Dusk are losing as the Tsirigoti and her husband Nikos – as well as an excellent physics teacher – arrive at my resort, so we speak from the backyard courtyard, below good bougainvillea that is simply a shade better than simply Tsirigoti’s magenta-coloured locks. About faces of both Tsirigoti and Koulianos I could detect traces of strong options that come with its maternal grandmother, because the seized during the a photograph removed because of the Australian singer Cedric Flower, exactly who inserted Clift and you may Johnston to your Kalymnos for many days in summer away from 1955.
Just how genuine is the fact?
Georgia Tsirigoti, a great physics teacher into the Kalymnos, claims one to now for the area, as with this lady grandmother Sevasti Taktikou’s go out, “the women are definitely the employer of the house”. Credit: Nadia Wheatley
“I have a lot of photos of her – wry, sardonic, intimate, soft, raffish, sad,” Clift had written regarding Taktikou. “But alive, everyone, warm and you will breathing and you will live.”
Rightly, into the Cedric Flower’s pic, Taktikou are ready so you’re able to Clift a full bowl of fruits, as if she have been the fresh new archetypical Earth Mother; it is clear one to into the Australian woman, recently found its way to a bewildering, alien people, the fresh new old Greek woman are the surrogate mother exactly who taught the woman to shop and you will prepare and keep maintaining family throughout the regional manner.
Georgia Tsirigoti spent only per year out-of this lady childhood towards Kalymnos; her dad’s occupation since a police caused your to go his family from the, between your isle from Rhodes, the new Peloponnese, and also the town of Thessaloniki. Provided Tsirigoti’s comprehension of other parts regarding Greece, I am especially curious to acquire her deal with the newest island’s social organization. We begin: “Throughout the guide, Charmian states that, underneath the electricity you to Kalymnian males seem to have . ”
“Sure! Because most of the boys was travelling, by the sponges. Even today, lots of men work due to the fact mariners – captains or aspects. They traveling a lot. ”
We recount my personal prior day’s conversation with Hatzismalis and his awesome companion, and that i offer Hatzismalis’ assertion you to definitely “We Kalymnian the male is very happy.”
Once again, Tsirigoti in an instant believes. “Sure. As they have absolutely nothing to worry about. All of the tough decisions try drawn because of the women – the fresh new wives – not from the guys. The fresh new men are able to go-away to be hired, also to return to Kalymnos and you will real time a while with people they know, and then leave once again. And this refers to how it try, right now.” We find Tsirigoti’s partner, who’s Athenian, silently german brides search agreeing.
“Most of the difficult conclusion are removed from the women – this new spouses – maybe not from the boys … This is why it is, right now.”
That it deal ranging from men and women is actually indicated not in the a beneficial created pre-nup however in something might be virtually concrete: a house. Shortly after discussing this new lingering electricity of your Multiple Goddess, Clift produces into the Mermaid Vocal: “The new obvious truth of male supremacy must be place up against the earlier and much more significant proven fact that property right here descends through the female line, out-of mother so you can earliest girl.”
“Yes.” Once certain discussion for the Greek with Nikos, she explains: “Even today – not purely today, but even today – it is customs provide all girl a house.”
And so the women are the newest boss of the house
It house is brand new bride’s prika, the girl dowry. After the wedding, the fresh bridegroom actions in. And if the marriage doesn’t work, Clift told me, “it is not her who’s proved of your own house”.
Little ask yourself, I believe, one to with the Kalymnos, somebody speak endlessly out-of home, however once we do in australia, since a matter of value. Right here the house is the way to obtain a great woman’s energy, during the genuine terms.
