225 Current Serbian Ethnology and Czech-Serbian Cooperation ...

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Current Serbian Ethnology and Czech-Serbian Cooperation: Introduction to single-topic volume

The following pages of the Český lid : Ethnological journal again focus on the Balkans. We follow up on the single-topic “Bulgarian” issue (2/2008) by publishing the research results of the colleagues at the Serbian Academy of Science and the Arts (SANU) in Belgrade in an effort to connect the broader sphere of Central and Southeastern Europe by taking readers over attractive and somewhat neglected ground. By publishing of selected texts we discover themes that resonate in Serbian ethnology/anthropology and Bal-kan studies. Therefore, this issue of Český lid : Ethnological Journal should be of great value for the authors themselves as well as for the scientifi c communities in both countries and worldwide.

The issue opens with a study by Aleksandra Pavičević of the Ethnographic Institute of SANU “Current and/or Relevant? Some refl ections on autonomy of scientifi c opinion based on experience of Serbian eth-nology/anthropology at the beginning of third millennium“. The author takes up the theme of autonomy of the sciences and autonomy of current intellectual thought: The intensity of social changes and postmodern market ideologies are refl ected both in offi cial scientifi c policy and in the internal determination of context and concept of ethnological/anthropological research, which quite often runs aground in the shallows of topicality.

Her colleague from the institute Mladena Prelić presents her long-term research in a study called “Con-ceptualization and Symbolization of Ethnic Identity: Serbs in Hungary”. She deals with the conceptualiza-tion of ethnic identity among members of groups, the process of symbolization of ethnic divergence and the boundaries of the group.

The article by Miroslava Lukić Krstanović is entitled “Political Folklore on Festival Market: Power of Paradigm and Power of Stage”. It takes a look at the life, function, and role of folklore in Serbian society, and introduces the question of comparison with the Czech environment.

The historically-oriented text of Miloš Luković of the Balkanology Institute of SANU, entitled “Devel-opment of the Modern Serbian State and Abolishment of Ottoman Agrarian Relations in the 19th Century”, deals with the development of the modern Serbian state in the 19th century (the Kingdom of Serbia), its gradual political emancipation from the Ottoman Empire, and at the same time casts light on the process of transforming the Ottoman feudal agrarian relationships into private ownership of land, which led to deep social and political changes, and changes in the traditional folk culture of Serbia in the 19th century.

This section of articles includes a study of stereotypes by Miroslav Válka of the Institute for European Ethnology, Masaryk University (MU) in Brno “The Refl ection of the South Slav in Czech Social Maga-zines of the Second Half of the 19th Century as a Source of Study of the Formation of Ethnic Images”. The article contributes to the discussion of ethnic stereotypes.

Close bilateral cooperation with Serbian ethnologists, folklorists, and Balkans experts was begun at the Ethnological Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences (EI CAS) in 2006, when the institute branch in Brno received an invitation to a conference on Slavonic folklore and folklore studies at the turn of the millennium, organized by the Balkan Studies Institute SANU and the Commission of Slavonic Folklore under the international committee of Slavonic scholars represented by Ljubinko Radenković. The confer-ence, attended by folklore scholars from eleven Slavonic countries, produced a proceedings reviewed by Ivan Dorovský in Český lid 3/2009.

The cultural ties between the Czech lands and Serbia or Yugoslavia have roots in long-ago and not-so-long-ago history, as described recently in the book Relations of Czechs with the Nations and Countries of

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Southeastern Europe in an article by Tomáš Chrobák and Jana Hrabcová (in Hladký 2010). Today’s highly varied contacts between Czech and Serbian ethnological and anthropological communities are demon-strated especially by the ties of interest between the EI CAS and the Ethnographic Institute of SANU, which was signed at the beginning of 2008 by the institute’s directors Dragana Radojičić and Zdeněk Uherek a cooperation agreement. The social transformation after 1989 is the topic of the joint research project between the Ethnological Institutes of the Academy of Sciences in Belgrade, Prague, Brno, and the Institute for European Ethnology MU in Brno.

Another part of the bilateral agreement is the reciprocal publication of academic texts in journals, participation in academic conferences, exchange of publications, supervision of fi eld research, and participation in projects. These goals are step by step becoming reality: during recent years a number of study stays have been carried out in the Czech Republic and Serbia by scholars as part of the international academic exchange. During these stays the invited guests presented the results of their current research or articles on issues of interest to colleagues from the host countries. In 2009 researchers from the SANU Balkanology Institute (Miloš Luković, Miroslav Svirčević) lectured at the Brno offi ces of the EI CAS, and at Masaryk University at the Institute for European Ethnology and the Institute of Slavonic Studies. In 2010 the director of the Belgrade Ethnographical Institute Dragana Radojičić was invited to lecture at the Institute for European Ethnology MU on current research problems. At the Ethnological Institute the topic Folklore and Folklore Studies in the Post-Socialist Era was presented by her, and a round table discussion held on the new musical form Turbofolklore in the Serbian environment. As part of a cycle of international lectures organized by the SANU Ethnographic Institute in May–October 2010, Czech researchers from Brno Jana Pospíšilová (EI CAS) and Miroslav Válka (MU) gave the lectures. Last but not least during his stay in Belgrade Jaroslav Otčenášek from Prague (EI CAS) formed a team (Lada Stevanović and Aleksandra Pavićević) for the Serbian part of work on the project Dictionary of Verbal Folklore of Slavonians, Lithuanians and Hungarians.

Under a project submitted to the Grant Agency CR, the EI CAS in 2011 (applicant J. Pospíšilová, Brno and co-applicant J. Linda, Belgrade) Czechs in the Serbian Banat: An Example of Co-existence in the Multiethnic Environment of Vojvodina, colleagues from the SANU were invited to work on the project. In addition, in 2009 Dragana Radojičić was named as a member of the international editorial board of the journal Národopisná revue, and in 2010 Zorica Divac became member of the international editorial board of the journal Národopisný věstník, while Jana Pospíšilová and Miroslav Válka became members of the international editorial board of the journal Glasnik EI SANU. The cooperation was also refl ected in the partners’ participation in conferences (in 2009 in Sirogojno and in Luhačovice and this year in Vršac and Arandjelovac) and Czech ethnological documentary fi lms were also presented at the Ethnological Film Festival in Belgrade (in 2007 and 2011 fi lms by Jiřina Kosíková (EI CAS) and in 2007 the fi lm by Petr Hajn and Pavel Popelka).

Academic cooperation between the Czech and Serbian academies of science is increasing, and on the level of European humanistically-oriented academic scholarship it has been successful in both its professional and human aspects. Since the beginning of the academic cooperation planned activities have been realized, but new perspectives have also opened up for cooperation in seeking common bilateral or broader projects using contemporary and new methods in the region of the Balkans and all over Europe. Joint fi eld research in either Vojvodina or Wallachia is under consideration.

A promising avenue of cooperation would seem to be to organize a bi-lateral conference or interna-tional round table, with discussion of methodological issues, transforming cultures in Europe and the Balkans, new patterns of migration, symbols in ethnic identity, development of the smaller regions, or other current issues. Likewise the issues of fi nancing scholarship and project strategy, or how to get one’s work cited, is of extraordinary importance for the growth of scholarship and future contacts, both in the Czech Republic and in Serbia.

Jana Pospíšilová – Dragana Radojičić – Jiří Woitsch

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CURRENT AND/OR RELEVANT? SOME REFLECTIONS ON AUTONOMY OF SCIENTIFIC

OPINION BASED ON EXPERIENCE OF SERBIAN ETHNOLOGY/ANTHROPOLOGY AT THE BEGINNING OF THIRD MILLENNIUM

ALEKSANDRA PAVIĆEVIĆ

Abstract: Autonomy of science and art is an ideal of every civilized society. The distance between a certain society and this ideal depends on a large number of parameters, among which cultural enlightenment and consciousness of the main protagonists in realization of these two areas seem to be most important. Un-fortunately, Serbia cannot boast with a high level of independency of creative processes. Nowadays, in formal sense, they enjoy a higher level of autonomy in terms of the state ideology; however, at the same time, they are essentially and basically restricted by it. The very notion of autonomy here is related to fi nancial and, more than this, to ideological independence of free and creative thought, that is to the question to which extent scientifi c creativity manage to transcend cur-rent cultural-historical-social context and to fi nd universal regularities of human civilization in it. Intensity of social changes and postmodern market ideologies are refl ected both at offi cial scientifi c policy and at internal determination of con-text and concept of ethnological/anthropological researching which quite often become trapped in the shallow of topicality.Key words: autonomy of science, scientifi c policy, quantity, ethnology/anthropol-ogy, actuality, relevance.

Global picture

The impact of state, political, and fi nally cultural ideologies on the concept of the scientifi c image of certain historical epochs of the world has for a long time been a familiar and to a certain extent researched phenomenon. History of science, i.e. histories of individual historical disciplines, which have become increasingly current during the last several decades, managed to deconstruct and place under

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the question mark many scientifi c truths and discoveries, unquestionable until that moment. More or less expectedly, the big and stormy events which marked the whole 20th century, especially its completion, also caused a change of the ruling scientifi c paradigms, bringing yet another promise of freedom and intellectual deliberation of reality. On the one hand, it is expressed as a realistic possibility of refuting the unquestionable quality of various types of authority, and abolishment of various types of boundaries. On the other hand, however, the acquired freedom frequently only meant the continuation of the process of deconstruction, fragmentation and relativisation of reality which accompanied the whole modern epoch. Emphasizing diversity as the main principle of culture, and being a guarantee of truthfulness/objectiveness, post-modern scientifi c thought found itself in a deep gap between reality and its innumerous interpretations, most frequently, however, remaining in the shallow waters of their deconstruction.

Science has always aimed at truth, and, in a certain manner, has been its guarantor. This is especially so in terms of exact knowledge of natural sciences, which, however, were for a long time inseparably linked with, and frequently even caused by, philosophical considerations and interpretations of the relation-ship between a human being and the nature. Abandoning the shelter of philoso-phy, social and humanistic disciplines largely overtook the position of authority which, until that moment, belonged to science,1 even though it turned out quite quickly that the principles of modern thought incorporated in them, were actu-ally based on relativisation of cultural phenomena, and, fi nally, on full abandon-ment of the idea that science is a human endeavour with fi nding the truth as the fi nal goal. The search for the truth was logically transformed into the thirst for knowledge, while revolutionary technological progress somehow transformed the growing civilizational knowledge into information, a new type of commodity to be capitalized by the post-modern society.2

1 Here, the notion science is distinct from the notion humanities. The former primarily relates to natural sciences, while the latter relates to sciences, i.e. scientifi c disciplines studying society and culture.

2 This is how Tomislav Krznar writes about it: “An important aspect of work (mentioning the spectacle of illness, note by A. P.) is connected to the role of science in the contemporary so-ciety, especially of science perceived as the truth. In this group of issues, the whole of human existence tends to be neglected, because science is transformed from a rational mechanism aimed at search for happiness and welfare into an irrational mechanism aimed at serving capi-tal. This is possible on the platform of absolute trust of the contemporary human being into science, which is how wholeness is transformed into particularity, and thoughtfulness into mechanicism, which, in structural sense, reminds us of transformation from healthy state into illness…” (Krznar 2010: 253)

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Aleksanda Pavićević: Current and/or relevant?

Autonomy of sciences and arts is an ideal of each and every civilized soci-ety (or, at least, the part thereof dealing with sciences and arts). The gap be-tween a certain society and this ideal (because there could hardly be a society which has fully bridged this gap) depends on a large number of parameters, among which cultural enlightenment and consciousness of the main protago-nists in realization of these two areas seem to be the most important ones; thus, on the one hand, the state and institutions of the system the scientifi c and arts institutions are directed to, and on the other, the very workers in these areas of social action.

As for the defi nition of the notion of autonomy, we here have in mind its two meanings, which are frequently, though not always, interrelated. Namely, when it comes to the intellectual fi eld for action, the notion of autonomy is mostly associated with the issues of sources and manners of fi nancing of scientifi c, artistic, and, generally, intellectual work as a whole. In this sense, as a more or less generally accepted rule or practice (independently from the level of development of individual societies and states) we can fi nd a low level of autonomy of intellectual action. Culturally engaged contemplative work, liberated of existential conditionality, remained a matter of aristocratic vision of the role of an intellectual in a society, which is certainly quite far from his position and his real possibilities in contemporary living condi-tions. The fact that scientifi c institutions are directed to the system of state fi nancing is a common feature of many modern states, which is especially so when it comes to humanities which, due to their specifi c features, may not compete at the commodities market, not even on what is nowadays called the knowledge market.3

On the other hand, the notion of autonomy directs us to the issue of ideo-logical-culturological conditionality of intellectual creativity. The question is whether works testifying on universal patterns and regularities of human cul-ture in concrete culture, or one testifying its current, albeit frequently peripheral emergence, occur as its results. This level of autonomy is far more complex and has long range consequences.

3 Spreading of the market logic to all areas of life, characteristic of all contemporary societies, is, among other things, based on re-conceptualization of the notion of usability, which largely de-grades spiritual, and, generally, non-material civilizational values, because it fails to recognise them as essential and important. For the process of creation of the “knowledge market”, i.e. the so-called economy of knowledge, based on the principle of transformation of knowledge into commodity with specifi c market, i.e. usage-aimed value, see: Baćević 2006: 209.

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Case of Serbia

As good example for this kind of conditionality we can use researching approach to religion that was dominant in Serbian ethnology/anthropology/sociology dur-ing the rule of communism as state ideology.4

Exclusion of religion from the life of the state and society that characterized com-munist time, often meant exclusion of religion from the sphere of scientifi cally relevant phenomenona as well. If it was not fully excluded as important historical and constitu-tive factor of Yugoslav people’s traditions, religion/faith/church were unconditionally criticized as matter of past times, conservative and retrograde phenomenon, obstacle to modernization of society and emancipation of its members.5 It is important to men-tion that Serbia didn’t have institute or department for sociological research of religion, nor postgraduate studies in sociology of religion (Radisavljević-Ćiparizović 2005: 44). According to available scientifi c bibliographies from that time, systematic and thor-ough research of real religiosity of Yugoslav population was never conducted.

Unlike sociology, even philosophy, i.e. respective, now classical works in these areas, which were created in the period of rule of communist ideology in Yugoslavia (SFRJ), ethnology has never resorted to direct promotion and propaganda of communist ideas (Pešić 1958; Ćimić 1966). However, they were still latently present both in noting and interpreting of the social reality of the period. Thus, for instance, the ethnologic concept of folk religion absolutely refl ects the atheistic religious setting in which it was cre-ated. Namely, it is known that in Marxist theory religion was considered as an obstacle for social progress and human emancipation; thus, communist practice implied fi ght with the obsolete, unnecessary, and in many other ways described religious thought. Atheisation of the society was, however, not aimed at eradication of religion gener-ally, but primarily against Christianity and aimed at reduction of the social role of the Church, while the complex of phenomena relating to so-called “folk religion” was not experienced as a signifi cant ideological opponent. This practically marginalized a po-tential ally in the fi ght against pagan beliefs and magical way of thinking. On the other hand, the latter were assigned the status of an essential feature of “folk religiousness”, which was considerably due to scientifi c ethnologic production, which was for a long time fascinated and connected to these strata of folk religion, overseeing the existence of any kind of Christian heritage, or reducing it to the margins of the current religious-ness and its refl ection to culture (Bandić 1991). Wars and suffering in the region in the

4 Anyhow, in other communist countries, this relationship of conditionality was considerably more rigid and intense than in Serbia. See: Kovačević 2008: 28.

5 In some sociological papers traditional relation between certain ethnic groups and institution-alized religions was taken into consideration. Nevertheless, this relation was underestimated due to anticipation of soon disappearing of religions. (Kerševan 1984: 12; Ćimić 1984)

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end of the 20th century pointed to the fact that such underestimation of Christian and other important religious traditions was not only unjustifi ed, but devastating as well (Radić 2002; Pavićević 2009). Could the confl icts on the territory of former Yugoslavia have been prevented, or at least mitigated, if potential importance of traditional confes-sions of constitutive nations had been taken into consideration, and could and to which extent the intellectual elite of Serbia (and other Republics) be deemed responsible for having overseen this, having been caught in the current ideological matrix?

Still it is interesting to mention that although this was the period in which thinking was practically unifi ed, in which intellectuals, ingrained and inspired by promises of a society of freedom, equality and welfare, became specifi c, pas-sionate, and, even more importantly, voluntary propagators of the communist outlook, I am not familiar with a single case when existence of some scientifi c institution was placed under a question mark because of possible ideological her-esy. Certainly, the question remains how many of these did exist, as well as the fact that consequences of possible transgressions of the kind were mainly suf-fered by individuals who were prevented from the possibility of professional ad-vancement, and whose lives were made diffi cult in different manners. Certainly, Serbia’s key scientifi c institutions survived this period, sometimes even being transformed (some of them) into par excellence sources of social criticism.

Policy of science or policy against science in Serbia at the beginning of third millennium

The rise of critical scientifi c thinking, which in Serbian ethnology/anthropology be-gan to take place in the 1980s and which has been intensifi ed up to the present date, seems to be seriously jeopardized by the introduction of the system of project fi nanc-ing of scientifi c research institutions, introduced in 2001.6 This process had a direct

6 More precisely, the scientifi c research institution fi nancing system introduced in 2001 implied abolishment of the budget for scientifi c research work which previously went without saying, however minimal it could be; according to the new rules, it was now to be executed solely within a project. The amount of transfer depends on the assessment awarded to the project in the beginning of the project period, as well as on the number of scientifi c papers published by individual researchers involved in the project and the manner of their publishing. Funds for maintenance of libraries were thus abolished as well as administrative and ancillary personnel, while researchers themselves got the status of part-time employees, employed based on the labour contract concluded with the Ministry of science. Thus, researchers lost the possibility to determine not only the topics of their research, but their dynamics and form in which the results of the research should be published as well. Here, methods of assessment and evalu-ation of projects and individuals were, and still are, based on quantitative and not qualitative parameters and compulsion to publish papers in magazines, which the engaged scientometrists (and not academic cyrcles) determined as relevant.

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and unambiguous impact to the content and quality, scope, possibilities, and, fi nally, meaning of scientifi c perception, which, as we have already mentioned, remains un-precedented even if compared with the period of rule of socialism as the state ideology. Resorting to project fi nancing, the state treats scientifi c research work and the institu-tions in which it is performed as a sphere of social action which is not worthy enough to be incorporated in the foundations of the social and state structure. The existential minimum, which may not be achieved outside the system of budgetary fi nancing, especially in the area of humanities (and partly of social sciences), was proclaimed luxury by the state; thus, scientifi c opinion and expression was utterly marginalized. The acquired freedom of expression and opinion, both of individuals and institutions, was brought to an absurd position, because science turned out to be a socially totally irrelevant activity. Methods of belittling of scientifi c work refl ected the bureaucratic essence of the state administration, but the lack of professionalism and knowledge of its offi cials as well. The lack of insight into specifi cities of individual scientifi c disci-plines, as well as the lack of a clear (or any) strategy of scientifi c development, took Serb science/humanities to a specifi c scientometric execution site.

The attempt to quantify the quality of scientifi c thought, trusted to scientometrists, emerged in its full grotesqueness and negative potential in 2008, when, on evaluation of the fi rst stage of the project period 2006–2010, two thirds of the production of do-mestic humanities was erased from the list of recognized scientifi c publications. If the scientifi c community had then failed to react, a large number of scientifi c and research institutions would have been forced to close down. Thanks to the pressure exerted on the then responsible Ministry, this did not happen. However, in all likelihood, the fi nal disaster has just been postponed, since that Ministry offi cials continued imposing sci-entometric parameters as exclusive method of evaluating scientifi c work.7

For understanding of this process it is important to be aware of the fact that the issue we talk about is the issue of European, even global signifi cance.8 That leads us to the conclusion that it is not only about lack of professionalism, knowledge and good will of state offi ciails in “local case”, but that it is but a refl ection of a new, wholesome, neo-liberal ideology of market economy and capitalism, which tends to extend the logic of the market to all spheres of public action on the one hand, and monopolize it on the other. For the purpose of this venture,

7 Thus, at a forum dedicated to evaluation of results of scientifi c work, organized in SASA in December 2008, an offi cial of the Ministry of science delivered his observations (accompa-nied by graphs) on failure of humanities in the previous period. Here, he failed to mention the fact that his conclusion was based on enlisting of the papers published in magazines on the frequently refuted ISI list only.

8 Here, it is interesting to mention a text by Jana Baćević on audit culture, i.e. the procedure and experience of audit of high education in Great Britain (Baćević 2006).

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scientifi c disecting of reality is not only unnecessary, it is also considered an ob-stacle preventing its full implementation. This is why it always tends to achieve narrow specialization of both knowledge and professions – through reforms of education (especially those of high education), and reforms of the system of scientifi c institutions, averaging of the general level of knowledge and the pos-sibility to use it, and transforming every product of human endeavour (regardless of whether it is a material or spiritual category) into a commodity whose price is determined by its usability in the most vulgar sense of the word.

However, the subject to special interest in this paper is primarily connected to the question of the reaction of scientifi c workers (here I mainly mean the area of humanities) to this process. Does the scientifi c community oppose the deg-radation of scientifi c work in the proper and only manner possible, or is it itself sucked up into the new ideological matrix? Is our scientifi c perception the result of autonomous opinion, or is it but a refl ection of postmodern trends which, al-though based on quite justifi ed and useful appeals to refl ect, and examination of the scope and possibilities of rationalistic and positivistic viewpoint to the world (contained in the fundaments of modern science), fi nally represent the intellec-tual and spiritual refl ection of the aforementioned ideology, which manipulates cultural values through their relativisation?9

In the period 2006–2008, ethnologic/anthropologic production, measured on the basis of preview of two renowned magazines only (Issues in Ethnology and Anthropology and Bulletin of Ethnographic Institute) amounts to about 150 pa-pers. They were composed by some 30 ethnologists/anthropologists who also published their papers in other scientifi c magazines in the said period, while some also managed to publish their authorial monographs (16). It must be admit-ted that this is considerable output!

The obvious characteristic of the texts from the two aforementioned magazines is domination of theoretical discourse on the one hand, and a specifi c prevailing concept of cultural actuality on the other. Discovering different political ideolo-gies and narratives in actual culture phenomenon , mostly connected to different types of collective identities, or discussing problems of otherness that are related to concepts of ethnographic fi eld research, thus became prevailing frames of ethnological/anthropological interpretations (see, for instance: Milenković 2006; Jovanović 2008). Texts surpassing this framework seem to owe their difference to the credit of earlier research, conducted in the period when fi eld researches

9 Thus, for instance, Perez Zagorin, one of the most fervent critics of post-modernism, perceives post-modernism “primarily as a mutation in the area of culture, which depicts a new multina-tional stage of global capitalism”. Quote according to: Antolović 2008: 190.

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were fi nancially supported by state. Having the aforementioned trends in mind, it is to be expected that their number will keep dropping. Such situation is certainly a consequence of the already mentioned state policy aimed at science, as well as fi ght for survival on the market, which will eventually turn scientists into essay-ists, journalists and commentators of current developments (Kovačević 2006: 28). On the other hand, however, such situation is a result of the evident identity crisis of humanities as a whole, resulting from the expansion of the post-mod-ern intellectual concept. Even though postmodern defi ned some very important questions in terms of ideological bases of concept, content, form and authorship of historical tradition, it has, at the same time, fully relativized the scopes of traditional historiography (and the disciplines relating to it), denying them the possibility of objective presentation of what had, until the moment, been deemed a (historic) fact. The past became almost equally (if not even more) uncertain as the future, while transformation of presence into actuality turned out to be the safest methodological and subject haven for the audited scientifi c perception of the world (Nora 2006: 23).

To make things more clearly, we will again use the example of religion re-searching, that is, researching of religious revival that happened in Serbia in the last decade of 20th century.

Contrary to most of the expectations, religious believes were back on the stage of history at the end of second millennium. Ambiguity, complexity and quite of-ten dramatically character of this process refl ected intensive crises of sense that modern civilization was passing through. Interpretations of this process inside of Serbian academic opinion were often simplifi ed and connected exclusively to political, economical and social crises, disintegration of the state and wars that took part in the region of former Yugoslavia (Malešević 2005; Čolović 2002). Insisting on this causality testifi ed much more about dogmatic functionalistic and utilitarian axiom of rationalized scientifi c image of reality than about reality itself (Wuthnow 1994: 161; Trostnikov 1990). Transitional period that Yugoslav region was passing through contributed till certain extent to actualization of reli-gion, but it had more infl uence on type and formal characteristics of this process in public spheres, than it represented its essential impetus. By state disintegra-tion, local stage of prosperity and safeness society was removed, uncovering un-sustainabillity of global principles contemporary civilization was based on. The proof that this was about general transfi guration, which is often marked as “cri-ses of modern rationality” (Zivković 1995), is the fact that religious revival was worldwide phenomenon, wherefore it has to be explored both in relation with local cultural and historical context and in relation to general – homo religious

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– human determination (Radisavljević-Ćiparizović 2005: 45; Bogomilova 2003; Davie 2008: 83).

Celerity and intensity of everyday’s social changes, events and tension, cer-tainly has signifi cant role in subject and methodological determination and ori-entation of discipline. Beside that, expansion of politic and political opinion at all spheres of social and individual life represents quite attractive ground for application of deconstructivistic methods (but without reaching its full poten-tial). In this frames, in comparison with some other disciplines, orientation of contemporary ethnology/anthropology towards actuality could be its advantage. However, I think that it is its current shortcoming that lies in the fact that, here, notion of actuality is not related to social phenomenon we research, but to meth-od of approaching it – method which quite often overlooks its social, historical and cultural complexity on the one hand and its relation to global processes on the other. Thus, interpreting religious revival exclusively by instruments of po-litical anthropology means accepting the idea that both individual and collective choices are completely conditioned by political ideologies and systems. This point of view inevitably emphasizes contradictories of actuality, keeping us far from their resolve. On the one hand, this situation can be explained by, more or less latent, presence of rationalistic and positivistic intellectual heritage and, on the other, by limitations imposed by current scientifi c politics. Enforcing the norm in intellectual creativity and simultaneously limiting fi nancial means and time for researching, scientifi c policy in Serbia contributes to essential detach-ment of researcher from object/subject he researches. That is how very scientists become sort of reality creators, whose creations are determined and, what is more important, limited, by actual social/cultural/political matrix.

Conclusion

Anthropology we have today largely recalls classical medicine. Its observa-tions of human are partial and without interest for integrity of his being (Šušnjić 2005). This is the reason of fl ourishing different anthropologies – anthropology of music, anthropology of spectacle, anthropology of illness, anthropology of consumption, museological anthropology etc. General orientation of anthropolo-gists towards researching actual but not relevant in culture, represents till certain extent, refl ections of current scientifi c policy in Serbia. However, much more that this, it represents the asylum from “excess of history”, that is, from con-stantly fl uctuating and unstable everyday life. It also represents kind of refusing responsibility to be holders of, what Jan Assmann calls, cultural memory (Ass-mann 2006: 66).

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Both regularities of current scientifi c perception and strategies of scientifi c development in Serbia today, are in the whirlpool of radical social, economic and cultural changes, so the fi nal approval about autonomy of scientifi c opinion in this epoch will remain question for generations of researchers and historians of science to come. Till than we should bear in mind that only attempt to be autono-mous in terms of the historic moment, to be a step above it, would enable us to discover what is important in actuality, what is relevant, and that this could bring us closer to the Levi-Strauss’ concept of a researcher, and research as a process of discovering general, universal rules of human culture and action. I believe that it is only such discoveries that give sense to the current anthropological segmen-tation of reality. If we do not keep this in mind, we might wake up in Huxley’s Brave New World one morning, and fail to notice that there is something special going on round us.

July 2011

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Bogomilova, Nonka: 2003 – Refl ections on the Contemporary Religious “Revival”. Teme 4: 517.Ćimić, Esad: 1966 – Socijalističko društvo i religija. [Socialist society and Religion.] Sarajevo.Ćimić, Esad: 1984 – Refl eksije o odnosu religije i nacije. [Refl ections on relation between religion

and nation.] Kultura 65–66–67: 75–83.Čolović, Ivan: 2002 – Kultura, nacija, teritorija. http://www.yurope.com/zines/republika/

arhiva/2002/288-289/288-289_20.html.Davie, Grace: 2008 – Evropa: izuzetak koji dokazuje pravilo? [Europe: Exception that profess the

Rule?] In: Peter Berger: Desekularizacija sveta. Novi Sad: Mediteran: 81–100.Jovanović, Deana: 2008 – Identitet na prodaju. Kreiranje nacionalnog identiteta za potrebe turizma.

[Identity for sale. Creating national identity for purposes of tourism.] Glasnik Etnografskog institute SANU 56: 101–114.

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Kerševan, Marko: 1984 – Marksistička sociologija religije – kako i zašto? [Marxist Sociology of Religion – how and why?] Kultura 65–66–67: 11–23.

Kovačević, Ivan: 2006 – Individualna antropologija ili antropolog kao lični guslar. [Individual Anthropology or Anthropologist as Personal Bard.] Issues in Ethnology and Anthropology vol. 1: 19–37.

Kovačević, Ivan: 2008 – Odnos države prema humanističkim naukama u Srbiji početkom 21. veka. [Relation of State towards Humanities in Serbia at the Beginning of 21st Cent.] Issues in Ethnology and Anthropology new series vol. 2: 27–43.

Krznar, Tomislav: 2010 – Spektakl bolesti. O ulozi medicinske znanosti u životu suvremenog čovjeka. [Spectacle of Illnes. On The Role of Medical Science in the Life of Contemporary Man.] Kultura 125: 251–276.

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Milenković, Miloš: 2006 – Šta je bila antropološka refl eksivnost? Metodološka formalizacija. [What was anthropological refl exivity? Methodological formalization.] Etno-antropološki problem 2: 157–184.

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Pavićević, Aleksandra: 2009 – Da li su antropolozi dužni da budu (ne)religiozni? [Are anthropolo-gists obliged to be non/religious?] Teme 4: 1414–1434.

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Radisavljević-Ćiparizović, Dragana: 2005 – Religija i svakodnevni život. [Religion and everyday life.] Teme 1–2: 41–54.

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Moderní a/nebo relevantní? Několik úvah o autonomii vědeckého myšlení založe-ných na zkušenosti srbské etnologie/antropologie na počátku třetího tisíciletí.

Resumé: Autonomie vědy a umění je ideálem jakékoli civilizované společnosti. Vzdá-lenost konkrétní společnosti od tohoto ideálu závisí na velkém počtu faktorů, z nichž k nejdůležitějším patří to, že si hlavní protagonisté uvědomují závažnost těchto dvou oblastí. Srbsko se naneštěstí nemůže pochlubit vysokou mírou nezávislosti kreativních procesů. V současnosti se sice formálně těší výrazné nezávislosti ve smyslu státní ideo-logie; ale zároveň jsou v praxi touto ideologií zásadně omezovány. Samotné pojetí auto-nomie je úzce propojeno s fi nanční a ještě více s ideologickou nezávislostí svobodného a kreativního myšlení v tom smyslu, že vědecká kreativita může překonávat aktuální kulturně-historický kontext a nacházet v něm univerzální pravidla lidské civilizace. In-tenzita sociálních změn a postmoderní tržní ideologie se odrážejí jak v ofi ciální vědecké politice, tak ve vnitřním určování kontextu a konceptu etnologického/antropologického výzkumu, které se velmi často ocitají na mělčině aktuálních trendů.

Zdeněk Uherek: Češi v Bosně a Hercegovině. Antropologické pohledy na společenský život české menšiny v zahraničí.

Vydal Etnologický ústav AV ČR, v. v. i., Praha 2011, s. 230, jmenný rejstřík, anglické resumé

Tematická monografi e je výsledkem řady badatelských činností, které probíhaly v letech 1993 až 2010 v Etnologickém ústavu AV ČR, v. v. i. Cílem publikace je přiblížit čtenáři život příslušníků české menšiny v Bosně a Hercegovině v průběhu posledních 150 let. Autor zachycuje usidlování krajanů v jejich novém domově, refl exi nového prostředí a kontakty s původními obyvateli po dobu několika generací. Pozornost věnuje také vztahům lidí žijících na území Bosny a Hercegoviny a současné České republiky v širší historické perspektivě a významným osobnostem českého původu, které se pozitivně zapsaly do historie této země.

Cena 250 Kč ISBN 978-80-87112-48-9

Objednávky vyřizuje: Etnologický ústav AV ČR, v. v. i., Na Florenci 3, 110 00 Praha 1 tel. 234 612 611, e-mail: [email protected]

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CONCEPTUALIZATION AND SYMBOLIZATION OF ETHNIC IDENTITY: SERBS IN HUNGARY

MLADENA PRELIĆ

Abstract: The paper is based on a long-lasting research carried out among the members of Serbian ethnic/national minority in Hungary. The research focused on the topic of ethnic identity. This paper is an attempt to derive the actual con-cept of ethnic identity out of its results, together with the manner in which it is symbolized in the case of the observed group. The approach assumes that (eth-nic) identity is a socio-cultural construction, whereas the results are based on statements and behavior of the group members themselves – those who declare themselves as Serbs.Key words: Serbs in Hungary, ethnic/national minority, ethnic identity, symbols of identity.

Introduction

The subject-matter of the research whose results are partly presented herewith deals with the identity of Serbian national minority in Hungary at the end of the 20th century.1 This paper, from certain distance, focuses on one aspect of the research topic – the issues of conceptualization and symbolization of ethnic identity of Serbs in Hungary, on the example of the group living in Budapest and its surroundings. This includes the issues of self-identifi cation, choice of ethnic symbols and processes of symbolization of ethnic diversity and borders of the group, together with the conceptualization of cultural diversity of the minority itself. At the end the paper considers the holidays of this group, as the periods

1 The major part of this research was carried out in the period 1995–1997 in Budapest and its surroundings and the results were defended as a PhD dissertation in 2004 and published as a monograph in Prelić 2008.

