Queer Places:
Žabljak, Montenegro
Mikaš Milićev Karadžić (1862–1934) was born in the village of Hanovi, later known as Žabljak, in Montenegro (Crna Gora). After his father, a celebrated hero, was killed in
battle against the Ottoman Empire, his widowed mother was left without another male head of household. To navigate the patriarchal social structures and economic
necessities of the time, she renamed her child Mikaš and raised him as a boy.
Mikaš quickly adapted to his male upbringing, playing with boys, tending sheep, and adopting traditional masculine clothing and weaponry. He fiercely rejected any mention of his biological origins, declaring that he would rather lose his head than live as a woman. Although clan leaders initially expressed embarrassment and reprimanded him, his mother and close kin supported him, and his determination earned him a respected social standing. In the early 1880s, after local clan leaders brought the issue to Bishop Visarion Ljubiša, the bishop ruled that Mikaš must never be insulted, though he cautioned him against drinking brandy.
Mikaš later fulfilled military service, earning recognition when examined by the prominent physician Milan Jovanović-Batut in 1885. Following his service, he worked successfully as a farmer, managing a high-quality flock of sheep and breeding and trading cattle while leasing out arable land. He consistently performed demanding masculine labor, such as mowing, ploughing, and harvesting. Despite an internment attempt by the occupying Austrian army in 1916—which was thwarted after an informant's report of his sex was dismissed without a medical examination—Mikaš maintained his social role throughout the post-World War I droughts and political shifts as Montenegro became part of Yugoslavia.
Within his family and community, Mikaš fully assumed male civic and domestic roles. He voted, officiated as the male head of the household during the annual Feast of the Archangel Michael on November 8, and was addressed by masculine kinship terms such as svekar (father-in-law). In 1929, Croatian ethnographer Branimir Gušić photographed him after Mikaš refused a visit from his wife, Marijana Gušić, because she was a woman. In 1933, when Mikaš grew sick and weakened, he was transported to a relative's home, where he requested that his daughter-in-law uphold his dignity. He was buried in a new masculine suit with the approval of the local priest.
Mikaš Milićev Karadžić is a prominent historical example within the anthropological study of Balkan sworn virgins (virdžine or ostajnice), a traditional phenomenon historically found in northern Albania, Kosovo, and Montenegro. In these strict patriarchal societies, families lacking a male heir would occasionally raise a daughter to live socially as a man to preserve family lineage, inherit property, and perform vital labor. While these individuals lived strictly within male social roles out of familial and economic necessity, figures like Mikaš demonstrate early instances of gender-crossing where individuals fiercely claimed their masculine identity, demanding social recognition, personal autonomy, and integration into male civic, military, and domestic life.
References:
 Sapphistries: A Global History of Love between Women (Intersections, 15) Paperback – January 28, 2011 by Leila J. Rupp |
Other references:
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