Maritime Pilgrimage to <i>Our Lady of Tarac</i> and Gender Roles Reflected in It

Abstract

The maritime pilgrimage of Our Lady of Tarac in the Kornati islands, Dalmatia, Croatia, is held on the first Sunday in July. The culture of these island communities is based on a patriarchal system that implies gender inequality. This cultural order has an impact on the construction of gender and religious identities in children and adults when they participate in pilgrimages. The basic methodological approach of the paper is autoethnography. The author concludes that the model of cryptomatriarchy along with the dominant patriarchy well explains well the role of women/mothers and grandmothers in the context of the pilgrimage. The pilgrimage also serves as a framework for transferring gender roles to children.

Keywords

• maritime pilgrimage
• <i>Our Lady of Tarac</i>
• Kornati archipelago
• patriarchate
• cryptomatriarchy
• gender identities