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of “dense symbolization” of ethnic diversity, which particularly pertains to the holidays celebrated in the public sphere.

The research carried out was a part of the project of the Institute of Ethnography, SASA. It had been preceded by the research of identity of Serbs in the village of Lórév (Serbian: Lovra), on the Danube Csepel Island.2 The research of ethnic problems is one of the permanent preoccupations of the Institute of Ethnography, and the beginning of systematic research through specifi c projects or subprojects is linked to the year 1981 and the topic of emigration from Serbia (Drljača – Zečević 1981: 1). In mid-1980s, thanks to opportunities for researching emi-grants in the USA and Canada, as well as to the theoretical improvement of the concepts towards constructivist and symbolic approach to the identity problem, the research of ethnicity experience a qualitative rise.3

Already at the end of the 1980s, various constraints infl uenced the reduc-tion of volume of these researches; however they never stopped. The researches of emigration from Serbia/former Yugoslavia suffered the most in the time of fi nancial restrictions.4 Besides, ethnic confl icts in the region and the increase of tensions in inter-ethnic relations in Serbia during the 1990s aggravated and even disabled fi eld research of minorities in the territory of former Yugoslavia. Therefore by the concurrence of circumstances in these years the focus was on the subject matter of Serbian minority in the environment, primarily Hungary,5 then in Romania, and when the situation enabled it, also on Serbs in Bosnia, Slovenia and Kosovo.6 Recent research more and more deals with ethnic minori-ties in Serbia (Roma, Germans, Bunyevtsi).7

2 This research was carried out in 1989–1992, and the results were published in Prelić 1995. In that time, same as today, the village of Lórév was the sole settlement with majority Serbian population in Hungary.

3 Results of these researches were published in Pavlović 1991 and Lukić Krstanović 1992. Also see Prelić 1997.

4 Some researches are nevertheless carried out thanking to the concurrence of circumstances in researchers’ private lives, e.g. Blagojević 2005.

5 See Drljača – Prelić 2005.6 Among else, Mirjana Pavlović defended in 2010 at the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade

the PhD thesis Srbi u Temišvaru (Serbs in Timisoara), and the work on the PhD thesis Odnos etničkog i drugih oblika kolektivnog identiteta: terenska istraživanja srpske zajednice na ju-goistoku Kosova (The relationship of ethnic and other forms of collective identity: fi eld research of Serbian community in southeastern Kosovo), by Sanja Zlatanović is in its fi nal phase.

7 On Roma, e.g. Zlatanović (2006, 2007); on revitalization of German identity in Vojvodina, e.g. Krel (2006); the A. Krel’s PhD thesis Etnički identitet Nemaca u Vojvodini (The ethnic identity of Germans in Vojvodina) is soon to be defended at the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade.

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Mladena Prelić: Conceptualization and Symbolization of Ethnic Identity: Serbs in Hungary

Ethnic identity as a research problem

For members of national minorities, who by default live in the milieu of a dif-ferent majority, the idea or the awareness of the own cultural diversity, as well as its symbolic emphasizing, are at least potentially an everyday experience, often more intensive than it is the case with members of majority groups. One of the issues immediately imposing to the researcher in such a case is the issue of maintenance of the specifi c ethnic identity.

In the research of Serbs in Hungary, I primarily approached the concept of identity, i.e. ethnic identity in a manner usually defi ned as Barthian8, i.e. as a concept which does not refer to an actual situation, but to a subjective, and also contextual and historical, symbolic process of distinction between us and others. Ethnic identity can be defi ned as social identity based on the contrast against others, characterized by metaphorical or fi ctive kinship – the assurance of community members in the common origin, regard-less it is most often a fi ction (Yelvington 1991: 168).

There is no generally accepted defi nition of ethnic minority, and in this research it implied the citizens of a state who reproduce as an ethnic category which is in a non-dominant position in relation to the majority population (cf. Eriksen 2004: 210). The defi nition points that the existence of ethnic minorities is a modern phenomenon – it can be spoken about since the emergence of nation states. In contemporary Europe, the birth place of the today’s worldwide prevailing concept of nation-state, the linguistic, religious and other kinds of cultural boundaries which could not ideally correspond to the borders of the established nation-states have also shown deep inveteracy and vital-ity. This opened the issue of the right to cultural diversity, which throughout history was frequently resolved in violence, particularly in the region of Eastern Europe.9 This re-search deals with an ethnic minority which enjoys a recognized status and appropriate rights in the country where it lives.10 The problems of ethnic minorities and their rights

8 Reference to Norwegian anthropologist Fredrik Barth, i.e. the change of paradigm emerged in research of ethnicity after the publication of the book Ethnic Groups and Boundaries, edited by Barth in 1969.

9 Literature on the topic of ethnic minorities and ethnic identities signifi cantly increased in last years. Here I quote only two bibliographic units, out of many – the work of Zdzislaw Mach on the phenomenon of ethnic minorities and symbolization of their identity, particularly in Eastern Europe (Mach 1993: 211–261), and of Janos Kis, on political dimensions of the prob-lem of minorities, in the context of liberal ideology and its contemporary transformations (Kiš 1997/1998).

10 The term national minority is common for such minorities in the region. Considering that Serbs in Hungary enjoy such status recognized by the state, in this paper, besides the broader term ethnic minority, I also used this term, which otherwise belongs to the sphere of law and politics.

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are basically political and although the political dimension of the problem was not the focus of this research – nevertheless it provided a certain external framework.

The research topic: Serbs in Hungary

Serbian community in Hungary is today one of the thirteen national minorities recognized by the state. According to the estimation of Serbian institutions, such is the Serbian Self-Government in Hungary, it numbers about 5,000.11 Serbs in Hungary today live in Budapest and its surroundings, i.e. upward the Danube – from Lórév / Lovra12 to Szentendre /Sentandreja, along the Mures – from Szeged to Battonya /Batanja, and in Baranya and Bacska, where there are even settle-ments with only two-three Serbian families. There are about forty places with Serbian population,13 but it can be said that some signifi cant social life is carried out in about ten settlements with somewhat more numerous community (Batton-ya / Batanja, Lórév / Lovra, Pomáz / Pomaz, Budakalász /Kalaz, Désk / Deska, Szazhallombatta / Bata, Szigetcsép /Čip, Hercegszántó /Santovo).14 Serbian pop-ulation is probably the most numerous in Budapest,15 where its most important today’s institutions are situated as well, but where the assimilation processes are the strongest, i.e. the bonds in urban conditions are the weakest. Szentendre as

11 In the time of my research, the census of 1990 was actual, when 2,905 people declared them-selves as Serbs. However, minority organizations had a possibility to give their own correc-tions of the fi gures obtained on censuses, due to the specifi c census methodology and to the as-sumption that, because of historical living conditions, minority members are not often ready to declare themselves as such. However, even when these corrections are accepted, Hungary can be counted among the highly ethnically homogenous states, to a percentage above 80 %. On the other hand, however, it should be kept in mind that, from the historical point of view, the territory of today’s Hungary is very important for the conception of contemporary understand-ing of ethnic-national minorities, i.e. that there “a precious historical experience was created and accumulated” about the relations of majority and minority peoples (Kmeć 1991: 74).

12 The former transcription is in Hungarian, the letter in Serbian language.13 According to the census of 1991, there were 39 such settlements. In the time of our fi eld

research, the Serbian Orthodox Church, i.e. the Eparchy of Buda, had thirty seven living par-ishes, although only ten priests. After passing the Law on Ethnic and National Minorities which enabled such form of organization, Serbian local self-governments have been formed in nineteen places in 1994. After the local elections of 2010, in October, local Serbian self-governments have been formed in 34 urban and village settlements. In some of them the size of Serbian population is extremely small.

14 Battanya has abt. 600, Lórév and Pomáz abt. 200, other mentioned places between 100 and 200 citizens declaring themselves as Serbs. This is also the assessment of Serbian institutions or fi eld data. Censuses, as already mentioned, register lower fi gures.

15 Assessment of the Serbian Self-Government in Hungary says that there are about 1,000 Serbs maintaining identity and bonds with the community.

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a historic, religious and cultural centre of immigrated Serbs has a large symbolic signifi cance not only for Serbs in Hungary but for the entire Serbian national culture.

The existence of today’s community of Serbs in Hungary is a result of histori-cal circumstances, i.e. enduring migration of population from the Balkans to the Danube area. Immigration of Serbian population, in different intensity, can be observed already since the Middle Ages, being particularly intensifi ed by Turkish conquests. The main event in this process was certainly the Great Migration of 1690, led by Patriarch Arsenije III Čarnojević.16 In Hungary, Serbian immigrants dispersed in small groups, mostly to villages, but also to cities, where during the 18th century they managed to rise in the social hierarchy and create a specifi c culture, important for Serbian culture in general. This is the foundation of posi-tive identity, i.e. the feeling of pride of the Serbian community in Hungary even today.17

For over three centuries Serbs lived in the territory of today’s Hungary as an organized, institutionalized, “visible” minority, headed by the Church both in secular and spiritual issues. In the 19th century, however, they were character-ized by notable depopulation. This was a consequence of low birth rate, reverse migration (most often to the territory of today’s Vojvodina, but after the liberation of Serbia from Turkish rule also to Serbia itself), and to a certain measure of as-similation, so that Serbs faced the end of the century as a numerically and even materially weakened group. In the eve of the World War One, their number in the territory of today’s Hungary amounted to 26,000. By creation of new states and drawing of the Trianon borders after the war, Serbian citizens in newly es-tablished Hungary were given the possibility to opt for the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (since 1929 – Yugoslavia). After more than 60 % of this population migrated in early 1920s, only a bit more than 7,000 Serbs remained in the territory of Hungary and their number has slowly been decreasing ever since then (Prelić 1995: 45–53). It is a small group, which is an important factor when speaking about the manners in which it attempts to establish itself as a commu-nity and preserve its cultural diversity.

16 Considering that this was a run to safety in the conditions of war, the numbers of Serbian refu-gees are unreliable. The chroniclers of the time recorded that 37,000 Serbian families crossed to the Habsburg Monarchy, however it is not known how this fi gure was determined. Some historians yet assume that about 60,000–70,000 people crossed to Hungary in the Great Migra-tion, while about 30,000 reached the surroundings of Buda and Szentendre (cf. Prelić 1995: 24).

17 See Prelić 1995: 23–45 and the literature quoted therein.

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Serbs in Hungary today have the status of national minority, with their rights, same as to other such groups, guaranteed on the basis of the Law passed in 1993.18 Serbs in Hungary have their own institutions, some of which exist in con-tinuity of several centuries and some being formed in the transition processes, based on the Law on Minorities. The most important are the Serbian Orthodox Church (the Eparchy of Buda), Serbian Self-Government in Hungary, Serbian Democratic Alliance which publishes the weekly Srpske nedeljne novine,19 schools (including gymnasium in Budapest), together with clubs, libraries, en-sembles of folk songs and dances, the Joakim Vujić theatre and others. The ex-istence of the network of own institutions not only today but also in past can be considered as one of the key factors of survival of the group, where the impor-tance of schooling in mother tongue must be underlined.20 It can be said that the continuity of existence and functioning of institutions signifi cantly infl uence the production and maintenance of symbols of ethnical identity, i.e. the continual existence of distinctive identity of this ethnic group. Besides, this is infl uenced also by characteristics of the group itself, which over time also change under the infl uence of various factors.

First, the consequences of several decades long process of depopulation of Serbian community in Hungary are today expressed in a way which can even be described as dramatic – as this community today has only several thousand persons and an unfavourable demographic structure. This factor above all, together with some other, causes another big change, and that is the increase of the number of mixed marriages which occurred in a relatively short period after the World War Two. The percentage of mixed marriages, in the beginning of the century minimal and still relatively small between the two wars, today increased to over 50 %, so that these marriages and descendents born in them in fact became characteristic cases in the observed group. This is also linked to an ever broader acceptance of Hungarian language as an effec-tive language of communication, in private sphere, but today already within purely Serbian families. Third, the process of urbanization, which particularly in the years after the World War Two was strong, in forms of migration waves from village to city

18 The Law, No. LXXVII on the rights of ethnic and national minorities was adopted on July 7th, 1993 (The Law 1993: 1–42). It is interesting to note that Hungarian law defi nes that the recog-nized status can be granted only to those groups which prove their existence in the territory of today’s Hungary for more than hundred years.

19 From 1991 to 2009, Srpske narodne novine.20 This was possible due to the church authonomy which enabled the existence of elementary

schools organized by the Church (“Serbian Orthodox religious schools”).

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and urbanization of villages, changes the lifestyle and cultural habits of population. This also refl ects to the manners of preservation of ethnic identity.

In addition, one should keep in mind that the research was carried out in the period when Hungary itself was passing through the process of transition, which profoundly changed the state and society, with outcomes not always visible in advance. On the other hand, the motherland was passing through very dramatic processes (dissolution of the former federal state, bloody ethnic confl icts, deep political, economic and general social crisis), the consequences of which are felt even today. These processes also infl uenced the situation of Serbs in Hungary.

Field research

The research was carried out in Budapest and surrounding places. This research is a thematic continuance of the preceding monographic research of one (today the only remaining) majority Serbian village (the village of Lórév / Lovra, Csepel Island on the Danube) where ethnic identity has been observed in the context of processes of changes of village culture during the 20th century (Prelić 1995). This research also envisaged to observe the ethnicity in a global context, however in comparison to this preceding case the problem was expanded to urban environ-ment, as well as to central, and not only local institutions of national minority and their identity strategies. The fi eld research was carried out in several occasions, from 1995 to 1998. It encompassed Serbian population in fi ve places – Budapest / Budimpešta, Szentendre / Sentandreja, Pomáz / Pomaz, Budakalász / Kalaz and Csobánka / Čobanac. It is estimated that in these places there are 1,000–1,500 people of Serbian ethnicity. Interviews were conducted with forty fi ve members of the community of both sexes, of different age and education.21 It is important to note that our collocutors were members of the community who represent its core – people active in social life, often linked to the work of Serbian institu-tions, with (according to own assessment and assessment of the environment) more emphasized ethnic identity.

21 The character of the research was qualitative, but I also resorted to the quantifi cation of certain responses for better clarity of the results. It was not stationary when it was about small places – I went there only for interviews, while permanently residing in Budapest. Besides interviews with 45 members of the community, the research implied monitoring of work of institutions (Serbian Democratic Aliance and Serbian Self-Government in Hungary, together with schools, ensembles of folk songs and dances, theatres, etc), as well as personal presence in time of the most important holidays and celebrations.

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Identity of ethnic minority: results of research among Serbs in Hungary

Ethnic identity can be observed at the level of visible symbolization and at the level of awareness of actors – members of the community. Starting from verbal declaration of an individual as the basis for his/her classifi cation into an ethnic group, in this research ethnicity was observed as a symbolic process as well, i.e. I studied the manners in which the group, i.e. its members symbolically express their affi liation.

Self-determination, boundaries of the group and the distance we-othersContemporary understanding of ethnicity starts from that every understanding of ethnicity can be based only on appropriate declaration of group or individual. Hence, the fi rst issue to appear in the research of ethnic identity was the issue of self-determination of the members of the community themselves.

When directly asked how they declare their affi liation, the largest number of our collocutors declared themselves as Serbs, and that number highly exceeds all other possible responses (Serb from Hungary, Orthodox Serb, etc.). This testifi es about the prevailing awareness of Serbs in Hungary of their belonging to Serbian people as an integral entity. All our collocutors also replied that at the same time they are the citizens of Hungary, while usually emphasizing that this was an objective fact, a statement, which does not imply some special personal emo-tions. Already on the example of this starting, basic question about own identity we notice that the concept, i.e. reply to the question – Who are we, Who am I? involves emotions and subjectivity. Perhaps this in fact is the line of division between identifi cation and (objective) cultural competence.

In order to maintain the awareness of ethnic affi liation throughout a longer period of time, it must be linked to a certain number of cultural elements which in appropriate contexts obtain the role of symbols of ethnic diversity. Therefore the next important question was – which are the cultural elements, i.e. key sym-bols of identity in the case of the today’s community of Serbs in Hungary? On the basis of the obtained responses and personal observations, I singled out the knowledge and usage of Serbian mother tongue (including giving and using of Serbian fi rst names), the Orthodox religious affi liation and specifi c history and tradition, i.e. cultural-historical heritage, as well as contemporary artistic creativ-ity (particularly literature in the mother tongue). Likewise, the existence of the network of institutions of Serbian national minority, besides their actual impor-tance as a factor of maintenance of identity, has a symbolic dimension, which our collocutors noted as well.

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An ideal model of Serb would imply an emotional bond with each of these symbols, i.e. the knowledge and expression of each of them, however this ideal model is not always achievable due to several reasons. Therefore an important question I singled out was how the community itself establishes realistic, and not ideal, criteria of differentiation between “us” and “them”, or as usually said by Serbs in Hungary – ‘nasi’ (our) and ‘nji’evi’ (their).

The questions which pertained to what is the necessary criterion for someone to be defi ned as a Serb – is it primarily his/her awareness, i.e. personal desire and assurance of belonging to the group (subjective criterion), or origin from Serbian parents (objective criterion which cannot be changed), or external manifestation of symbols of Serbian ethnic identity, such is obvious affi liation to the Orthodox religion or usage of Serbian language in communication (also an objective cri-terion, but achievable, i.e. changeable by personal choice), the responses were obtained in the following order: as the most important criterion, the collocu-tors emphasized own awareness and assurance of an individual of belonging to the group. This is followed by the expression of symbols of identity (objective criterion, but allowing the freedom of choice) – actually, the Orthodox religion and Serbian language, while our collocutors were indecisive about whether it is possible to give advantage to any of these two key symbols. The criterion of objective differentiation by origin, which cannot be changed, was defi ned as the least important. Accordingly, descendents from mixed marriages are accepted as full members of the community if they themselves feel and declare as such. Moreover, the community showed openness towards those who came to it from the majority group, providing that they had to fulfi ll some objective criteria for their choice of new identity to be accepted. One of the reasons of such openness of the community certainly lies in its paucity, as opposite examples of leaving the community are perceived with much less understanding.

Contrary to the prevailing openness and fl exibility of the community regarding who can be its member, the majority of our collocutors denied the possibility of existence of dual identity, primarily those of older, but also of middle generation. The distinction between “us” and “them” cannot be drawn within an individual. According to this concept, a person is either Serb or Hungarian. If he/she is of dual origin, according to this understanding he/she should respect both sides, but can be emotionally bonded only to one of them, i.e. he/she must make a choice. If it is not possible, then our collocutors describe such person as “confused” or “pathetic”... Same, the community itself makes distinction between “conscious”, “real” Serbs, those who are “still standing” and “Hungarian-like” (‘Madjaroni’), those who “let themselves go” – i.e. surrendered to assimilation. However, the

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knowledge of two or more cultures, two or more languages is highly evaluated, however with the need to clearly distinguish own and others’ per the criterion of emotional bonding. Younger generation, however (age 25–30) to a certain measure expresses a higher tolerance, so that the community could profoundly change its attitude in future.

As for the attitudes toward mixed marriages, prejudice of course still exists, but with the increase of the number of such marriages, when almost every family faced this, until recently for many unimaginable situation, they are characterized by division and parallel existence of fl exible and tolerant attitudes with the nega-tive ones. In general, negative opinion about such marriages prevails among our collocutors (it is particularly interested that it can be found also among people who themselves are in such marriages), but when observed at the generation level, prejudice are gradually disappearing.22

The results pertaining to the distance we–others, where only two examples were taken (We – Serbs from the motherland and We – Hungarians) show a certain paradox in relation to what had been said so far – because Serbs from Hungary defi ne themselves by mentality, system of values and manner of every-day life as closer to the majority people than to the one in the motherland. The distance against the people from the motherland is increased by the wave of new immigrants which the autochthonous population recognize as different – more aggressive, less rational, less bonded to the church... Still, in parallel, there are signs of feelings of solidarity and identifi cation with compatriots in the mother-land, together with signs of an essentialist concept of ethnic identity formulated by the saying – blood is thicker than water.

Further research, particularly the one pertaining to the relation of minority members towards two states – the motherland and the home country, shows a la-tent ambivalence of the position of members of national minority – from appar-ent stability of dual position of people who belong both here and there, to its problematization and revealing of internal feeling of insecurity and dual exclu-sion of the minority members.23

Research further points to another characteristic of group identities, and that is the existence of distinctions within the group in relation to the assumed collec-tive identity, which cannot be reduced only to the already mentioned distinction conscious Serbs – Hungarian-like, but implies the entire range of different cases.

22 On mixed marriages as a factor of ethnic identity of Serbs in Hungary, see Prelić 2006.23 This was best expressed by a lady collocutor (born in 1938) from the previous re-

search in the village of Lórév, saying: you are not at home here, you are not at home there... (Prelić 1995: 136)

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The group of Serbs in Hungary includes individuals who are largely different and can rather be observed as a set of individual cases then as a unison collectiv-ity – from a young man who is an Orthodox priest, speaks fl uent Serbian, raises his children “in Serbian spirit”, but in fact was born as Hungarian who as a boy came in contact with Serbian community and Orthodoxy and through Orthodoxy revealed his own religious feelings and became baptized, learnt the language and graduated from the Faculty of Theology in Belgrade, to the case of a girl whose grandfather is a Serb, but from a largely Hungarized family, whose knowledge of Serbian is only elementary, who seldom goes to church, but yet at least to a cer-tain measure feels as a Serb. Between these two poles lies a whole range of cases which differ both in the intensity in which ethnic identity is perceived and in the measure and manner it is expressed. That it is often diffi cult to detect the ways by which ethnic identifi cation is transferred is testifi ed by the case of a family from Budapest (mixed marriage) with six children born before the World War One, where each child had a different self-identifi cation, so to say; also, different was the level in which they kept at their identity (Prelić 2008: 233).

Our collocutors declared themselves as an extremely self-aware group which pays a lot of attention to its ethnic specifi city and identity different from the ma-jority. A deeper research, however, showed numerous ambivalences and incoher-encies of their ethnic identifi cation, not only outward, but also within the group – more or less discutable and incoherent criteria for membership in the group, an ambivalent attitude towards the motherland and the domicile country, am-bivalent attitude toward compatriots and the surrounding majority people, and the like. Although showing fl exibility and tolerance in many aspects, and even a departure from essentialist concepts of identity, collocutors in the same time (at least for now, as trends in younger generation shows that this can change) show intolerance towards hybridization of identity. It should, however, be mentioned that these incoherencies and ambiguities are a characteristic both of ethnic iden-tities as such and identities in general, and also of “everyday thinking”.

From ethnic culture to symbolic ethnicityIt was already mentioned or became evident from the preceding presentation that in the case of the community which was the topic of the research, the manner and level of expression of identity are not standardized or obligatory for all members of the group, but are the matter of personal choice or the matter of circumstances. This is not a specifi c case. Moreover, already Herbert Gans, several decades ago, on the ex-ample of immigrant cultures in America noted that the fi eld of ethnic culture changes and shrinks, so that ethnicity and ethnic identity of migrants’ descendants is not the

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same as it was the ethnic culture and tradition of the fi rst generation of immigrants, or generation of their predecessors in “the old world”. Ethnicity in everyday life becomes the matter of personal choice, it is not nor it has to be obvious if a person does not want to express it, but paradoxically, or apparently, due to a small number of highly expressive symbols and one in fact narrowed but externally more visible domain in which ethnicity is expressed, it becomes more visible for the broader en-vironment.24 Gans calls this new ethnicity a symbolic one – and considers that it has changed functions and domains of expression and meanings in relation to (tradi-tional) ethnic culture. In the case of symbolic ethnicity, very frequent expression of ethnic symbols is narrowed to the time of holidays, bearing other functions besides the enhancement of identity – family gathering, maintenance of social relations... As Gans notices, the time of holidays is indeed suitable because is does not disturb the everyday life and its routines in which “ethnics” live more and more similar to the majority environment, or are led by individual choices of lifestyles (Gans 1979).

In spite of the immigrant situation in the USA having its specifi cities, this ob-servation has certain parallel on examples of ethnical cultures worldwide, includ-ing the case which is our research topic – under the infl uence of modernization, industrialization, globalization, traditional cultural patterns of pre-industrial so-ciety are abandoned, everyday life and culture are unifi ed, and ethnicity is shrunk to smaller fi elds of high symbolism.25 In the observed case, already in early 20th century the everyday life of members of ethnic groups was largely defi ned by ob-ligatory tradition. Until the end of the century the situation completely changed, and regarding ethnic groups and their identities it was observed that in material sphere traditional cultural patterns withdraw before rational choice motivated by higher effi ciency, productivity or comfort, whereas the symbols of ethnicity are usually chosen in the spheres where such choice cannot be made.

24 Gans in fact refutes that the visible expression of ethnicity observed during the 1970s in the USA is a phenomenon which became known as ethnic revival. He thinks that the new ethnicity in fact is the narrowing of the domain of ethnicity and a phase of assimilation of immigrants into the American culture (Gans 1979).

25 Of course, different socio-historical contexts in which ethnicity of different groups is formed and expressed cannot be mechanically compared. For example, it should be kept in mind that migrant situation is an interruption, radical transition and departure of migrants to new, un-known, at fi rst strange territory, which is incomparable with the situation of autochtonous eth-nic minorities. Besides, in Eastern Europe, ethnicity implies certain political dimensions which are incomparable with migrant situation. Yet, careful comparisons can bring some useful in-sights. Further, globalization and better (global) information lead to some general tendencies in the processes of ethnic identifi cations and meaning of ethnicity in contemporary world.

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For this process to be more evident we can briefl y take a closer look at the key symbols of the observed ethnic group and the manner of their functioning.

As for the mother tongue, according to the research, my collocutors are bilin-gual, but in an unfavorable ratio, in favor of the Hungarian language. There is still a strong emotional bond to the mother tongue and it is to a large measure still the preferred language of private communication; however becoming more and more endangered there as well. This is further contributed by mixed mar-riages. The assistance of the motherland in equal mastering of the mother tongue is not systemic, the environment infl uences stronger and Serbs start to speak Hungarian more and more among themselves. In spite of the attempts of the com-munity leaders, particularly in the fi eld of education, the mother tongue shows signs of gradual suppression from everyday to ritual situations, while privileged places and time of the exclusive usage of Serbian language remain those bear-ing highly symbolic strength – Serbian holidays, church service, graveyards and epitaphs.26

Religion, i.e. the Serbian Orthodox Church traditionally plays an important role in conception of the ethnic identity of Serbs in Hungary. A large number of our collocutors declared themselves as truly religious, and it turned out that religion as a symbol of ethnic identity functions at the level of religious customs and transition rituals also in case of those who are uncertain regarding their reli-giousness or are even atheists. However, the level and manner of expression of religiousness, particularly in the period of atheization of society, became largely also the matter of personal interpretation. In cases when it functions primarily or exclusively as a symbol of ethnic identity, and only after as a religion, the Orthodoxy is reduced to several emphasized, characteristic rituals and holidays – Christmas, St. Sava, Easter, patron saints’ days (slava), transition rituals ac-companied by church ritual. The religious factor has an appropriate role also in formation and functioning of the community – it stimulates social gatherings, celebration of church holidays, structuring of the community and its value sys-tem, socialization of children, etc.

Maybe the process of transition from ethnic culture to symbolic ethnicity is most evident in the case of cultural patterns which can be classifi ed under the concept of folk culture. That concept in this case implies a stereotyped set of “our customs” and “folklore”, (most often musical – song and dance). Very often, the

26 There are indications in the research results saying that one of the causes of gradual suppres-sion of the mother tongue is its low symbolic status, contributed by the decrease of reputation of the motherland during the 1990s. A defi nite conclusion would, however, have to be founded upon a targeted socio-linguistic research.

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folk culture, i.e. tradition is understood under the culture of national minorities. That understanding has deep romantic roots, and remained during the 20th cen-tury a broadly dispersed stereotype. Accordingly, a widespread understanding is that ethnic minorities which resist assimilation in their cultural expression are extremely prone to traditionalism. On one hand, this attitude is to some extent fi rmly grounded. It is possible to note that self-awareness implies nourishing of certain tradition, i.e. continuity of collective memory which has symbolic meanings, but, in spite of attempts for “our customs”, “our songs and dances” to be recorded and consciously nurtured in a “proper” manner, to be fi xed and practically exercised as long as possible, they are unavoidably changing and even disappearing.27 Visible changes occurred in this respect during the 20th cen-tury when customary and ritual practice was being largely lost and crumbled. This crumbling is yielded by the processes of modernization and urbanization.28 Another line of change is noticed besides the disappearance and crumbling – the process of folklorization by which customs and folk creativity are displaced from usual context in which they originally emerged and in which they usually already largely disappeared and have been transferred to some other.29 Maybe the best example of folklorization pertains to folk dances. It pertains to learning and performing folk dances within folklore ensembles formed and acting since 1950s, which are very popular. Therefore, folk culture as the source of ethnic symbols of the community in this sense implies some problems as well. First, these symbols must bridge an obvious gap which exists in actual folk culture, which is the subject of drastic changes and crumbling, particularly since the mid-dle of the last century, where their function is in fact the symbolization of the continuity of “tradition”; another problem is that in such a manner constructed “folk tradition” often (although not necessarily) distances the group, particularly if it is a national minority, from other fi elds of actual, contemporary artistic crea-tivity, as well as from the sphere of social and political power – and among mi-nority members often provokes the “fear from scansenisation”, i.e. ghettoization

27 This is not at all a specifi city of Serbs in Hungary. On the contrary, that is the characteristic of numerous national and romantic-inspired attempts that can be recorded all over the world, although their roots are probably European, that both majority and minority identities are con-structed on the foundations of “authentic tradition”.

28 As a specifi c factor which signifi cantly accelerated these processes in this case there is the land collectivization which was carried out in Hungary in early 1960s, and which signifi cantly disturbed the overall social life of the village, and therefore the ritual traditions of the observed suburbian and village environments (cf. Prelić 1995).

29 On folklorization and its functions see, for example, in: Stanonik 1990.

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and marginalization. It nurtures the stereotype of ethnic minorities as obsolete reservations of “tradition” (which in fact does not exist anymore).

In difference from folk tradition, artistic creativity is usually not considered a typical symbol of ethnic identity. This case above else speaks about the artistic forms using the mother tongue as a medium. Literature is developed above aver-age for such a small community. Publishing activity in the mother tongue exists in the community itself, while some writers fi nd publishers in the motherland. Theatre is another important example, also maybe unproportionally well devel-oped considering the relatively small audience. In the time of our stay there were attempts of modern musical creativity (pop and rock music), with lyrics in the mother tongue. Having in mind that cultural events of this kind are usually vis-ited in free time, we can consider them as well a form of symbolic ethnicity.

Symbolization of identity: Identity and holidayThrough observation and interviews with collocutors – members of the group, the research confi rmed that the time of holidays is a privileged time of a densi-fi ed symbolization of collective identity. It is the time of highly symbolic rituals – holiday is a break in life rhythm of profane daily living, and it is characterized by cyclical revolving, collective gathering and expression of strong emotions, including a certain standardization of ritual and symbolic behavior.30 Still, it is not enough to say that holiday rituals are standardized, repetitive and symbolic – such is the entire human communication. Holidays distinguish from other kinds of social behavior exactly by the kind of symbols being manipulated with – which transmit the meanings of the highest signifi cance for identity and integrity of the community (Ljuks 1986: 141–143). It can be assumed that in symboli-zation of ethnic identity collective rituals in public sphere shall turn out to be more signifi cant than individual, family and private ones, i.e. that gathering of a group symbolizing its comprehensiveness and public confi rmation of identity shall have much higher symbolic power in this sense.

Gatherings on the occasions of holidays and celebrations is very popular among Serbs in Hungary. Considering that, besides symbolization of identity of the group and enhancement of the feeling of community at the level of mobiliza-tion of prejudice (Ljuks 1986:156–161), these gatherings also have an important social role of communication and enhancement of actual social ties, they can be considered social events of supreme importance for functioning of the com-munity. Therefore I shall fi rst mention the most important events of this kind

30 On culture of holidays see, for example, Đorđević 1997.

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and then briefl y summarize what can be read from them on the basis of analysis about the status and identity of Serbs in Hungary.31

The most important holidays celebrated by the Serbs in Hungary are above else those linked to the church calendar. As expected, the fi eld research showed that the pagan layer, present in folk tradition of celebration of annual cycle of customs linked to the church calendar is today largely disappearing. The aspects of holidays referring to the Christianity, which are in the hands of Church, are still maintained, whereas national symbolism is linked to some church holidays in the most narrow sense, which is particularly interesting for the subject mat-ter of this research. Besides Easter, as the biggest Christian holiday, the high-est strength and tradition of celebration is shown by the holidays linked to the Orthodox religion bearing in the same time a strong national symbolism – in this case Christmas, family patron saint day and St. Sava. The latter one is also the most important holiday of Serbs in Hungary.

Another large group of celebrations of Serbs in Hungary are important an-niversaries, i.e. common remembrance (commemoration) of historic events and important persons relevant for Serbian history and culture. Before this research started, during 1987, Serbs in Hungary joined the celebration of the 200th an-niversary of birth of Vuk Karadžić – The Two Centuries of Vuk – followed by two other big celebrations of national importance – the 600th anniversary of the Battle of Kosovo (1989),32 as well as, particularly important for Serbs in Hungary, the 300th anniversary of the Great Migration (1990). The Serbian com-munity in Hungary, i.e. Serbs in Budapest and its surroundings also nurture the memory of certain important persons linked to this environment; the period of our research saw important anniversaries pertaining to Jaša Ignjatović,33 Sava Tekelija,34 Tihomir Vujičić35 and Nikola Tesla.36

31 For a more complete analysis of holidays as the time of dense symbolization of identity of Serbs in Hungary, see Prelić 2008: 315–363.

