•Part of the project “Contemporary transformation of local communities and cultural diversity” that is carried out at the Institute for Anthropological Research, Zagreb, under the leadership of Prof. Anita Sujoldžić.

•The complexity of the contemporary processes of identification is the central question of various scientific disciplines.

•This overall research is directed toward identification processes in the local communities on the island of Korčula (Croatia), manifested particularly throughout language.

Identification processes on the island of Korčula – perceptions of Self and Others

Olga Orlić

Institute for Anthropological Research, Zagreb, Croatia

•How are local identities on the island of Korčula constructed? Who are the Others against whom one's identity is constructed? Stereotyped representation of others

•How the identification processes on the Island of Korčula are affected by globalization and glocalization (change, modification, disappearance?)

•What is the role of language in this identity construction

The methodology used consisted of qualitative and quantitative methodological tools:

• Field research: June and September 2008 and February 2009

Qualitative •interviews (107 semi structured interviews) •participant observation

Quantitative – 543 questionnaires•High schools (Korčula, Blato, Vela Luka)

Although this is just a preliminary analysis of the smaller part of the great amount of data collected it was enough to conclude that there are several kinds of Others against who Self is created.

The stereotyped representation of self and others throughout language is quite strong, vital and important on the island of Korčula.This can be seen by various nicknames for people from different settlements on the island – some are affirmative and accepted from the inhabitants themselves, others are pejorative and used for mocking. Although some of the nicknames are disappearing obviously (for example, some of the nicknames were familiar only to the older generation of informants (Vrićari, Kapotari, Mački), others are very much alive and in usage (Bonkulovići, Kuneji).

The attitudes about others on the island on the base of the way they speak is also very strong. Despite similarities and possibility to understand each other they keep stressing that the way they speak is totally different.Language (local variants) is important identity marker on the island of Korčula

Introduction

•Since identity is always constructed in interaction or opposition with Other (who ever that Other may be), in the preliminary analysis several WE - THEY oppositions have been extracted.

•Opposition: Land – Island

•Opposition between people from island (Vlaji, Vlahi) and land (Boduli).

•And if they were not directly at the sea, then we called them Vlaji...

•A cousin of mine married Australian woman. And he once came for three months in Zagreb, and he put her on the class of Croatian language...And she learned, I guess, for the basic communication ...When she came to Blato, she didn't understand us a bit...

•Then she would say to me (a friend from land) that everyone around her speak ći ći ći ći, ći ći ći ći ći.... And I have not experienced this at all ....i find it (the language) refined...this speech is melodious...and yet not to much...

Conclusion

Geographical position

Methodology

•Stereotyped perceptions of Self and Other (Berger andLuckman, 1986)

•Representation (Hall, 1997)

•Globalization (Beck, 2001) - Glocalization (Robertson, 1995)

•Invention of tradition (Hobsbawm, 1984)

•Cultural memory (Nora, 1984; Assman, 2000).

IDENTITY:

NOT stable BUT dynamicNOT fixed BUT fluid

IDENTIFICATION PROCESSES (Hall, 1996)

•Interaction with Other (Barth, 1969)

•Constructed in symbolic way (Cohen, 1985)

Language plays the important role in these processes, as a marker of identity but also as a form of cultural capital (Bourdieu, 1986). Analysis is directed toward the role of the language (different varieties spoken on the island) in the processes of identification and representation of Self and Others on the island of Korčula. Names are the primary text of personal identity occupying a privileged place in the language (Jospeh, 2004). We form strong conceptions of each other's identity based on the way we speak. (Joseph, 2004)

•Opposition: Urban - rural

Theoretical approach

Research questions

The island of Korčula

Results

Urban centre: strongest Romance influenceOld Štokavian dialect

•We say Korčulani, those from the city...of Korčula...I would say, I am from (s) Korčula, I would never say that I am from (iz) Korčula.

•We from the west part of the island had a feeling that we work for...for Korčulani...

•It can be said Bonkulovići...These are the people who like to eat and drink good, and not to work a lot. Bonkulovići… and,...(...)...there is an anecdote about Bonkulovići ...which tool is the heaviest in Korčula? Fork and spoon..

•..When anybody from Korčula visits someone in Blato, he/she asks what will you give to me...And when someone from Blato pays visit to somebody in Korčula, he/she is asked: What did you bring to me?

•They are always, we would say patronizing, but little bit from above....(...)... From above...This was a kind of antagonism

•Opposition Indigenous- NewcomersStereotypic language attitudes

•They have their speech and their way and everything...I don't know if others can understand them when they speak because they have a kind of accent, a kind of screaming, totally different, and they have some other customs, I don't know (for Račišće – from Korčula)

•They scream (for people from Račišće). And say, people from Lumbarda, they.... ....draw out their words .

•And people from Račišće especially....they speak right...ije and je and so...They are not ikavci like we are...(...)... so that nobody can understand them because of the way they speak...

•Račišće has the purest speech. (from Pupnat)

•And people from Račišće are Herzegovians (from Blato)

Oppositions between villages Stereotypic language attitudes

•Say, Blato still today has completely different speech, but when I just came to work in Blato, for the first time, I barely understood these children. They have very closed vowels....(....)...They even mock in Luka about the way they speak in Blato...And Korčula has totally different accent, they speak...if they are real Korčulani...they sound like Dubrovnik speech...

•They...they speak much more correctly than... us....because they say that they ...in Čara... Čara was inhabited, inhabited by the pirates from Neretva ( from Blato)

•They are, I think they are quite similar to us...., Smokvica and so, because all this is quite little in some kind of accent...but is very similar (from Blato, for people from Žrnovo)

•Mutual understanding

•But, for example, there is no chance that we should not understand anybody from Vela Luka, Smokvica, Čara, I don't know how much...But each has something specific...

•We understand them, understand (laughter) when we are born here, but we are ....quite a lot has changed...and before 80 years there were much more Italian words... much more...

References

Bla´ska mulad, Moje

Blaćuši, Kapotari

Crnomiri, Vrićari

Gundeji, Bahani

Peking, Puknaćani

Pizdeji

Kuneji, Villani

Prkoti

Bonkulovići

Blato´s bastards, MineVela Luka

Kapotari - people with(fine) coats)

Blato

Crnomiri - family name of the historic characters,people with bags

Čara

Green stinkbug, pigsSmokvica

BeijingPupnat

PricksLumbarda

Coney, peasantsŽrnovo

prrr – onomatopoeia - for donkey

Račišće

Big-buttoms (gourmands)Korčula

Bla´ska mulad, Moje

Blaćuši, Kapotari

Crnomiri, Vrićari

Gundeji, Bahani

Peking, Puknaćani

Pizdeji

Kuneji, Villani

Prkoti

Bonkulovići

Blato´s bastards, MineVela Luka

Kapotari - people with(fine) coats)

Blato

Crnomiri - family name of the historic characters,people with bags

Čara

Green stinkbug, pigsSmokvica

BeijingPupnat

PricksLumbarda

Coney, peasantsŽrnovo

prrr – onomatopoeia - for donkey

Račišće

Big-buttoms (gourmands)Korčula

•Stereotyped representation of Self and Others through language - nicknames

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The island of Korčula: The island of Korčula: cultural and linguistic cultural and linguistic

historyhistory

Čakavian dialect: with local specifics of each settlement progressive standardization (new Štokavian influences)