From the Anna Temkina and Lilit Zakaryan, Department of your Sociology away from Social Health and Gender, European College https://datingmentor.org/tr/kore-tarihleme/ or university within St.Petersburg, Russia and National Academy out of Sciences, Armenia
Karmir khndzor (Armenia)
Review the girl love – as a result of assessment this lady virginity – to affirm honour and you will position away from her friends can be obtained when you look at the various ‘sheet ceremonies’ inside patriarchal communities on Mediterranean cultures to help you Latin Western peasantry and you will Indian castes, since the Old (Kandiyoti 1988, Carpenter 2005, Ortner 1978: 19). The thing is that exist to your habit of blaga rakija in the Macedonia. Females virginity are with the personal prestige since the a beneficial woman’s position from the social framework is placed of the how ‘pure’ otherwise ‘polluting’ the woman is (Ortner 1978: 24-26). So it trust could have been ‘enforced because of the medical and regularly slightly significant power over ladies’ societal and particularly sexual behaviour’ (Ortner 1978: 19). Based on Simone de Beauvoir, virginity is a good patriarchal build and therefore objectifies females given that Other (1949 ).
Karmir khndzor is actually hardly said from the Armenian ethnography on the late nineteenth and you may early 20th ages due to the fact Armenian community is actually mostly silent into the things off sex. Mostly male ethnographers don’t take a look at the wedding night ceremonies in enough outline the help of its female informants. In the event your bride-to-be is actually most young, brand new routine was not did into the relationships nights at all and you will try defer for several years (Shagoyan 2011: 497). Purple apples regularly gamble a separate part regarding regional rituals associated the loss of brand new bride’s virginity (Shagoyan 2011). Because symbolic of virility with a sensual meaning, fruit was used because a gift box to own gold jewellery, gifted towards the bride to be. New round form of this new fruit symbolized ethics and perfection and you may brand new virginity of your own fiance is actually concurrently translated given that the lady ‘integrity’ (tselostnost, compare with tselka, ‘virgin’).
The modern particular karmir khndzor that is active throughout Armenia as well as in multiple diasporic organizations shot to popularity through the Soviet months towards increase off urban migration regarding the seventies. This new ritual has got the after the laws: To your early morning adopting the relationships, a little gang of female (the couple’s godmother or groom’s mother, maternal sibling otherwise partnered sibling), always 2 or 3, bring mom out of bride to be a rack of oranges, candy and you will cognac. The brand new groom’s mother attracts this lady neighbors otherwise personal members of the family, once more 2 or 3 ladies, over getting coffees, tea, sweets and you can fresh fruit. The godmother cuts this new oranges with the five bits and offers him or her to your website visitors. Desserts as a fruit are also an appropriate present. The new habit comes with three strategies: examination, sanctioning and validation. Adopting the groom’s mom and other female choose outlines regarding blood to the bedsheet of your bridesmaid few (examination), the bride gets a gift in case there are the woman affirmed virginity otherwise a conviction and censure in case there is failure (sanctioning). From the step three, a purple fruit or a rack which have apples is distributed because validation for the bride’s mom, who awaits it indication accompanied by family unit members or neighbors at the lady family (Shagoyan 2011, Pogosyan 2010).
Career browse held in the mid-2000s indicated that karmir khndzor is actually performed very carefully and you will faithfully in outlying places where intercourse norms were more conventional and you may hierarchical. Throughout the urban centers, the new habit took a moderate mode – the fresh routine is actually performed although virginity evaluation are far more lenient (Temkina 2008, 2010). Multiple transform features assisted redefine this new habit since 2000s (Temkina 2008, 2010, Pogosyan 2011). Earliest, this new routine could have been articulated regarding the public commentary of the media, NGOs as well as the ladies’ path, along with educational discourse, educational programs and university courses toward gender, sociology, psychology and similar specialities. Virginity happens to be politicised once several NGOs (Wo-men’s room Financing Cardio regarding Armenia, UTOPIANA, WOW) prepared performances geared towards deconstructing the fresh routine having headings such ‘Red Fruit is only getting eating’ and you may ‘I invite you to the brand new funeral of the Purple Apple toward 8 away from .’ It offers influenced new effect out of karmir khndzor from the young generations exactly who became very likely to notice it given that an enthusiastic old-designed practice of intimacy handle. 2nd, they turned possible to produce virginity. Women that had premarital relationship you can expect to simulate the virginity due to their husbands and/or mothers-in-law from the undergoing a healthcare hymenoplastic procedure so you can reconstruct the latest hymen and you may show the cultural purity and you will honourable womanliness. From the medicalising the fresh new karmir khndzor routine, gynecologists may help female to build a frequent biography in order to boost their life odds getting an everyday elizabeth more popular for people so you’re able to decline to participate in new routine otherwise so you’re able to ‘save’ the brand new ladies’ virginity. As sexual matchmaking turned into much more liberal and regarded as belonging to an autonomous fields off private lifetime, karmir khndzor was directed so you’re able to a good ceremonial and you may social icon inside brand new national relationship possesses destroyed the partnership to help you virginity, for example is the case regarding a wedding veil into the Russia.
Karmir khndzor was swept up in the tensions between federal identity and modernity. As the ritual represents Armenian society and you may old-fashioned gender roles, individuals who deny the fresh routine chance getting considered lower than correct Armenian people and you can ladies. Yet , those who rigidly proceed with the routine would be named backwards and you can old-fashioned of the its opponents. However, pro- and you will swindle- perceptions so you can karmir khndzor are better thought of as being proudly located towards the a range. Each other young men and you will women can get object on the virginity try becoming a mechanism out-of power over its closeness and personal lives. Other times, ladies may prefer to continue the virginity ahead of relationships and consider it an important social heritage you to encourages kinship solidarity. Particular could possibly get commit to manage their virginity, however, dislike the societal confirmation pursuing the relationships. Of numerous young people check non-marital sex while the acceptable for both males and females and consider karmir khndzor entirely archaic. Just like the patriarchal gender system destroyed the rigidness, the range of ranking in regards to the practice imply too little any social consensus in regards to the practice (pick detailed issues to possess undertaking the brand new ritual into the Pogosyan 2010).
Records
Poghosyan, A beneficial. 2010. A few of the popular features of this new conversion of the lifestyle “Yellow fruit”: Culture and you can Modernity within the Armenian Community, Yerevan: Gitutyuan, 359-367
Shagoyan, G. 2011. ‘” 1 week, seven evening”: Opinions of the Armenian wedding, Institute away from Archaeology and you can Ethnography off National Academy away from Sciences, RA, 496-509