32 The battle at the Kosovo fi eld on Vidovdan, June 28th, 1389 between Serbian and Turkish armies, which meant a phase of Turskih penetration to the Balkans, became, partly due to the interpretation of the Serbian Orthodox Church, one of the most important symbols in folklore, and then in national mythology, the central national myth pertaining to (lost and then renewed) Serbian statehood. On Kosovo myth see, for example, Popović 1976.

33 Jaša Ignjatović (1822–1889) writer born in Szentendre, creator of Serbian realistic novel.34 Sava Popović Tekelija (1761–1842) Hungarian nobleman from Arad of Serbian origin and

affi liation, one of the fi rst creators of Serbian national programme, donor and benefactor.35 Tihomir Vujičić (1929–1975), musician, composer and ethnomusicologist, born in Pomáz.36 Nikola Tesla (1856–1943) famous scientist and inventor, by family ties linked to Pomáz, whe-

reas the beginning of his scientifi c affi rmation is linked to Budapest where he stayed in 1881–1882 (SNN, No. 31, August 5, 1993: 4).

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Furthermore, during our stay in Hungary and this research, several celebrations were organized on the occasion of formal opening, i.e. commencement of work of renewed or newly established Serbian institutions, or renewal of places of historic or symbolic importance for Serbian community. The community attributed a very high importance to the formal opening ceremonies, which also in a symbolic man-ner refl ect the position of Serbian community in the surrounding society and its specifi c ethnic identity. In difference from religious holidays, and to a certain measure commemorations, which are oriented inwards or refl ect the group’s links to the motherland, these celebrations the best symbolize the social status of the group and its relations with the domicile country and the motherland.

As for the attitude of our collocutors towards holidays of other religions, it largely expresses the experiences and wisdom of common “coexistence” and re-spect for others. On the other hand, there were collocutors who were indifferent (These are not our holidays), so that two understandings are crystallized: either (more often) the tradition of living together requires not only the respect for the others, but also to certain measure the unity with them, or (rarely), that exactly the celebration of own religious holidays is an opportunity for clear establish-ment of the symbolic distinctions we-others.

The relation which our collocutors have towards Hungarian public holidays is also indicative for the concept of symbolization of ethnic identity. If the attitude toward these holidays is affi rmative, it is explained by the feeling of loyalty and respect for the state lived in. Here it should be repeated that Serbs in Hungary with whom I spoke emphasize their loyalty and, accordingly, respect for holidays of the state they live in. Some of them, however, insisted that an obligation for the members of minority should be to celebrate public, but not national holidays. In that sense they made difference between August 20th, as the day of the founda-tion of the statehood of Hungary, which should involve the members of national minorities as citizens of that state, and March 15th, as the biggest Hungarian national holiday which, in this understanding, minority members should not be obliged to celebrate.

As for the holidays of the motherland, in addition to their expressing certain reluctance towards the holidays in the motherland as the holidays of another state, certain confusion in relation to them was caused because in the time of our research eventual Serbian national holidays were not clearly offi cially defi ned.37

37 It should be reminded that in the period of our research during the 1990s this kind of confusion due to insuffi cient symbolic defi nition of national and state identity existed also among the citizens of the motherland.

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Yet, if we understand the holidays like St. Sava as Serbian national holidays,38 we notice that our collocutors show an extremely high level of identifi cation with them.

The celebration of St. Sava among Serbs in Hungary can indeed be understood as a holiday in which the community “celebrates itself” in Durkheim’s sense. Celebration of St. Sava is in fact the celebration of Serbian ethnical identity and self-awareness.39 The manner in which the secular cult of St. Sava was estab-lished among Serbs has its origins exactly among the Serbs in Hungary and can be observed since the early 19th century. Thus today’s Serbs in Hungary consider themselves at least to a certain measure the creators and heritors of a long tradi-tion which gained the fi rst-rank national importance. The tradition which was formed and became regular before the World War Two was after the war sup-pressed, but never entirely interrupted.40 In its old form it was slowly and to some extent marginally renewed since the 1970s, and since the 1990s, as a church-school patron day, the formal academy and ball organized most often in some of the hotels in downtown Pest, have again becoming the most important central and representative celebration of Serbian national minority in Hungary.

The manner in which this holiday is celebrated, i.e. renewed, refl ects also the situation of identity of the community itself, and its position in the surrounding society and search for new/old (revitalizing) forms of identity and organization, new beginning of the community (after the period of socialism, and after the dis-solution of former federal motherland, when institutions defi ned as South Slavic also fell apart), development and stabilization of its institutions, stabilization of its social status and relationship with the motherland, however also the internal problems and disagreements and certain bureaucratization which accompanied this development.

38 Meanwhile, the motherland separated also with the last member of the former federation, Mon-tenegro, and remained as the independent state of Serbia, while St. Sava (January 27th) indeed became one of its public holidays.

39 Saint Sava (1174–1236), son of Stefan Nemanja, founder of the medieval Nemanjic dynasty. Founder of the Serbian Orthodox Church, educator, founder of Serbian legislation and litara-ture. Won the autocephalous Serban church and was its fi rst archbishop in 1219–1236. Beati-fi ed, and since 1775 proclaimed the patron of Serbian people. Since 1840 celebrated as school patron day in all Serbian schools. Saint Sava is the subject of a widespread popular cult, and celebration of January 27th, the St. Sava Day in the church calendar, has religious, educational and national dimension.

40 Celebration of St. Sava since the 19th century implies, besides the church holiday also the “school patron day”, organization of St. Sava academies (similar to Czech Besede) and St. Sava balls.

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Of fi rst-rank importance was also the celebration of the 300th anniversary of the Great Migration. It belongs to the type of commemorations and its celebration probably was the most important ritual in the recent history of Serbs in Hungary. This opportunity was used by the community itself to present to broader public during the entire “Year of Migration” in 1990 which reached its peak in the fi -nal celebration in Szentendre on October 12–14th, the entire cultural heritage of Serbs in Hungary, as well as to confi rm the relationships with the motherland and the share of Serbs in Hungary in the overall national culture.

The two mentioned holidays testify about the self-awareness of Serbs in Hungary, as well as about their relatively successful affirmation in the surrounding society and positive relations both with the domicile country and the motherland. However, the earlier mentioned rituals of formal open-ings of Serbian institutions, which from one hand to a large measure also confirm the successful process of social (re)affirmation of this minority during the process of transition, on the other hand reveal the reverse side of the medal – the instability and uncertainty of their position.41 Although they also testify about the positive sides of integration of this group into the society and state they live in, the analysis reveals a certain level of conflict potential between the minority and majority society, i.e. reveals that minorities can still serve for bargaining. Their “otherness” and rela-tively smaller power in relation to the majority are often used in function of political games within the majority society or between the domicile state and the motherland. On this, for example, testifies the event on the occa-sion of opening of the renewed building of Serbian elementary school and gymnasium in Budapest. The Hungarian Minister of Education abused this opportunity to accuse the Serbian side, in a staged situation broadcasted by the Hungarian TV, for worse position of Hungarian minority in Serbia in comparison to the Serbian minority in Hungary. This points to a still open, unresolved and potentially instable situation regarding the position of eth-nic/national minorities, in spite of global tendencies not only of recognition but also of “celebrating” the diversities.

41 As for the celebrations on the occasion of opening or establishment of Serbian insti-tutions, four such events are took as an example here – foundation of the Assembly of the Serbian Democratic Alliance, the Serbian Self-Government in Hungary (Feb-ruary 18th, 1995) and formal opening of its premises (January 27, 1998), and the opening of the renewed building of the Serbian elementary school and gymnasium in Budapest (January 17, 1997).

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ConclusionThe investigation of the ethnic identity among the small group of Serbs cur-rently living in Hungary indicates that their self determination is, at a fi rst glance, strong and conclusive. Their symbols of identity, such as language, religion, cul-tural heritage, artistic creativity and the network of their own institutions, are the ones commonly used not only in this region but also in many other cases.

The ideal typical conception of a Serb as the creator and bearer of all these symbols, and proof of being of “pure Serbian” descent, is, however, much more fl exibly interpreted in practice. The community values self-consciousness as more important than cultural competence or descent. While open minded in accepting deviations form the ideal type, their community shows resentment towards identity hybridization. This, just like the earlier mentioned preciseness of the defi nition of what constitutes the Serbian identity at the declarative level, can be understood as a defense mechanism against the fear of gradual assimilation. In-depth analyses re-veal some paradoxes and inconsistencies in defi ning group belonging, unstandard-ized identity symbolism and variety of its interpretations. One can also observe that the scope of expressing symbols of ethnicity is shrinking in recent times, from the all-encompassing ethnic culture in everyday life to symbolic ethnicity, as defi ned by Herbert Gans, that becomes especially dense and intense during festivities. In the case of the group under study, the most powerful are the celebrations connected to the church holidays (Julian Calendar) and commemorations of historic events. Specifi cally, celebrations of Saint Sava, and Three-Hundredth anniversary of the Great Migration are the prime examples. The manner in which these are com-memorated attests to the strong presence of self-consciousness and the affi rmation of the group, including defi ning relations towards the environment, the host society and the country of origin. However, there are also some other examples that reveal uncertainty and perception of potential threats to the status of the ethnic minority, in spite of the contemporary trends of “celebrating diversity”.

At the time this study was conducted, the group was experiencing visible interior and exterior changes,42 which required the adaptation of identity strategies. At that time the group demonstrated that it could still use fl exibility to its own advantage. The ques-tion, however, remains: what are the limits of adaptability and fl exibility in expressing ethnic identity, especially when the group with slightinner resources is at stake.

June 2011

42 The most striking exterior change is the processes of transition the Hungarian host society had gone through, while the greatest interior change is the depopulation of the Serbian group.

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The Law (Zakon): 1993 – Zakon br. LXXVII iz 1993. godine, o pravima nacionalnih i etničkih manjina. Informator nacionalnih i etničkih manjina u Mađarskoj 1. Budimpešta: Ured za na-cionalne i etničke manjine: 1–42.

Zlatanović, Sanja: 2006 – Djorgovci: An ambivalent identity. Romani Studies 5, Vol.16/2: 133–151.

Zlatanović, Sanja: 2007 – Pregovaranje o identitetu: Romi koji to i jesu i nisu. In: Vojislav Stanovčić (ed.): Položaj nacionalnih manjina u Srbiji. Beograd: Međuodeljenjski odbor za proučavanje nacionalnih manjina i ljudskih prava SANU: 639–647.

Published sources:

Statistical data:1990. Evi nepszamlalas, 27, Demografi ai adatok, I–II kotet, Kozponti sztatisztikai hivatal, Buda-pest, 1993.1990. Evi nepszamlalas, Nemzetiseg, anyanyelv, I–II kotet, Kozponti sztatisztikai hivatal, Buda-pest, 1993.A nemzetisegek eletkorulmenyei / Životne prilike narodnosti, Kozponti sztatistikai hivatal, Buda-pest, 1995.

Newspapers:SNN – Srpske narodne novine. Srpski demokratski savez, Budimpešta, 1991–1998.

Contact: Dr Mladena Prelić, Etnografski institut SANU, Knez Mihailova 36/IV, 11000 Beograd, Srbija, e-mail: [email protected].

Konceptualizace a symbolika etnické identity: Srbové v Maďarsku.

Resumé: Příspěvek vychází z dlouhodobého výzkumu realizovaného mezi příslušníky srbské etnické/národnostní menšiny v Maďarsku. Výzkum se soustředil na téma etnic-ké identity. Příspěvek se pokouší vyvodit z tohoto výzkumu konkrétní koncept etnické identity a to, jak je studovanou skupinou uvedena do symbolické roviny. Vychází z před-pokladu, že (etnická) identita je sociokulturní konstrukcí, a závěry jsou založeny na výrocích a chování členů dané skupiny – tedy těch, kdo se sami prohlašují za Srby.

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POLITICAL FOLKLORE ON FESTIVAL MARKET: POWER OF PARADIGM AND POWER OF STAGE

MIROSLAVA LUKIĆ KRSTANOVIĆ

Abstract: Political folklore can be regarded through processes of construction of paradigms, and the production of festivals. There is no doubt that folklore, as a national concept and a commercial product, has become a means in the creation of various strategies of power on its path to becoming the national identifi er as well as the commercial product in the everlasting confrontation between cultural forms and the ideological formations. The folklore construction in the conven-tional zones, along with its regulation role in the intangible heritage, as well as during the performing of the folklore performances, establish one complex sys-tem of controls, interests and commodities. The most exclusive examples of the folklore tradition’s production are, in effect, various events – festive events that become a signifi cant domestic and tourist phenomena based on their ritual and seasonal journeys. A case study of a Dragačevski sabor trubača (The Trumpet Festival of Dragačevo) is analysed through the zone of national and commercial supervision and representation, leaving behind a deep trace of folklore’s politicis-ing.Keywords: folklore, politics, bureaucracy, Festivals in Serbia, The Trumpet Fes-tival.

Introduction: The Ectopic Nature of the Discourse

Folklore can be interpreted as a construction of ideas and the activities of a group and a community, based on the collective experiences and representations of a common identity. By using the word “folklore”, we think in terms of heritage, tradition, the longe durée continuity in cultural contents’ emancipation as well as the needs for the instrumentation and valorisation. However, the basic mean-ing of the word “folklore” came about as an initial practical everyday use of one community, becoming a label for the cultural needs especially of national and

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ethnical markings. And this is where the new path in the idealisation and bureau-cratisation has begun through an established notion of “preserving and protect-ing of the cultural heritage”, which in many ways projects the strategic politics of social and cultural entity. In order to be preserved, protected and nourished, we need to recognise folklore, which needs to represent itself in its compact edition of excellence, i.e., paradigms of values which are nothing else, but the constructs of that which is desirable – or what (self)proclaimed authorities consider to be desirable. Thus, folklore obtains its constructors, managers, designers, promot-ers, delegates and controllers, boards, commissions, laws and conventions, be-coming a factory for production of the goods labelled as creativity and heritage. It is founded on the micro and macro plan grounds into normative units and taxonomies creating a special bureaucratic language. What is and what is not the folklore’s heritage, how it can be recognised through creativity and how as a regulation; is it recognised more through its expressive practices or production relationships – only partially point out to the discursive positioning of the para-digm’s power and the power of the event, classifi cation, and perception.

In this essay I will present folklore products via representative categories of public and performing scenes, especially in the domain of production of musical and folklore manifestations – festivals. Conception and the use of folklore enter the domain of the current cultural policies and global trends, which can be seen in the following processes: 1. Standardization in the construction of folklore paradigms; 2. Conventionalisation of folklore in the zone of the bureaucratic meta-design and its regulatory system; 3. Representation in the spectacularisa-tion of folklore as a medium and the scene. The politics of folklore, therefore, is observed through various strategies of its construction, organisation, manage-ment, which inevitably leads into a thick network of single and group relations and the desire for establishing hierarchy and systems of power.

Folklore as paradigm and a bureaucratic piece

Folklore is the medium – a message, governed by certain rules and conventions like the imperative sets and user manuals. In order for an object or an image to get the folklore label, it is necessary for it to be artifi cially implemented into the identifying hallmark and for that certain assumed parameters, i.e., paradigms, such as originality authenticity, continuity, permanence and heritage. These para-digms, as it will be shown, largely determine the geo-strategic and the temporal positioning of the folklore on the map of identifi cation.

As a concept and a paradigm, the term folklore found its roots in Thoms’ defi nition back in 1846, who regarded folklore as “traditions, religious displays,

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Miroslava Lukić Krstanović: Political Folklore on Festival Market

stories, poems and proverbs”. According to Bauzinger (Bauzinger 2002: 52–53) the preform of the term “folklore” gave it a positivistic view with “poetic” mark-ings and “the spirit of creation, especially in oral tradition”, without anticipating that this “light-hearted” term would grow up to become the major trigger to vari-ous myths and ideologies and the sacrosanct of the national pivot with historical provenance. Contemporary meaning of folklore, according to UNESCO’s (dat-ing back to 1989) standards, gives it much more manoeuvring space, bringing it closer to tradition and popular culture.1

In Serbian terminology, folklore in the widest sense of the word encompasses “folk art of wording, shaping of the movement and music” (Rečnik književnih termina / Dictionary of literary terminology 1986: 208).2 It is important that we have in mind that anthropological semantic analyses are mostly focused on inter-preting folklore whose major purpose is to signify the way of thinking and knowl-edge, and folklore as an ideological and social symbolic system (Antonijević 2007: 75). In ethnological interpretations folklore marks the entirety of tradition that comes from one community, as well as its aesthetic form (Antonijević 1993: 8; Žikić 1996: 128). Beyond phenomenological analysis a wide ethnographic fi eld of representing the folklore in terms of collecting and placing it within the confi nes of “traditional culture”, from where it resisted, and for a long time, many social, demographical and cultural processes of change and mixing, thus creating a perception of pure and stable, everlasting category, which could not be disturbed by anything, and which was prepared to take on a didactic march for heritage and tradition. Yet, still general defi nitions of folklore keep getting beaten by its functional use and the in site signifying categorising.

The basic translation of the word folk/volks is common people.3 So in that sense, the equivalent to the folklore can be found in peoples’s creativity and traditional art (Bošković Stulli 1983: 51). The folk creativity has remained

1 Folklore (or traditional and popular culture) is the totality of tradition-based creations of cul-tural community, expressed by group or individuals (...) In: Recommendation on the Saffe-guarding of Traditional Culture and Folklore: UNESCO. www.portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php-URL_ID=13141&URL_DO=DO_PRINTPAGE_

2 Furthermore, folklore signifi es: 1. Traditional material culture (the artistic shapes, craftsmen-ship, costumes, architecture); 2. The folklore of movement, dance and music; 3. The folklore of “ideas” – which includes customs, beliefs, medicine, religion; 4. The art of the word – nar-rations, ballads, epic and lyre, tradition, proverbs, riddles, etc. (Milošević-Đorđević – Pešić 1984: 83). Doubtlessly this kind of defi nition provides a good ground for the paradigm con-struction as a basis for recognising and displaying the folklore phenomenon and the label of the folk culture.

3 This word revived folk in a modern sense of “the common people, whose culture is handed down orally” www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=folklore&searchmode=none.

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persistent to its nomenclature, forming a strong historical and holistic ground suitable for national, class-oriented and ideological cataloguing on the idealistic-type path through 19th century’s romantic image of rustic and national entity, and then incorporated into a socialistic model of national culture. The term folklore creativity has been promoted since 1960s in the titles of publications and the names of manifestations.4 Beginning in 1970s, the term original national ex-pression started to emerge as a predecessor of the future national coined phrase “Serbian Heritage/Legacy”, which has, since, become a favourite platitude, or cliché, if you will, in the academic-political rhetorical plaidoyer. The model of the nationalisation of folklore has plade its role in the processes of retraditionali-zation and in politicising the tradition (which was mostly present in the Orthodox rituals and the prototypes of the 19th century rustic prototypes).5 At the same time, the crossover of the word folklore into the term ethno came out from the new distribution of trends in the global market of terminology, where the folk-lore goods were fabricated into the ethno products (now the evermore popular term brand) with the goal to be glocalised on the public local and transcultural scenes. The terminological transferences – heritage – legacy or popular –- folk-lore or folklore – ethno, do not only create taxonomic “dilemmas” and fl uid meanings, but, as Gavrilović stresses out, the aesthetics and ethics of expression have entered in to the polygon of the policies of identity, promoting various archaisms and essentialisms, sluggishly incorporating into the international tax-onomy (Gavrilović 2010: 42–43). On one hand, the conservative concepts still equalise the term folklore with the words people – village – tradition, while on the other hand the term folklore unstoppably keep entering the terminological hyper-production with such terms as neo-folk, turbo-folk, urban folk, folk rock, alternative folk, political folk, etc.

The next paradigmatic positioning of folklore is its originality. The basic sta-tus of folklore is determined with the degree of the contemplated originality. The folklore’s conceivers state that the category of originality is underlined with the continuity, i.e. the longevity, all the way back to the assumed beginnings. The originality is linked to the archaic nature which is further linked to the autoch-thony (of a nation). One of the folklore’s operator stresses: “To keep the authen-ticity and the originality is the imperative to the times we live in, and therefore, this assembly/sabor and those that are similar, have for us all an extraordinary meaning in the fi ght against bad imaging of the national expression.” (Simentić

4 Periodical Narodno stvaralaštvo – Folklor began its publication in Belgrade in 1962. Since 1971, the Amateurs’ Council began to organise gatherings of national expression.

5 On relationship between traditionalism and nationalism ref. (Naumović 2009: 54).

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1982: 1). This demand protects the folklore piece from “contorted and bad” ele-ments, which could be subjected to the glorifi cation and canonisation in the en-dorsement of an entity – at least for those who believe in it. Folklore is codifi ed as a monument, the antique whose longevity cannot be measured by linear time, thus becoming archetypically eternal.

Furthermore, folklore can be placed in a system of certain functions: keeping, nourishing and protecting. Whether it is an artefact, or a manufactured piece, it is prepared for its further use in spaces reserved for established protocols and regu-lations, where the government provides suitable legitimacy and evaluation. At the same time, folklore, manufactured in this way, becomes a public scene and an article of the market, with the elements of a fetish that is a serial product with a label of authenticity. Folklore’s concept understands its styling, thus becoming an artifi cial piece – manufactured, upgraded, made into a new authentic product. Numerous manifestation, slogans, tell-tales, hosts, television coverage and arti-cles in publications stress out the fetish quality of expression and creation: the pure sources of national spirit and tradition, supporters of national expression and its guardians, etc. We can discuss here the politics of authenticity, since its self-reception could only be measured with other – other self-receptions, as special totalities. The relation between the sameness and difference becomes an abstract unit, since it is based on symbolic classifi cation of guidelines made by the elected authorities. Therefore today it is easy to label something as authentic even though it is immediately known that the world is fl ooded with similar or mutated displays. Folklore has cuddled itself with the words “ours” and “domes-tic”, which automatically establishes its autonomy and its borders.

The sacrosanct paradigm of folklore is heritage. As a matter of fact, we are talking about the common phrase folklore heritage.6 Once placed within that option folklore becomes a thing of the past, or each past for the future, with the task to establish itself through generations. In Serbian terminology the folklore heritage or legacy is closely connected with the patrilinear transfer of cultural patterns (Gavrilović 2010: 47), which automatically limits and selects those who are given the right to heritage. Naumović thinks that the tradition can also be ap-plied to folklore and that it represents the continuous process of transferring the contents it chooses, and is interpreted all over again by the new generation of ac-

6 In Serbian terminology in the last couple of years, term “baština”, (a derivative of the word bašta – garden = father, fatherland, land of forefathers) meaning legacy has, interestingly, be-come a new archaism. Promotion of this term began in the period of retraditionalisation in the late 1990s (Gavrilović 2010: 43–44).

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tive acceptors.7 I would like to add that this heritage is the message that is created in the intergenerational manner, but in a way that it is based on the individual in-teractions, which gives it the copyright status. If the heritage is accepted as a per-manent and fi xed category, then the issue of its subservience to the generational corrections and their verifi cations is raised – since it is assumed to have a sem-blance of continuity. In certain periods of romanticism and modernism, socialism and post socialism, the folklore heritage was represented through mutated shapes of recycled materials and fi guring out the new, or refi guring the old origin, which points more to discontinuity, than to maintaining the continuity.

Folklore is shown through its absolute value of consistency, which create the sub-straction of the paradigm of nature. Is it necessary to be persistent in that? Obviously, the purifi cation of folklore as a nature gives it the legitimacy of persistence and of vacuum sterility. Today, folklore – ethno is linked with ecology. A large number of por-tals, programmes and networks establish this connection. Pure air, ethno-houses, fl ora and fauna, the cult of “home specialties”, souvenirs – home-crafts, etc are stereotypes which are presented on the tourist market and in marketing concepts of “healthy life and healthy food,” but with regard to “Serbia, the land of health”.8 This ethno-eco duo, even though it points towards the correct concept of the ideology of globalisation, it basically represents the national image, which is reminiscent of “amalgam of soil and culture” of nationalistic legacy (Čolović 2006: 271).

Folkloric paradigms present a fi rm axel of constructed communities, which had in various ideologically fi xed periods created certain versions of folklorism as a form of national and political decorations or revisited constructions (Šmidchens 1999). Čolović states that certain groups of people recognise and represent folkloric values in an array of philological, pedagogical and political operations, with the intent to become avail-able to everyone; to become regulated and processed materials, which would then be ready to serve the national cause (Čolović 1992: 222–223.) The new/old folklores are being stockpiled, thus becoming the models of certain historical continuity, regardless whether it is invented or reinvented from the scratch (Hobsbom 2002: 9) This way, folkloric politics represent certain kind of confrontation that came out from the battle of meaning of identifying marks which was completely authorised.

7 Naumović here paraphrases the Renan syntagme “plebiscite generation” (Naumović 2009: 13).

8 Serbia’s tourism promoters’ web portals have a large number of special link, redirecting the website visitors to eco or ethno sites. Please look: www.manifestacije.com/info.php?grID=713. A large number of portals are also dedicated to the promotion of Serbia: www.upoznajsrbiju.co.rs/o-nama.

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Folklore is a public good that is subordinate to various administrative units. The laws of Republic of Serbia recognised it in the coin-phrase “the original national creativity”, which is not defi ned.9 It can be taken per se, or can be identi-fi ed with such terms as National heritage and Cultural good – terms which are defi ned by European standards of Paris and Bern conventions. In the administra-tive approach, folkloric creativity is confronted with two principles: the freedom of creativity, the creative interpretation, expert supervision; and maintaining the folkloric heritage rules. This is not an easy job for those who are supposed to determine the competency of a folkloric piece. If we understand the folkloric creativity as a regulated formation, then we can look at its administrative treat-ment more explicitly. Folkloric creativity became a matter of state administra-tion and of European institutions’ supervision (e.g. 1973 – Convention: Bolivian proposal; 1978 – Application of IP law UNESCO; 1982 WIPO and UNESCO Lows on the Protection of Expression of Folklore; 1989 Recommendation on the Safeguarding of Traditional Cultural and Folklore and the fi nalisation of the Convention for the Safeguarding Heritage, 2003).10 There is no doubt that ritual practices and staged activities did in fact establish the new conventional rules in the shaping of the folkloric heritage/order: what should remain and what should be erased, added, subtracted and fi nally confi gures it in a representative manner.11 Folklore, as a representation and a matrix of traditional societies and folklore as a variable of modern societies maintain certain consensus of cultural contents that are recognisable to the audiences and that are recruited from the lines of me-dia and music industry, projected in the zone of establishment and placed on the market as products, which – with its aesthetic and cultural contents – should cov-er the majority of the population. Only in that way can folklore fulfi l its primary role as the tradition culture. Folklore interpolated in industrial goods becoming equivalents popular culture. It is industrially produced in order to be popular and available every day, not archaic isolated.12 There is no doubt anymore that the ritual, musical and dance folk had been invented on stages – ceremonies in visual exclusiveness and the hypertrophy of the spectacle. Everything else is the aesthetic and ideological politics of creating folklore for the needs of a group, society, state. Therefore, from the production viewpoint, folklore is a job which has its standpoints, its paradigms, its programmes, i.e. politics, its strategies,

9 See Serbian law on general interests in the area of culture Offi cial Gazette RS Number 49/92.10 (Rusalić 2009: 34–35); www.portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php-4-URL_ID=13141&URL_DO=DO_PRINTPAGE_...11 On removing of the ceremony from its parent surrounding onto stage see Ober 2007: 63–67.12 The relationship between popular culture and folklore to see Fisk 2001: 194–204.

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i.e. bureaucracy. Calling on its matrixes based on ideas about stabile unity of national – ethnic tradition, are paradoxes, at the same time, since folkloric inven-tions are represented as dynamic and fl uctuating process – with their mixings and upgrades – that often lose their boundaries.

Managing the folklore scene

Various folkloric manifestations are institutional products. As celebrations, they have always been supervised by the state, which had its jurisdiction over them. In past, celebrations and other forms of holiday gatherings were customary sanc-tioned by institutions with the clear protocol of ritual and ceremonial practice. Their public character has shown itself as a valid representation of the social framework of a village community. Folklore, thus, became distinguished at the time when the public life rose up to the stage of collective representation. What has changed since then? The further development was conditioned by the reac-tions of certain institutions that favoured the established scenario of these events. Genesis and transformation of celebrations manifested through various oligar-chies of the management of the event – initially priests, then notable villagers, later politicians and administrators. Since 1960s, with the establishment of the Trumpet festival and similar manifestations, a new era of reanimation of the homeland culture began. It became bureaucratised in its domain of amateurism. The folklore creativity became distinguished from the general sum of ritual prac-tice, by getting the priority of the public stage. Since 1970s, folklore manifesta-tions, more and more, began to be called archaically “Sabor” or The Assembly, a term, which, etymologically, pointed out to the genesis of people’s celebrations from the fair and religious rits (Lukić Krstanović 2006a: 789–790.). Assemblies/festivals of the folklore creativity have for a long time had a status of amateur organisations, which were shaped through socialistic – the (communist) party’s programmes of the culture of a working people.13 Since the era of socialism, the initiators were usually individuals who called themselves the “enthusiasts” – writers, composers, ethnologists, journalists, and they, along with the political activists – municipal leaders, party secretaries – were agents of the manifesta-tion, wanting to do something on the cultural upbringing of their birth places, and to “prevent the oblivion to swallow the original creativity”.14 In 1970s the board of directors of folklore manifestations were made by the then politics of

13 On the phenomena of amateurism in the time of socialism see (Supek 1974: 8–9).14 Memories of Vlastimir Vujović in a publication celebrating 35 years of Dragačevo Trumpet

Assembley (Sabor trubača 1995: 11).

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the self-governing interest communities – also known as SIZ.15 The management and fi nancing of manifestations were decided by the SIZ assemblies, which were authoritative organs of management or some other body of the state government. In late 1980s, the control and the jurisdiction of the folklore manifestations came into the hands of municipal governments and the culture houses,16 which became the main carriers of obligations and responsibilities for signifi cant events. Certain number of manifestations remained under the jurisdiction of the Amateurs’ coun-cils and the ministries of the republics, while others were governed by the insti-tutions of local self-government, especially the culture houses. In 1990s, during the time of economic crisis and international sanctions, national-populism and the patriotic megalomania, manifestations of the national creativity became land-mark, not for the dialogue with other cultures, but for the self-serving ambition and confrontation with others. Instead of expanding in the course of the cultural emblem, these manifestations served for an exercise for the national “spirit”. Manifestations get jubilee-like characteristics, and thus the people’s creativity was identifi ed with Serbian national history: six hundred years’ anniversary of Kosovo battle, three hundred years of the movement of Serbs from south to the north, celebrations of Serbian medieval state and of Serbian Orthodox Church. At the same time, the irregular market privatisation (especially in the domain of management and tourism and catering), the interest of political parties of central and local governments, could also be seen at the folklore events, which were, then again used as a suitable tool for the promotion of power and advantage. In the transitional period following 2000, folklore manifestations diversifi ed in two paths: nurturing of ethnic and national excellence in the fi eld of folklore heritage and nurturing the folklore diversity and multiculturalism, especially in multieth-nic areas, where ethnic minorities lived (e.g. Vojvodina). According to Bjeljac and Čurčić, among other things, the category of ethnographic manifestation cat-egory is distinguished by: festivities of folklore and the original national music, folklore festivals, festivities of ritual, national creativity, harvest festivities, ex-hibitions of folklore artefacts, children folklore festivities, etc (Bjeljac – Čurčić

15 Yugoslav 1974 constitution made the SIZ into constitutional category in the fi elds of material production and social manifestations. The SIZ were fi nanced from the contributions of the work organisations.

16 Following World War Two, the communal homes, which were later replaced by the Culture Houses, which were the establishments of the uttermost importance for a village or a small town. They meant “everything”, and they served as replacements for all the establishment one place needed (Ivanišević 1976: 130–132).

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2010: 230). Based on the agenda of manifestations,17 statistical data show that out of 800 registered cultural manifestations in 23 towns and 144 municipalities, the majority of them are in Vojvodina, then in Šumadija, West Serbia and East Serbia. Folklore manifestations represent the majority of manifestations (20,1 %).18 The profi le of folklore manifestations depend on several factors: 1. Infl u-ence and the stakes of central and local institutions in management and fi nanc-ing; 2. Distribution of jurisdiction between the culture houses, towns councils municipal councils and the involvement of the ministries. 3. The infl uence of an individual, expert and politician within an organisation. What in today’s terms does that mean? The institutional network in organising the folklore manifesta-tions is as follows:

NETWORK OF INSTITUTIONS

│ │ │ │

Department of state administration:

government sectot ─

Social organisations

and associationsPublic services Private

sector

│ │ │ │

Ministry of Culture ── ─ Association of

Amateurs The mediaCatering and hotel business

│ │ │

Ministry of Tourism ─ Tourist organisations Spectacle production ─

Sponsors: the media,

private companies, individuals

│

Local-self governing body ─ Cultural

centres ─

Local infrastructure: court of justice, police

force, state-owned electric company

17 The agenda of manifestations in Serbia is a project, database created for the needs of tourism and economy realised by the Institute for Studying the Cultural Development, funded and sup-ported by Serbia’s Ministry of culture. See www.zaprokul.org.rs/AgendaManifestacija/Mani-festacijaDetails.aspx?ID=223

18 www.seecult.org/vest/agenda-manifestacija-u-srbiji.

