engleski

"This Whore That Aborted, She Was the Witch!" The Stereotypic attributes of Witches in Croatian Traditional Beliefs

Recent field research of traditional beliefs in supernatural beings such as witches and mòra-s (unmarried witches) among the inhabitants of Dalmatian hinterland (Croatia) showed that such beliefs are still present within certain groups. This fact enables researcher to ask what the informants themselves think about believing in witches. The results show that the breaking of taboos, social, moral or religious values causes women to ''become'' witches and mòra-s. It starts with the rumor and gossip about some ugly, single, old or too pretty, promiscuous, widowed women in the village. When a certain negative incident occurs in the village, those women are held responsible. They serve as social strain gauges. The dissatisfaction and unwillingness to accept unfavorable condition presuppose the existence of witches and mòra-s in a community who take the responsibility for all the troubles. Evil, supernatural beings, in which often real, ''undesirable'' women of the community can be recognized, become scapegoats responsible for the misfortune and thus clear the accuser of the responsibility for the problem. Therefore, in this paper author examine the recent fieldwork records which show that even today in this part of Europe there exist mechanisms of accusations of women similar to those early modern that led to the mass witchcraft madness.

Whitches; Dalmatian Hinterland; Traditional Beliefs

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