ТЕРЕНСКА ИСТРАЖИВАЊА СРБА У КЛИСУРИ 2017: ОБИЧАЈ КУМАЧЕЊЕ
FIELDWORK AMONG SERBS IN KLISURA GORGE (ROMANIA), 2017: CHILDREN’S RITUAL SISTERHOOD AND BROTHERHOOD

Summary/Abstract: This paper results from the field research among Serbs in three settlements in Klisura (Romania) Divic (Divici), Belobreška (Belobreşca) and Stara Moldava (Moldava Veche) in 2017. Research team of the Institute for Balkan Studies of Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts and the Institute of Literature and Arts (comprising Svetlana Ćirković, Smiljana Đorđević Belić and Biljana Sikimić) has recorded video and audio data consisting of eight texts on the topic of children’s sisterhood and brotherhood spring ritual. The transcripts of these narratives are compared with previous studies that dealt with the same customs of Serbs and Romanians in Southern Banat on the one hand and Serbs and Vlachs in Northeast Serbia on the other, on the basis of comparative fieldwork. Eight narratives from Klisura gorge show micro differences depending on the settlement in which they are taken, but also depending on the time they refer to. Except for the needs of linguistic analyses, the material recorded in the Klisura settlements additionally shed light on the origin, structure and transformation of the custom. The differences are, above all, related to the choice of partners with whom the ritual sisterhood/brotherhood is established, as well as their age at the time of the first establishment of this particular social relationship. The calendar time, the specific geographical area and other elements of this custom do not differ much from the known ethnographic descriptions. In Zlatica (Romania) and Bavanište (Serbia), the organization of the custom was recently taken over by local primary schools.

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