Balcanica
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The Balcanica is an annual, peer-reviewed journal of the interdisciplinary Institute for Balkan Studies of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (SASA). Their histories have been intertwined since 1934, when King Alexander of Yugoslavia founded the Balkan Institute in Belgrade as the only of its kind in the region. The newly-founded institute started to publish Revue internationale des Etudes balkaniques, a high-profile scholarly outlet that disseminated the findings of the most prominent European experts on the Balkans. This journal was terminated, along with the work of the institute itself, in 1941 by the order of the German occupation authorities. It was not before 1969 that the institute resumed its scholarly activities under its present-day name and within the framework of the SASA. The Balcanica became a principal platform for publishing the results of Serbian (and former Yugoslav) scholars as well as their foreign colleagues interested in different aspects of Balkan studies.
Today, more than ever, Balcanica reflects the original aspirations of its founders: its aim is to publish articles of the highest standard which deal with the Balkans from prehistoric times to modern age and through the prism of a number of disciplines. These encompass archaeology, anthropology, ethnography, history, art history, linguistics, literature, law. Such orientation perfectly fits with the most recent scholarly trends in humanities and it will contribute, along with other sustained efforts to further advance the quality and impact of its issues, to Balcanica’s finding its place among the top internationally-renowned journals of this kind. In order to increase our visibility and reach as wide readership as possible, the Balcanica is published in English language with the exception of a small number of articles written in French or German.
Journal website
Institutional repository
ISSN: 0350-7653
eISSN:2406-0801
Pages
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- Ger Dejzings
- Ova knjiga uglednog holandskog kulturnog antropologa Gera Dejzingsa profesora na Univerzitetskom koledžu u Londonu (UCL), predstavlja vrlo značajan doprinos naučnoj analizi ukupnih etno-religijskih odnosa na Kosovu i Metohiji do januara 1999, s osvrtom na mnoge istorijske događaje, koji su po njegovom mišljenju, imali značajan uticaj na oblikovanje multikulturnog identiteta ove trusne balkanske regije.
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- Historical and ethnological influences on the traditional civilization of Pomaks of the Greek Thrace
- The traditional society of the Pomaks is structured on a series of contrasts which characterize their traditional system of values. The problems they face as much in the boundaries of the Muslim minority of Thrace, as well as in the frames of the wider Greek society of the region have defined their cultural expression.
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- Hungarian Views of the Bunjevci in Habsburg Times and the Inter-war Period
- The status and image of minorities often depends not on their self-perceptions, but on the official stance taken by the state in which they live. While identity is commonly recognized as malleable and personal, the official status of minorities is couched in stiff scientific language claiming to be authoritative. But as polities change, these supposedly scientific categorizations of minorities also change. Based on academic reports and parliamentary decisions, in Hungary today the Catholic South Slavs known as Bunjevci are officially regarded as an obscure branch of the Croatian nation. This has not always been the case. Early records of the Bunjevci categorized them in a variety of ways, most commonly as Catholic Serbs, Dalmatians, and Illyrians. In the nineteenth century Bunjevac elites were able to project to the Hungarian public a mythological positive historical image of the Bunjevci, delineating them from the negative stereotypes of other South Slavs. This positive image, fixed in encyclopaedias and maintained until the Second World War, represented the Bunjevci as Catholic Serbs who (unlike Croats or Orthodox Serbs) were constantly faithful to the Hungarian state and eager to assimilate. In the 1920s and 1930s traditional Hungarian stereotypes of Bunjevci protected them from abuses suffered by other South Slavs. As political relations transformed, official views of the Bunjevci also changed. With the massive upheaval during and after the Second World War, there was a change in accounts of who the Bunjevci were. The transformation from communism and the break-up of Yugoslavia have also evoked demands for changes in identity from some Bunjevci, and brought new impositions of identity upon them.
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- In the Shadow of the Macedonian Issue. International Re-alignments and Balkan Repercussions
- The 1960s were a decade of important developments in the Balkans. Skopje's stirring up of the issue of the supposed 'Macedonian' minority led to a series of diplomatic clashes between Greece and Yugoslavia, culminating in the 1960-1962 crisis. A major role in developments in the Balkans was played by the Soviet Union, which, directly or indirectly, greatly influenced the shaping of Yugoslav foreign policy. The crisis began in August 1960 when for the first time since 1950, the Yugoslavia Foreign Ministry publicly raised the question of protecting the rights of the 'Macedonian minority'. While the Athens-Belgrade crisis was not serious enough to lead them to break off diplomatic relations, it did have a catalytic effect on the shaping of Bulgarian policy with regard to the Macedonian question. After the restoration of democracy in Greece (1974), and despite her need for support from Yugoslavia on the Cyprus issue, the Karamanlis government did not repeat the 'mistakes' of 1959. Belgrade, having secured in 1975 a renewal of the agreement on the free zone in the Port of Thessaloniki, did not insist on signing a border agreement. The Macedonian question had become of no more than academic interest in the discussions of politicians on both sides of the border, and the crisis of 1960-62 merely a forgotten flareup.
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- John Stuart Mill in Nineteenth-century Serbia
- The paper deals with the reception of J. S. Mill's writings by contemporary Serbian intellectuals. As shown in the paper, the impact that Millean ideas made on many important Serbian politicians and philosophers from all parts of the political spectrum was broad and profound. Special attention is paid to the work of liberal and socialist thinkers, notably Vladimir Jovanović and Svetozar Marković. The influence of Mill's ideas on Serbia's political development is also examined, as well as how Mill's attitude towards the question of women's rights impacted contemporary Serbian political thought.
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- Kassandra in the Ottoman Documents from Chilandar (Hilandar) Monastery (Mount Athos) in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries
- The rich archive of the Athonite Monastery of Hilandar contains a group of Ottoman documents relating to the promontory of Kassandra. Hilandar did not begin to acquire land in Kassandra until the very end of the sixteenth century. No link has been found between the newly-acquired landed property and the metochia Hilandar had held under Byzantine rule. Bits of information gleaned from the documentary material on Hilandar's metochia within the village boundaries of Kalandra and Mavrokol, of the now non-existent village of Plastara, and of Valta, modern Kassandria, have been used to look at the ways of land acquisition, the composition of estates, forms of tenure, relations with the 'master of the land', taxes, and disputes in the course of the two centuries.
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- Kosovo and Metohija
- Kosovo and Metohija, the heartland of medieval Serbia, of her culture politics and economy (1204-1455), experienced continuous waves of spiralling violence, forced migration and colonization under centuries-long Ottoman rule (1455-1912). A region which symbolizes the national and cultural identity of the Serbian nation as a whole now has an Albanian majority population, who consider it an ancient Albanian land, claiming continuity with ancient Illyrians. Kosovo was reincorporated into Serbia (1912) and Yugoslavia (1918) as a region lacking tradition of interethnic and interreligious tolerance and cooperation. The two rivalling Kosovo nations, Albanians and Serbs, remained distant, maintaining limited interethnic communication throughout the twentieth century. The mounting national and ideological conflicts, reinforced by the communist ideology made coexistence almost impossible, even after the 1999 NATO bombing campaign and establishment of KFOR-secured UN administration. Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence in February 2008 is a dangerous attempt to establish a second Albanian state extended into the heartland of Serbia, a failed state cleansed of both Serbs and other major non-Albanian communities.