Traditional Wedding Costume of the Mrkovići in Montenegro: Between Real Heritage and Folk Construction (Materials of the Russian Expeditions in 2012–2014)
Traditional Wedding Costume of the Mrkovići in Montenegro: Between Real Heritage and Folk Construction (Materials of the Russian Expeditions in 2012–2014)

Summary/Abstract: The traditional clothing of the Mrkovići Muslim ethno-local group in Montenegro began to change at the turn of the 21st century in response to several factors. Firstly, this clothing was more and more reserved exclusively for ritual (and festive) occasions. Secondly, the group demonstrated increased interest in its own history and culture. And, thirdly, the group confronted challenges associated with globalization processes by transforming its traditional clothing. This paper recounts the results of fieldwork conducted by the recent Russian Balkan expeditions. We briefly outline the history of the prototypical oriental female dress and provide commonly used names for its elements. We then describe a costume variant common among the Mrkovići in the 19th and 20th centuries and give the dialectal names for its elements. We have recorded the 21st century transition to a new variant of the wedding costume, dominated by the color white, which is motivated by aesthetic, pragmatic, mythological, and religious factors. Finally we describe this contemporary costume and name its details. The specific combination of archaic and innovative, inherited and borrowed elements shapes the peculiar profile of the Mrkovići culture as a whole and their traditional wedding costume in particular.

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