Glasnik Etnografskog Instituta SANU

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The Bulletin of the Institute of Ethnography SAS (I-VII)/ SASA (VIII/) is a scientific periodical of international significance which publishes papers in ethnology/anthropology. From its inception in 1952, the Bulletin publishes the results of scientific research projects of scientists and associates of the Institute and other affiliated institutions in the country and abroad. In addition, discussions and articles, supplements, field data, retrospectives, chronicles, reviews, translations, notes, bibliographies, obituaries, memories, critiques and similar are published as well. The Bulletin was founded as a means to publish the results of research of settlements and origins of populations, folk life, customs and folk proverbs. However, the concept of the Bulletin, like that of any other contemporary scientific journal, changed over time to accommodate the social, cultural and political processes and research trends in the social sciences and humanities.

The Bulletin (GEI) is referenced in the electronic bases: DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals), Ulrich's Periodicals Directory and SCIndex (Serbian Citation Index). All articles are digitally available in a form typographically true to the original (in .pdf format). The Bulletin is also available in the same form on the website of the Institute of Ethnography SASA.

The Bulletin (GEI SANU) can also be found and read at CEEOL (Central and Eastern European Online Library): http://www.ceeol.com


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Ethnochoreological work of Olivera Mladenović
Ethnochoreological work of Olivera Mladenović
Thanks to the zeal of the pioneers of the ethnochoreology in Serbia, Ljubica and Danica Janković, 2014 marks the eighty years since publishing of their first of totally eight books of the edition Narodne igre (Janković 1934), which is taken as the beginning of the development of ethnochoreology as an independent academic and scholarly discipline in the country. However, thanks to the dedicated work of their followers led by Olivera Mladenović, ethnochoreology had a continuity in the following decades. Considering the fact that she was born in 1914, the celebration of the centenary of her birth can be joined to the great jubilee of discipline itself. Because of her deep scientific thinking and extraordinary diligent and hard work, Olivera Mladenovic is truly a remarkable scholar of her era. Although restrained and with great respect for the work of her predecessors and contemporaries, Olivera Mladenović constantly reviewed and insightfully reflected on terminological, conceptual and methodological ethnochoreological solutions. Through opening the historical discourse in the study, as wel as exploring contemporary dance forms, she stepped out from the romantic folklore national orientation of the discipline and paved the way, more precisely, anticipated future development of the ethnochoreological scholarly thought in Serbia. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. 177024: Muzička i igračka tradicija multietničke i multikulturalne Srbije]
Ethnographic museum exposition as a function of communication process
Ethnographic museum exposition as a function of communication process
Research about the meanings of the permanent exposition in the Ethnographic museum in Belgrade, which communication-wise points to the individual cultural projects as a function of incorporating and establishing specific viewpoints into one's own cultural system. Within developments of museum logy science, which resulted as a recent museum exposition, can be seen the ways and byways of the pre-memocentric expographic model. Three floors where the exposition was placed indicate multi-layered ideationally-conceptual syndrome, which - based on specific and inadvertent messages - point to several segments in real and symbolic space for communication between exposition's author and consumers. As a function of cultural mediators, authors present objects which represent public communication space as opposed to the objects from the private communication space. Such approach points to the functional symbolic reality of two models - proclaimed mainstream as a function of wanted model and everyday functional model of conduct. That way semantic premise is underlined, which in each community separates communication channels into mythologized stereotyped and prejudiced semantic space and realistic existence.
Ethnographic research in Russia in the 19th century
Ethnographic research in Russia in the 19th century
Systematic and structured ethnographic data collection started in Russia with the formation of the Emperor’s Academy of Science and in 1765 the Emperor’s Economic Society. In the beginning of the 18th century, the Academy had supported numerous expeditions and scientific research in Siberia. A handbook was introduced, with questions regarding peoples in the region, their customs, borders, languages and rituals. Later on, at the time of foundation of the Emperor’s Russian geographic society, in 1845, several special ethnographic programs were formulated, with the idea to facilitate data collection about many aspects of everyday life, customs and various questions related to the exclusively Russian population of the Russian Empire. In this process, a significant role was played by the Department of Ethnography and its head, the anthropologist K.M. Ber and later on, a famous publicist, art historian and ethnographer, N.I. Nadeždin. The program suggested in 1852 by N.I. Nadeždin was incorporated in “the handbook collection for Kamtchatka expedition”, undertaken by the Russian geographic society. Afterwards, many other departments and individuals had successfully continued to improve ethnographic program and design of the various data collection. For example, in the 19th century, a private ethnographic practice by prince Vjačeslav N. Tenjišev was very active, by collecting data on all life aspects among the rural population. The practice had 348 employees of various status and background. Today, the collected data and sources are being kept in the archive of the Russian Ethnographic Museum in St. Petersburg.
