Amazonke iz Istre. Na tragu istarskih, u muško preobučenih žena
"Amazon" Women from Istria. A Study of Istrian Women Who Dressed Like Men

Summary/Abstract: Are the Istrian cases of women dressed like men in any way connected to virdžine / tobelije, an endemic phenomenon of Dinaric areas in the south-western part of the Balkan peninsula? Is it possible to presume and even confirm that the occurrence registered in archival materials (questionnaires) of the south Istrian village Čabrunići, in the region far away from the area of expansion of virdžina, is still an influence transmitted through the well-known large migration wave from Dinaric areas to the area of Roverija in south Istria at the end of the 17th century?In this paper written and oral testimonies on Istrian women dressed as men through past and present are analyzed and examined, and put into a framework of comparative techniques on the basis of various sources — poems, stories, archival material and author's field work — especially one conducted in Roverija in 1996. In this context it is possible — in terms of both meaning and content — to reveal the scope that is hidden under the name of samčon. The author defines the thesis that the characteristic feature of female transvestism in endemic phenomenon of virdžina of Dinaric areas of the southwestern part of Balkan peninsula, is that it is not only socially accepted, but it is also institutionalized and codified by common law — basic differentia specifica according to cases discovered in Istria, as well as those in Europe. The Istrian research is one of the many confirmations (which, among other things, the author dealt with in her doctoral dissertation) that virdžina / tobelija is certainly a unique phenomenon both in Europe and the world.

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