Lapot (,
) is the legendary practice of
senicide
Senicide, also known as geronticide or gerontocide, is the practice of killing the elderly. This killing of the elderly can be characterized by both active and passive methods as senio-euthanasia or altruistic self-sacrifice. The aim of activ ...
among the
Timok Romanians of present-day Eastern
Serbia
, image_flag = Flag of Serbia.svg
, national_motto =
, image_coat = Coat of arms of Serbia.svg
, national_anthem = ()
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, map_caption = Location of Serbia (gree ...
:
[
] killing one's parents, or other elderly family members, once they become a financial burden on the family. According to T. R. Georgevitch (Đorđević), writing in 1918 about the eastern highlands of Serbia, in the region of
Zaječar
Zaječar ( sr-Cyrl, Зајечар, ; or ) is a city and the administrative center of the Zaječar District in eastern Serbia. According to the 2022 census, the city administrative area had a population of 48,621 inhabitants.
Zaječar is widely ...
, the killing was carried out with an axe or stick, and the entire village was invited to attend. In some places corn mush was put on the head of the victim to make it seem as if the corn, not the family, was the killer.
Georgevitch suggests that this legend may have originated in tales surrounding the
Roman occupation of local forts.
The Romans ... were very bellicose people. Their leader ordered all the holders of the fort up to forty years of age to be active fighters, from forty to fifty to be guards of the fort, and after fifty to be killed, because they have no military value. Since that period the old men were killed.
Anthropologist
Senka Kovač, in a study on aging, mentions that the name "lapot" is given to this custom of killing the elderly in eastern Serbia.
[
In a study published in 1999, Bojan Jovanović argues that earlier anthropologists such as Trojanović, Georgevitch, and Čajkanović had confused myth with reality and that the well-known story of a grandson who had hidden his grandfather to protect him from lapot after a bad harvest, bringing him back to the village when the old man's wisdom had shown a way to survive, was the basis for establishing that the old should be respected for their knowledge and wise counsel.
The tradition was the topic of the 1972 TV ]docudrama
Docudrama (or documentary drama) is a genre of television show, television and feature film, film, which features Drama (film and television), dramatized Historical reenactment, re-enactments of actual events. It is described as a hybrid of docu ...
''Legenda o Lapotu'' (''The Legend of Lapot'') by Goran Paskaljević
Goran Paskaljević ( sr-cyr, Горан Паскаљевић; ; 22 April 1947 – 25 September 2020) was a Serbian and former Yugoslav film director.
Biography
Born in Belgrade, he was raised by his grandparents in Niš in southern Serbia, foll ...
, in which after a bad harvest, an elderly man who could no longer work was ritually slain.Živojin Pavlović
Živojin "Žika" Pavlović (15 April 1933 – 29 November 1998) was a Yugoslav and Serbian film director, writer, painter and professor. In his films and novels, Pavlović depicted the cruel reality of small, poor and abandoned people living ...
received the NIN Prize
The ''NIN'' Award (, Нинова награда), officially the Award for Best Novel of the Year, is a prestigious Serbian (and previously Yugoslavian) literary award established in 1954 by the NIN (magazine), ''NIN'' weekly and is given annua ...
.[
] In 2004, Italian news agency ANSA
Ansa (Latin for "handle") or ANSA may refer to:
Organizations
* Agenzia Nazionale Stampa Associata, Italian news agency
** Ansa Mediterranean or ANSAmed, section of the above
* Applied Neuroscience Society of Australasia
* Association of Norw ...
reported from Belgrade
Belgrade is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin, Pannonian Plain and the Balkan Peninsula. T ...
that an attempt by the Serbian government to introduce a law restricting free dispensing of lifesaving medicines to the over 60s, had been described by the Serb media as a case of "lapot".
See also
*Ubasute
is a mythical practice of senicide in Japan, whereby an infirm or old age , elderly relative was carried to a mountain, or some other remote, desolate place, and left there to die. Kunio Yanagita concluded that the ubasute folklore comes from ...
*Euthanasia
Euthanasia (from : + ) is the practice of intentionally ending life to eliminate pain and suffering.
Different countries have different Legality of euthanasia, euthanasia laws. The British House of Lords Select committee (United Kingdom), se ...
*Senicide
Senicide, also known as geronticide or gerontocide, is the practice of killing the elderly. This killing of the elderly can be characterized by both active and passive methods as senio-euthanasia or altruistic self-sacrifice. The aim of activ ...
* Ättestupa
References
External links
Killing of Old Men
a collection of folktales about senicide
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lapot (Senicide)
Senicide
Romanian folklore