savage animal, and sometimes by the bite of the household dog after a close
encounter with an infected wild animal. In the societies discussed here, women
have predominantly engaged in domestic labor or have worked in the fields, while
men have generally worked both in the fields and in the forest. Therefore men
were simply more likely to be bitten by an infected animal than women. Gómez-
Alonso’s rabies theory does not provide the one and only explanation either for the
vampire belief as such, or for the smaller number of female vampires. However,
putting it together with the facts previously mentioned, we see how different
factors may lead to a new theory that explains the relatively small number of
female vampires.
Concerning the Balkans in the eighteenth century, it would be interesting to
know if the Ottoman administration took notice of the popular belief in vampires.
Until now only a few attempts have been made to gather relevant data from the
archives.29 Local authorities recognized some cases, but they did not appear
interested in personally intervening in the matter. For example, they paid the
expenses of men dealing with vampires in order to destroy them, but showed no
deeper concern for the situation. The vampire appears in the records under the
name of cādū.30 This word has a very wide range of meanings, from “sorcerer” or
“witch” to “ghost” or “vampire.”
Even if women played a minor role as vampires, their role in the belief as
such is anything but negligible. Indeed, women had a key function in protecting
rural society from vampire attacks. How could they do this? After all, it was not
women who searched for graves presumed to contain a vampire, nor were women
kreuter, Women in southeast european Vampire Belief
237
those who destroyed vampires by impalement, decapitation, or burning.31 The
task of women, generally speaking, was to prepare dead persons for the coffin by
washing and clothing them. In so doing, they were always expected to examine
the entire body of the deceased in order to look out for signs that might announce
his or her fateful transformation into a vampire.
A review of the standard functions of men and women in the domain of
mourning and burying the dead reveals that all regularized funeral rites were
performed by men and the (male) priest. Preparing the coffin, digging the grave,
leading the burial procession—all these elements of the funeral were the duty and
the work of men. On the other hand, unsafe and polluting tasks—and also direct
contact with the naked corpse—were the duty of women.
Women’s tasks included handling the corpse, washing and dressing it, and
arranging it in the coffin. Women also sealed off the house so that the soul of
the deceased could not re-enter it. They prepared elaborate funeral feasts, an
extension of the mother-nurturer role. Ritual food was offered for the soul of the
dead, but the business of serious eating and drinking, often a financial strain on
the bereaved household, was a public display of consumption—of the capability
of household women to perform their usual housewifely duties—and a public
affirmation indicating that the household knew how to perform these rites in the
culturally prescribed manner.32
Mourning the dead was one of the duties of the women of the village. They
burst out into spontaneous and emotional laments. These laments, some of which
were actual songs, served as a means of direct and final communication with
the dead and with the world he or she was now entering. For the last time, the
merits of the dead person were called out, the loss for the family and the entire
community was proclaimed, and the dead was prepared for his or her way into
another world, leaving beloved ones behind. Mediation with the dead—this was
the main function of women, and as such, they had their place not only in burial
rites, but also in popular vampire belief.
Transformation into a vampire was believed to be a threat menacing every
human being at any time. Of course those who had led evil lives were thought
to die in danger of turning into deadly revenants. Murderers, thieves, prostitutes,
skinflints, drunkards, excommunicated persons, soldiers killed in action—almost
anything, it was believed, might occasion the beginning of a vampire career when
lying in the grave.33 Even an accident, such as a simple fall off a haywagon, could
lead, as in the case of Arnold Paole, to a vampirical existence. Previous dealings
with a vampire were also thought to be a classical moment of close contact with
one’s own future fate as a vampire. There were signs, however, that—even from
the moment of birth—were taken as indicating that one may subsequently be
transformed in the grave. Being born on a very stormy night, or on a day of bright
sunshine, might have been seen as the sign of a future vampire existence, as might
a cruel death by accident.34 Or perhaps the midwife had been malevolent to the
mother and had cursed the newborn child immediately after birth.35 Numerology
also played a role—the seventh son, and sometimes the seventh daughter,
238
Women in the ottoman Balkans
would certainly become a vampire after death.36 Additionally, physical signs or
deformations could be interpreted as dangerous omens. This might be a defect that
only played a role at the beginning of the person’s lifetime, such as being born
completely bald or with teeth. But sometimes the physical signs could be long-
lasting, in some cases until death. One such corporal sign was a small tail due to
the prolongation of the coccyx—a medical condition that is rare but clearly shows
that biological evolution is, in some cases, not completely successful. Nowadays,
such a prolongation of the coccyx is operated on immediately after birth; in earlier
times and in an underdeveloped medical system, however, it might have remained
there for the person’s entire life.37
Women preparing a dead body for the coffin would occasionally notice such
a small tail. Thus, in August 2003, I met a so-called femeie care spală morţi 38
in Romania—the nearly 80-year-old Nana Aurelia of Pecica in Banat. She told
me that once she had had to prepare a male body for burial, and the corpse had
seemed quite strange to her because of its fresh look. Upon examination, she had
found that the body had a short tail. Taking a glowing nail, she had inserted it
into the chest of the corpse,39 upon which the body had immediately changed its
appearance and become grey and lifeless.
