Sad destiny of the children of the cruel parents

• Main Author: Đapović Lasta S.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Institute of Ethnography, SASA, Belgrade 2005-01-01
• Series: Glasnik Etnografskog Instituta SANU
• Subjects: cannibalism; growing up; love; wife/mistress; wife/mother
• Online Access: http://www.doiserbia.nb.rs/img/doi/0350-0861/2005/0350-08610553365D.pdf

Two folk stories have almost the same beginning but a different outcome. In the beginning, a husband and wife, accidentally, try human meat and they like it so much so they decide to eat their own children. In both stories, the children managed to escape, and while their lives develop in different directions, the stories omit their reintegration into human society. After a detailed analysis, the author concludes that the stories’ message is to warn that there is no life in a deviant society. The stories note that a deviant behavior exists indeed, but at the same time, they mark it as something that does not belong to a society, culture and in addition, the stories point out to a way of overcoming such behavior. The way to overcome a deviant behavior consists in appropriate maturation of a female and male gender, in maturation that includes self restrain.