| 释义 |
sworn virgin, n. Anthropol.
Brit. |ˌswɔːn ˈvəːdʒɪn|, U.S. |ˈˌswɔ(ə)rn ˈvərdʒən|
[‹ sworn adj. + virgin n. and adj., probably after Albanian regional (Gheg) virgjinë (1905 or earlier in this sense), virgjineshë (1907 or earlier in this sense), spec. uses respectively of virgjinë, virgjineshë, both in sense ‘female virgin’ (Albanian virgjër, virgjëreshë). Compare Albanian vajzë e betuar, lit. ‘sworn girl’, Serbian regional tobelija, lit. ‘woman bound by a vow’.]
In the western Balkans (chiefly in northern Albania and adjoining parts of Montenegro, Kosovo, and Macedonia): a female virgin who has publicly sworn an oath to remain celibate (or whose parents have so sworn on her behalf), and is thereby committed to adopt the role, responsibilities, and (usually) the clothing of a man.
The most common reasons for this practice are the need (in a society in which females are traditionally not permitted to inherit property) for a household head and inheritor of the home in cases where no male is available, and the need to preserve the honour of both families in cases where a woman refuses to accept an arranged marriage.
[1909M. E. Durham High Albania ii. 38 In Maltsia e madhe [in northern Albania] a girl who has sworn virginity—‘an Albanian virgin’—can, if her father leave no son, inherit land and work it... These women as a rule wear male dress and may carry arms. ]1910M. E. Durham in Jrnl. Royal Anthropol. Inst. 40 460 In all parts [of northern Albania] a sworn virgin is allowed to eat with the men and is treated as an equal. 1922R. Wilder Lane Peaks of Shala viii. 151 He thinks..that you mean that in your country the young men live like priests and the women like Sworn Virgins, such as they sometimes have here [sc. in northern Albania]. 1950C. S. Coon Mountains of Giants 24 If a young woman is faced with a marriage which she cannot bring herself to consummate,..she can avoid matrimony by becoming a ‘sworn virgin’. 1998N. Malcolm Kosovo i. 19 The only permitted escape from such a life was to become a ‘sworn virgin’, which involved renouncing all prospects of marriage, dressing in man's clothes and leading the life of an honorary man. 2007Guardian 31 Mar. (Weekend Suppl.) 43/2 When you meet ‘sworn virgins’, you can see at once how they have taken on masculine ways. |