TRACING CROATIAN OASES IN THE REGION OF IRPINIA IN SOUTHERN ITALY

In the province of Molise in southern Italy Croatian villages founded in the fifteenth century still exist. Not much was known about them until the end of last century when some scholars began to investigate ethnographic and philological questions concerning the Croats of Molise who escaped from the Turks to the other side of the Adriatic. Most current investigation is also devoted to Molise since this is the only region where Croatian culture has survived without being fused with Italian. The aim of this contribution is to reconstruct the traces of Croatian colonies in another part of Italy, south-east of Molise - a border region between the provinces of Campania and Puglia (Irpinia). With this aim in mind, written material - customs and poems, archives, historical sources, toponyms etc. - has been taken into consideration. The time of arrival of the new inhabitants in this part of the Neopoletan kingdom is also discussed

APSYRTIDES – FORTIS ON THE PATHS OF THE ARGONAUTS TOWARDS EUROPEAN ETHNOLOGY/ANTHROPOLOGY

Otoci Cres i Lošinj, smatra autorica, imali su u razvoju europske etnologije/antropologije važnije mjesto od drugih jadranskih otoka. Na temelju analize prve Fortisove knjige, Saggio d\u27 Osservazioni sopra l\u27 isola di Cherso ed Osero d\u27Alberto Fortis (Venezia, 1771), može se vidjeti kako upravo ovdje Fortis sazrijeva politički, prestaje biti samo putnikom i prirodoslovcem i zanima se za život otočana i njihovu tradicijsku kulturu. U knjizi su anticipirani zameci etnološke misli kao npr. pojam "običaj", "tradicija", "zloporaba tradicije", "kulturni relativizam". Pokazuje se da se "otkriće Morlaka" može ustanoviti upravo u Saggiu, knjizi objavljenoj tri godine prije knjige Viaggio in Dalmazia. Autorica analitički "iščitava" Fortisovo djelo, kritički ga smještajući u okvire njegovih ranih istraživanja, ali i rađanja europske etnologije u 18. stoljeću nakon "otkrića" Dalmacije, ovdje pobliže Kvarnerskih otoka.Of all the Adriatic islands, according to the author, Cres and Lošinj had more important and greater impact on the evolution of European ethnology/anthropology, which is why it is so important to reconsider Saggio d\u27Osservazioni sopra l\u27isola di Cherso ed Osero d\u27Alberto Fortis, a book by Fortis not translated as yet, published in Venice in 1771. The paper aims critically to evaluate the position of this book in relation to Fortis\u27 broader work, his beginnings, and also the growth of European ethnology whose foundations were grounded in the "discovery" of Dalmatia, especially of the Kvarner islands, in the middle of the Enlightenment period. It was at that time that the Adriatic transformed itself into a distinct ethnographic entity dividing the Italians from the Slavs and Eastern from Western Europe. Specific examples are analyzed that show how Fortis\u27 original geological, mineralogical and paleontological interests were transformed into an ethnological-anthropological approach. It was this new interest that later led him to the Morlachs, who have been reported on so extensively by Croatian and European scholars The paper shows how, during his research on the islands Cres and Lošinj, Fortis was no longer exclusively a "viagiattore naturalista", a travelling naturalist, as he called himself. His political broadening and development became evident. He was no longer merely a passive observer but instead interested himself in the conditions and way of life of the local population. This article tries analytically to "read" this book by Fortis, which is so important for ethnologists and the creation of European ethnology and anthropology. Fortis anticipates the germs of future ethnological concepts such as "custom", "tradition", "misuse of tradition" and "cultural relativism". Even though his journey to Cres and Lošinj ("Saggio") can be tentatively considered as less interesting and famous than his well known travels in Dalmatia ("Viaggio"), the author attempts to show how the "discovery of the Morlachs" can be anticipated precisely in the "Saggio", predating the famous "Viaggio" by three years. Comparing the two works, the author shows Fortis\u27 "anthropological inversion" where he gradually lessens his impetus to civilize and to "cultivate the whole world", a process that is also mirrored in his gradual transformation from Enlightenment to Romanticism. At that time he was, as was all of Europe, fascinated by the exotic and primitive customs of the Morlachs, who were later recognized as a distinct people precisely on the basis of this ethnological category. The paper shows how the Adriatic was subject to mental cartography based on civilization criteria and those of anthropology, but also shows the importance of the Adriatic as a central point of official geographic cartography and the Adriocentric geographical approach of Coronelli – the official cartographer of the Venetian Republic from which Fortis started off on his journeys