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Each folkloric event implies organisation and realization. The organisation consists of: the initiative and program resource, executive administration that de-cides on role and job assignments. The organisation of a certain number of folk-loric events is under direct state authority – The Ministry of Culture of Serbia, the Association of Amateurs of Serbia19 and the Tourist Organisation of Serbia. The Ministry of Culture decides on its share in fi nancing based on a four-member com-mittee as program selector of special importance in the sphere of cultural heritage.20 To this point, the Ministry as co-fi nancer participated in the organisation of folk-loric events such as: Pipers Assembly – Oi, Morava!, Assembly of folk creativity, Assembly of authentic folk creativity – Prođoh Levač, prođoh Šumadiju!, Themes from Homolje, Vršac Wreath and tens of others. Once the programs are chosen, a whole fi eld of event organisation opens. The highest ranking bodies of these festivals/assemblies are programme and artistic councils made up of chosen ex-perts and activists of the Association of amateurs. They decide on the programme, content, fi nancial plan and reports. Assemblies of folk creativity as an organisation have their own emblems and signs – logo and promotional resources.21

A second type of event organization is produced by the local community – the municipality, community centre, church, cultural centre, companies and indi-viduals. The more important the event, the higher their contribution. The local community attracts a number of government offi cials – the media, tourist organi-zations, state-owned companies, ministries. A festival conceived in such a man-ner encourages many towns and smaller settlements to become hosts of a music event. Therefore, year in and year out there are new host-towns that, by organiz-ing folklore events, recognize their own promotion in the cultural “emblematiz-ing” of the place, village or town.22 The growth in number of folklore festivals is a means of governance decentralization. This makes the organization a rou-tine bureaucratic apparatus, not solely a ceremony of government. However, the work invested in the actualisation of the festival is mostly valued through models of power and honour in the form of ownership over the event.

19 The Association of Amateurs is partly fi nanced from the Ministry of Culture’s budget.20 The committee for authentic folk creativity and the preservation of intangible cultural heritage

consists of four ethnologists and ethno-musicologists. Decision on the appointment of mem-bers of the Committee for co-fi nancial support of programs whose quality contribute to the development of culture and art, 9. 12. 2003. The competition is coded.

21 The Satute of the folk creativity of Serbia.22 Mugnani in his analysis of the carnival in Siena approaches the carnival as “an emblem-celebra-

tion”, which involves a celebratory event that represents a particular city or place, giving it a cer-tain identity in the framework of cultural and social fi eld of reference (Mugnani 1997: 168).

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Organisational structures of the assembly/festival of folk creativity dictate certain rules. Criteria and participation proposals are set: the right to participate in the as-sembly are those authentic folklore groups and folklore ensembles of art and culture associations that have been selected for the authenticity and quality of their pro-grams at municipal and other assemblies (point 4 of the Assembly of Folk Creativity of Serbia Statute); the right to present authentic folkloric content and the perform-ance of village county groups (taken from the project conception of the “Vršački venac” or Vršac Wreath festival); the preview-contest and contest of orchestras aims at cultivating and preserving authentic folk music and the tradition of supporting the development of trumpet-playing and performance promotion (The Trumpeters Assembly Book of Regulations).23 These and many other rules from the books of regulations have the function of preserving folklore and its participants, and also the function of control and supervision that imply certain sanctions and penalties. The competitive character of folklore events means that precise evaluation criteria are set forth, which create interactive relationships along the lines of assessment, grad-ing and competition. Whether they are of a competitive nature or merely a staging, festivals of folk creativity create a pyramidal network of panoptic supervision and control in order to discipline folklore into a clearly defi ned order. All year round nu-merous performances take place in smaller towns and villages that have passed the selection committees proposals. The social status of the performers in the transitional test phase is ranked and selective. In the ritual zone of music competition, new social roles are formed for the purpose of acquiring positions and evaluating success. The performance itself is registered, sorted, eliminated and promoted. The folklore itself, therefore, establishes a hierarchy between the evaluator and performer, between the producer of a folk-sound and its consumer – the public.

The Trumpet Festival: Politicization and Commercialization of Folklore24

The procedure that preceded the establishment of trumpet tradition was as fol-lows: the Dragačevo Trumpeters Assembly was the fi rst event to be created, and

23 This Book of Regulations defi ne the rules of application and performing for “folk trumpet or-chestras”. The Book of Regulations for the folk trumpet orchestras preview-contest and contest at the Dragačevo assembly in Guča, based on the Statute of the Guča cultural centre board committee.

24 My research and interpretation on the Festival focused on the ethnography of events and proce-sses of ritualization. Methodological framework has involved a narrative context (experiences, impressions, attitudes, memories, informations, intepretations of the organizers and partici-pants, insiders and outsiders of the Festival) and visual context (image as subject and object of the Festival – the media and private video and photo records).

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this was followed by the establishment of trumpet folklore as a paradigm.25 Even though what was folk and authentic was not defi nitely established, and those persons responsible for implementing the concept decided on its status only at the First Dragačevo Trumpeters Assembly in 1961. During the time before and after the fi rst assembly/festival was created the basis for the paradigm of continu-ity, which can be read as tradition of long standing. This was the direction taken in order to root tradition in a bureaucratic framework of creativity. Such a folk-loric status that entered the procedure of convention under the title “authentic folk trumpet playing” securing a permanent place in legitimate cultural heritage. Constituting elements of folkloric heritage were set on a fi rm basis: authenticity and folkloric character. The trumpet competition event and trumpet music were projected into an institution of heritage.26 The whole strategy of creating this cul-ture was an organised act formed in specifi c social and political circumstances of the communist order.

From 1961 the Assembly/festival programme has been more or less fi xed. It lasts three days (over the years it even reached six days) and is held in the month of August of each year in the small town of Guča, close to Čačak. The festival comprises the offi cial programme: the ceremonial processions of the participants, folklore performances, trumpet preview-contest and competitive concerts and performances such as “toasting” competitions, re-enactments of the old Dragačevo wedding and other customs, art exhibitions, book promo-tions, ethnographic exhibitions, etc. The trumpeters programme is divided into the spectacle musical performance and the contest, upon which twenty of the best trumpet orchestras compete. All the rest is a twenty-four-hour celebration on the streets and under tents, accompanied by fair artefacts and fl ea-market commerce. Concerts take place on the football stadium, offi cial programmes – in front of the cultural centre and the tent-restaurants are in front of the church; the main street is reserved for brass-band carnival entertainment. It is a gathering of those that work and those that enjoy. Over tens of thousands of people (even half a million) walk around the stadium, church, cultural centre and Trumpeter

25 Golemović states that orchestral trumpet music is to a large extent unusual in traditional Ser-bian music and that it is an import from the West. According to ethno-musicological research, trumpet music shifted from the urban elite music scene at the beginning of the 20th century, to rural communities. A complicated musical form with a specifi c organisation of brass instru-ments was accepted as a part of civil life in Serbia from the 20th century onwards (Golemović 1997: 212–214).

26 The basic matrix of the trumpet orchestras contest is: authentic folk music and tradition. Book of Regulations for the folk trumpet orchestras preview-contest and contest at the Dragačevo assembly.

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monument in the summer days. The streets bustle with daytime and night visi-tors, tourists – temporary inhabitants of the small town and the few hosts. With numerous stands, tents, kiosks, bars, the town changes its physiognomy into an event – the festival town. The transformation of town into Festival implies its in-stitutional metamorphosis that dictates special rules of work and enjoyment. So, one celebration creates a particular system of behaviour with regards to adminis-tration and expenses, work and leisure. It is a cyclic order with its own creators, enactors and consumers.

The working body of the Festival involves a comprehensive administrative process that places the celebration/spectacle in an institutional framework. The Festival is managed by a special working body which was, in the past fi fty years, part of the socio-political system of rule that was dictated by the governing politi-cal party working through amateur organizations, independent interest communi-ties and municipal local self-management.27 The centres of festival management are Cultural Centres, the local Community Centre and Church. The bureaucra-cy on a micro local level and administration of the event become an a-temporal and single-space apparatus of government of a select group, i.e. individuals. The Assembly/festival work has a ceremonial character in which the success and em-phasis on position and status of the main actors is possible. Speeches, interviews, honorary positions and special trumpet-playing programmes under tents etc., are only part of the premeditated ritual behaviours of those that manage the Assembly/festival work, for the sake of acquiring importance and privileges. Managing the town and event becomes part of a special scenario in which positions are ranked, tributes bestowed and reputation acquired. In the Guča midst, administrative rules are indirectly shaped through social customs of behaviour in the form of special lo-cal conventions. As the inhabitants of Guča often stated to me, work respectability in the Assembly is attained through “enthusiasm, around-the-clock engagement, voluntary work, hospitality, wholeheartedness and ability”. The value of such con-ventions as publicly desirable behaviour is turned into an unwritten administrative ethics in the process of labelling the assembly’s ruling body. Creating a persuasive picture of the festival management’s collective coherence relies on the emotional relationship to this event as opposed to a rational model of organisation. In such

27 Based on the words of organizers Slavković, Stojić and Marinković: in 1977 the management of the Assembly was chosen; in 1979 a new Programme council was voted, consisting of 39 members and the Art council; the Statute of the assembly was created. In 1982 the parliament of the assembly started its work. From 1992 the organizational work was delegated to the Cultural centre in Guča. Since 1995 the governing body consists of only the Board committee containing 9 members. Besides this, the Assembly board was also founded, counting 7 mem-bers. The Assembly has its own Book of Regulations.

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a way the assembly’s management represents a sovereign organizational pattern shaped into the folk creativity paradigm.

The trumpeter’s festival has constructed a penetrable mechanism of work and management, however at the same time, year in and year out, it is evermore a polygon for competition of interests: inside the boundaries of the local, be-tween the peripheral and central, between the domestic and foreign, old and new, traditional and innovative, local and global. Confl ict of interest has become more pronounced as the event has shown itself to be a desirable commodity. What are the spheres of power, authority and interest?

The contribution of the Cultural Centre, church and Community Centre in the realization of the festival decides on their social status and position. The one that is given the position of organiser is at the same time the responsible administrative body and the reference body of the event. However, confl ict of interest between these three institutions is most prominently exposed in fi nancial constructions and the allotment of material costs. Each institution expects its own share of the profi ts (through parking fees, tent and stand lease, taxes, etc.). The celebration/spectacle is, therefore, also the crossroads of individual and institutional interests of a local community. The status and reputation held by individuals acting from the above mentioned institutions establish the event’s authority. Expressions such as assem-bly government and assembly passport have become a local metaphor for govern-ance that has established itself over the years, and which defends its sovereignty and its rule in such a manner. The trumpeters assembly therefore has extended out-side the boundaries of a small town endeavour and has become big-business. The interest sphere also includes economic factors in the form of investors. Individuals, producers, music promoters, advertising agencies, media companies, the catering industry, etc., have ventured on their own in order to design a new type of assembly as spectacle and show business. The traditional form and language of the festival and the existing current festival design have become the core of interest and com-petition in the process of restructuring the positions of power on the line of admin-istrators and managers. Two strategies are confronted in the operation: the celebra-tion and spectacle, i.e., folklore and popular culture. Confl ict of interest occurs also on a conceptual level: between a global approach to ethnic music and the local approach to each one his own. Such an innovative shift occurred at the beginning of 2000 when the Assembly was visited for the fi rst time by a group of trumpeters from Italy and Sweden, refl ecting a tendency of the event’s internationalisation. If they are able to merge with the national trumpet environment they are a welcome foreign Other. This is the minimum the guardians of authentic trumpet-playing can tolerate and add to the local design. The organisers continue to emphasise

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Guča’s mission of solidarity in which there are no “racial and national divisions, only differences in trumpets”. However, over the years there has emerged strong competition and polarization between Romani trumpeters and Serb trumpeters that have created not only polarization of musical genres, but also a symbolical identity division into “black” and “white” trumpeters. Public opinion, the media, distin-guished individuals are on a race which aims to create an image of the festival as exclusivity and attraction often entering the fi eld of discrimination, politicization and nationalism (Lukić Krstanović 2006b: 200).

Confl ict of interest and status positioning of all festival actors refers to an inter-active network of performers, organisers, managers and the public. In the case of the Dragačevo festival there are two kinds of public performance. The stage-com-petition performance is subject to the laws of show business politics: competition between participants, the authority of the jury, the power of the media and concert management of the spectacle. In the long run it is refl ected in the local competi-tions that take place throughout the year, where candidates for the fi nal festival in Guča are selected. A second kind of public performance is held by trumpet orches-tras that are a part of the Guča tent celebrations, in restaurants and on the streets. The sound exchange between the trumpeters and those listening/watching is at the same time an exchange of work and pleasure, i.e. paying and collecting. Special rules of offer and demand rule this market, where the quality of the performance is measured by the number of the public/the masses gathered around the perform-ers and the quantity of bank-notes earned. The competition is substituted by out-playing the other; stage order transforms into ritual noise. All of the performances at the Assembly of trumpeters are therefore not only a refl ection of fame, but work – subsistence. The right to work, obligations, competition, protection, etc., cover the fi eld of interest, however necessity as well. It is precisely on this level that the fi ght for the survival of the trumpeters and control over them occurs.

The sphere of interest does not by-pass the fi eld of politics. The organisational motto of the Assembly is that there are no politics. The management is clear on the matter of politicians conducting their political campaigns on the Festival – it is pro-hibited. Until 1995 the Assembly of trumpeters was offi cially opened by a governing municipal politician; at that point the status of “host” was introduced. The role is played by intellectuals of national importance and in the past years, active ministers as well. The festival bustles with politicians who emphasise that they are there solely for the “people and music”. They present themselves as folk culture devotees, people who are of the people and with the people. They appear in the presence of their se-curity guards and party comrades. The distribution of politicians and political prod-ucts does however enter the assembly’s masses. Political power and the Assembly’s

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governing management are to an extent rivals in achieving authority over the masses, however they are also compatible in reaching joint interests of power.

Finally, the Assembly of trumpeters becomes a problem of two fractions – “clean Guča” and “soiled Guča”. Has the river Bistrica been contaminated by the excess waste as a direct result of the assembly or is it a decades-old problem? In any case writings that have appeared on Guča’s walls “my Guča” speak of more than just an ecological problem. The community of life and the community of celebration diverge along the lines of the ethical principles of clean and soiled, one’s own and another’s.

Folkloric and festival trumpet playing are sustained with the support of a legiti-mate order of celebration, and the celebration is achieved through the apparatus of management constituting a group of individuals. They have a certain infl uence and carry out certain rules. It is a form of control over the folklore paradigm and event. Folkloric expression/spectacle is a work in accordance with its lasting assignment as local celebration/fair, far from the hustle and bustle of the marketplace. Such an approach relies on folk trumpet expression as paradigm of durability and sta-bility, fi tting into the traditional modus vivendi of seasonal festivity. On the other hand folk trumpet playing as festival spectacle aspires towards global networking. Pleasure becomes work, work turns into interest, and interest is the extension of politics and economy. From such a standpoint, the trumpet festival is a stage com-pany ruled by market laws of interest, calculation and investment.

Conclusion: folklore relocation and circulation

In the 20th and at the beginning of the 21st century folklore-order complies with state and national politics, although it is always presented in its autonomous form of cultural heritage. From the position of folklore as paradigm and ideology and the everlasting need to affi rm that which is “one’s own”, it will be diffi cult for folklore to break loose of normative standards and boards. There is still not a single national holiday, political celebration, national jubilee, or international competition that is not accompanied by folklore in its fi nest ceremonial clothing as an important and unique exponent. When the Euro Song Contest festival was held in Belgrade, the organisers of this stage and media spectacle envisioned that the state of Serbia as host should appear with its most representative folkloric product – the trumpet orchestra. This allowed the millions of satellite viewers to listen to the sounds of trumpet bands performing popular songs. The circulation of folklore capital is considered as and will continue to be, its primary mission. On the other hand, small folklore scenes in the form of numerous diverse events on a local level continue to keep the global market at a distance, remaining true to their self-refl exivity.

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Therefore, while folklore events dedicated to authentic folk creativity continue to prevail with minor changes, concert and discography achievements draw ever closer to current trends. The trumpet orchestras of Boban Marković, Delimović, etc., have left the competitive zone of Assemblies and have entered the music industry. Their breakthrough on the world market is animated by stage directors, artists, agencies and managers creating specifi c centres of power, often under the command of individuals that have given themselves the title of promoters and creators of folklore brands. At this point we come across yet another phenomenon which is the result of global market trends. The relocation of folklore i.e. trumpet music, enters a new fi eld of competition and evaluation. While guardians of the folklore paradigm recognise in trumpet music the expansion of “national” folklore branded “Serbian” or “Romany” music, the dis-tributors hold tightly to the aesthetics of susceptibility that is able to attract thousands of exalted fans to different world festivals. This will make the appearance of trumpet orchestras at prestigious rock and techno music festivals such as Sziget or Roskilde, the success of folk-ethno musicians in the powerful aesthetics of the Other, or simply in the potent visual and stage performance. Does folklore, in such a case, as a form of collective work gain its own show-window in the art image of individuals and new viewers? It is almost certain that there are no more traditional societies, authentic folk-lore, or a genuine folklore scene, yet we witness permanent merging of folklore and its marketing where the market and current trends are its main parameters. In such a sense anthropological dissection or the interpretation of folklore should fi nally leave behind the race for paradigm and turn towards folklore’s dynamism. In its transforma-tion from sign to symbol folklore places itself through discourse in different social situ-ations revealing its vitality not as heritage or tradition, but as a creative matrix for the purposes of different scenes. Although folklore is conceptualised and acknowledged as a stable, coherent, unchanging category and totality, its “folk creativity” fl ip side re-veals all popular traits of genre plurality, multitude of forms and transformations. There is no doubt that folklore in such a way gains more space for manoeuvring in an am-bivalent confi guration as a rural or urban construct, local or global marker, popular or populist patent, often serving the “national cause”, ethnic warehousing, however also intercultural mapping. Achieving balance between folklore-as-warehouse and folklore-as-living-culture is a refl ection of the process of decision making, administering and creating folklore politics, that is, strategic demands in regulating its status as a whole and the role it plays in culture and society.

June 2011

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knj. 32, Beograd.Antonijević, Dragoslav: 1993 – Prvi međunarodni festival folklora. Vršački Venac. The First

International Folk festival The Wreath of Vršac. Vršac: 2–16.Bauzinger, Herman: 2002 – Etnologija. Biblioteka XX vek, Beograd.Bošković Stulli, Maja: 1983 – Usmena književnost nekad i danas. Beograd.Bjeljac, Željko – Čurčić, Nevena: 2010 – Turizmološka valorizacija etnografskih manifestacija u

Srbiji. Etnoantropološki problemi god. 5, sv. 3, Časopis odeljenja za etnologiju i antropologiju Filozofskog fakulteta u Beogradu, Beograd: 227–242.

Čolović, Ivan: 1992 – VOX POPULI – VOX NATURAE, folklor kao sredstvo legitimisanja naci-onalnog suvereniteta. Glasnik Etnografskog instituta Srpske akademije nauka i umetnosti XLI, Beograd: 221–226.

Čolović, Ivan: 2006 – Etno. Biblioteka XX vek, Beograd.Fisk, Džon: 2001 – Popularna kultura. (Trans.: Zoran Paunović), CLIO, Beograd.Gavrilović, Ljiljana: 2010 – Nomen est omen? Baština ili nasleđe (ne samo) terminološke nedou-

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Golemović, Dimitrije: 1997 – Etno-muzikološki ogledi. Biblioteka XX vek, Beograd. Hobsbom, Eric: 2002 – Uvod: Kako se tradicija izmišlja. In: Erik Hobsbom – Terens Rejndžer

(ed.): Izmišljanje tradicije. Biblioteka XX vek, Beograd: 5–25.Ivanišević, Milivoje: 1976 – Mogućnosti i potrebe doma kulture. Kultura 33/34: 130–144. Beograd.Lukić Krstanović, Miroslava: 2006a – Privatni život na javnoj sceni svetkovina. In: Ana Stolić – Nenad

Makuljević (eds.): Privatni život kod Srba u devetnaestom veku. CLIO, Beograd: 779–803.Lukić Krstanović, Miroslava: 2006b – Politika trubaštva – folkor u prostoru nacionalne moći. In:

Dragana Radojičić – Zorica Divac (eds.): Svakodnevna kultura u postsocijalističkom periodu. Etnografski institut SANU. Zbornik vol. 22. Beograd: 187 – 204.

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Ober, Loran: 2007 – Muzika drugih, Novi izazovi etnomuzikologije. Biblioteka XX vek: Beograd.Rečnik književnih termina: 1986. Nolit: Beograd. Rusalić, Dragana: 2009 – Making the Intangible tangible: The new interface of Cultural Heritige.

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SR Srbije. In: Deset sabora narodnog stvaralaštva SR Srbije 1971–1981. Beograd: 1–7.Supek, Rudi: 1974 – Socioložki značaj amaterizma. Kultura 26: Beograd: 8–16.Šmidchens, Guntis: 1999 – Folklorism Revisited. Journal of Folklore Research vol. 36, no.1:

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Searches:www.manifestacije.com/info.php?grID=713www.upoznajsrbiju.co.rs/o-namawww.zaprokul.org.rs/AgendaManifestacija/ManifestacijaDetails.aspx?ID=223www.seecult.org/vest/agenda-manifestacija-u-srbijiwww.portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php-URL_ID=13141&URL_DO=DO_PRINTPAGE_...www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=folklore&searchmode=nonePravilnik predtakmičenja i takmičenja narodnih trubačkih orkestara Dragačevskog sabora trubača

u Guči, na osnovu Statuta upravnog odbora Doma kulture u Guči, 2002. Sabor trubača 1961–1995. Dom kulture Guča, 1995.Statut narodnog stvaralaštva Srbije, čl. 9: 13.

Contact: Miroslava Lukić Krstanović, PhD., The Institute of Etnography SASA, Kneza Mihaila 36/IV, 11000 Beograd, Serbia, e-mail: [email protected].

Politický folkor na festivalovém trhu: Moc paradigmatu a moc jeviště.

Resumé: Politický folklor zde nahlížet skrze procesy konstrukce paradigmat a vytváře-ní festivalů. Není pochyb, že folklor, jako národní koncept a jako komerční produkt, se stal nástrojem pro utváření rozmanitých strategií moci. Zároveň se postupně stal nejen komerčním produktem, ale také ztělesněním národa, v procesech soustavného střetávání kulturních forem a ideologických formací. Konstrukce folkloru v konvenčních zónách, paralelně s tím, jak usměrňuje nehmotné dědictví, stejně jako v okamžicích folklorních performancí, vytváří jeden koherentní systém regulací, zájmů a komodit. Nejvýraznějšími příklady produkce folklorní tradice jsou proto různé slavnostní události, které mají význam lokální i turistický, ve vztahu k rituálním i sezonním cestám. Případová studie Festivalu trubačů v Dragočevu (Dragačevski sabor trubača) je analyzován skrze aplikaci národního a komerčního dohledu a reprezentace, které objasňují politickou úlohu folkloru.

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DEVELOPMENT OF THE MODERN SERBIAN STATE AND ABOLISHMENT OF OTTOMAN AGRARIAN RELATIONS

IN THE 19TH CENTURY1

MILOŠ LUKOVIĆ

Abstract: The modern Serbian state (the Principality/Kingdom of Serbia) was created and its territory enlarged gradually during the 19th and early 20th century, in a process of emancipation from the Ottoman Empire, where specifi c agrarian relations existed based on Ottoman feudalism. Consequently the development of the modern Serbian state proceeded parallel to the replacement of Ottoman agrarian relations with a new type of land ownership, with formerly dependent peasants becoming private owners of the land that they had farmed under Otto-man rule. This led to deep-rooted social changes and even changes in the national culture. For this purpose the paper presents an overview of the creation and the territorial expansion of the modern Serbian state, in the context of the change in the international position of the Ottoman Empire and its social structure. A thor-ough analysis of the Ottoman agrarian relations in the Balkan regions of the Ottoman Empire is carried out, specifying the changes that occurred during the armed springs of the Serbian peasants – the First and Second Serbian Uprising (1804–1813, 1815). The process of abolishing Ottoman agrarian relations (with the constitution of private land ownership) is treated in detail in the territory of the Principality of Serbia, following the attainment of formal autonomy within the Ottoman Empire (1830) and after gaining independence (1878), including all the international implications.Keywords: Ottoman Empire, Serbia, feudalism, agrarian relations, changes.

1 This paper was written as part of the realization of project No. 177022, The National Culture of the Serbs Between the East and West (2011–2014), which is fi nanced by the Ministry of Science and Technological Development of the Republic of Serbia.

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Introduction

The modern Serbian state (the Principality/Kingdom of Serbia) was created and its terri-tory enlarged gradually during the 19th and early 20th century, in the process of emancipa-tion from the Ottoman Empire2 through armed resistance and diplomatic means,3 with the active role of the European powers.4 This was only a small segment in the resolution of the Eastern Question in Europe.5 Several phases are clearly discernible in this process: 1. the period of armed uprisings against Ottoman rule: the First Serbian Uprising 1804–1813, and Second Serbian Uprising 1815; 2. the period of informal semi-autonomous status of the Belgrade Pashalik Ottoman administrative unit (present day central and western parts of present-day Serbia); 3. the period of formal autonomy of the Principality of Serbia with-in the Ottoman Empire 1830–1878 (the territory of the Principality included the Belgrade Pashalik and certain adjacent territories that were liberated in the First Serbian Uprising); 4. the period of the independent Principality of Serbia (Kingdom as of 1882) from 1878 to 1912, preceded by the Serbian-Turkish War of 1876–1878 and the territorial expansion to adjacent territories to the southeast; 5. the 1912–1918 period, which begins with the Bal-kan Wars 1912–1913, and the signifi cant territorial expansion to adjoining southern and south-western territories, and ends with the creation of the Yugoslav state – the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, after the First World War, in 1918.

Accordingly, the history of the modern Serbian state up to 1878, and partially up to 1912, represents a component in the history of the Ottoman Empire. This also applies to other Balkan states (Montenegro, Greece, Romania, Bulgaria, Albania), which were also slowly and gradually liberated from Ottoman rule. Therefore all the Balkan regions that were incorporated within the borders of the Ottoman Empire (which in the 16th and 17th

2 In historiography the terms Ottoman Empire and Turkish Empire are used as synonyms, con-sidering the crucial role of the Ottoman Turks in its creation and duration. We opt for the use of the term Ottoman Empire, which places less emphasis on the ethnic Turkish character of this enduring state (14th–20th century), and emphasizes its the Ottoman order, which represents a type of feudalism based on the principles of religious Islamic law – Sharia (comp.: Inaldžik 1974: 109–111; Samardžić 1993:42–50). The state’s Constitution of 1876 opts for a similar name – Ottoman Empire (comp. Constitution of the Ottoman Empire, 1876).

3 Montenegrin statehood and the expansion of its territory followed a similar development dur-ing this period.

4 In the fi rst half of the 19th century this role was primarily played by the Russian and Habsburg empires, and as of the middle of the 19th century, through tot the international recognition of the Princedom of Serbia, France, Great Britain, Prussia/Germany and Italy had increasingly greater infl uence (comp.: Stojančević 1981, Popov 1981).

5 The term Eastern Question was common in European diplomacy and historiography, refer-ring to position of the European powers on the issue of the survival of the Ottoman Empire in Europe, which is the focus of many historiographic studies (comp.: Edouard 1900, Genov 1925–1926, Popović 1928, Čubrilović 1977).

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Miloš Luković: Development of the Modern Serbian State

century also included parts of Central Europe) were infl uenced by several wide-ranging and complex processes within the Ottoman state. These processes stem from the pre-Ottoman period, and their consequences can be felt today, to a certain extent. In brief, these processes are: the long-lasting efforts by the Ottoman state (14th to 20th century) to strengthen and maintain its rule in the Balkans; constant changes in the substance and organization of the Ottoman rule; gradual degradation of basic institutions of the Ottoman feudal system in the provinces, with the subsequent introduction of reforms dictated by the central government; fi erce resistance of the Muslim and Christian population to the changes threatening their positions; parallel development of an Oriental-Levant type of ur-ban multiethnic culture and a patriarchal rural society of Christian communities; frequent wars between the Ottoman state and hostile states in the region and relatively numerous rebellions and uprisings within the Ottoman state; great migrations during and following confl icts, by both Muslims and Christians and other populations; continuous Islamisation of the population, with ethnic conversion in certain regions of the Ottoman state; constant interference of the European powers in internal matters of the Ottoman state and the defi -nition of its international status during the last two centuries of its existence, etc.

The system of agrarian relations in the Ottoman state, which had a long evolution and deterioration, holds a very signifi cant place in all these processes. Consequently, without understanding Ottoman agrarian relations, especially in the Balkans, it is not possible to understand other issues related to the listed processes, which transpired during the centuries-long of existence of the Ottoman Empire. Extensive literature exists on this topic, and only a small portion has been quoted in this paper.

In order to clarify the abolishment of Ottoman agrarian relations in the case of 19th century Serbia, it is necessary to fi rst present an review of the creation and territorial ex-pansion of the modern Serbian state in the context of the history of the Ottoman Empire,6 and provide a general overview of the feudal type of agrarian relations that existed in the Ottoman state, in particular in the Balkans.7

6 The overview of the creation and territorial expansion of the modern Serbian state, in the context of the history of the Ottoman Empire, is presented in this paper primarily based on the extensive Istorija Srpskog Naroda (History of the Serbian People, six volumes in 10 books), which has had several editions since 1981. Its authors are the most distinguished Serbian his-torians, and this paper quotes only those authors that addressed the issues that are the topic of this paper; see Ekmečić 1981; Popov 1981; Stojančević 1981; Popov 1983; Đorđević 1983; Samardžić 1986; Samardžić 1993.

7 The review of the feudal type of agrarian relations in the Ottoman state is presented in this paper based on Istorija Srpskog Naroda and the works of authors that dealt with this issue in particular: see Belin 1862; Bey 1873; Jireček 1888; Aćimović 1881; Spasić 1890; Novaković 1943; Filipović 1954–1955; Inaldžik 1974; Novaković 1986; Stojičić 1975; Stojičić 1987; Novaković 2006; Luković 2010. A very useful tool for the interpretation of the Turkish terms in the fi eld of Ottoman agrarian relations is the Turcizmi u srpskohrvatskom-hrvatskosrpskom jeziku (Turkish Loan Words in Serbo-Croatian Croato-Serbian Language), see Škaljić 1979.

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The creation and territorial expansion of the modern Serbian state

At the turn of the 19th century there was no clear idea of what the land called Serbia included, and this term (in the German form Serbien) was increasingly used by offi cials of the Habsburg Monarchy in the 18th century (Guzina 1955: XII–XIV; Stojančević 1981: 13–14).8 However, a ramifi ed territorial and ad-ministrative division of the Ottoman Empire existed, which included the Serb lands in the Balkans. Since the creation of the Ottoman Empire the basic mili-tary and administrative unit was the sanjak or liva headed by the sanjak-bey. In conquering the Christian lands in the Balkans in the 14th and 15th century, the Ottoman state initially held certain lands and regions in a vassal status, and the sanjaks were formed following their defi nite subjugation and the liquidation of the vassal status, within the subjugated lands or regions. The smaller territorial unit within the sanjak was the nahi, which were commonly formed following the borders of previous Christian units – župas. Thus during the 14th and 15th centuries the following sanjaks were formed: the so-called Pasha-sanjak (which included large portions of the eastern and central Balkans, with its seat in Ed-irne), and the sanjaks of Sofi a, Manastır (Bitola), Köstendil (Kyustendil), Vi-din, Vıçıtırın (Vučitrn), Prizren, Alacahisar (Kruševac), Smederevo,9 Dukagjin, Bosnia, Hersek (Herzegovina), Zvornik and İşkodra (Shkodër), and later other sanjaks were created. The sanjaks were joined into larger territorial units called elayets or beylerbeyliks, headed by a beylerbey (the beylerbey could also hold the Ottoman title of pasha, and in that case the elayet was also called a pashalik). Up to the time of the Ottoman conquest of Hungary there was only one Otto-man elayet in the Balkans – the Rumelia Elayet (until the beginning of the 15th century the seat was in Edirne, and later in Sofi a), and later the elayets of Budin (Buda) and Temeşvar (Timişoara). (Inaldžik 1974: 145, 327; Samardžić 1993: 50–54; Luković 2010: 135–137).

In the Great Turkish War (1683–1699) the Ottoman Empire was pushed out of most of the territories in central Europe, and its borders with the Habsburg Empire were defi ned in the Treaty of Karlowitz (1699) as being the Mureş and the Tisza rivers, then following the line from the confl uence of the Tisza and the Danube, to the confl uence of the Bosut and Sava rivers (near present-day Sremska Mitrovica), and then along the Sava river to the Una River, in present-day Croatia. With borders defi ned in such a way the Belgrade fortress gained new

8 The name Serbia was actually not used in the Middle Ages within the Serbian state, but rather different names were in use: see Dinić 1978.

9 The sanjak-bey of the Sanjak of Smederevo was seated in Belgrade from the time that this city became part of the Ottoman Empire in 1521 (Samardžić 1993: 52).

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strategic importance in the north-western edge of the Ottoman Empire, and the Belgrade Pashalik (elayet/beylerbeylik) was formed, which assumed the strate-gic role of the former border elayet of Budin.10 The Belgrade Pashalik included the territory of the Smederevo and Srem sanjaks, as well as part of the neigh-bouring sanjaks of Zvornik and Kruševac. The authority of the Belgrade military commander (serhad) reached even the garrison in the Şehirköy (Pirot) fortress in the Niş sanjak, which ensured his greater direct dependence on the central authorities, and therefore greater military effi ciency of the entire Pashalik. This led to the creation of a complex Ottoman military defence, seated in Belgrade (Samardžić 1986: 7–17, 306–307, 312–313). During the gruelling wars between the Ottoman and Habsburg Empires, 1716–1718 (Treaty of Passarowitz, 1718), 1719–1739 (Treaty of Belgrade, 1739), and 1788–1791 (Treaty of Sistova, 1791), the Belgrade Pashalik kept changing hands.

