engleski

Popular terminology for "abduction" of girls

During the 1960-ies, ethnographic material was collected for the Atlas of Ethnology on the territory of the former Yugoslavia. One theme covered in this research, the theme number 119, was entitled Irregular ways of getting married. More precisely, we can talk about three different types of "abduction" ; a real one (against the will of both a girl and her family), arranged abduction a) with the permission of the girl, b) with the permission of the girl, but without the permission of her family, and finally c) fake abduction - with the permission of both, the girl and the family, but with a violent pretence. This classification (represented by many authors) points to an uncritical use of the abduction terminology, even in the cases when violence is not used. Basically, informants have their popular terminology and it is a duty of researcher to understand a topic and to find out what the informant means when using this terminology. The accent is put on the presentation of popular terminology of abduction obtained from 3200 questionnaires of the Ethnological Atlas of Yugoslavia, covering the whole territory of the former Yugoslavia. But it also emphasizes shortcomings and difficulties of both the researchers and, even more so, the informants, during the process of differentiation of terminology and its correlation with appropriate events.

wedding customs; "abduction" of girls; popular terminology

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