The White Angel

Where he sits and what he does?: An example of construction and reconstruction of a tradition

Aleksandra, B, Pavićević

Glasnik Etnografskog instituta SANU

53

185

193

http://www.doiserbia.nb.rs/Article.aspx?ID=0350-08610553185P

2005-2020/03/06/17:56:28

The question of "invented traditions" became very popular among academics of various backgrounds, especially among anthropologists and ethnologists. It becomes almost a rule to proclaim that such and such custom or cultural element belongs in fact to "the invented tradition", made up by some power group as a means to a political or social end. Most contemporary authors faced with a problem of the invented/not invented tradition do not even try to rule out/find out what makes or constitutes such phenomena of invented/objective tradition. Therefore, we are left with a conclusion that such "invented" traditions exist in all epochs; the question of a "true", non-invented traditions is left unexplained or unanswered. Some will argue that a tradition is always a construct, while I think that the basis for such thinking is that there is no consensus among academics on what/which are the true contents of a tradition. Cutting it out and taking it out of its original context, the White Angel became an invented tradition by itself. Namely, the White Angel from the monastery Mileševa belongs to a fresco composition called "Mironosice na grobu" (female religious believers who carry an ethereal oil, to unction Christ body) whose significance and meaning can be understood only in context of Resurrection. However, cutting out of the White Angel from its original fresco composition and its mass reproduction created the invented tradition of worship of the White Angel itself. Based on a questionnaire and some media products, I came to a conclusion that most "consumers" of this invented tradition have no clue on the real and original context/content of the fresco, where the White Angels sits, and what is his role.

Mileševa, invention of tradition, reconstruction, the White Angel