Between the treaties of Passarowitz and Belgrade (1718–1739), the Habsburg Monarchy controlled a considerable area previously held by the Ottomans: Banat, western Little Wallachia (Oltenia), Lower Srem (Syrmia), a narrow belt along the Sava river in Bosnia (Bosanska Posavina), and most of what had been the Ottoman Pashalik of Belgrade, i.e. the area south of the Sava and Danube rivers as far as the Zapadna (West) Morava, and between the lower courses of the Drina and the Timok.11 The former Pashalik of Belgrade was divided into districts (Provisoraten), some of which became part of the Banat of Temesvar, a newly-established Austrian administrative unit.12 Under the Treaty of Belgrade (1739), the Ottoman Empire restored control over the Pashalik of Belgrade south of the Danube and Sava rivers, and over Bosanska Posavina.13

10 Being a border province of the Empire, the Belgrade Pashalik was placed under the command-er (muhafi z) of the Belgrade Fortress. He was granted the rights of the beylergey (the sultan’s regent in the vilayet), therefore he was also at the top of the sipahi organization. Vacant Otto-man feudal estates (timar) were issued by the sultan, at the recommendation of the muhafi z of Belgrade. As of that moment the Smederevo sanjak-bey was no longer appointed, and all the revenue from the sanjak-bey’s estates (hass) went to the muhafi z of Belgrade. Consequently the Smederevo sanjak became the core of the Belgrade pashalik, which also included parts of the neighbouring sanjaks (Samardžić 1986: 7–10).

11 For more see Pavlović 1901; Samardžić 1986: 89–105; Veselinović 1986: 106–162.12 The border on the Mureş River constituted the northern, and the Tisza River the western bor-

der of the Austrian territorial administration unit Temeswarer Banat, which included certain regions south of the Danube, in present-day Serbia (Veselinović 1986: 111–116; 136–137).

13 After the Treaty of Belgrade (1739), the Banat region north of the Danube remained part of the Habsburg Empire, and its southern border was on the Danube, while the Southern Carpathian mountains (which cut across present-day Romania) represented the eastern border, in the di-rection of the source of the Mureş River (Veselinović 1986: 111–113; Samardžić 1986: 7–9).

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After the Treaty of Belgrade the border between the Ottoman and Habsburg em-pires stabilizing on the Danube (from Orsova, in present-day Romania, to Belgrade), and the Sava River (from Belgrade to the Una River confl uence). Therefore the fi nal borders of the Belgrade Pashalik were reached: the northern border ran along the Sava (from the Drina confl uence to Belgrade) and the Danube (from Belgrade to across from Orsova); the eastern boundary ran along the Homolje Mountain range from the Danube to the Great Morava River (at Köprü, present day Ćuprija), the southern border ran from the confl uence of the South and West Morava riv-ers, across Mt. Zlatibor to the Drina River, downstream from Višegrad. Twelve nahiyes existed within the boundaries of the Belgrade Pashalik: Jagodina, Šabac, Smederevo, Valjevo, Belgrade, Kragujevac, Rudnik and Čačak, Ćuprija (Köprü), Požarevac (Pasarofça), Užice, Soko (Stojančević 1981: 67, 136).

The Ottoman incursion into the Balkans, the expansion of the Ottoman state into parts of Central Europe, the establishment of the Ottoman feu-dal order and frequent wars in the northern parts of the Balkans and in the Pannonian Plain, especially in the 17th and 18th century, led to great popula-tion and ethnic changes in this region, and included cycles of migrations of various populations and long-term religious and ethnic conversion. At the same time numerous multiethnic urban Oriental-Levant-style settlements, with a predominantly Muslim population, which were the strongholds of Ottoman rule. Rural settlements in central and northern parts of the Balkans, with a predominantly Christian population, remained strongholds of the pa-triarchal culture and people’s self-government. At the same time these tradi-tional forms of patriarchal culture and popular self-government (zadruga or joint family household, tribe, knežina, church community etc) were incorpo-rated into the Ottoman feudal system, which in that way contributed to the preservation of the traditional culture of the Christian population. This also generally applied to the region of the Belgrade Pashalik and the neighbouring regions in the Balkans, from the late 16th century to the early 19th century, but also during the 19th century in southern parts of present-day Serbia.14

In the First Serbian Uprising (1804–1813) the Serbian insurgents, headed by Karađorđe Petrović (Vožd Karađorđe), freed the territory of the Belgrade Pashalik,

14 Serbian geographer and anthropologist Jovan Cvijić (1865–1927), the greatest authority of his time on the Balkan Peninsula, provided the most comprehensive accounts about the results of all these processes; see Cvijić 1966. For certain issues in this fi eld also see: Bogišić 1874, Spasić 1890, Todorov 1972, Andréev 1974, Kaleshi 1974, Papastathis 1974, Kojić 1976, Gro-zdanova 1979, Nikolić-Stojančević 1980, Stojičić 1987, Zlatar 1988, Samardžić 1990, Ljušić 1990, Mušović 1992, Luković 1998, Radovanović 2004.

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as well as certain regions in the Vidin, Alacahisar and Zvornik sanjaks. In the Second Serbian Uprising (1815) the insurgents, headed by Miloš Obrenović (later the recog-nized as prince, knez/knjaz), freed only the area of the Belgrade Pashalik (Stojančević 1981: 25–108). These Serbian uprisings against Ottoman rule were fi rst labelled by German historian Leopold von Ranke (1829) as the Serbian revolution. This is how this term be common in Serbian historiography, but historians disagree on when the Revolution ended.15 Following the short-lasting Second Serbian Uprising, with the in-ternational circumstances including Napoleon’s defeat and the conclusion of the Treaty of Vienna (1815), the Belgrade Pashalik gained a semi-autonomous status based on an informal agreement between the leader of the Uprising, Miloš Obrenović, and the com-mander in chief (seraskier) of the Ottoman army in Europe, Marashli Ali Pasha. This status lasted from 1815 until 1830. The territory of the Belgrade Pashalik (according to contemporary measurements) was around 24,440 square kilometres, and in 1833 it had a population of 491,162 (Milić: 1971: 69; Stojančević 1981: 103–116, 135).

In the new international circumstances, created in the Ottoman defeats in Greece (Akkerman Convention 1826) and the conclusion of the Russian-Ottoman War of 1828–1829 (Treaty of Edirne 1829), the sultan was forced to pass the Hatt-i Sharif (Imperial Edict) acknowledging the Principality of Serbia as an autonomous prov-ince of the Ottoman Empire, with its borders broader than those of the Belgrade Pashalik – the borders that it had during the First Serbian Uprising. Miloš Obrenović was recognized as having a hereditary title of prince. The previous territory of the semi-autonomous Principality (i.e. the Belgrade Pashalik) was expanded to include six nahiyes that were liberated in the First Serbian Uprising (Krajina, Knjaževac, Crna Reka, Aleksinac, Kruševac, Podrinje) from the Vidin, Kruševac and Zvornik sanjaks.16 In 1833 this expanded territory, an area of 35,511 square kilometres, had a population of 678,133 (Milić: 1971: 70; Stojančević 1981: 103–116, 135). The new borders of the autonomous Principality were marked “with visible signs”, with involvement of a Serbo-Ottoman and Russo-Ottoman commissions. The new border went from the Timok River confl uence with the Danube, to near Zaječar, then along the ridge of Stara Planina to near Gurgusovac (Knjaževac), then it arched to the south along the watershed of the Svrljiški Timok and Nišava rivers, cutting across the South Morava River between Niš and Aleksinac, and along the Mt. Jastrbac ridge to Mt. Kopaonik; cutting across Kopaonik it ran down to the confl uence of the Raška River into the Ibar River, and then along the watershed between the Raška and Uvac

15 For details see: Ljušić 1992.16 The term nahi was replaced by the Serbian term okružje (later okrug, district) in the reorgani-

zation of the administration in 1834, symbolically eliminating traces of the Ottoman adminis-tration (Stojančević 1981: 127).

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rivers (on one side) and the Moravica River (on the other), to the confl uence of the Uvac into the Lim River, then to the Drina River, at a point upstream of the previ-ous border point. All this was confi ded in a new (appended) Hatt-i Sharif by the sultan in 1833 (Stojančević 1981: 117–119, 123–125, 136–139).

The Ottoman military garrisons remained only in six fortresses: Belgrade, Smederevo, Kladovo, Šabac, Soko and Užice. The Muslim civilian popula-tion could remain only in the cities or move outside of the new borders of the Principality. The Principality was required to pay an annual tribute of 2,300,000 grossus to the Ottoman Empire. In May 1867, following diplomatic pressure by the Principality against the Porte, which involved the Great Powers, the Ottoman gar-risons abandoned all six fortresses, and with them the last remains of the Muslim civilian population departed. The vassal duties of the Principality of Serbia to the Ottoman Empire were reduced to paying the annual tribute, and to fl y the Ottoman fl ag on the Belgrade fortress of Kalemegdan (Popov 1981: 343).

The vassal Principality of Serbia dared to go to war against the Ottoman Empire in 1876, with the aim of achieving full independence and expanding its territory to-wards the south and southeast, to regions that it considered to be Old Serbia17 and to which it claimed “historic rights”.18 Previously the Eastern Crisis (1875–1878) started with the Christian uprising in Bosnia and Herzegovina (1875), which was a new stage

17 The regions of present-day southeast Serbia – which the military campaign of the Principality of Serbia was directed against in 1876, gradually (starting in the second half of the 12th cen-tury) became part of the Serbian medieval stated, and the region around the Nišava River were the last to be included (around 1330). In the meantime there was a succession of rule by the Byzantine and Bulgarian empires, which is established by both Serbian and Bulgarian histori-ans (Mišić 2002: 14; comp.: Zlatarski 1940). In the late 14th and early 15 century the Ottomans gradually strengthened their rule in this region, consequently it was part of the Sofi a, Köstendil (Kyustendil), and Alacahisar (Kruševac) sanjaks (Samardžić 1993: 51–54).

18 During the lengthy Ottoman rule, the territorial and administrative affi liation of these re-gions changes several times, even in the 19th century. As of 1834 elayets (also called vilayets) existed, which incorporated several sanjaks, including the vast Sanjak of Niš. The through constitutional reorganization of the Empire in 1864–1867 new vilayets were created (mod-elled after the French departments from the Napoleonic era), and certain sanjaks in this part of the Balkans briefl y changed from one vilayet to another. During the 1870s the Sanjak of Niş included most of the of the area that would become part of the Principality of Serbia in 1878, but it too would change vilayet affi liation: it was fi rst part of the Tuna (Danube) Vilayet (which spanned from Varna on the Black Sea to south-eastern Serbia), then the Prizren Vi-layet, and as of January 1877 it was part of the Kosovo Vilayet (when it was formed), which was seated fi rst in Priština and later in Skopje. See Rizaj 1970; Rizaj 1971; Rizaj 1979; Ekmečić 1981: 450; Lilić 2000: 97).

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in the resolution of the Eastern Question.19 Opting for war, the Principality of Serbia concluded an alliance with Montenegro, in June 1876, for the purpose “of liberating the Serbian people in Turkey in Europe” (Popov 1981: 379). Consequently the Principality of Serbia conducted two wars against the Ottoman Empire between early July 1876 and late January 1878, the fi rst being a failure20 and the second one being a success.

In the meantime, after the eruption of the large uprising in Bulgaria (which was part of the Ottoman Empire), the Russian Empire declared war on the Ottoman Empire in April 1877, which was decisive in the fi nal defeat of the Ottoman army on all fronts, including the Serbian front.21 After international relations became complicated due to the conclusion of the Russo-Ottoman Treaty of San Stefano in early March 1878, the Great Powers decided the outcome of the Eastern Crisis at the Congress of Berlin in the summer (June–July) of 1878. A number of signif-icant decisions for the Balkan countries and relations between the Great Powers were passed at the Congress. One of them was that the independence of the Principality of Serbia was recognized, and its extended borders and international obligations were defi ned. This was soon ratifi ed by the Serbian parliament, with the proclamation of Prince Milan Obrenović (Ristić 1898: 255–273).22

The international commission, which started marking the borders of the new border of the Principality of Serbia in the fall 1878, completed the process in July

19 There is also extensive literature in various languages about the Eastern Crisis (1875–1878). The literature in Serbian and other languages of the former Yugoslavia is recorded in the edition Bibliografi ja jugoslevenske literature o Velikoj istočnoj krizi 1875–1878. godine, Beograd 1979 (see Maksin – Lolin 1979), and in the Czech language in the edition Crnogorska bibliografi ja. Bibliografi ja o Crnoj Gori na češkom jeziku [Montenegrin Bibliography, Bibliography on Mon-tenegro in Czech language], Cetinje 1993, (see Rachunková – Rechaková 1993: 212–256).

20 In early July 1876 Serbia launched a military campaign along a wide front between the Drina to the Timok rivers, and the main attack was aimed at the Southern Morava River valley. Following the unsuccessful four-month campaign it was forced to conclude a truce in early November 1987. This practically ended this war (Popov 1981: 390).

21 Having crossed the Danube in northern Bulgaria, the Russian army set foot on the territory of the Ottoman Empire, but it made slow progress. It wasn’t until it broke the lengthy Ottoman re-sistance at Pleven that the Russian army started its fi nal operations in Bulgaria. In mid-Decem-ber 1877 the Serbian Army resumed its operations, practically starting a new Serbo-Ottoman war after one year. The successful military operations by the Serbian army, with support from insurgents in the combat zones, lasted a month and a half and were concluded with the general truce of the warring parties in late January 1878 (Popov 1981: 401–406).

22 Since the territory was smaller than the wartime exploits of the Principality of Serbia, the Serbian army had to withdraw from certain regions that it had won during the war, abolishing the interim authorities in these regions. At the time the srezs (county) of Vučitrn and Ibar (present-day Ko-sovo) ceased to exist, as did the entire Kula district, and two counties Kula and Novo Selo (in present-day Bulgaria). see: Nikolić-Stojančević 1975: 86–88; Popov 1981: 407–421).

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1879 (Popović 1950: 514–518; Turović 2002: 98–99; Samardžić 2006: 60–88, 105–163). The border ran from the old border point on Stara Planina along the mountain ridge to the Radočina Mountain in the Kodža-Balkan mountain range, then southwest across the Nišava River east of Pirot; then along the mountain watershed separating the Struma, Pčinje and South Morava rivers, across the South Morava River south of Vranje; from there is followed the mountain ridge separating the Veternica, Jablanica and Toplica rivers from the Ibar River wa-tershed, up to the old border point on Mt. Kopaonik (Ristić 1898: 256–261; Đorđević 1983: 136–137). The newly-gained territory covered an area of 10,721 square kilometres, with the total territory of the Principality of Serbia being around 54,000 square kilometres. According to the fi rst population census in 1879 (at a time when large internal and external migrations were still ongoing) there were around 300,000 residents in the newly-gained territories, and the total population of the Principality was around 1,400,000. Already in 1884 the general population reached a number of 1,900,000; in 1900 it was around 2,530,000, and in 1910 it was 2,922,000 (Milićević 1884: XV; Popov 1983: 7–8; Đorđević 1983: 98, 136–137; Turović 2002: 96; Lilić 2006: 18–21).

During the wartime operations of the Serbian army temporary authorities (up-rava) were formed in the liberated regions,23 and after the war a temporary terri-torial organization was established in these regions. After the Congress of Berlin, in December 1878, four new districts were formed: Niš (Niş), Pirot (Şehirköy), Toplica and Vranje (Vranya), totalling 16 districts in the Principality. However, the inclusion of the new districted into the entire legal system of the Principality of Serbia (Kingdom as of 1882) proceeded gradually and lasted until 1883,24 and their region has a number of geographic, ethnic and civilization specifi cities.25

The Balkan states (Bulgaria, Greece, Serbia and Montenegro) fought a war against the Ottoman Empire in 1912 with the intention of driving it out of the Balkans, and in 1913 Bulgaria and Serbia (with Montenegro) fought a war against each other over the division of the liberated territories in Macedonia. The Balkan Wars 1912–1913 ended with the treaties of London and Bucharest in 1913. The Kingdom of Serbia expanded its territory on account of the Ottoman

23 See: Nikolić-Stojančević 1975.24 See: Stojičić 1975. For the development of the local self-government in Serbia, as well as

Bulgaria, between 1878 and 1914, see: Svirčević 2009.25 See: Robert 1844; Boué 1854; Hahn 1861; Kanitz 1868; Kanitz 1985; Kukolj 1871; Boué

1889; Spasić 1890; Đorđević 1933; Popović 1950; Cvijić 1966; Vasović 1970; Nikolić-Stojančević 1975; Nikolić-Stojančević 1980; Stojičić 1975; Kojić 1976; Trifunovski 1978; Nikolić-Stojančević 1980; Samardžić 1984; Stojičić 1987; Mušović 1992; Luković 1998; Stojančević 2000; Turović 2002; Radovanović 2004; Lilić 2000; Mišić 2002; Lilić 2006.

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Empire by incorporating part of the Sanjak of Yeni Pazar, the region of Kosovo and Metohija, and the region of so-called Vardar Macedonia. It increased its ter-ritory by around 32,000 square kilometres, with the newly-acquired territories including a population of around 1,500,000 (Đorđević 1983: 194).

The First World War started already in 1914, and after it ended in 1918 the Kingdom of Serbia became part of the newly-created Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes.

Feudal Type of Agrarian Relations in Balkan Regions of the Ottoman Empire

During the reign of the Ottoman Empire in the Balkans, from the 14th to the 20th century, Ottoman feudalism experienced both evolution and deterioration. The nature of the Ottoman feudalism is greatly clarifi ed today, due to the develop-ment of the Ottoman studies as a separate scientifi c discipline in the 20th century (the publishing of the Ottoman cadastre and tax records, defters, after the Second World War, contributed to this development).

A prominent feature of this system from the very beginning was the sipahi-timar system, which was created in line with the basic principles of the Islamic religious law (Sharia). Despite certain similarities with the European feudal system, this system had its highly specifi c features (Inaldžik 1974: 151–156). Since all the land in the Ottoman Empire was considered miri (property of the state), embodied by the ruler (erazi-miri, ruler’s land), the Ottoman feudal lords, sipahis,26 did not have ownership of the land (timar, ziamet)27 that they were granted, but rather only the right to use it, without hereditary rights. The sipahi was obliged to implement state agrarian regulations for the given area (kanun-name-i) and collect taxes, which he did not pay (as a member of the favoured military class). However, there also free estates (mulk), which could be disposed

26 Timars were directly linked to the maintenance of the cavalry, which comprised the majority of the Ottoman army in the fi rst centuries of the Ottoman Empire. The sipahis (Persian si-pah, horseman), with their retainers, went on campaigns when called up by the sultan (comp.: Inaldžik 1974: 160–165; Samardžić 1993: 58). The second type of troops were the janissar-ies (Turkish yeniçeri, new army), the sultan’s standing infantry, who were paid a state salary (comp. Inaldžik 1974: 111–115, 306; Novaković 1986: 206; Samardžić 1993: 29–33).

27 The timars with smaller tax revenues (up to 20,000 akçes per year) was called a timar, with large incomes (up to 100,000 akçes) was called a zijamet, and land estates with the highest incomes (more than 100,000 akçes), which could be owned only by the sultan, princes and high-ranking feudal lords (beylerbeys and sanjak-beys), was called a hass. (Inaldžik 1974: 305, 309, 311)

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of freely, such as the estates of charitable institution (waqf). Whenever the cen-tral authority was weakened, there was a tendency to increase the land with the status of mulk and waqf (Inaldžik 1974: 154).

On the other hand, the peasant used the miri land and had the status of ten-ant, with the obligation of paying dues as a member of the productive part of Ottoman society – reaya (Inaldžik 1974: 156, 308). The size of the land that he tilled was suffi cient to feed one family (çift).28 The peasant did not have property rights (and could not sell it), but he had the right to farm it and use it, i.e. he had the right of enjoying the fruits (usufructus).29 The sipahi could not drive the peasant of the land, with the exception if the land had not been farmed for three consecutive years (in that case the sipahi could grant the land to another peasant). The peasant paid the sipahi a special tax in money (resmi çift). The sipahi had the power to issue the peasant a title deed (tapu, tapija) confi rming that the peasant was the tenant on state-owned land (miri). When the sipahi would change, the new sipahi would issue peasants new title deeds. The peasants tenant rights were hereditary, therefore the land was baština (heritage) in this sense, even though he did not have ownership (Inaldžik 1974: 155–156, Novaković 2006: 107).30 The peasants paid the sipahi taxes in kind: the tithe (desetak, öşur) in the agricultural products from the land that they tilled (çift, baština). There were also other dues, and the main due paid by the sultan’s non-Muslim subjects (Christians, Jews, etc.) was the annual tribute, haraç (jizya).

28 The çift was a unit for arable land, which included “the area of land that can be ploughed in a day with a pair of oxen”, which is linked to the other meaning of the term çift, a pair, a couple (Škaljić 1979: 174; Novaković 2006: 103). In practice (depending on the region) the çift was 60 to 150 dunams (or dulum) is an area of “forty paces in length and width” i.e. around 940 square meters (Belin 1862: 316–350; Inaldžik 1974: 150, 305, 312; Novaković 2006: 103). The term çiftçi for a tenant farmer is derived from the term çift, as well as the term çiftlik for farm (Škaljić 1979: 174).

29 According to the understanding of private ownership (property), which was inherited in Eu-ropean civil law from Roman law, it includes three categories usus (i.e. ius utendi – right of use); fructus (i.e. ius fruendi – right of reap fruits) and abusus (i.e. ius abutendi – having full dominion); comp. Stanojević 1986: 173. In the sipahi-timar system the peasant did not have full dominion over land, i.e. abusus (ius abutendi), and therefore was not the owner of the land that he farmed.

30 Early Ottoman agrarian regulations had loaned the term baština (baştene), meaning the right to inheriting the status of land tenant, without the right of ownership (Bey 1873: 167; Novaković 2006: 107).

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The classic Ottoman sipahi-timar system started to undergo changes as early as the 16th century, which affected its essence. In the late 18th century and ear-ly 19th century, the Balkan region of the Ottoman Empire had made signifi cant progress in the process of creating çiftliks (Serbian, čitlučenje)31 by usurping the feudal right to miri (state-owned, the sultan’s) land. The usurpers were local Ottoman (Muslim) chiefs, who accepted the old feudal titles of bey (chieftain) and ağa (lord, master), but also of outlaws (kesici).32 In the process of creating çiftliks the heritage of the peasants33 was forcibly turned into çiftliks. Therefore such a usurper (çiftlik sahibis), who positioned himself between the peasant and the sipahi, became the de facto owner,34 without the sipahi loosing his rights. As a result the peasant gained two masters, and had to pay tributes to both. The çiftlik sahibis justifi ed such actions by the “desire” to protect the villages and individuals from brutality of others, during a time when the regular Ottoman authorities could not provide order and personal and property security in these regions. The peasants were powerless, and had to accept the new lord in addition to the old lord (they became his çiftçi) and paid two types of tributes: the tithe to the sipahi, and one-ninth of the crop in kind to the çiftlik sahibi (devetak), which often turned into a fi fth or a quarter of the crop. Furthermore, they also paid other dues. Unlike the sipahi, who lived outside of the village (in urban settlements), the çiftlik sahibi most often lived in the village where his çiftlik was located, which led to additional insecurity and fi nancial burdens for the peasants.

31 Çiftliks appeared in the sanjaks in present-day Bosnia as early as the 16th century, and the process was stepped up in the sanjaks encompassing present-day FYR Macedonia in the sec-ond half of the 17th century. It quickly spread to regions north of Macedonia: Kosovo, Yeni Pazar (Novi Pazar), Leskovac, Ürgüp (Prokuplje), Niş (Niš), Şehirköy (Pirot), and Alacahisar (Kruševac) regions, and especially the Belgrade Pashalik.

32 For the meanings of the terms bey, ağa and kesici see: Inaldžik 1974: 303; Škaljić 1979: 72, 129, 406. Milorad Ekmečić warns that the old sipahis (who had the titles of bey and ağa) and çiftlik sahibis with these titles were not people from the same family, i.e. that the creation of çiftliks created a new “aristocracy”, a new social class in the Ottoman Empire (Ekmečić 1981: 461).

33 The origin and legal nature of the siphahilik and farmers’ baština during the Ottoman pe-riod (especially their attitude towards the Byzantine pronia was discussed in detail by Stojan Novaković (1842–1915), one of the greatest Serbian historians and statesmen of the 19th cen-tury, and an authority on Ottoman law (he was Serbia’s offi cial representative in Constanti-nople for a total of 10 years); comp.: Novaković 1943: 84–131; Novaković 1986: 161–222; Novaković 2006: 99–125. The history of the baština ownership in Serbia from the late 18th century to 1931 (in the context of the collapse of the sipahi-timar system) was discussed be-tween the two World Ward by legal historian Branislav Nedeljković; see Nedeljković 1936.

34 The Turkish term sahibi means owner, master, proprietor (Škaljić 1979: 542).

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From the 1699 Treaty of Karlowitz until the 1739 Treaty of Belgrade, the ter-ritory of the Belgrade Pashalik changed hands between the Habsburg Empire and the Ottoman Empire, and vice versa, which led to the reduction in its original territory. After the Great Turkish War the entire region was devastated, the popu-lation was depleted and there was chaos in agrarian relations. There were sipahis who had more than one timar, but there were also cases where several siphais fought over one timar. Sipahis from the local population gradually gained major-ity, pushing out the old settler bey families. The sipahis who had lost their timars to Hungary in the war were not accepted in the sipahi but rather in the middle class (Samardžić 1986: 14–17).

During Austrian rule (1718–1739), almost the entire Muslim population left the Pashalik of Belgrade and the Ottoman timar system fell apart. Ottoman au-thorities accommodated most of the former ziamet and timar holders from the Pasahlik of Belgrade, Banat and Little Wallachia, at Niš, registering them as ur-ban population. Meanwhile, after the accession of a new sultan, a new ziamet and timar system was established (1731) in the Ottoman Empire so as to prevent the timar system from collapsing. The Porte sought to attract common people from the Austrian-held areas and guaranteed them a three-year tax exemption period followed by tax reliefs (Samardžić 1986: 95–99). Austrian rule over the terri-tory of the Pashalik of Belgrade, offi cially termed the Kin gdom of Serbia, was organized within a changing number (9–24) of districts (Provisorat). “Governors of Serbia” (heads of “Belgrade Administration”) were prominent Austrian gener-als, while the districts were administered by revisors (Revisoren) and their staff. Austria, however, did not introduce a typical feudal system in Serbia, and thus all taxes collected in the area fl ew into the state’s coffers. Also, rather than ap-pointing lower authorities, the district authorities relied on the already exist-ing forms of self-rule of the Christian (Serb) population: villages and knežinas (groups of 20 to 30 villages). The heads of villages (knez or birov) and knežinas (ober-knez) were instrumental in tax collecting, acting as subsidiary organs of the Austrian authorities. The villages were divided according to their military and tax obligations into military and hajduk (Heydukschevolks) and farming and chamber (Bauerdörfer) ones. The main taxes levied on the income from land were contributions and tenths on agricultural produce. The contribution was a tax paid in cash for military purposes, apart from its lesser part that went to the Court Chamber in Vienna, i.e. to the state’s coffers. The Court Chamber also lev-ied tenths on various agricultural products and livestock, which was paid in cash except for the tenth of grain crops which was paid in kind (Veselinović 1986: 115–122).

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When the Belgrade Pashalik transferred back to Ottoman control, the Porte abolished all previous timars and all the land in the Pashalik was declared miri. An account of all the land was made, in order to determine the land revenue, and 700 new smaller timars were created and distributed to the sipahis posted in the Belgrade Fortress. However, these timars were hereditary (ocaklik timars), which had previously exited in Bosnia, since the late 16th century,35 and they started being traded (Samardžić 1986: 313–314).

The army under the Belgrade commander (serhad) was divided into three cat-egories: sipahis, janissaries, and yerlis (middle class). They fought merciless-ly for the most important positions, with the jannisaries increasingly dictating relations in the Pashalik. The rogue janissaries (headed by dahiyes) seized the heritage of the Christian (Serbian) peasant population and implemented çiftliks. This led to the complete disorganization of the Ottoman sipahi-timar system in the Pashalik. Along with the terror of the janissaries, this led to the 1804 up-rising of the oppressed reaya, historically known as the First Serbian Uprising (Stojančević 1981: 7–24, 239; Ekmedžić 1981: 460–464; Samardžić 1986: 316–318; 321–329).

From the late 18th century the Ottoman Empire constantly endeavoured to implement reforms that would restore the vitality of the Empire. The reforms of Sultan Mahmud II (reign 1808–1839) introduced a regular army – nizam, render-ing the previous sultan’s mercenary army (janissaries) redundant, and which was abolished as a military class in 1826 (with great resistance). At the same time the need for sipahis (who comprised the cavalry in the event of war) also ceased. This did not stop the process of creating çiftliks in the Balkans. Moreover, the creation of çiftliks in the region of southeast Serbia was additionally boosted by the events related to the abolishment of the janissaries (1826), the Greek Revolution (1821–1827), and Russo-Ottoman War (1828–1829) (Stojančević 1981: 233–237).

On 3 November 1839, the Hatt-i Sharif of Gülhane, called the Tanzimat, introduced large changes into Ottoman society, causing fi erce resistance among the conservative Muslim population in certain parts of the Empire, and some changes had to be post-poned (Ekmečić 1981: 457–460). However, the sipahis were abolished as a feudal class, and the tithe, which had previously been paid to the sipahis, was now paid into the state coffers. In a way the Tanzimat declared each person the lord (owner) of the land that they had controlled previously. Consequently every person strived to prove that they held and used land, and the proof of this was the title deed (Novaković 1986:

35 On ocaklik cimars see: Filipović 1954–1955.

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19; Novaković 2006: 117). Therefore the çiftlik sahibis strived even more to formal-ize their status of gospodar (lord) of the land (regardless of the fact that they gained it by usurping miri, i.e. seizing peasant’s baština) by obtaining false title deeds from the sipahis, which was tolerated by the local Ottoman authorities. This led to several armed uprisings by the Christian population in the Sanjak of Niş, and especially peas-ant uprising in the Niš region in 1841 was especially widespread. The peasants also pursued numerous court and administrative courses against the forced transformation of their baštinas into çiftliks (Stojančević 1981: 234; Ekmečić 1981: 463).

On the other hand, following the adoption of the Tanzamat, the Ottoman cen-tral government (the Porte) attempted to de facto improve the position of the reaya in the peripheral parts of the Empire, but with limited success (Spasić 1890: 225–226, 251–253; Stojančević 1981: 238–240; Ekmečić 1981: 463–465, 469–470). Following the conclusion of the Crimean War (1856) equality (civic, political and religious) of all citizens in the Ottoman Empire was declared. In 1858 a new land code of 1858 (the so-called Ramazan law), which organized the property rights of the citizens in accordance with the proclaimed principles of civic equality, rendered all previous land ownership regulations obsolete. The law provided for four types of private property, and explicitly stipulated that possession of miri land was provide by the title deed, and that this was the basis for the sale, inheritance or sale (Ekmečić 1981: 468; Novaković 2006: 117–118). Actually, holding a title deed was the path towards gaining private ownership (Turkish mulk, Serbian miljak), which motivated the çiftlik sahibis even more to obtain the title deeds to the land that they usurped, using any means possible. At the time the Ottoman Empire replaced the title deeds every four years, gain-ing signifi cant funds from the taxes, which provided the çiftlik sahibis with new opportunity to obtain title deeds (Spasić 1890: 224). Despite the new laws, the timars were practically not abolished in the regions of the Ottoman Empire bor-dering on the Principality of Serbia, until the wars of 1876–1878. Furthermore, Christian sipahis emerged in this region. This further aggravated the position of the peasants, who lost their heritage and were trapped between the sipahi and the çiftlik sahibi (Novaković 1986: 219; Ekmečić 1981: 464; Stojičić 1987: 10).

Agrarian relations during the First and Second Serbian Uprising and after the autonomy of the Principality of Serbia

During the First Serbian Uprising the Ottoman agrarian relations ceased to exist with the expelling of the janissaries and the sipahis in 1804, and çiftliks and timars were abolished. In the beginning the rebel authorities had the intention of paying taxes directly to the central Ottoman government (the Porte), however already in

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December 1805 the rebel assembly passed a decision to not pay taxes to the Ot-toman state, and to collect the tithe in kind in order to cover the needs of the rebel authorities and army. During the course of the Uprising the land became the own-ership of the peasant that had worked it during the Ottoman rule. However, wither collapse of the uprising in 1813, the feudal obligations of the Serbian peasant were restored. They remained in force even after the conclusion of the Second Serbian Uprising in 1813, but were restored to the legal grounds, which had been disrupted under janissary rule in the Belgrade Pashalik: the peasant paid the sipahi only what he was legally entitled to. The feudal obligations of the Serbian peasants to the sipahis endured in this form until the Principality of Serbian gained autonomy (Stojančević 1981: 93–94, 107–108; Ljušić 1992: 110).

The sultan’s Hatt-i Sharifs of 1830 and 1833 established the rights and obliga-tions of the autonomous Principality of Serbia towards the Ottoman Empire and the Muslim (“Turkish”) population that had previously lived in the territory of the Principality. The timars were abolished in the Principality, and the peasant baština was legalized as private property.36 The Principality was required to pay an annual tribute of 2,300,000 grossus to the Ottoman Empire, which the Porte used to pay a type of lifetime pension to the sipahis. It was believe that with this act the Ottoman state transferred the land rights to the Principality of Serbia (with compensation in the form of the annual tribute), and the Principality then transferred these rights to those that had previously leased and used the land. The peasant no longer had any obligation to the sipahis and Ottoman authorities. As of May 1835 the payment of taxes in kind to the authorities in the Principality ceased: peasants started paying taxes in money, a sum of six thalers per year. This fact is increasingly considered in Serbia historiography as the symbolic end of the Serbian Revolution, which in addition to having national liberation goals, also had characteristics of a social revolution. This de facto put an end to the Ottoman feudal order in the Principality of Serbia (Stojančević 1981: 117–129, 140; Novaković 1986: 216; Ljušić 1992: 108–105).

