Social Canons Inherited from the Past: Women Players of Folk Music Instruments in Croatia

As documented in mainstream ethnographic texts and fieldwork records, and evidenced at folklore festivals, women in Croatia do not play folk music instruments. If someone mentions some exception, it is usually explained as the very latest practice, as an example of transformation of tradition into the contemporary. Therefore, this paper will describe a number of exceptions from the past, covering a range of historical periods, social contexts of music-making, music fields and genres, and types of instruments played by women. The reasons for woman players being either confirmed or kept silent by a particular discourse will be analyzed, as well as broader social footholds which supported (and/or restricted) their presence in public practice. They have appeared as a family member, a Croatian Woman, an emancipated woman, a custodian (savior and reviver) of local tradition, a member of "the fairer gender", a jocular replacement, a shameless female, and as a mannish woman