"Amazon" Women From Istria. A Study Of Istrian Women Who Dressed Like Men

U članku se analiziraju pisana, pronalaze i istražuju kako pisana tako i usmena svjedočanstva o ženama preobučenima u muško u Istri (u prošlosti i sadašnjosti), stavljaju se u sklop komparativnih postupaka na temelju više različitih izvora - pjesama, pripovijedaka, arhivske građe te vlastitoga terenskog istraživanja, posebno u području Roverije, 1996. godine. U tom se kontekstu i značenjski i sadržajno uspijeva razotkriti okvir što ga skriva naziv samčon. Autorica postavlja tezu da je obilježje ženskog transvestizma kod endemske pojave virdžina dinarskih područja jugozapadnoga dijela Balkanskog poluotoka - da je ono ne samo društveno prihvaćeno, nego i institucionalizirano, običajnim pravom kodificirano - osnovna differentia specifica prema ovim pronađenim slučajevima u Istri, a i onima u Europi. Ovo istarsko istraživanje samo je jedna od karika u lancu potvrda (kojima se, među ostalim, bavila u svojoj doktorskoj tezi) da se o virdžini/tobeliji može doista govoriti kao o sasvim jedinstvenoj pojavi kako u Europi tako i u svijetu.Are the Istrian cases of women dressed like men in any way connected to vir džine / 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\u27s 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

TRACING CROATIAN OASES IN THE REGION OF IRPINIA IN SOUTHERN ITALY

In the province of Molise in southern Italy Croatian villages founded in the fifteenth century still exist. Not much was known about them until the end of last century when some scholars began to investigate ethnographic and philological questions concerning the Croats of Molise who escaped from the Turks to the other side of the Adriatic. Most current investigation is also devoted to Molise since this is the only region where Croatian culture has survived without being fused with Italian. The aim of this contribution is to reconstruct the traces of Croatian colonies in another part of Italy, south-east of Molise - a border region between the provinces of Campania and Puglia (Irpinia). With this aim in mind, written material - customs and poems, archives, historical sources, toponyms etc. - has been taken into consideration. The time of arrival of the new inhabitants in this part of the Neopoletan kingdom is also discussed

Reflections and dilemmas on the margins of ethnological maps - crisis of ethnology?

Na primjeru kartografije autorica raspravlja o pojmu koji se, pogotovo zadnjih nekoliko godina, provlači kao crvena nit u etnologiji - kriza etnologije. Postavlja tvrdnju da pri procjenjivanju ove tehnike temelj nesporazuma između "staroga" i "novoga" usmjerenja leži u nerazlikovanju sadržaja dvaju osnovnih pitanja kojima se bavi u članku. Autorica nakon svega predlaže jednu, ne samo teoretsku mogućnost, da se na nekoj konkretnoj temi "holistički" uzmu u obzir rezultati tjednog i drugog opredjeljenja prikaza kulture (na temelju timskoga rada?) pri čemu smatra da bi bilo zanimljivo vidjeti do kakvih bi nas rezultata doveo taj novonastali, "novi holizam".The immediate inducement for this article came from the author\u27s involvement with a question concerning "social culture" (from the questionnaires of the Ethnological Atlas of the Institute of Ethnology - Faculty of Philosophy, University of Zagreb). It was a question that did not seam to be very suitable for treatment by ethnological cartography which needed to be supplemented before it could be resolved. The problem itself is not being discussed in this article but it served as the spiritus movens for some theoretical reflections concerning the range of the cartographic technique and factors that influence the success of work based on it, indeed about historyness and the results gained by it, etc. The author believes that it is much more difficult to show social culture than material culture on a distributional basis and supports this by cartographic material, by the questionnaires and also by theoretical discussion of G. P. Murdock. In her evaluation of the success of works and problems based on cartography she introduces the term kartografičnost (cartographyness) to describe certain material which, to her opinion, is to a much lesser extent present in social culture which is much more difficult to wrest from context. On the example of cartography she discusses the notion which, especially during the last few years is woven like a red line, the notion of the crisis of ethnology in which, roughly speaking, there are two different views or streams in ethnology - the "old" and the "new". She expresses her opinion that in the evaluation of this technique the basis of the misunderstanding lies in not distinguishing two basic questions: (1) the range of this method bearing in mind what is being enquired into, material or nonmaterial culture, and (2) differences in understanding history with the consequence of denying the historyness of the cartographic method. The author thinks that although we use the same word, history, in fact we understand it differently, as two notions, two different histories, two histories. It is stressed that ethnological maps do not aim at giving precisely documented (near) history that can be accurately dated (to reach such history ethnological maps are not necessarily needed!) because it is not cartography\u27s aim while for the more distant past this method is useful, indeed has unique inherent possibilities. The author argues that disagreements in the understanding of history (and therefore in recognition or non-recognition of the historyness of the cartographic technique or, more drastically, in recognition of its appropriateness) arise from a basic misunderstanding of ethnological theory as V. Belaj has already highlighted - ethnology having two different definitions of its subject. For reconstruction of ethnical history which derives from the first definition of the subject of ethnology (cited in the article), cartographic technique with "its historyness" can give irreplaceable results. Finally the author points out that in taking sides for this technique one implicitly gives up any holistic relation to culture and that this approach eliminates and undercuts the other (holistic approach to culture). She suggests, however that the possibility exists, not only theoretical, to take a concrete subject "holistically" into account showing the results of both approaches (by team work?). The author thinks it would be very interesting to see what results could be reached by this "new holism"