Muslim civilians could sell only the properties that were their private own-ership (mulk), and sales agreements were notarized by the Serbian courts in the Principality. Only properties where Muslims lived were considered private ownership, and not those that had been obtained through the çiftlik process and were leased in villages outside their place of residence (Stojančević 1981: 124; Novaković 1986: 217–218). With such compensation the Muslim population emi-grated out of the Principality, mainly soon after the Principality gained autonomy,

36 This change in title was soon ratifi ed in norms (Article 213) of the 1844 Civil Code of the Principality of Serbia (Novaković 1986: 216).

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and a smaller portion with the last Ottoman garrisons, who left the Principality in 1867. In the meantime (1836) a law on citizenship was passed in the Principality, according to which all foreigners already living in the Principality could receive Serbian citizenship, regardless of their ethnicity (Stojančević 1981: 123, 137).

Agrarian relations after the 1876–1878 wars and the independence of the Principality of Serbia

During the 1876–1878 Serbo-Ottoman wars there was a great migration of the civilian population in the territories involve in the war, both Christian (Serbian) and Muslim (Turks, Albanians, Circassians, “Bosniacs”, etc.).37 During the sec-ond war (December 1877 – January 1878) the Muslim population fl ed towns (Vranya (Vranje), Leskovac, Ürgüp (Prokuplje), Niş (Niš), Şehirköy (Pirot), etc.) as well as rural settlements where they comprised ethnically compact communi-ties (certain parts of Toplica, Jablanica, Pusta Reka, Masurica and other regions in the South Morava River basin). At the end of the war these Muslim refugees ended up in the region of Kosovo and Metohija, in the territory of the Ottoman Empire, following the demarcation of the new border with the Principality of Serbia.38 During the military operations and after their conclusion in January 1878, the Supreme Command of the Serbian army managed the immediate issues in the newly-liberated regions, in regard to mobile and immobile assets owned by the Muslim (“Turk”) refugees. Among other things the temporary authorities were ordered that “a census of all imperial, sipahi and bey food be made, it be seized and taken to military stores, as property of the state” (Nikolić-Stojančević 1975: 48; Stojičić 1987: 20).39

The Supreme Command also issued written instructions regarding the “lands and other immobile assets”, with all assets being classifi ed: a) if the “Turk” refu-gees had farmed the land themselves or resided in the homes, then there were to be leased (to the local population or new Serbian settlers); b) if the lands of the “Turk” refugees were farmed by peasants with certain tributes, the same peasants were to continue farming the land, provided that the terms of use of

37 For more see literature referred to in footnote 24.38 On Muslim refugees (muhaciri) from the regions of southeast Serbia, who relocated in Mace-

donia and Kosovo, see Trifunovski 1978, Radovanović 2004.39 In order to prevent the plundering of the remaining properties of the Muslim refugees, as well

as wartime speculation, a census was also to be made of “all food that exists with individual citizens, greater than 5,000 okas,” with the proprietor being required to prove its origin, other-wise the food (usually wheat, maize, etc.) would be confi scated and taken to military stores “as property of the state”. An oka is an old measure of weigh used in the Ottoman Empire, equal to 1.283 kg (Škaljić 1979: 500).

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the land would be subsequently defi ned legally, at the moment when agrarian relations in the “newly-liberated areas” were fi nally settled. A state commission was also formed for leasing “Turkish” estates (land, buildings, vineyards, mills, cattle, agricultural tools, etc.), which also resolved other related practical issues (Nikolić-Stojančević 1975: 47–51; Stojičić 1987: 19–20).

The Principality of Serbia defi ned the taxes of the population in the liberated areas in a law on the temporary organization in these regions, which was passed already in late January 1878, and these dues were paid in money “as was the case with the rest of Serbia.” At the same time all types of payment in kind, which had existed during the Ottoman rule, were abolished (Nikolić-Stojančević 1975: 51–54). This put an end to Ottoman agrarian relations in the newly-liberated regions. However, the dues that existed in the previous agrarian relations did not cease, because the 1878 Treaty of Berlin (Article XXIX) specifi ed Serbia’s obligation.

“Muslims who have properties in the territories annexed to Serbia, and who would want to set up residence outside the Principality, may maintain their build-ings on lease or by having it administered by third parties. A Serbian-Turkish commission will be charged with settling, within three years, all matters relating to the mode of expropriation, exploitation or use, on behalf of the Sublime Porte, of the properties of the state and religious foundations (waqf), as well as issues relating to the interests of individuals who may be there committed.”40 (Ristić 1898: 263–264; Stojičić 1987: 130)

This Serbian responsibility practically came down to ensuring fair purchases of the lands of the Muslims who had fl ed to Ottoman territory and who did not wish to return (the majority did not wish to continue living in the Principality).41 Following two exhausting wars the Serbian state was not capable of purchasing all the properties, as it had done following the sultan’s Hatt-i Sharifs of 1830 and 1833, which had granted autonomy (Stojičić 1987: 16). The state transferred the purchase obligation to the peasants who had farmed the land under Ottoman rule, as well as the new immigrants that had settled on the abandoned Muslim estates. However, the purchases were not immediately regulated because the Serbian authorities were not suffi ciently familiar with the state of affairs in agrarian rela-tions in these regions prior to the liberation from Ottoman rule. For this reason in early 1879 a law was passed creating two commissions that were tasked with

40 (translation from Serbian)41 On the organization of agrarian relations in the newly-liberated regions, ensuring purchases of

the land that had previously been held by sipahis and çiftlik sahibis, and the dues of the peas-ants and settlers that purchased the land, see Stojičić 1987.

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investigating the situation (in in the Toplica and the Vranje districts, and an-other in the Niš and Pirot districts), and they also had other duties. The commis-sions were to propose new laws to the Serbian parliament (Narodna Skupština, National Assembly) based on a six-month investigation of the state of affairs.42 The Law on Agrarian Relations was prepared based on this work, and was subse-quently adopted by Parliament on 3 February, 1880. The heated discussion dur-ing the adoption of the Law revealed the complexity and delicacy of the agrarian issue in the liberated regions (Stojičić 1987: 21–22).

This Law recognized the right to compensation for both sipahis and çiftlik sahibis that had existed previously in the newly-liberated regions. It defi ned (Article 2) sipahi lands, designated in the Law as gospodarski or ağaliks:43 these are lands “where those that held and tilled the land gave the lord a certain tribute, in money, butter, cheese or fruits of the land in sum (godišnjina), or one ninth of the fruits of the land (devetak)”, provided that “the lord did not have the right to lease the land to another or to change the type of tribute, since such lands were considered the heritage of those holding and tilling it.” In regard to the çiftlik sahibis, Article 4 states that these were “the settled çiftlik lands that the set-tlers (leasers) had held and worked continuously for 10 years before the Serbian governance of the newly-liberated regions, and paid others (çiftlik sahibis) two-ninths, a fi fth, a third and up to half of the fruits of the land or a certain number of labourers,” pointing out “these lands were considered the property of the çiftlik sahibis and they could lease them for farming to whom they pleased, and even change the type of tribute.” By recognizing çiftliks as the property of the çiftlik sahibis, the Serbian authorities sanctioned the outcome of the process of creating çiftliks in these regions, under Ottoman rule (Novaković 1986: 220).

Based on this law the former gospodari (sipahis) and çiftlik sahibis had two options of receiving compensation for their properties: by concluding an agree-ment with the persons that were using the land on these properties (old land

42 Having completed their work, the two commissions were merged into a new, third commis-sion, which proposed legislative solutions (Stojičić 1987: 22). Ten years later one of its mem-bers, Milovan Spasić, published a study on agrarian relations of the Christians in the Toplica and Vranje district during Ottoman rule, which is quoted in this paper. comp. Spasić 1890. At the same time there was an increase in interest in agrarian relations in Bulgaria during Ottoman rule, comp. Aćimović 1881; Jireček 1888.

43 Under Ottoman rule the sipahi estates were called gospodarluks in the region of the Toplica District, and ağaliks in the Vranje District (Spasić 1890: 222). Stojan Novaković describes both the gospodarluks and ağaliks from this Law essentially as sipahi lands (Novaković 1986: 222).

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users or new settlers) or by special procedure through the district agrarian com-missions. Since the gospodari and çiftlik sahibis already resided outside of the Principality of Serbia (in Kosovo, Macedonia, etc.), they either came personally or sent representatives. In the event that the two sides reached an agreement on the purchase price (it was usually expressed in imperial ducats), the two sides would conclude a written contract, which would be notarized by a Serbian court. If no agreement could be reached on the purchase price the gospodari and the çiftlik sahibis would request that the district agrarian commission determine the fair price by applying the legal formula (Article 26): the average annual return from the land was multiplied by a coeffi cient of 7 or 8, depending on whether the peasant’s previous dues were paid in money or in kind. This is why the most important task of these commissions was to concretely calculate the average an-nual return from the land. The party that was discontent could fi le a claim with the district court (Stojičić 1987: 25–26).

Through diplomatic channels the Porte criticized the Serbian government of the purchases proceeding to slowly. Furthermore, the Serbian authorities noted that the peasants and settlers on the estates of the Muslims that had fl ed were not fi nancially able to purchase the land on their own. Therefore the state as-sumed this obligation, and already on 22 June 1882 it passed the Law on the Agrarian Loan, based on which the Kingdom of Serbia took out a special loan with a bank in Austria-Hungary. Consequently the state paid the set land prices to the former gospodari and çiftlik sahibis, and payment was realized through the special Treasury for the Agrarian Loan. As a result peasants from certain villages became the solidary debtors to the state, and they had to repay the debt (with interest) to the state within 15 to 20 years. There were a total of around 17,000 such debtors. However, this represented a great burden for the peasants, even with such an assisted debt repayment. For this reason the state gradually eased the repayment terms, and fi nally in 1907 it wrote off the debt to all re-maining debtors. This abolished the last remains of the peasants’ obligations that stemmed from the agrarian relations during the Ottoman rule of these regions. The peasants fi nally became the owners of the land, which was confi rmed by title deeds (Stojičić 1987: 35–54).44

Having expanded its territory in the 1912–1913 Balkan Wars, by pushing back the Ottoman Empire, the Kingdom of Serbia faced the problem of resolving the agrarian relations that it encountered in the newly-gained territories. This problem was further amplifi ed by the fact that the First World War erupted soon

44 Many families with roots in southeastern Serbia to this day keep the contracts and title deeds based on which they gained permanent land ownership.

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after (1914), and consequently it would be addressed by the Yugoslav state in the period between the two World Wars – which warrants special elaboration.

June 2011

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Contact: PhD Miloš Luković, Institute for Balkan Studies and Arts, Serbian Academy od Sciences and Arts, Knez-Mihailova 35, 11000 Belgrade (Beograd), Serbia, e-mail: [email protected], [email protected].

Vývoj moderního srbského státu a zrušení otomanských agrárních vztahů v 19. století.

Resumé: Moderní srbský stát (Knížectví/Království srbské) byl vytvořen a jeho úze-mí postupně zvětšováno během 19. a začátku 20. století, v procesu emancipace z celku otomanské říše, kde existovaly specifi cké hospodářské vztahy založené na otomanském feudalismu. V důsledku této skutečnosti se moderní srbský stát vyvíjel zároveň s pro-cesy nahrazování otomanských zemědělských vztahů jinými formami vlastnictví půdy, v nichž se dříve závislí rolníci stávali samostatnými vlastníky půdy, kterou pod otoman-ským režimem obdělávali. V článku jsou detailně analyzovány otomanské zemědělské vztahy na Balkáně, zejména pak změny, k nimž došlo během ozbrojených povstání srb-ských rolníků – během prvního a druhého srbského povstání (1804–1813, 1815). Proces rušení otomanských zemědělských vztahů (a ustavování soukromého vlastnictví půdy) je detailně pojednán na případu Knížectví srbského poté, co dosáhlo formální autonomie v rámci otomanské říše (1830) a po získání nezávislosti (1878), včetně mezinárodních souvislostí.

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THE REFLECTION OF THE SOUTH SLAV IN CZECH SOCIAL MAGAZINES OF THE SECOND HALF OF THE 19TH CENTURY AS

A SOURCE OF STUDY OF THE FORMATION OF ETHNIC IMAGES

MIROSLAV VÁLKA

Abstract: Social magazines contributed to a great extent to the image of South Slavs which was formed in the consciousness of Czech society in the second half of the 19th century. The period after the fall of neo-absolutism (1860), accompa-nied by relaxation of political rigour, meant a new stage in the development of Czech national life. Czech periodicals of social character come into existence together with the above mentioned development of national life; they were to re-place German papers in bourgeoisie circles. They included e.g. Besedy lidu, Čas, Květy, Obzor, Osvěta, Světozor and Zlatá Praha. Slavic subject matter played an important part in the profi le of the individual periodicals. The image of South Slavs, which social periodicals in the Czech society were creating by means of fi ction, travel stories, historical and ethnographic scientifi c literature and, last but not least, by means of illustrations production and reproduction of works of visual artists, was in the spirit of Slavic mutual cooperation. Armed confl icts for the sake of gaining national independence, which create the icon of the South Slav as a fearless fi ghter for freedom, won the heart of the public. Analogously, archaic autochthonous manifestations the Czech society lacked are sought in the folk culture of South Slavs. Czech society thus created a largely idealized and romantic image of the life and culture of South Slavs, into which it projected its own ideals and desires.Key words: ethnic images, South Slavs, Czech social magazines.

Social magazines contributed to a great extent to the image of South Slavs which was formed in the second half of the 19th century in the consciousness of Czech nationally oriented society. The period after the fall of neo-absolutism and after the publication of the so called October Diploma (1860), accompanied by relaxa-tion of political rigour, meant a new stage in the development of Czech national

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life, characterized by associations activities and by the completion of the ideas of Czech national revival, which included the construction of the National Theatre.1 Questions concerning constitutional law and nationality remained the dominant political problem, to the escalation of which the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 contributed, as it killed the hopes of Czechs and other Slavic nations for a more just political and constitutional organization of the country. It fi rst led to the resistance of the Czech political representation to the work in the imperial council; and consequently to the co called “crumbs” politics – the loyalty of Czech council members was compensated for by small concessions on the part of the Austrian government.

The relaxation of the social life starting in the early 1860s was refl ected in the development of Czech journalism as well. Whereas in 1863 ten political magazines and 17 professional journals were published in the Czech lands, the number amounted to 120 political papers and 210 professional journals in 1895 (Beránková 1981: 149). Newspapers played an essential part not only in the political life, but they also had an infl uence on social and cultural spheres, as a number of Czech writers and poets came into their own in journalism. The post of editor in charge, who chooses his co-workers, certainly played an important role in the direction of the paper, but we have to take into consideration the fact that the profi le of the periodicals was infl uenced by the political party affi liations of the publishers: in addition to the groups of Old Czechs and Young Czechs, pe-riodicals with catholic, agrarian, and Christian-social orientations were formed from the late 19th century, preceded by those with social democratic orientation (Beránková 1981: 175–204). The question we pose is what image of South Slavs and their culture the social magazines of the second half of the 19th century were creating and how they contributed to the formation of ethnic stereotypes con-cerning South Slavs,2 which formed in the Czech society.

Description of Czech social magazines in the 2nd half of the 19th century

Czech periodicals of social character come into existence together with the abo-ve mentioned development of national life; they were to replace German papers

1 Its foundation stone was laid in 1868.2 Extensive domestic and international literature dealing with ethnic stereotypes is available. E.

Krekovičová focused on the research of mental images and stereotypes in folklore texts and perceived them as one of the “vectors” of collective/social memory (Krekovičová 2005). It can also be approached from the broader point of view of the formation of collective identity (Kiliánová – Kowalská – Krekovičová 2009).

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in bourgeoisie circles. Their formation and publishing went through complicated development before they were able to acquire stable subscribers and periodicity. They included e.g. Besedy lidu, Čas, Květy, Obzor, Osvěta, Světozor and Zlatá Praha (Malacka 2009: 9–20). Slavic subject matter played an important part in the profi le of the individual periodicals. The information about Slavic world in-cluded news about South Slavs, ranging from scientifi c texts to travel sketches, and to popularizing illustrated supplements.

Zlatá Praha – Obrázkový týdenník pro zábavu a poučení [Illustrated weekly for entertainment and education] was a representative Czech illustrated magazine. It fi rst started to be published under the editorship of V. Hálek in 1864, but its publication was discontinued as early as the following year. Zlatá Praha was re-established twenty years later, in 1884, when it was published by F. Schulz in J. Otto’s publishing house, as a “paper dedicated to refi ned entertainment and to the spiritual life of the Czech nation”3. The profi le of the periodical is exceptionally varied as far as the literary as well as commented illustration work is concerned, owing to the number of contribu-tors. Its contents were of a conservative nature; Czech men of letters and poets cooper-ated with it, it published translations from Slavic literatures, social and historical prose. Zlatá Praha supported the national movement when it informed about the preparations and events concerning the General Land Centennial Exhibition (Všeobecná zemská jubilejní výstava) (1891) and Ethnographic Czech-Slavic Exhibition (Národopisná výstava českoslovanská) (1895), or when it printed ethnographic works dealing with Czech national or Slavic issues. The world of South Slavs was described by travel il-lustrations complemented by scientifi c essays as well as reviews, obituaries and biog-raphies, the authors of which were L. Kuba, J. D. Konrád, J. Šafránek, J. Holeček etc. Numerous illustrated supplements reproduce the works of J. Čermák, P. Jovanović, J. V. Mrkvička or J. K. Janovský.

Květy occupied an important position in Czech social journalism. Although the foundation of the periodical in connected with the year 1834 and the editorial work of J. K. Tyl, the magazine ceased to exist in the year of revolution – 18484 and it was re-established in 1865 due to the efforts of J. Neruda and V. Hálek under the name of Týdenník belletristický a lehce poučný [A literary and slightly educational weekly] with the supplement Česká včela. The magazine had its ups and downs throughout its existence: in the early seventies the publication was discontinued, but towards the end of the decade it was re-established again in the form of an illustrated monthly, directed by S. Čech and S. B. Heller (Malacka 2009: 11). Important Czech writers as well as talented up-and-coming authors

3 Vlasteneckému čtenářstvu! Zlatá Praha 1, 1884, No. 1, pp. 1 (supplement).4 After a brief re-establishment permanently in 1850.

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concentrated around the magazine. South Slavic ethnographic and folkloristic topics in Květy were covered e.g. by S. Kapper, A. Černý, L. Kuba, J. Holeček, V. Dobruský etc.

Shortly after the re-establishment of Květy, Světozor, a family magazine pub-lished by F. Skrejšovský, comes into existence. The illustrated weekly Světozor, founded by Old Czechs in 1867 as competition to Young Czech Květy, acquired the reputation of a good-quality family paper, in the editorial staff of which scores of important Czech men of letters and scientists appeared – S. Čech, J. Jireček, P. Sobotka, J. Vrchlický, M. A. Šimáček. It belonged to the realist line of Czech politics. There are numerous contributions from the fi eld of ethnog-raphy in Světozor, literary as well as iconographic, forming approximately one quarter of the contents of the magazine. In addition to Czech national mate-rial from individual ethnographic regions (J. Herben, J. F. Hruška, J. Klvaňa, V. Pittnerová), there were contributions by Č. Zíbrt, R. Tyršová and F. V. Vykoukal, conceived as more general. The magazine also printed short folk tales, Czech as well as e.g. Croatian (M. Fabkovićeva). South Slavic ethnographic and histori-cal material from the area of Dalmatia was published by E. S. Mirohorský and J. Čermák, from Istria by K. Liebscher, from the travels of Serbia by V. Gabler, about Montenegro by V. Holeček and G. Rasch, South Slavic ethnic men depic-tions by A. Garejs, O. Hořejší and J. Jass.

Besedy lidu, declared as an inexpensive popular illustrated magazine, was connected with the J. Otto’s publishing house of and was founded in 1893 after the success of the General Land Centennial Exhibition and at the time of the preparation of the Ethnographic Czech-Slavic Exhibition. A. E. Mužík helped with its foundation, K. Vika was in charge of the pictorial part. Ethnographic and folkloristic articles deal mainly with national customs and rituals and also with the phenomena of material culture, but their source value is not very high. In 1895 Besedy lidu specialized in the preparation and course of the Ethnographic Exhibition. They also printed material from the Balkan countries, the represent-atives of which appeared at the Centennial and the Ethnographic Exhibitions (Soukupová 1996). Contributions concerning South Slavic topics by J. Holeček and F. Přibil appear in the magazine.

Moravian Obzor belonged among the lesser-known magazines, it was of a Catholic orientation and published in Brno from 1878. Its credo “to be a paper for education and entertainment”, ideological orientation and the requirements of its reader base from the country were fulfi lled in various ways, including by means of ethnographic contributions. F. Bartoš, the founder of Moravian ethnol-ogy, was the main contributor of Obzor, together with some regionally-oriented

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authors such as F. Stránecká, M. Václavek, L. Bakešová – in addition to the co-operation with correspondents, who Obzor directly encouraged to send their articles. The magazine printed ethnographic material from Slovenia (J. Karba, J. K. Kačer), Montenegro (A. Jáník), Bosnia (F. Venhuda).

A different ideological direction motivated the foundation of the review Osvěta. Even though its beginnings were not easy – it ceased to exist after a year of publication in 1863 – important personalities of Czech literal and cultural lives directed this later re-established magazine. From 1871 Osvěta is again pub-lished as a monthly – Listy pro rozhled v umění, vědě a politice [Papers for insight into art, science and politics] – edited by V. Vlček, and after his death, by F. A. Šubert. The conservative profi le of the magazine, which defended the authenticity of the Manuscripts of Dvůr Králové and of Zelená Hora, presented nationalistic rhetoric, on the other hand, it printed scientifi cally sound analy-ses by renowned authors (Malacka 2009: 15). Synopses, essays and treatises on political, scientifi c and literary life in the country as well as abroad, with regard to foreign Slavic countries were characterized by their pertinence and academicism. Osvěta regularly commented the scientifi c literature published at that time by means of the reviews of F. V. Vykoukal, and its contributors included renowned authors, such as cultural historians Č. Zíbrt and Z. Winter or Moravian ethnographer F. Bartoš; K. Jireček, J. Holeček, J. Páta, G. Preissová, J. Hudec, J. Kolář, E. Fait and many more published scientifi c work about the South Slavic world in Osvěta. J. Holeček published his books of travels from the Balkan en-vironment here.

The spirit of criticism and unambiguous political opinions are associated with the magazine Čas, the editor of which becomes J. Herben in 1886. It was the press medium of the so called realists, the circle around T. G. Masaryk. From 1900 it was published with Sunday fi ction supplement Besedy Času. Due to the political direction of Čas, ethnographic articles themselves are few and far between and they are of a news nature, such as in the case of the Ethnographic Czech-Slavic Exhibition (1895), when critical opinions are voiced as well. On the other hand the magazine systematically promotes the Czech–Slovak mutual cooperation, it provides information about the social and ethnic questions in Slovakia. South Slavic topics are scarce.

Articles concerning South Slavic nations occupy a substantial place in the pro-fi le of the other social periodicals listed. They include literary and scientifi c works, as well as journalism, stories of travels and miscellaneous iconographic materi-als with commentaries. The knowledge which reached the Czech reader from the above mentioned periodicals contributed to the formation of the image of South

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Slavs in Czech society, since it penetrates into the widest national consciousness. In individual papers, the pieces of knowledge differed in number, frequency and intensity, refl ecting the contemporary international situation, mainly the politics of Austria-Hungary concerning the area of the Balkans, which nevertheless did not coincide with the opinions of Czech political representation promoting the spirit of the revivalist Slavic mutual cooperation and possible political coop-eration owing to common interests. The positive and welcoming acceptance of South Slavs manifested itself not only in press, but also in associations activities; the idea of analogous historical development played an important part in both of them (Soukupová 1998: 98).

The presentation of South Slavic popular culture in Czech social magazines of the 2nd half of the 19th century

Slovenians had a specifi c position among South Slavic nations, given by their be-longing to the Cisleithianian part of the monarchy and close contacts with Czechs from the beginning of the national revival. Following the Austro-Hungarian Com-promise, Czechs and Slovenians became the closest political and cultural partners (Hladký – Blažek 2010: 28). Other platforms of presentation of mutual contact were probably the cause of the fact that news concerning Slovenia and their tradi-tional culture are not numerous in the studied social magazines. A. Černý, a Slavi-cist and ethnographer focusing mainly on the questions of Sorbs, also devoted himself to the Slavic south, i.e. more specifi cally the area of north-Italian Rezia populated by Slavs with ethno-cultural ties to Slovenians. In Květy (1897) he fi rst reviewed the publication of Polish philologist J. Boudoin de Courtenay on South Slavic dialectology and ethnography.5 Having visited the north-Italian Rezia him-self later on, he published his observations from the travels together with the picto-rial representation of the folk costume and municipalities in Zlatá Praha,6 as well as once again in Květy, in which he also added the transcriptions of folk songs.7 L. Kuba in his travels in search of the Slavic folk song published two travel sketches from his stay in the Slovenian White Carniola8 and about the inhabitants of Rib-nica, a German linguistic island in the south of today’s Slovenia.9 The Slovenian

5 Černý, A.: Resiané, Slované severoitalští. Květy 19, 1897, pp. 326–332 and 451–461.6 Černý, A.: Opět v Rezii. Zlatá Praha 22, 1905, pp. 369–370, 381 and 391.7 Černý, A.: U italských Slovanů. Květy 28, 1906, pp. 662–672 and 797–811.8 Kuba, L.: V nebezpečném kraji. (Episodka z cest po Bílé Krajině). Květy 12, 1890, pp.

719–727.9 Kuba, L.: Rybničané v Krajině. Črta z cest slovinských. Květy 18, 1896/II, pp. 730–738.

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national folk tale In Young Breda was published in Květy by Slavist and translator J. Kolář.10 Folk song became the means to express the love between a Slovenian boy and girl in the ethnographic sketch by J. J. Kořán.11 Slovenian annual customs traditions were presented to the Czech public fairly in detail in Osvěta by J. Karba12 and in Světozor by J. Z. Veselý.13 A Slovenian fairy tale about “sudičky” was trans-lated by K. J. Kačer,14 the same author informed about the ceremonial culture, the Christmas customs of Slovenians living in Hungary,15 and a comparison of Czech and Slovenian Easter customs was made by Kořán in Světozor in 1873.16 J. Husník depicted a Slovenian woman in her wedding folk costume.17

The article on B. Kopitar, Viennese Slavicist of Slovenian origin, and his relation-ship to the collector of Slovenian folk songs S. Vraz belongs to the fi eld of personal data and history of science.18 In a literary-historical study publicist J. Karásek drew attention to M. Majar’s letter to the husband of B. Němcová and to the beginning of contacts between the Czech writer and Slovenian environment. Viennese Slavist of Slovenian origin F. Miklošič’s obituary was published in Čas by J. Klvaňa.19 G. Preissová, associated with Osvěta, commemorated in it the greatest Slovenian poet of the 19th century F. Prešern20 and depicted the country life and environment21 on the basis of knowledge acquired thanks to her stay among Carinthian Slovenians.

After the restoration of constitutional system of government in Austria in 1861, a new period of relations with Croatian people started. Czech politicians tried to coordinate their steps with Croatian representatives on the basis of common histori-cal-legal argumentation stemming from the analogous position in the monarchy, but following the Croatian-Hungarian Settlement (1868) the relations turned more com-plicated and colder from both sides. Only new political parties tried to resume the interrupted dialogue between the two countries (Stehlík 2010: 56–57). The political

10 Kolář, J.: Mladá Breda. (Národní balada slovinská). Květy 1, 1865, pp. 287.11 Kořán, J. J.: Hoch a děvče slovinské. (Obrázek národopisný). Světozor 3, 1869, pp. 164–166.12 Karba, J.: Národní obyčeje slovinské. (Translation: K. Kačer). Obzor 15, 1892, pp. 291–292,

307–310 and 325–327.13 Veselý, J. Z: Obyčeje a zvyky u Slovinců. Světozor 5, 1871, pp. 315 and 328–330.14 Kačer, K. J.: O sudičkách. (Národní pohádka slovinská). Obzor 15, 1892, pp. 42–43.15 Kačer, K. J.: Vánoce Slavoncův a uherských Slovinců. Obzor 17, 1894, pp. 361–363.16 Kořán, J. J.: Některé velkonoční obyčeje v Čechách a v Krajině. Světozor 7, 1873, pp. 222–223

and 231–232.17 Husník, J.: Slovinka v národním kroji svatebním. Zlatá Praha 4, 1887, pp. 561.18 J,J,T, (J. J. T): Kopitar a Stanko Vráz. Květy 2, 1880, pp. 502–507.19 Klvaňa, J.: Památce Miklošičově. Čas 5, 1891, pp. 202–204.20 Preissová, G.: France Prešern. K památce stých narozenin. Osvěta 30, 1900, pp. 1064–1070.21 Preissová, G.: Selka Gorejová. (Korutanská povídka). Osvěta 32, 1902, pp. 35–47, 126–136,

247–259 and 306–321.

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situation in Croatia after the Croatian-Hungarian settlement was explained in Osvěta by translator and man of letters J. Hudec.22 K. Jireček focused on the Republic of Dubrovník from the political-historical point of view here.23

Regardless of the changeable political situation, Czech-Croatian relations were fruitful and inspiring in many cultural areas. Croatian fairy tale literary tradition was brought closer to Czech readers by B. Němcová’s friend M. Fabkovićeva in the fairy tale about Cinderella, a subject matter which also forms a part of Czech narrative tradition,24 and also by means of a humorous fairy tale about a stupid man. This could be compared to Czech texts about “hloupý Honza” [“Simple Simon”].25

Czech readers received more comprehensive information about the coastal part of today’s Croatia, about Dalmatia, also with regard to the possibilities of tourist activities. In Květy, J. Heřman describes Dalmatian islands in the form of a book of travels: specifi cally the island of Lab, including information about folk costume and annual customs,26 or, in a comprehensive way, the south Dalmatian group of islands with its typical fi shery.27 The works of J. D. Konrád about Dalmatia are of a travel story and memories character.28 Povstalci dalmatští [Dalmatian revolt-ers], the work of J. J. Kořán in Světozor constituted an occasion to introduce the traditional culture of Bay of Kotor inhabitants.29 The life of Istro-Romanians, an ethnographic group in Istria was addressed by K. Liebscher.30 The impres-sions from Dalmatian wanderings were published by L. Kuba.31 A. Řeháková published her travel sketches from her Dalmatian diary in Květy32 and later on reviewed published fi ction which dealt with the Dalmatian coast.33

22 Hudec, J.: Chorvátská ústava a poměr její k Uhrám. Osvěta 14, 1884, pp. 97–113.23 Jireček, K.: Dubrovník. Osvěta 9, 1879, pp. 9–25.24 Fabkovičeva, M.: Popeljko. (Pohádka horvatská). Osvěta 1, 1863, pp. 215–216 and 223–224.25 Fabkovičeva, M.: Hloupému štěstí přeje. (Národní pohádka vypravovaná v Slatině ve Slavo-

nii). Světozor 8, 1874, pp. 571–572.26 Heřman, J.: Ostrov a město Lab v Dalmacii. Květy 30, 1908/II, pp. 60–74.27 Heřman, J.: Jižní souostroví dalmatské. Květy 32, 1910/II, pp. 14–28 and 185–202.28 Konrád J. D.: Z jižní Dalmacie. Osvěta 16, 1886, pp. 925–935, 981–996 and 1053–1070;

Konrád J. D.: Na Gackém poli. (Z hercegovských vzpomínek). Zlatá Praha 3, 1886, pp. 535–537, 555–556, 567–570, 582, 618–619 and 630; Konrád J. D.: Dalmatské vzpomínky. Zlatá Praha 6, 1889, pp. 47.

29 Kořán, J. J.: Povstalci dalmatští a některé jejich obyčeje. Světozor 3, 1869, pp. 374–375, 383, 407–408 and 415–416.

30 Liebscher, K.: Na pobřeží Istrie. Světozor 22, 1888, pp. 376–377, 392–393, 406 and 422–423.31 Kuba, L.: Z potulek po Dalmacii. Květy 22, 1900, pp. 24–25, 162–169 and 295–304.32 Řeháková, A.: Několik listů z dalmatského deníku. (Cestopisný obrázek). Květy 31, 1909, pp.

493–510.33 Řeháková, A.: Z dalmatského jihu. Zlatá Praha 27, 1910, pp. 580; Řeháková, A.: Z různých

končin. (Šašek, Velké Meziříčí 1912). Zlatá Praha 29, 1912, pp. 351–352.

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E. S. Mirohorský was the documentalist of Dalmatian people. The inhabitants of Šibenik or Vrlika34 captured his attention. F. Biza also complemented his articles on grape harvests and harvests in Dalmacia with illustrations.35 We can fi nd the repro-duction of the painting Trh v Dubrovníku [Dubrovník Market]36 by Croatian painter V. Bukovac, connected with Prague academy, in Zlatá Praha. The ethnographic group of Morlachs was the theme of Czech painter J. Čermák.37 The traditional topic of folk costume was covered by V. Katzler with his Croatian costumes38 or Marković with his folk costume studies of Šokci women,39 or from Slavonia.40

Czech relations with Serbs developed from positions differing from those with Slovenians and Croats. In addition to contacts in the area of culture, dating back to the beginnings of the national revival, in the second half of the 19th century politi-cal and economic cooperation developed. Czechs appear among the colonists of the Banat military frontier (Štěpánek 2005). Czech bank capital invests in Serbia. With regard to politics, after the Congress of Berlin in 1878 the relations between the political representations of both nations got colder as a consequence of the cautious Austrophile politics of Serbian ruler Milan Obrenović. K. Kramář’s new Slavic poli-tics contributed to their resumption (Chrobák – Hrabcová 2010: 107). Serbs gained the heart of the Czech public during the Balkan Wars 1912–1913, presented as a fi ght of Balkan Slavs for freedom from the Turkish rule.

