In this article I analyze accounts from police and women's activist documents from the turn of the twentieth century, which present narratives of sex traffi cking in and from Galicia, an eastern borderland region of the Habsburg Empire. Both police and activist accounts underscore the image of innocent women forced into prostitution, although police accounts provide more variety and nuance regarding degrees of coercion and agency demonstrated by women. I examine what such narratives reveal about the role of crossing boundaries-an act central to both sex traffi cking and eff orts to maintain empire. In this context, I consider how the Habsburg authorities coped with and attempted to manage populations whose mobility appeared especially problematic. Although this research draws extensively from historical archives, my analysis is guided by perspectives from folklore studies and the anthropological concept of liminality.

Habsburg empire Borderlands Galicia liminality Jewish migration Prostitution Sex traffi cking Women's activists

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