Women also had to ensure more generally that all rites surrounding the dead and
the burial were carried out properly. Even the smallest mistake or inattentiveness,
it was believed, could make an absolutely unsuspected body turn into a future
vampire.40 For example, if a cat or other animal jumped or flew over the dead
body on the bier, this might lead to the tragic result.41 It was the duty of the
mourning family, and especially of its women, to prevent such an eventuality.
This, then, is the true principal role of women in southeast European vampire
belief. Women were not the main targets on whom suspicion
fell about becoming
a vampire, nor were they necessarily the chosen victims. Their main role resulted
from their work of washing the dead and preparing them for the coffin. Through
this process, they were the first who could react if there were indications that the
corpse may be transformed into a vampire, and they were also the first capable of
preventing this outcome. Their task was to defend the village and the lives of the
people living in it. If they failed in their mission, then the men would have to take
action in order to protect the living and destroy the vampire.
Notes
1. Gauthier 1889: 261–95.
2. Goethe 1925, 2: 197–203.
3. Eliade 1936.
4. Frombald 1725.
5. Glaser [1732].
6. Flückinger 1732.
7. Barber 1988: 15–20. The following extracts from Flückinger’s report are
taken from Barber’s translation.
8. Ibid., 16–17.
kreuter, Women in southeast european Vampire Belief
239
9. Here it must be stressed that quite different—even contradictory—conditions
were believed to be indicative of a vampire. This is one of the main problems
in dealing with southeast European vampire belief, and it makes futile any
attempt to create a clear list of vampire indicators.
10. Barber 1988: 18.
11. Ibid., 19.
12. Glaser [1732]: fol. 1
134v.
13. Bericht der Nagybanyer Inspektoren an das Münz- und Bergwesens
Direktoriums-Hof-Collegium, Nacybania 1753 Februar 28, in Hamberger
1992: 88–92.
14. Hedeşan 1998.
15. Ibid., 8–9 [my translation].
16. The
unstable character of the female vampire figure is discussed and revealed
with examples in Murgoci 1926.
17. For a general introduction into this belief, see Hedeşan 2000: 135–77.
18. In
August 2003, I had the opportunity to meet, in the hills around Brad, the 75-
year-old Gheorghe David, who claimed to be a vîlva lupilor. He was recognized
as such not only by his neighbors, but also generally by the townsfolk. For
further details about him, the reader is referred to the documentary film made
in 2003 and based on my research by a German broadcasting company: see
Kölmel and Schötteldreier 2003, a video recording first broadcast on 15
November 2003.
19. Hedeşan 2000: 144.
20. A
very concise introduction is Lettenbauer 1952.
21. Dukova 1997: 89–91; Lübeck 1898: 242.
22. See Schubert 1987: 220–27.
23. See Kreuter 2001–2002.
24. Kreuter 2001: 81–96.
25. T
allar 1784.
26. Gómez-Alonso 1995.
27. Gómez-Alonso 1998.
28. Ibid., 858.
29. Köhbach 1979; Ursinus 1992.
30. Ursinus 1992: 359.
31. This
does not mean that women never performed these actions. In August
2003, in the village of Slatina-Timiş in Banat, I met a woman of more than
80 years who, with the help of her cousin, had impaled the grave of her own
husband several years earlier. She had done so only because all other methods
to stop the frightening visits of her dead husband had failed.
32. Kerewsky-Malpern 1987: 127.
33. Burkhart 1989: 70–73; Dukova 1997: 96; McNally and Florescu 1994: 1
19.
34. Burkhart 1989: 70.
35. Cremène 1981: 37.
36. Ibid., 38; Mur
goci 1926: 329.
240
Women in the ottoman Balkans
37. Burkhart 1989: 71; Cremène 1981: 38.
38. “W
oman who washes the dead”—this is the quasi-official name of her
function.
39. Nana
Aurelia was interviewed several times by Otilia Hedeşan and told her
of many such cases, including the one mentioned here; see Hedeşan 1998:
235–48, especially 240–41.
40. Marinov 1914: 216; Miceva 1988: 467–68.
41. Burkhart 1989: 71; Mur
goci 1926: 329; Miceva 1988: 467.
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9
Christian Women in an Ottoman World:
Interpersonal and Family Cases
Brought Before the Shari‘a Courts During
the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries
(Cases Involving the Greek Community)
Women in the Ottoman Balkans: Gender, Culture and History Page 44