Serbia and its cultural tradition had been previously introduced to the Czech public in an extensive book of travels published in Světozor in 1868 by V. Gabler, a Czech historian and pedagogist who had at one time worked in Serbia. He also dealt with the topics of folk costume or Serbian diet.41 Other components of Serbian traditional culture, their customs, traditions and national festivals were described by J. K. Kačer on the basis of the works by I. M. Bogović.42 An outline of the life of a Serbian village

34 Mirohorský, E. S.: Dalmatské povozy. Květy 4, 1869, pp. 20; Mirohorský, E. S.: Vrličtí venko-vané. Světozor 16, 1882, pp. 277; Mirohorský, E. S.: Obyvatelé dalmatského města Šibenika. Světozor 16, 1882, pp. 373; Mirohorský, E. S.: Vrličané. Světozor 16, 1882, pp. 565.

35 Biza, F.: Vinobraní v Dalmacii. Světozor 17, 1883, pp. 268; Biza, F.: Žně a vyšlapování obilí v Dalmacii. Světozor 17, 1883, pp. 337.

36 Bukovac, V.: Trh v Dubrovníce. Zlatá Praha 21, 1904, pp. 69.37 Čermák, J.: Morláci z okolí Splitu. Světozor 3, 1869, pp. 389; Čermák, J.: Harambaša morlác-

ký. Světozor 3, 1869, pp. 397.38 Katzler, V.: Horvatské kroje. Květy 3, 1868, pp. 68.39 Marković: Ženy u jihoslovanských Šokců. Světozor 21, 1887, pp. 588.40 Masić, N.: Slavonské děvče. Zlatá Praha 4, 1887, pp. 349.41 Gabler, V.: Cesta po Srbsku. Světozor 2, 1868, pp. 3–4, 17–19, 44–46, 56–57, 67–69, 73,

87–88, 93–95, 102–103, 111–114, 122–124, 131–132 and 142–144.42 Kačer, K. J: Zvyky, obyčeje a národní svátky u Srbů. (Z Ivana M. Bogoviće). Obzor 15,

1892, pp. 195–198 and 211–215.

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regarding annual customs and rituals was published in Světozor.43 A specifi c Serbian custom related to the fi rst name was described by T. Marek44 or S. Popović.45 Cultural papers on Serbs containing also political information were written by R. Košutić in Zlatá Praha.46 J. Květenský also published an illustrated supplement with his article on Serbia in Květy.47

Prague man of letters S. Kapper contributed to the awareness of Serbian liter-ary tradition in Czech environment. In the 1860s in Květy he published translations of Serbian folk songs of various kinds ranging from love48 and wedding49 songs to lamenting50 and heroic ones,51 together with legends52 and fairy tales.53 He authored a study in which he attempted the analysis of Serbian song creation.54 Another author, who devoted himself to Serbian literature and its historical roots was J. Kolář.55 We can also mention J. Šafránek and his analytic studies of Serbian folk songs.56 L. Kuba did not pass over Serbian topics,57 or Bosnian ones58 in his journalism either.

43 Miličević, M. Dj.: Soudní jeden den. (Nástin ze života srbské vsi). Světozor 17, 1883, pp. 383–387.

44 Marek, T.: Křestní jména u Srbů. Světozor 9, 1875, pp. 8.45 Popović, S.: „Slava“ u Srbů. Květy 3, 1881, pp. 253–256.46 Košutić, R.: Kulturní listy o Srbech. Zlatá Praha 4, 1887, pp 790–791; Košutić, R.: Kulturní

listy o Srbech. Zlatá Praha 5, 1888, pp. 131–134.47 Květenský, J.: Několik slov o Srbsku. Zlatá Praha 2, 1865, pp. 16.48 Kapper, S.: Písně milostné národa srbského. Květy 3, 1868, pp. 158, 214, 262, 270 and 350.49 Kapper, S.: Svatební písně národa srbského. Květy 1, 1865, pp. 143; Kapper, S.: Svatební

písně národa srbského. (Rej druhá). Květy 1, 1865, pp. 368–370. 50 Kapper, S.: Žalozpěv na jihu slovanském. Květy 1, 1865, pp. 536–538 and 546–549.51 Kapper, S.: Písně národa srbského na Hercegovině. Květy 3, 1868, pp. 390.52 Kapper, S.: Legendy vánoční národa srbského. Květy 2, 1868, pp. 414; Kapper, S.: Rozvod-

nice. (Národní balada srbská). Květy 4, 1869, pp. 182; Kapper, S.: Legendy národa srbského. Květy 4, 1869, pp. 254; Kapper, S.: Legendy národa srbského. Květy 4, 1869, pp. 390.

53 Kapper, S.: Talas. (Pohádka přímořská). Květy 1, 1865, pp. 19–21; Kapper, S.: Talas. (Pohád-ka přímořská). Květy 1, 1865, pp. 25–26; Kapper, S.: Dožena Zorka. (Přímořská pohádka). Květy 1, 1865, pp. 75–77 and 85–87.

54 Kapper, S.: Vzpomínky báječné národa srbského. Květy 2, 1867, pp. 214–215, 223–226, 236–239 and 247–250.

55 Kolář, J.: Uroš, poslední Nemanić. Osvěta 1, 1862, pp. 42–44.56 Šafránek, J.: Příspěvky ku poznání názorů lidu jihoslovanského na základě srbských národ-

ních písní. Světozor 6, 1872, pp. 399–400, 411–412 and 423–424; Šafránek, J.: Zpěvy lidu srbského. Zlatá Praha 2, 1885, pp. 34–35, 46–47, 58–59, 83, 95–96 and 107–108.

57 Kuba, L.: Z nového Srbska. (Niš a Pirot – Z cest). Květy 19, 1897/II, pp. 97–104 and 200–209.

58 Kuba, L.: Ráma. (Črta z bosenského zákoutí). Květy 23, 1901, pp. 25–32, 163–172 and 310–317; Kuba, L.: Odpočinek Mohamedánů bosensko-hercegovských. Zlatá Praha 14, 1897, pp. 22–23; Kuba, L.: Mohamedánský sedlák a obchodník. Zlatá Praha 14, 1897, pp. 47.

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The key personality of Czech – Serbian relationships in the 19th century F. A. Zach was reported on in Osvěta by the above mentioned V. Gabler.59 Another eminent representative of Czech-South Slavic relations was writer and journalist J. Holeček. Holeček’s translations of Serbian folk poetry, “junak” [heroic] songs, were published in the early 20th century in various years by Květy.60 A Serbian musician – guslar – appeared at the folk costume exposition at the General Land Centennial Exhibition, as depicted in Zlatá Praha,61 and Guslar by J. K. Janovský is a genre painting depicting the stereotype of a South Slav mythical musician singing heroic songs.62 Historian K. Jireček reported extensively about Serbia in Osvěta,63 a publication on Serbs in Hungary was reviewed in detail by J. Milíč in Osvěta,64 and S. Chilandarec, an Orthodox monk with roots in the Czech lands also submitted contributions to the magazine (Černý 2005).

Even though journalist and writer P. Chocholoušek is the creator of the Czech image of Montenegrins, owing to the date of his death his name does not appear in the studied social periodicals. Chocholoušek’s infl uence on the creation of positive stereotypes of Montenegrins and South Slavs is eminent. His and other texts and visual presentations of Montenegrins united in themselves the ideals of Slavic patriotism, defence of freedom and national independence, adventure and romanticism with the addition of oriental elements, war and love scenes, all of these on the backdrop of wild natural sceneries (Šístek 2010: 127).

Contemporary South Slavic and Montenegrin topics were presented to Czech read-ers mainly by the above mentioned J. Holeček, when he reported about the revolt and fi ghts in Montenegro in the mid-1870s. He analysed military topics as they are repre-

59 Gabler, V.: Ze života generála Zacha. Osvěta 1892.60 Holeček, J.: Ženitba Maxima Crnojeviće. (Srbská národní píseň). Květy 22, 1900, pp.

78–83, 210–215, 346–353 and 493–501; Holeček, J.: Junáctví Sekulovo. (Srbská národní píseň). Květy 23, 1901/II, pp. 94–100, 185–191 and 318–325; Holeček, J.: Matka Margarita. (Starodalmatská národní píseň). Květy 25, 1903, pp. 97–100; Holeček, J.: Ženitba Miloše Obiliće. (Srbská národní píseň – překlad). Květy 31, 1909, pp. 450–469; Holeček, J.: Ženitba Petra Rišňana. (Srbská národní píseň – překlad). Květy 32, 1910/II, pp. 723–731; Holeček, J.: Ženitba Ilije Smiljaniće. (Srbská národní píseň). Květy 33, 1911/II, pp. 42–49; Holeček, J.: Marko Králevič a Musa Kesedžija. (Srbská národní píseň). Besedy lidu 9, 1901, pp. 579–582 and 590–591.

61 Boháč, E.: Cizí kroje na zemské jubilejní výstavě v Praze. (Srbský hudebník). Zlatá Praha 8, 1891, pp. 500.

62 Janovský, J. K.: Guslar. Zlatá Praha 26, 1909, pp. 296.63 Jireček, K.: Srbsko, země i lid. Osvěta 5, 1875, pp. 321–338, 416–430, 498–505 and

586–594.64 Milíč, J.: Srbové uherští. (Les Serbes de hongrie, leur historie, leur priviléges, leur église,

leur état politique et social, Prague 1874). Osvěta 4, 1874, pp. 914–931.

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sented in folk poetry,65 or the life story of Montenegrin popular leader M. Miljanov66 for Czech readers. In an extensive travel sketch he introduced the unknown Bay of Kotor67 and published his fi ctional works inspired by South Slavic themes, such as blood feud68 in magazines. A. Jáník could be named as one of his followers, who in his travel stories from Montenegro mentions similar topics such as family life and blood feud.69 The hos-pitality of Montenegrins is emphasised in the article by G. Rasch in Světozor,70 Czech botanist J. Rohlena describes Montenegrin cemeteries71 on the basis of depictions, and traveller J. Wünsch, who on his travels wandered through Montenegro as well, pub-lished his political-historical study in Osvěta.72 Translator and man of letters J. Hudec wrote about the Montenegrin national bard P. P. Něgušov II.73

Czech social magazines could not disregard the works of J. Čermák, which were crucial for South Slavic and mainly Montenegrin environment. Raněný Černohorec [The Wounded Montenegrin] (1874) became the symbol of the fi ght for freedom and in the work Bašibozukové vedou dívky hercegincké na trh do Drinopole printed in Světozor in 186974 great social tensions shows; Svatba v Černé Hoře [Wedding in Montenegro], reproduced in Zlatá Praha in 188775 is full of dramatic tension accompanying the arrival of the wedding procession (with a kidnapped bride?) to a house situated into a mountain scenery. Čermák infl uenced a number of South Slavic followers, such as Serbian national painter P. Jovanović, who fostered the constructed stereotypes of heroism 76 and honour of South Slavs77 with his work.

65 Holeček, J.: Černohorci ve zbrani. Osvěta 7, 1877, pp. 278–291.66 Holeček, J.: Marko Miljanov a město Podgorica. (Junácká kresba). Zlatá Praha 2, 1885, pp.

137–138, 154–155, 167–170, 186–187 and 202–203.67 Holeček, J.: Boka Kotorská. Osvěta 12, 1882, pp. 57–63, 160–168, 259–266, 355–363, 457–

462, 550–559, 1025–1037 and 1053–1070.68 Holeček, J.: Krevní soud na Komu. Světozor 19, 1885, pp. 51–54, 71–73, 83–86, 115–118,

131–134, 147–150, 163–165 and 179–182.69 Jáník, A.: Obrázky z jihu Rakouska a Černé Hory. Obzor 33, 1910, pp. 234–238 and 265–

271.70 Rasch, G.: Obrazy a náčrtek z Černé Hory. Světozor 9, 1875, pp. 571, 583 and 592–594.71 Rohlena, J.: Ze hřbitovů černohorských. Zlatá Praha 22, 1905, pp. 95.72 Wünsch, J.: Z nynější Černé Hory. Osvěta 24, 1894, pp. 97–111, 221–233, 360–367, 511–520

and 585–594.73 Hudec, J.: Vladyka i básník Černé Hory. Osvěta 14, 1884, pp. 622–638.74 Čermák, J.: Bašibozukové vedou dívky herceginské na trh do Drinopole. (1863). Světozor 3,

1869, pp. 428 and supplement.75 Čermák, J.: Svatba v Černé Hoře. Zlatá Praha 4, 1887, pp. 28–29.76 Jovanović, P.: Raněný Černohorec. Zlatá Praha 1, 1884, pp. 321. Jovanović, P.: Návrat Černo-

horců z výpravy. Zlatá Praha 6, 1889, pp. 616.77 Jovanović, P.: Krevní msta v Hercegovině. Zlatá Praha 9, 1892, pp. 421.

319


In the early 1890s painter and folk song collector L. Kuba visited Montenegro while travelling through Slavic countries. Even though he belonged among the enthusiasticc admirers of South Slavic folk culture, there are no large romantic compositions in his painting work, as he was interested in the everyday life, vil-lage architecture and folk costume, as is apparent from the illustrations accom-panying his book of travels Na Černé Hoře [In Montenegro] (1892). In addition to his visual arts work, Kuba’s collection of Montenegrin folk songs is valuable; its author thus belongs, together with Čermák and Holeček among prominent Czech Montenegrophiles.

Compared to Montenegro, a smaller number of articles deals with the com-plex religious and ethnic situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina. More specifi c information about this confessionally and culturally complicated country reach Czech readers as early as in the fi rst half of the 19th century; during the second half the works of writers and visual artists contributed to this awareness: the most important of them being the painter J. Čermák, who sought inspiration here as well as in the neighbouring countries – Montenegro, or Dalmatia. Focusing on Moslem population and its culture and religion F. Venhuda published his arti-cles in Obzor.78 J. Holeček informed about the life in Bosnia, where, in addition to topography he also describes handicraft,79 J. Vinař presented the folk song in Květy and Osvěta,80 a review of the book by J. J. Toužimský on the history and present of the country was published in Květy.81 Exotic Mohammedan themes from Bosnian environment appeared in the paintings by painter J. J. Kirchner,82 a conventional outlaw theme appeared in the portrait of hajduk Ilja Marko83 by J. Jass.

Czech public was also informed in various ways about Macedonian questions. The interest in “Macedonian Bulgarians” was raised by the collection of folk litera-ture Bălgarski narodni pesni (1861) compiled by brothers D. and K. Miladinovov

78 Venhuda F.: Obrázky z Bosny. (Vzpomínka). Obzor 26, 1903, pp. 203–205; Venhuda F.: Cikáni. (Bosenská vzpomínka). Obzor 27, 1904, pp. 325–326 and 336–337; Venhuda F.: Obrázky z Bosny. (Begova Džamija). Obzor 29, 1906, pp. 151–154 and 175–177.

79 Holeček, J.: Bosna. Osvěta 6, 1876, pp. 637–651, 739–749 and 807–817.80 Vinař, J.: Z národních písní bosenských. Květy 34, 1912, pp. 197–199; Vinař, J.: Z národních

písní bosensko–hercegovských. Květy 34, 1912/II, pp. 229–230; Vinař, J.: Panna Rosanda (Rosanda djevojka). (Bosenská národní). Osvěta 41, 1911, pp. 591–594.

81 Vykoukal, F. V.: Bosna a Hercegovina v minulosti a přítomnosti. (Jos. J. Toužimský, Matice lidu, roč. XVI, čís. 5). Květy 4, 1882, pp. 622.

82 Kirchner, J. J.: Mohamedánský hřbitov v Sarajevě. Zlatá Praha 3, 1886, pp. 348; Kirchner, J. J.: Bosenský han. Zlatá Praha 3, 1886, pp. 548.

83 Jass, J.: Hajduk Jiljo Marko. Světozor 9, 1875, pp. 605.

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(Stehlík – Hladký 2010). The tragic fate of the authors in Istanbul prison was present-ed to the Czech public by J. J. Toužimský in Zlatá Praha.84 Secondary school teacher, translator and journalist E. Fait had merit in the popularization of Macedonia in the Czech environment in the late 19th century. In Osvěta he published an extensive study Makedonie, země a lid [Macedonia, country and people], which offered detailed in-formation about this South Slavic country, its ceremonial culture, and literary tradi-tion.85 In a travel sketch he described the journey from Mitrovice to Thessaloniki and he opted for the same form when he informed about Thessaloniki and its historical importance.86 Fait’s contribution to the formation of Czech-Macedonian relations was suffi ciently appreciated in Czech scientifi c journals (Dorovský 1973). Macedonian questions were also studied by K. Jireček in the form of his own book of travels87 and reviews of publications.88 Politician F. Přibil published historical-political data about Macedonia in Osvěta,89 later he described the courtship and wedding customs of Macedonian Bulgarians90 on the basis of his travels in the Balkans.

With the restoration of the Bulgarian state in 1878, Czech-Bulgarian re-lations acquired a new quality (Rychlík – Penčev – Kouba 2010). From the 1880s Czech economic and cultural “invasion” of Bulgaria took place. In addition to well-known personalities such as historian K. Jireček, fu-ture professor at the universities in Prague and in Vienna, or painters J. V. Mrkvička and J. Věšín, lawyers and scientists from other disciplines appear here. K. Jireček occupies the most prominent place, as he deserves the more wider appellative of a “Balkanist”, since in addition to Bulgarian questions he also studied issues of other South Slavic nations and the Balkans in gen-eral.91 In social magazines, Bulgarian science dominated in Jireček’s work.92 He is the author of comprehensive political-historical essays,93 as well as

84 Toužimský, J. J.: Dimitrij a Konstantin Miladinovi. Zlatá Praha 1887, pp. 555.85 Fait, E.: Makedonie, země a lid. (Studie). Osvěta 21, 1891, pp. 81–90, 234–243 and 343–356.86 Fait, E.: Město Soluň a jeho význam. Osvěta 48, 1918, pp. 10–25.87 Jireček, K. J.: Na Makedonských hranicích. Osvěta 16, 1886, pp. 1–15, 105–123, 211–226 and

614–633.88 Jireček, K. J.: Makedonia, Etnografi a i statistika. (Vasil Knčev, Sofi a 1900). Osvěta 30, 1900,

pp. 1036.89 Přibil, F.: Makedonie (Obrázky z říše Padišáhovy). Osvěta 37, 1907, pp. 1–7 and 199–205.90 Přibil, F.: Námluvy a svatba Bulharů macedonských (Z cest po Balkáně). Besedy lidu 19,

1911, pp. 141–142.91 Jireček, K. J.: Na Balkáně. Osvěta 5, 1875, pp. 721–733.92 Jireček, K. J.: Bulharské národní a naše starověké zpěvy. Osvěta 16, 1886, pp. 596–600.93 Jireček, K. J.: Knížectví bulharské. Osvěta 8, 1878, pp. 321–337 and 401–419; Jireček, K. J.:

Z východní Rumelie. Osvěta 12, 1882, pp. 385–405, 497–519, 669–688, 765–783, 865–878 and 962–976.

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ethnographic sketches from Bulgarian folk life.94 His work was evaluated by Bulgarianist J. Páta,95 who wrote about the activities in Bulgarian liter-ary production96 in Osvěta.

The works of Bulgarian journalist and philologist V. D. Stojanov about hajduks,97 national dances (horo)98 and about folk songs with extracts99 belong among the fi rst published contributions in Květy. Among Czech authors, we must not forget historian and archaeologist V. Dobruský, a supporter of Czech-Bulgarian cultural contacts in Zlatá Praha and in Květy, where he published sev-eral articles with illustrations after 1884. In his travel stories he focused on the culture of Pomaks in the Rhodope Mountains,100 or commented the reproductions of the work of painter J. V. Mrkvička capturing traditional Bulgarian costumes,101 folk house,102 or technical constructions such as the duct in the Thracian plain.103 Mrkvička’s work was presented mainly in Zlatá Praha.104 Villager women and girls from the surroundings of Trnovo became the inspiration of painter O.

94 Jireček, K. J.: Z nového Bulharska. Osvěta 11, 1881, pp. 385–400 and 481–491. 95 Páta, J.: Konstantin Jireček. Osvěta 48, 1918, pp. 135–141, 207–214 and 291–298. 96 Páta, J.: O bulharské literatuře. Osvěta 43, 1913, pp. 329–339, 416–422 and 488–494. 97 Stojanov, V. D.: Horské junáctvo (Hajductvo) bulharské. Květy 1, 1865, pp. 165–167 and 176–

178.98 Stojanov, V. D.: Národní tanec bulharský Choro (kolo). Květy 2, 1867, pp. 63.99 Stojanov, V. D.: Bulhaři, lid a jeho písně. Zlatá Praha 1, 1864, pp. 156–157.100 Dobruský, V.: Pomácká republika v horách rhodopských. Květy 9, 1887, pp. 57–62, 141–146,

283–285 and 440–445.101 Dobruský, V.: Obrázky z bulharské vesnice II. Zlatá Praha 1, 1884, pp. 290.102 Dobruský, V.: Selská chata v Bulharsku. Zlatá Praha 3, 1886, pp. 639.103 Dobruský, V.: Vodovod v rovině Thrácké. Zlatá Praha 3, 1886, pp. 639.104 Mrkvička, J. V.: Lazarici – tanec Šopek na den sv. Lazara. Besedy lidu 21, 1913, pp. 53;

Mrkvička, J. V.: Selská kavárna v Bulharsku. Zlatá Praha 1, 1884, pp. 193; Mrkvička, J. V.: Vesnická „koliba“ v Bulharsku. Zlatá Praha 1, 1884, pp. 219; Mrkvička, J. V.: Rumunské děvče z Pištěru. Zlatá Praha 1, 1884, pp. 221; Mrkvička, J. V.: Motiv z bulharské vesnice. Zlatá Praha 1, 1884, pp. 231; Mrkvička, J. V.: Z bulharské vesnice. Zlatá Praha 1, 1884, pp. 349; Mrkvička, J. V.: Bazar v Plovdivě. Zlatá Praha 1, 1884, pp. 409; Mrkvička, J. V.: Kočující halvadži. Zlatá Praha 1, 1884, pp. 505; Mrkvička, J. V.: Z bulharské vesnice. Zlatá Praha 2, 1885, pp. 429; Mrkvička, J. V.: Bulharka při česadle. Zlatá Praha 2, 1885, pp. 736; Mrkvička, J. V.: Obrázky z Bulharska. Zlatá Praha 2, 1885, pp. 769; Mrkvička, J. V.: Selská chata v Bulharsku. Zlatá Praha 3, 1886, pp. 629; Mrkvička, J. V.: Plovdivský sakadži. Zlatá Praha 3, 1886, pp. 632; Mrkvička, J. V.: Špýchar v bulharské vesnici. Zlatá Praha 3, 1886, pp. 632; Mrkvička, J. V.: Vodovod v rovině Thrácké. Zlatá Praha 3, 1886, pp. 632; Mrkvička, J. V.: Lazarici – tanec Šopek na den sv. Lazara. Zlatá Praha 25, 1908, pp. 109; Mrkvička, J. V.: Šopská nevěsta. Zlatá Praha 25, 1908, pp. 116; Mrkvička, J. V.: Tanec bulharských vesničanů. Zlatá Praha 30, 1913, pp. 80; Mrkvička, J. V.: Týdenní trh v Sofi i. Zlatá Praha 33, 1916, pp. 245; Mrkvička, J. V.: Macedonka. Zlatá Praha 42, 1925, pp. 511.

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Hořejší.105 Valuable pictorial documentary work was left by A. Garejs, who cap-tures various South Slavic ethnic men in Světozor: from Bulgaria,106 Bosnia,107 Serbia108 and from Dalmatia.109 Similarly, a number of topics from Bulgarian as well as Bosnian environment became the themes of the works by Czech painter K. Maixner: mainly they were ethnic men from the surroundings of Plovdiv, Edirne, Sredets, and Bulgarian gypsies.110

G. S. Rakovský described the social occasions of Bulgarians, their talks, also called seďanky or tluky.111 J. Dunovský, a Czech writer, dedicated himself to the area of folkloristics: he published a comprehensive article on Bulgarian folk song in Květy.112 In Osvěta J. J. Toužimský described the Bulgaria of the early 1890s113 and gave an account of the Bulgarian exhibition in Plovdiv in great detail.114

Conclusion

As apparent from the presented overview, in addition to entertaining reading ma-terial Czech social magazines of the second half of the 19th century also printed articles of ethnographic and folkloristic character, which befi tted the period in-terest in “national” culture and at the same time contributed to the formation of ethnic identity. The illustrative component played an important part in the profi le

105 Hořejší, O.: Selka a dívka z okolí Trnovského. Světozor 19, 1885, pp. 813. Z Bulharska.106 Garejs, A.: Typy jihoslovanské: Bulhaři. Světozor 7, 1873, pp. 184; Garejs, A.: Bulharský ná-

rodní tanec „Kolo“. Květy 2, 1867, pp. 57; Garejs, A.: Bulharští ovčáci. Světozor 5, 1871, pp. 220; Garejs, A.: Bulharští hudebníci. Světozor 6, 1872, pp. 172.

107 Garejs, A.: Typy jihoslovanské. Bosňan. Světozor 7, 1873, pp. 121; Garejs, A.: Typy jihoslo-vanské: Bosňan. Světozor 7, 1873, pp. 217.

108 Garejs, A.: Srbská venkovanka a cikánka. Světozor 7, 1873, pp. 148; Garejs, A.: Risňan. Světo-zor 3, 1869, pp. 369; Garejs, A.: Kroje v knížectví Srbském. Světozor 4, 1870, pp. 53; Garejs, A.: Srbská děvčata. Světozor 7, 1873, pp. 298; Garejs, A.: Srbská selka. Světozor 9, 1875, pp. 58.

109 Garejs, A.: Dalmatská svatba. Květy 3, 1868, pp. 21.110 Maixner, K.: Bulhaři z okolí Plovdiva. Světozor 10, 1876, pp. 630; Maixner, K.: Bulharský

drůbežník. Světozor 12, 1878, pp. 49; Maixner, K.: Bulhaři z okolí Drinopole. Světozor 13, 1879, pp. 113; Maixner, K.: Bulhaři z okolí Srědce. Světozor 13, 1879, pp. 248; Maixner, K.: Bosenské typy. (Dle skizz Karla Hocke). Světozor 13, 1879, pp. 281; Maixner, K.: Turečtí cikáni. Světozor 13, 1879, pp. 333.

111 Rakovský, G.: Některé obrazy z národního života Bulharského. Světozor 6, 1872, pp. 114–115.

112 Dunovský, J.: O národní písni Bulharův. Květy 7, 1872, pp. 99–102, 107–110, 115–118 and 123–126.

113 Toužimský, J. J.: Z dnešního Bulharska. (Zprávy a poznatky). Osvěta 22, 1892, pp. 481–495, 598–604 and 704–721.

114 Toužimský, J. J.: Bulharská výstava v Plovdivě. Zlatá Praha 9, 1892, pp. 519–523, 535–538, 543, 555–558, 579–582 and 591–594.

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of the periodicals, either accompanying individual articles or forming a separate component, as was the case of reproductions of works of important painters or mere authors of conventional genre pictures from contemporary life or inspired by national histories. The focus on historical questions is related to the fact that each ethnic identity as a complex, socially devised phenomenon, is inevitably oriented towards the past (Stevanović 2011: 48). In addition to the knowledge concerning the folk culture of the Czech ethnic group, readers received informa-tion about the folk culture of Slovakia and other Slavic nations, in compliance with the intentions of ideas of Slavic mutual cooperation, formulated by J. Kollár and modifi ed by his successors.

The perception of South Slavs and their culture went through several evolu-tionary stages in the 19th century, from getting to know it via literature and scant personal contact, through stronger contact and positive role of periodical press, to the domination of authentic personal experience which replaces the mediated knowledge (Urban 1996). Certainly, ethnic stereotypes mediated to the people by the social environment they live in are still refl ected in this image created on the basis of own empirical knowledge.

Ethnic stereotypes form an important part in nationalism and are related to the ethnic identifi cation process. The image of the others (strangers) is a fairly intricate complex of notions, ideological opinions, evaluation attitudes and his-torical experience (Uhlíková 2005: 15). In concentrated form ethnic stereotypes and negative attitudes manifest in political caricature reacting promptly to the contemporary social and political situation with culmination in periods of inter-national or regional war confl icts (Demski – Baraniecka-Olszewska 2010).

The image of South Slavs, which social periodicals in the Czech society were creat-ing by means of fi ction, travel stories, historical and ethnographic scientifi c literature and, last but not least, by means of illustration production and reproduction of works of visual artists, was of the spirit of Slavic mutual cooperation. Armed confl icts for the sake of gaining national independence from Turkish rule, which form the icon of the South Slav as a fearless fi ghter for freedom, won the heart of the public. Analogously, archaic autochthonous manifestations the Czech society lacked due to civilization changes and modernization of life are sought and emphasised in the folk culture of South Slavs. The attitude to adopting western civilization models was rather critical, and Czech society thus created a largely idealized and romantic image of the life and culture of South Slavs, into which it projected its own ideals and desires.

June 2011

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Demski, Dagnosław – Baraniecka-Olszewska, Kamila (eds.): 2010 – Images of the Other in Ethnic Caricatures of Central and Eastern Europe. Warsaw: Institute of Archeology and ethnology Polish Academy of Science.

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Hladký, Ladislav – Blažek, David: 2010 – Česko-slovinské vztahy. In: Hladký, Ladislav et al.: Vztahy Čechů s národy a zeměmi jihovýchodní Evropy. Praha: Historický ústav AV ČR: 21–45.

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Chrobák, Tomáš – Hrabcová, Jana: 2010 – Česko-srbské vztahy. In: Hladký, Ladislav et al.: Vztahy Čechů s národy a zeměmi jihovýchodní Evropy. Praha: Historický ústav AV ČR: 97–124.

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Štěpánek, Václav: 2005 – Česká kolonizace Banátské vojenské hranice na území srbsko-banátského hraničářského pluku. In: Hladký, Ladislav – Štěpánek, Václav (eds.): Od Moravy k Moravě. Z historie česko-srbských vztahů v 19. a 20. století. Brno: Matice moravská: 73–102.

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Contact: PhDr. Miroslav Válka, Ph.D., Ústav evropské etnologie Filozofi cké fakul-ty Masarykovy univerzity, A. Nováka 1, 602 00 Brno, e-mail: [email protected].

Refl exe Jihoslovana v českých společenských časopisech 2. poloviny 19. století jako pramen studia vzniku etnických obrazů

Resumé: Na obrazu Jihoslovanů, který se v 2. polovině 19. století utvářel v povědomí české společnosti, se významnou měrou podílely také společenské časopisy. Doba po pádu Bachova absolutismu (1860), provázená politickým uvolněním, znamenala v roz-voji českého národního života novou etapu. Se zmíněným rozvojem národního života vznikají i česká periodika společenského charakteru, která měla nahradit v měšťanských kruzích německé listy. Náležely mezi ně Besedy lidu, Čas, Květy, Obzor, Osvěta, Svě-tozor a Zlatá Praha. Důležitou roli v profi lu jednotlivých periodik měla tematika slovan-ská. Obraz Jihoslovanů, který společenské časopisy v české společnosti vytvářely, a to prostřednictvím beletrie, cestopisů, odborné literatury historické a etnografi cké a v ne-poslední řadě pomocí ilustrační tvorby a reprodukcí děl výtvarných umělců, se nesl na vlně slovanské vzájemnosti. Sympatie si získaly ozbrojené akce za získání národní nezávislosti, které vytvářely ikonu Jihoslovana jako neohroženého bojovníka za svobo-du. Analogicky jsou v lidové kultuře Jihoslovanů hledány archaické autochtonní proje-vy, které česká společnost postrádala v důsledku civilizačních změn. Vytvářela značně idealizovaný a romantický obraz života a kultury Jihoslovanů, do kterého projektovala vlastní ideály a tužby.

326

ZPRÁVY / NEWS

INSTITUTE OF ETHNOGRAPHY SASA BELGRADE: A REVIEW OF PUBLIS-HING ACTIVITY 2009–2011

Institute of Ethnography SASA was found-ed in June 1947, and its publishing activity begun in 1950 with fi rst edition of Zbornik radova [Collection of papers] and Posebna izdanja [Special Editions]. Both editions are being published at present. Zbornik radova had at times a status of a journal, while today it primarily includes scientifi c papers presented at scientifi c conferences organized by the Institute. Posebna izdanja contains monographs, especially those that are the result of the Institute projects. Until today, the Institute has published 73 pub-lications of this type. The most important publication is a journal Glasnik Etnograf-skog instituta SANU [Bulletin of the Insti-tute of Ethnography, SASA], fi rst published in 1952. There are 58 volumes so far, and the journal is classifi ed as leading journal on the national level. Since 2007, Glasnik is published twice a year, with numerous articles in foreign languages, mostly Eng-lish. In addition, another occasional serial publication was introduced in 1992, Bibli-oteka Životopis [Series: Biographies], rep-resenting autobiographical contents; so far, 5 volumes were published.

During the sixty years of its publication activity, the Institute had several occasional publications in addition to the established, serial ones, such as Srpski mitološki rečnik [Serbian mythological dictionary] by Špiro Kulišić and some others (2nd edition, 1998, co-publisher Interprint, Belgrade).

The editorials for all editions are, by rule, written by the Institute Director. Since 1992, it is Professor Dragana Radojičić, PhD.

During the 2009–2011 publishing pe-riod, the 2009 appears as especially prolif-ic. In addition to Glasnik 57 (2 volumes), Zbornik 26 Spomen mesta – istorija – sećanja (Memorial places – history – mem-ories, edited by Aleksandra Pavićević), was also published (co-published by Centar za kulturu Vuk Karadžić, Loznica) as well as 7 books as part of Posebna izdanja and 1 as part of Biblioteka Životopis.

