Imagining the past, creating identity

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Sorescu-Marinković, A. (2011). Imagining the past, creating identity: The case of the Bayash, 59(2), 45-59. Retrieved from http://www.doiserbia.nb.rs/Article.aspx?ID=0350-08611102047S
Details
Title

Imagining the past, creating identity

Subtitle

The case of the Bayash

Author

Annemarie, Sorescu-Marinković

Journal

Glasnik Etnografskog instituta SANU

Volume
Issue

2

Start page

45

End page

59

ISSN
ISBN
DOI
URL

http://www.doiserbia.nb.rs/Article.aspx?ID=0350-08611102047S

Date

2011-2020/03/08/17:49:19

Abstract

Based on fieldwork conducted among several Bayash communities in the Balkans, the author examines the way in which the interlocutors assume an identity and try to construct a past for their people, using etiological legends about the origin of their community which combine heterogeneous historical and geographical knowledge. The author shows that imagining their past is as problematic for the Bayash as it is for any other Roma or non-Roma group; the author argues that the eclectic nature of this process is heralded by the fact that it is a regular stage in the development of the historical thinking of each nation.

Keywords

identity, Balkans, etiological legends, naive etymology, Roma