceable participants of the customs during which they dance a chain
dance with a handkerchief, which has in the previous research remained unnoticed or
neglected and marginalized.
In the second part of the text the author discusses the female chain dance. In the
context of Carnival events, the island of Lastovo is a unique case where women perform a
chain dance, using handkerchiefs as substitutes for swords which are used in similar male
chain dances (except in Kotor, where even the members of the Boka Navy perform a chain
dance with handkerchiefs). The intention of most ethnological, ethnotheatrological and
ethnochoreological research so far was to discover a common mythological background
and the characteristics of Carnival roles and events, putting all sword dances in the same
category, disregarding the sex and gender and the more detailed choreological differences of
certain performances. In accordance with recent research of sex and gender in an
ethnochoreological elaboration of the customs of "slavonske kraljice" (Slavonian queens)
(Čale Feldman), the author claims that dance too should be observed in an attainable and
concrete context of the events observed. At the end, in accordance with the interpretation
of the dance and the roles of performers in the Carnival events, she notes the
correspondence with the division of sex and gender roles in everyday life of the people
from Lastovo, which is still patriarchal.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
33127
URI
Publication date:
2.12.2002.
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