Glasnik 57 contains 16 in the fi rst and 12 articles in the second volume, and they include a wide range of subjects – con-structions of national and local identities (Malešević, Zlatanović, Mitrović), eth-nic identity (Krel, Prelić), ethnic culture (Georgiev), death and rituals (Pavićević, Đapović, Stevanović), customary law (Đorđević Crnobrnja), structural analy-sis of cultural patterns (Todorović), dis-course analysis of Slovenian ethnic groups (Stojić), media presentation of certain cul-tural phenomena (Radojičić, Trifunović), visual ethnography (Križnar), folklore (Hnaraki), contemporary ritual practice in Serbia (Ivanović Barišić) and Greece (Haland), youth subcultures (Blagojević, Miloradović), prolonged adolescence in Serbia (Divac), contemporary trans-formations and functions of fairy tales (Gavrilović), middle age nutrition (Bo-janin), lexicology of traditional culture (Nedeljkov), critical review of ethnologi-cal/anthropological literature in Serbia in the past two decades (Lukić Krstanović,

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Divac), reviews of Levi-Strauss (Bošković) and the works by Dušan Bandić (Prica).

Zbornik radova Spomen mesta – istor-ija – sećanja (Memorial places – history – memories, 258 pp) contains 19 articles, most of it by authors from Serbia, but also from Bulgaria, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada. The papers treat various cultural monuments, cemeter-ies, memorial centers, places of historical events (famous battles), birth places of his-torical characters, museums, monasteries, protected rural areas, and even monuments dedicated to movie stars and sports objects, in the context of “politics of memories”. Why and how individuals and groups re-member, the articles show, is a complex subject. The analysis included processes of national and local identity building, posing question – who stands for deter-mining a political truth, worth of a public acknowledgement and memory, etc.

Special Editions included Making the Intangible Tangible: The New Interface of Cultural Heritage, by Dragana Rusalić (bk. 63, pp. 193) and O politikama, ident-itetima, i druge muzejske priče, Ljiljana Gavrilović (bk. 65, pp. 201). These books critically review the terms of cultural her-itage and traditional museum practice and concepts.

In her book Smrt i onostratnost u klet-vama (bk. 66, pp. 101) Lasta Đapović analyses the refl ection of death in certain folklore genres. In the next book of this edition, Antropologija naučne fantastike: tradicija u žanrovskoj književnosti (bk. 67, pp. 140) Ivan Đorđević discusses the usage of traditional motives in the con-temporary Serbian literature of the sci-ence fi ction genre.

Srdjan Radović in the book Slike Ev-rope. Istraživanje predstava o Evropi i Sr-biji na početku XXI veka (bk. 68, pp. 173), deals with ways in which Serbian high school graduates imagine European and their own culture and identity.

The next book – Laughing at the Funer-al: Gender and Anthropology in the Greek Funerary Rites (bk. 69, pp. 372) by Lada Stevanović deals with funeral rituals in the Ancient Greece, that is, it discusses a re-lationship between laughter and funeral rituals in the period of the archaic and Hel-lenistic eras.

In the book Sveta struktura. Traganje za jedinstvenom osnovom kulturnih fenom-ena (bk. 71, pp. 364), the author Ivica Todorović applies structural methodology in order to reconstruct a universal pattern in the entire human culture.

Finally, the fi fth edition of Biblioteke Životopis, as one of the products of the cooperation started in 2006 with Inštitut za slovensko narodopisje ZRC SAZU from Ljubljana, brings the book Et-nologija u pismima i slikama by Marija Stanonik (pp. 139). This book is based on the letters by Slovenian Marija Demšar, expelled by Germans in WW II to Srem (Serbia), and testifi es about war everyday experiences from the individual point of view, destiny of individuals in the turmoil of large historical events.

In 2010, the publishing activity was not so productive but nevertheless, refl ects the important scientifi c activity of the Institute. Glasnik 58 has two volumes. The second contains papers previously presented at the conference held in Sirogojno, dedicated to the problems of fi eldwork methodology. The authors: Radost Ivanova, Ines Prica, Ma-rina Simić, Sonja Petrović, Senka Kovač,

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Helena Beránková, Jana Pospíšilová, Václav Michalička, Gabriela Kiliánová, Jaroslav Otčenášek and Marina Kerimova discuss these issues from various perspectives. In ad-dition to this, there are 19 more articles in the two volumes, with wide range of subjects, such as a refl ection of relationship between the east and the west in literature (Đihjang), media presentation of death (Pavićević), Internet analysis (Trifunović), ideological reading of media text (Cvijetićanin), cultural presentation in museum exhibitions and eth-nological fi lm (Simić), linguistic analysis of sayings and gender relation (Bašić, Radić), metaphor in political discourse (Diković), identity construction (Ilić), Roma culture (Čvorović), culture of nutrition (Godina Gol-ija) and so on.

In 2010, Special Editions had two pub-lications: Kopaonički govor. Etnografski i kulturološki pristup (bk. 70, pp. 365) by Prvoslav Radić, and Spektakli XX veka: Muzika i moć, by Miroslava Lukić Krstanović (bk. 72, pp. 313). This book discusses political and music spectacles in the socialist period.

In 2011, so far, only one book has been published: Vreme (bez) smrti: predstave o smrti u Srbiji 19–21. veka by Aleksandra Pavićević (bk. 73, pp. 271). The book deals with death from an anthropological per-spective, ways of facing it within the public and private spheres, from ritual analysis to media representation in Serbian society.

Mladena Prelić (EI SANU Belgrade)

Vážení čtenáři, dovolujeme si vám oznámit změny, které chystáme pro nový ročník 99/2012 našeho časopisu.

Český lid : Etnologický časopis je od roku 2007 zařazený v nejprestižnější světové databázi časopisů Social Sciences Citation Index, resp. Journal Citation Reports v rámci Web of Science. V roce 2011 byl časopisu udělen impaktní faktor (IF) s hodnotou 0,343 a Český lid se stal jedním ze 75 nejkvalitnějších impaktovaných oborových časopisů na světě

a jediným ve střední a východní Evropě.Abychom byli schopni obsáhnout a uspokojit zájem vědecké a odborné veřejnosti o publikování v našem periodiku, dojde k navýšení stránkového rozsahu časopisu na celkových 512 tiskových stran celého ročníku. Tato změna s sebou přinese také nutnost zvýšení ceny časopisu, která byla od roku 1999 zatím nezměněna. Nově bude stát jednotlivé číslo 75 Kč, předplatné celého ročníku bude za 280 Kč. Avizovaná cena bude konečná a nebude v příštím období ovlivněna

úpravou DPH.Věříme, že připravované změny přijmete s pochopením a i nadále pro vás bude Český lid zdrojem poznání v etnologii a příbuzných oborech.

ČESKÝ LID 98, 2011, 3ČESKÝ LID 98, 2011, 3

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ČESKÝ LID 98, 2011, 3 LITERATURA / REVIEWS

Miloš D. Luković, BOGIŠIĆEV ZAKO-NIK. PRIPREMA I JEZIČNO OBLI-KOVANJE. Balkanološki institut SANU, Beograd 2009, summary anglicky, 472 s.–

První moderní černohorský občanský zákoník z roku 1888 byl součástí modernizačních re-forem, kterými se poslední černohorský kníže a nakonec král Nikola I. Petrović během své dlouhé vlády (1860–1918) snažil začlenit čer-nohorský stát a společnost do evropské rodiny moderních národů a států. Zákoníku dal práv-nický obsah a jazykovou podobu ve své době nejpřednější jihoslovanský právní historik Valtazar Bogišić, a proto dostal Zákoník pří-vlastek a je známý jako Bogišićův.

Valtazar Bogišić (1834–1908) je význam-ná osobnost chorvatské, černohorské, srbské i jihoslovanské vědy, zejména právní historie a etnologie. Původem z chorvatské katolické mořeplavecké a obchodnické rodiny z jiho-dalmatské vesnice nedaleko hranic s Hercego-vinou, s univerzitním právnickým a fi lologic-kým vzděláním z Vídně, Berlína, Mnichova a Paříže, praxí knihovníka vídeňské Dvorské knihovny, školního rady rakouského minis-terstva války pro banátskou a sremskou část Vojenské krajiny, univerzitního profesora slovanského práva v Oděse, prvního minis-tra spravedlnosti Černé Hory, byl polyglot Valtazar Bogišić zejména erudovaný badatel, komparatista, jehož vědecký odkaz prověřil čas. Pro etnologii jsou významné jeho práce Pravni običaji u Slovena (1867, z archivních pramenů), návod k terénnímu výzkumu Na-pustak za opisivanje pravnijech običaja, koju živu u narodu (1867, dotazník s 352 otázka-mi), monumentální soubor terénních zázna-mů z rozsáhlé dopisovatelské akce Zbornik sadašnjih pravnih običaja u Južnih Slovena (1874), sbírka bugarštic, předrecentních ji-hoslovanských historických 15slabičných

teskných písní Narodne pjesme iz starijich, najviše primorskich zapisa (1878, z rukopis-ných sborníků 16.–18. století), studie De la forme de inokostina de la familie rurale chez les Serbes et les Croates (1884), terénní mate-riály shromážděné podle Bogišićova dotazní-ku z roku 1873 Pravni obič aji u Crnoj Gori, Hercegovini i Albaniji (1984, uspořádal To-mica Nikčević). Roku 2004 vyšly Bogišićovy práce souborně (Izabrana djela 1–4).

Nejvíce ovšem Bogišić proslul vytvoře-ním Občanského zákoníku pro Černou Horu. Z podnětu ruského cara Alexandra II., který Bogišiće doporučil černohorskému knížeti Ni-kolovi, a s ruským fi nančním zajištěním 15leté přípravy byl roku 1888 v Černé Hoře zaveden moderní občanský zákoník, který v podstatě platil až do roku 1946. Bogišić jej ve funkci ministra spravedlnosti ještě prověřil v praxi a připravil jeho novelizaci. Při tvorbě Zákoní-ku vycházel Bogišić z ideje hodnoty obyčejo-vého práva a vytvořil originální kombinaci domácího obyčejového práva a zásad moder-ního evropského práva pro potřeby vznikající moderní černohorské společnosti. Ve své době vzbudil černohorský zákoník v Evropě velkou pozornost a uznání. Přestože na toto téma exis-tuje obsáhlá literatura, novou interdisciplinární analýzu a hodnocení předkládá Miloš Luković, vědecký pracovník Balkanologického ústavu SANU v Bělehradu, kvalifi kací právník a fi lo-log, specialista na obyčejové právo a dialekto-logii. Autor dělí svou knihu na tři části: v první se zabývá životem Zákoníku, jeho dosavadním studiem a osobním a vědeckým životem V. Bo-gišiće před kodifi kátorskou misí v Černé Hoře (s. 10–71), ve druhé 15letou přípravou Zákoní-ku: Bogišićovy terénní výzkumy obyčejového práva a právní praxe černohorského soudnictví a státní administrativy, archivní studium, kon-zultanti a spolupracovníci, to vše v evropském záběru od Petrohradu po Paříž (s. 73–143).

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Těžiště knihy tvoří třetí část (s. 147–444) věno-vaná jazykové analýze a hodnocení Zákoníku. Autor podrobně rozebírá problémy terminolo-gie, grafi ky a pravopisu, lexikologie a grama-tické struktury: fonetiky, morfologie, tvoření slov, syntaxe. Knihu uzavírá obsáhlý soupis právní, historické a lingvistické literatury (s. 451–472).

Jazyková stránka Zákoníku je mimořádně zajímavá proto, že Bogišić programově usiloval o to, aby Zákoník byl srozumitelný soudcům a lidu a jeho jazyk byl prostý a lidový. Lidový jazyk chápal ve významu prostonárodního, lidového, každodenního. Přitom se snažil držet hercegovsko-černohorského nářečí a zároveň se nevzdálit spisovnému srbskému jazyku. Luković vymezuje šest hlavních zdrojů Bogišićovy právnické terminologie: obyčejové právo v srbském jazyce v tehdejší Černé Hoře a sousedních zemích, staré slovníky, staré právní dokumenty srbské a chorvatské provenience, slovníky a další díla Bogišićových současníků, přejímky z jiných jazyků, Bogišićovy neologismy. V dnešním srbském zákonodárství identifi kuje na tři desítky originálních termínů Bogišićova Zákoníku v původním významu a další se změněným obsahem (terminologické historismy). Dospívá k závěru, že Bogišić založil gramatickou strukturu Zákoníku na rodném cavlatsko-konavském jazyce východohercegovského dialektu na široké novoštokavské osnově jazykového prostoru Srbů a Chorvatů. V gramatice Zákoníku nachází prvky současného srbského spisovného jazyka, zaniklé a opuštěné prvky dobové srbské jazykové normy a dobové a současné dialektologické a substandardní regionalismy oblasti Dubrovníku a Černé Hory. Nejblíže současnému srbskému spisovnému jazyku je syntax Zákoníku.

Luković psal svou knihu v situaci, kdy po ofi ciálním srbochorvatském jazyce

v bývalé Jugoslávii a ofi ciálním srbském jazyce ve společném srbsko-černohorském státě (1992–2006), kdy byla černohorština klasifi kována jako dialekt srbštiny, se černo-horština stala po osamostatnění Černé Hory (červen 2006) v novém státě od roku 2007 úředním jazykem. Následně byl schválen v červenci 2009 pravopis a v červnu 2010 gramatika černohorského jazyka. V situaci, kdy dnešní spisovná srbština, chorvatština, bosenština a černohorština mají společné ná-řeční východisko – východohercegovský di-alekt, jsou bádání v oboru jazyka Bogišićova zákoníku stále aktuální. O to víc, že s tím-to Zákoníkem je spojen jako autor Chorvat z Dalmácie, jako objednavatel a zákonodár-ce propagátor myšlenky jihoslovanské jed-noty, a jako historiografové mnoho badatelů, z nichž zatím poslední je srbský vědec Miloš Luković.

Helena Bočková (FF MU Brno)

Branko Ćupurdija, PORODICA KOLO-NISTA U BAJMOKU 1945–1948 [COLO-NIST FAMILY IN BAJMOK 1945–1948]. Srpski genealoški centar, Belgrade 2009, 232 s.–

Transitional changes as well as globalization processes, signifi cantly infl uenced contents and focuses of scientifi c researches at the end of the 20th century, particularly within humanities. Discovery of the fact that knowledge about past is as uncertain as knowledge about future, has pushed scholars to fi nd a different asylum of safe intellectual thinking which provided them (though seemingly) with an excuse for not be-ing able to discuss reality anymore. Though structuralism was in a way already announcing the abandonment of the historiography materi-al, it was fruitful in the area of discovering and

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confi rming universal matrix of human thought which gave sense to such a kind of deconstruct-ing culture. What came after was a complete denial of any universalities, which led to such a crushing of reality that have made any con-clusion completely irrelevant. Jumping into actuality appeared as the most secure way to avoid any deeper insight into cultural phenom-ena which, being completely relativized, be-came quite unknowable. Thus the postmodern proclaimed the uniqueness of single actors in historical events and epoch, which itself turned into a complete paradox, because ideological text was now perceived as something that ex-clusively determines everything.

This is why today, classic ethnology themes seem so refreshing in the main stream of chewing contemporariness.

The book “Colonist Family in Bajmok 1945–1948”, published in 2009, was novelty of such kind in contemporary Serbian ethnol-ogy/anthropology scene. The author, Branko Ćupurdija, professor at the Department for Ethnology and Anthropology, University in Belgrade, focused on research of the fam-ily in Bajmok, village in Backa (Vojvodina province in Northern Serbia).

This village as well as many others in the same region was inhabited through process of colonization that has been organized and supported by the Yugoslav state after Second World War. This process meant that people from less rich rural Yugoslav regions were purposely moved to richer and agriculturally more developed places, mostly in the Prov-ince of Vojvodina. Regions that were sub-jected to colonization were Kosovo and Me-tohija, Croatia, and Bosnia and Hercegovina. Bajmok village, in which this particular re-search was pursued, was inhabited mainly by people from different rural parts of Croatia.

Proclaimed aims of this state project were to compensate dignifi ed warriors from previous war and to give equal chance to every family to

live by its own estate. Latent intentions of the project were far more complex and they inevi-tably related to communist ideology and ideas about social and economic system of the new state, as well as to structuring of new ethnicities and (possibly) new ethnic borders. This attempt became visible during regional wars in Yugo-slavia that took place in the 1990s.

Colonization venture was the subject of numerous scientifi c researches in sociology, economy and political sciences, mostly under-gone during the time of socialism. Thus, the book we are representing here is sort of a pio-neer effort to research this historical period and phenomenon from the aspect of post-socialist ethnology and historiography. Its main value is exactly the fact that, combining ethnology themes and historiography material, author of-fered the knowingly analyses of impact that one segment of socialistic state policy had on common people and their families.

Book consists of nine main chapters. In the fi rst three, author introduced readers with main elements of the topic, its historical pre-view and methodology frame through which he would be analyzing colonist family. In the fourth chapter, Ćupurdija introduced us to the main problems of colonization which appeared during the process, and which he classifi ed as ideological, social and substan-tive. These problems were presented through three debates about colonization, in which both state authorities and kolonisti (the colo-nists, people who were moved from their homes to new ones) took part.

The main sources for this book were archives. So, in the fi fth chapter, dedicated to explaining the sources, the author brings precious informa-tion on unpublished and less known documents about colonist families. This group of documents consists of collective and individual applications and resolutions, lists of people who moved, and particular documents about certain families and problems they were facing in new surrounding.

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Problems were threefold: nostalgia for old place, shared families (in some cases only younger members of family moved, while older stayed at home) and problems with estate – in new surrounding as well as in old one. Namely, colonists, particularly those from Croatia were not allowed to keep their old houses and do-main. In the same time, some of them were not satisfi ed with what they have gotten in new set-tlement. According to documents, proclaimed equitableness quite often appeared to have only theoretical importance.

Nevertheless, around 403 families were moved to Bajmok village. They originated most-ly from Croatia (Dreznica, Dubrava, Vrbovski, Jasenak, Gomirje and Ogulin surrounding), but a few of them also came from Bosnia and Herce-govina (2 families) and Macedonia (2 families). 45 families returned to Croatia. So, in the sixth chapter, Ćupurdija presented basic characteris-tics of the colonist family, talking about its na-tional, confessional, ideological and economic structure. Though archive sources talk little about national and confessional identifi cation, crossing different kind of information, author succeeded in reconstructing these questions. The large ma-jority of colonists were Serbs, while there were only 7 families identifi ed as Croats. National and confessional belonging overlapped, so the major population in Bajmok was of Eastern Orthodox faith. What may seem confusing is the fact that Roman Catholic Church existed in the village (which is probably due to the fact that village was inhabited by Germans), while the Ortho-dox one was built only at the end of 20th cen-tury. This shows strong infl uence of communist ideology, as well as ideological determination of the population. Namely, grate number of mi-grants, as we have mentioned before, were par-tisans, warriors and members of the Communist Party, which determined their relation towards religious tradition. This was especially visible in their relation to church rituals which were even forbidden for Party members and their families.

They were also forbidden to celebrate domestic festivities related to Christian traditions as was the case with slava (celebrating domestic saint-protector).

In this chapter we can also fi nd discussions about some particular problems that incom-plete families (widows with underage children) faced, as well as problems about entering spe-cial working communities (zadruge). The fact that zadruge project collapsed already in mid 1950s, shows that it had serious defects in its implementation in the real life.

The last analytical chapter is dedicated to “Ethnographic reading of archive documents”. Here we fi nd author’s comments on archive documents concerning number of families that were moved, their names and nicknames, kin-ship terminology, relation of colonists toward homeland. At the end, this book provides us with detailed lists of colonists and their house-holds and different kinds of registers: basic no-tions register, geographic register and names and nick names register. There are also summa-ries in English and Russian.

Among already mentioned qualities of the presented book, I would like to emphasize one that I consider the most important. This book shows that, if knowingly deconstructed, eth-nographic and historiography material can ap-pear being the most exiting literature about re-ality of common people, about their identities and different levels of their personal, social and culture histories. What we should hope is that in the next project, the author will also focus on actual identities of people originat-ing from colonist families who presently live in towns such as Subotica and Belgrade, but also in Bajmok village, and whose identities are still very much related to the heritage of old country from which their ancestors came 70 years ago.

Aleksandra Pavičević (EI SANU Belgrade)

333


Dragana Radojičić, SLIKE IZ BOKE [Obrazy z Boky]. Beograd, Etnografski in-stitut Srpske akademije nauke i umetnosti. Posebna izdanja, kniga 62, 2008, 168 s.–

V předmluvě ke své knize Dragana Radojičićo-vá píše, že humanitní vědy, a tedy i etnologie neznají završená, ukončená témata. Archivní dokumenty vyžadují s rozvojem vědy nové vě-decké analýzy a živé kulturní jevy jsou bohatým studijním pramenem. Její knížka o některých výrazných elementech kultury obyvatel Boky Kotorské vychází z celoživotní znalosti míst-ního prostředí, ze studia archivních materiálů a z terénního výzkumu současnosti.

Boka Kotorská leží v republice Černá Hora a je největším přírodním zálivem (fjordem) na jihu Jaderského moře. Podle autorky je sou-částí mediteránního prostoru, kde nacházíme stopy kulturních vlivů z Východu i Západu. Geopolitická poloha a námořnictvo, které zde bylo dominantním a nejrozvinutějším hospo-dářským odvětvím, rozhodujícím způsobem ovlivnily kulturní různorodost tohoto prosto-ru. Na zdejší hmotné i duchovní kultuře se podepsaly rozmanité migrace a složité ději-ny, zejména skutečnost, od středověku patřila Boka Kotorská pod různé politické formace (srbský středověký stát, Benátky, Osmanská a Napoleonova říše, Rakousko-Uhersko, Ju-goslávie). Stěhovaly se sem rodiny hajduků z vnitrozemí, usazovali se zde trhovci a nej-různější vzdělanci i dělníci a poslední migran-ti sem přišli v devadesátých letech 20. století v souvislosti s válečnými událostmi v bývalé Jugoslávii. Nemalý vliv na charakter oblasti měl také rozvoj turismu.

Etnoložka D. Radojičićová, rodačka z města Herceg Novi v Boce Kotorské, věnuje pozornost ve své práci třem oblastem kultury – jazyku, stavební kultuře a obyčejové tradici na konkrét-ním materiálu v oddílech: Slovník materiální

kultury; Stavby v 18. století v hercegnovské ob-lasti; Vánoční obyčeje v Boce Kotorské.

V oddíle Slovník materiální kultury autorka poukazuje na užitečnost spolupráce etnologie a lingvistiky (tedy i etnolingvistiky) při prohlu-bování poznání a trvání terminologického lexika. Zájem badatelů často budila užívaná cizí slova a v Boce Kotorské jsou to především románské elementy v místní variantě ijekavské srbštiny – v „bokeljském“ jazyce (po osamostatnění Černé hory v roce 2006 byl v republice ústavou kodifi kován černohorský jazyk, nelišící se příliš od srbštiny, pozn. J. P.). Slova přejatá převážně z benátského dialektu italštiny nebyla obyvateli pociťována jako cizí a v publikovaném slovní-ku dominují. Do zdejšího hovorového jazyka byla přijata především prostřednictvím trhovců a námořníků a také prostřednictvím benátské administrativy od 15. století.

Kapitola Stavební objekty v 18. století si kla-de za cíl představit stavební činnost v minulosti Boky Kotorské jako významný díl materiální kultury. Hlavním nepřítelem všech památníků materiální kultury je čas a lidský faktor. Tak je největší část staveb z 18. století v uvedeném prostoru ve špatném stavu a každá dokumenta-ce má proto pro bádání velký význam. Autorka čerpala při svém studiu o stavbách v hercegnov-ském kraji především z katastru z roku 1704, jehož realizace byla spojena s odchodem Turků a rozšířením Benátské republiky na celou Boku. Práci provedli italští profesionální geometři za pomoci místních starých lidí. V dokumentu jsou popsány veškeré stavby (používané a nepouží-vané) obytné i hospodářské včetně ohrad pro dobytek, zdí, věží, kostelů, byl popsán stavební materiál, zastřešení budov i odhad daně z ne-movitosti v jednotlivých sídlech. V této kapitole D. Radojičićová věnuje pozornost údajům shro-mážděných o jednotlivých sídlech, o funkcích a estetice staveb, o obyvatelích, jejich zaměst-nání, náboženství aj. V katastru jsou doloženy

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Srđan Radović, IMAGES OF EUROPE: RESEARCH OF REPRESENTATIONS OF EUROPE AND SERBIA IN EARLY 2000s. Ethnographic Institute SAAS, Bel-grade 2009, 173 s. –

Srđan Radović’s book Images of Europe: Re-search of Representations of Europe and Ser-bia in Early 2000s was published as 67th book in the Special Edition Series of Ethnographic Institute of Serbian Academy of Art and Sci-ences. The book has 173 pages divided in 5 chapters: Introductory Notes, Theoretical and methodological perspectives, Europe and Serbia, Images of Europe and Serbia and Conclusion. The central theme of the book is cultural representation of ‘Europe’ in Serbia at the beginning of the 21st century.

i lidové, místní názvy vedle úředních, italských. Proměna stavební kultury ve 20. století ukazuje na nové, této mediteránní oblasti neodpovídající formy staveb.

Změny, které se odehrály ve společensko-politické sféře této oblasti se odrážejí i v du-chovní kultuře obyvatel, zejména viditelně v posledních letech 20. a prvních letech 21. století. Proměny vánočních obyčejů v Boce Kotorské sledovala D. Radojičićová ve zmí-něném období se svojí matkou, také etno-ložkou, a poznatky z terénu spolu s doklady z literatury popisující stav v 19. století určily strukturu tohoto oddílu, v němž se autorka textu zabývá vánočním obyčejovým cyklem jak v Boce Kotorské, tak v některých soused-ních oblastech. Podrobně popsala charakte-ristické jevy, chování lidí, magické praktiky, jídlo aj. v období od 28. listopadu, kdy začíná půst, do sv. Savy dne 27. ledna. Významných dní je před samotným Štědrým dnem (Badnji dan) několik, mezi jinými například ženský svátek Varin dan (sv. Barbora 4. 12.). Hlavním a nejvíce dodržovaným vánočním obyčejem je badnjak (vánoční dubové poleno). Autorka uvažuje o proměnách, ke kterým došlo mezi světovými válkami a v nedávné minulosti – v 90. letech 20. století –, kdy nastala euforická obnova slavení těchto svátků, zvlášť slavení Štědrého večera s pálením badnjaku na ote-vřeném prostranství téměř před každým ven-kovským kostelem.

Kontinuita pravoslavných vánočních obyče-jů se s malými proměnami udržovala jedině ve venkovských rodinách Boky Kotorské, jejichž členové nedosáhli vysokého vzdělání, neodchá-zeli za prací, byli námořníky a ženili se s děv-čaty z vesnice. Jejich členové nebyli politicky angažovaní po 2. světové válce a zůstali věrní svým pravoslavným obyčejům.

Za specifi kum této oblasti považuje příklady shodného slavení vánočních svátků u pravoslav-ných i katolíků, přičemž některé rituální úkony,

které se udržují v pravoslavných domácnostech, byly přitažlivé i pro katolický živel.

Materiální i duchovní kultura Boky Kotorské měla a má svoje zvláštnosti související s identi-tou obyvatel vázaných na identitu prostoru, ve kterém žijí. Slova mi smo Bokelji iz Boke jsou v prostoru bývalé Jugoslávie známá dodnes (bez ohledu na konfesi) a vyjadřují podstatu ge-neracemi přenášené kultury, matrice.

V Boce Kotorské nacházíme na malém pro-storu ohraničeném vysokými horami a mořem mnoho kulturních vrstev. Je to mozaika dialek-tů, konfesí a syntéza kultur. Společná identita Boky se začala vytvářet od konce 17. století v rámci jednoho politického korpusu pod vlá-dou Benátské republiky. Složitý historický vý-voj měl vliv na kulturní a sousedskou solidaritu obyvatel Boky. Novoty zde byly přijímány bez nedorozumění, konfl iktů. O této identitě podává Dragana Radojičićová jako dobrá pozorovatel-ka a badatelka pokrevně svázaná s Bokou věro-hodné svědectví.

Jana Pospíšilová (EÚ AV ČR, v. v. i.)

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Radović started from the idea that “almost entire process of cultural conceptualization of concrete images of Europe is the result of cultural learning through different discourses” (all the translations from the book by Marina Simić) that should be understood through so-cial contexts from which those representations emerged (Radović 2009: 8). Focusing on the representation of Europe as one of the central topoi of national self-understanding in con-temporary Serbia, the author investigated in-dividual discursive practices of young people in Serbia, moving from the micro level of the ethnographic research towards macro level of public discourses and political practices.

The research is centred on the narratives of school pupils and students from Belgrade and it was conducted through interviews and questionnaires whose aim was to detect most common ideas and meanings of Europe. This approach enables the author to move from usual politics and media oriented stud-ies ‘from above’ and concrete on the ‘bottom up’ approach to political representation that should reveal a variety of its receptions.

The author recognizes three major set of discursive strategies that his informants use to describe Europe and Serbia identifying them as occidentalizing, orientalising and balkanis-ing, while locating them in the concrete local context of political transformations in former European socialist countries. Focusing on the relationship between local and global author explains that in many former socialist coun-tries the fall of socialism was perceived as a return to Europe, or more precisely to “what was perceived as Europe and what was usu-ally understood as the (imagined) system of economic, political and cultural values of the countries on the other side of Iron Curtain” (ibid.: 31). In that sense Europe that social-ist countries were aiming to was a complex cultural construct that is diffi cult to locate through some universal ‘European culture’ or

‘identity’. Concepts of that kind were mostly produced by local elites, or EU offi cials usu-ally through the implicit comparisons with several ‘important others’, that served as dia-lectical opposite of the imagined European identity. These major ‘others’ are usually de-scribed as Islam and Orient and communism of Eastern Europe. These oppositions severed as a material for the construction of Europe as political symbol that culminates in mark-ing capitalist economy and liberal democracy as European values par excellence. However, author concludes that even “after several decades of relatively successful integration processes at different levels”, the concept of Europe remains at the same time “empty and packed with symbolic meanings” (ibid.: 42). As a result, ‘Europe’ as political symbol be-comes easily manipulated by different social and political groups, which sometimes mark Europe as a positive ideal and sometimes as a ‘rotten Europe’, depending on the social context.

These controversial ideas about Europe can be fi nd in Serbian public sphere, as well as in the answers of author’s informants. However, Radović’s results show that acceptance of me-dia messages is not automatic, but dependent on socio-cultural positioning of the recipient who modifi es media messages in accordance to his or her individual experience and ac-quired repertoire of cultural knowledge. Thus, although most research participants largely equate idea of Europe with European Union and make close association between Europe and ‘the West’, they are able to detect differ-ent positive and negative aspects of European integration. Generally, most informants have ambivalent, but rational attitude about ‘be-longing to Europe’ that includes some doubts about certain aspects of European integration. Similarly, the most common positive stere-otype of Europe is that of a place of high eco-nomic development and comfortable living,

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which is the most widespread stereotype about Europe in other post-socialist countries, as well. However, these positive stereotypes are rarely combined with other positive im-ages that would form an exclusively positive idea of Europe, but are frequently combine with stereotypes that could be described as a ‘work opposed Europe’. Thus, certain ideas about Europe as a place of ‘legal and social order’ can in the same time be seen as both positive and negative – Europe can be seen as a place of prosperity, but also as place of tightly controlled social relations that restrain a person with a huge number of social rules (ibid.: 105), which together with work orient-ed behaviour destroy a joy of everyday life.

However, these and other similar ideas ex-pressed by Radović’s informants do not make tightly bounded system of representation that would make clear distinction between ‘us’ (the Serbs) and ‘them’ (the Europeans). Accordingly, the author concludes that “in contrast with most research conducted in the 1990s that showed that majority of population [in Serbia] and students in particular can be easily differentiated according to their values and cultural orientations as pro-European, or locally-traditionally oriented, this research shows that clearly defi ned ideas about Europe are indeed rare, but that dominate attitudes are rather mixed and confused” (ibid.: 112). In a similar vein, images about Serbia are not co-herent either, although dominant images about Serbia and Serbian people (sometimes as eth-nic Serbs, sometimes as all people from Ser-bia) are largely positive. Some answers reveal certain auto-balkanizing discourses that depict Serbs as “licentious, passionate and lively” (ibid.: 124) in contrast with the previous men-tioned ideas about ‘working opposed Europe’. However, not all identifi cation strategies are based on this kind of auto-orientalising dis-course (if we understood auto-balkanization as part of them) that confronts Serbia and

Europe, but there were plenty of answers that could be a product of the symbolic distinction between North and South, which is only par-tially orientalising.

Radović believes that different self-exot-icasing discourses he described are a result of various globalizing processes, that make people aware of the gaze of the others even when they refuse images that others made about them (ibid.: 142). Radović concludes that ‘Europe’ thus becomes “symbol and agent of social change that [even] without a clear content functions as an indicator of social directions that various European countries are taking, especially those in transition” (ibid.: 145). Radović inform-ants’ perception of Europe refl ects plural and contradictory identity strategies present in various parts of Serbian society, but es-pecially in public discourses of media and local elites.

Srđan Radović’s book is a valuable con-tribution to anthropological understanding of European integration that focuses on im-ages of Europe and Serbia hold by young people – school pupils and students. Using a top down approach to the research of the dominant political discourses in Serbia, the author showed various ways in which orientalising and occidentalizing strategies are used in the narratives of young people, which reveals the instability and incoher-ence of local elites’ political strategies and Serbian society as whole. In that sense, regardless of the fact if Radović’s inform-ants’ understanding of Europe and Serbia is the result of the adoption of public dis-courses or various other infl uences, I fi nd Radović’s research perspective of utmost importance for further rethinking of cul-tural production and our understanding of transition in Eastern Europe.

Marina Simić (University of Belgrade).

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