A lakodalmi perecről másképpen, avagy a menyasszony nemi identitásának cseréje/váltása Csíkszentdomokoson
A Different Approach to the Wedding Pretzel, or the Bride’s Change of Sexual Identity in Csíkszentdomokos

Summary/Abstract: As compared to the descriptions, interpretations so far of wedding customs, the present study offers a different hypothesis of the interpretation, model and function of the fate-changing custom. The critical comments start from two viewpoints: on the one hand, from the incomplete view due to which wedding descriptions, the known wedding types and related customs do not refl ect clearly the woman’s particular biological, sexual initiation, her change of sexual identity, by ignoring the fact that, as humans, we are dual – biological and social – beings at the same time, and we carry this opposition in ourselves. On the other hand, the study considers it a defi cient and biased view according to which this most important fate-changing event can be experienced by only one of these two different aspects of our being. The author insists on the view that people should assume both sides in the face of themselves and of the whole community. This work points at a former wedding custom in Csíkszentdomokos (Sândominic), named Pretzel (Perec), against public awareness and against previous research results in the fi eld, and proves that this community’s view of the turning-points of human life takes into consideration, within the wedding transition, the woman’s entire personality. This is why, besides social fate change, it also integrated the issues of the bride’s sexual turning-point, identity change into its wedding customs: in a particular way, with particular rituals and in a highly symbolic language.

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