Ethnological research of the city Brno
Ethnological research of the city Brno
The contribution aims to describe development of the ethnological research of the City Brno as the part of Czech - and former Czechoslovak - urban ethnology. Shortened it deals with the beginnings of research in 50ies of the 20th century, with methods and results of research and, in more details, it describes interdisciplinary projects after 1989. In recent decades there were realised such important projects like Das multikulturelle Brünn an der Schwelle zum EU-Beitritt (Multicultural Brno entering European Union), or Memory of the town, and interdisciplinary project based on sociological and geographical quantitative analysis Socio-Spatial Consequences of Demographic Change for East Central European Cities where ethnology played the role of science based on qualitative analysis and methods. The main part of contribution defines the cultural identity of Brno´ citizens and interethnical relations, as well, as the result of repetitive field research and from the point of view of ethnology.
Ethnology in Russia
Ethnology in Russia
This paper discusses the ethnological research in Russia during the past decade, with a special emphasis on projects and activities of the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology, Russian Academy of Sciences. We present the most important ethnological publications and projects that deal with a wide array of problems, from historical to contemporary, daily-cultural and ethno-political processes, identity problems and issues in physical anthropology.
Ethnology, media and transitional Serbia
Ethnology, media and transitional Serbia
Radović, Srđan - Ethnology, media and transitional Serbia - Glasnik Etnografskog instituta SANU
Evaluation of oral histories and life stories
Evaluation of oral histories and life stories
Oral histories and life stories, as specific “documents of life” (K. Plummer) and narrative forms, have hybrid genre structure, a particular relation to reality, and the process of their evaluation poses different methodological questions. The use of oral histories and life stories as resources and evidence is especially complex issue. These texts are subjective with regard to reconstruction of memories and construction of narratives, as well as intersubjective and dialogical, considering that they are created collaboratively by the interviewee and the interviewer, starting from the conceptualisation of the interview up to its interpretation. The paper discusses the criteria for validity and reliability in oral histories and life stories, which concern advantages and limitations of a field interview (i.e. oral history and life story method), and aspects of constructing narrative identity in oral history and life story interview. The interview is considered to be a form of a heuristic collaboration between interviewer and interviewee, with their shared authority in a dialogue. However, there can be certain methodological limitations regarding, for example, conduction of an interview, relation between participants in a research, interpretation of data, influence of a particular context, employment of specific narrative or linguistic conventions in the construction of narration, and they may affect evaluation. In the final section the importance and forms of evaluation in narrating is discussed. Relaying on sociolinguistic and narrative analysis studies, some characteristic evaluating techniques in narratives are outlined, and also the way how evaluation is connected with other components of the content and the structure of a narrative. [Project of the Serbian Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, Grant no. 178010: Jezik, folklor i migracije na Balkanu]
Everyday clothing of the Goranci females in Belgrade - between traditional and modern cultural practices
Everyday clothing of the Goranci females in Belgrade - between traditional and modern cultural practices
The paper presents and discusses changes in certain dress and clothing practices and their effects on conflict within oneself and others. In this context, the paper analyzes certain conflict situations faced by the Goranci females in Belgrade. This conflict was brought about by the changes that have occurred in the females clothing during the second half of 20th and the first decade of 21st century. The focus is placed on changes that were initiated by external factors - legislation, migration and fashion trends. Accepting novelties in dress and clothing was not always simple and easy, especially if they implied the elimination of those garments implying a certain symbolic significance within the Goranci community and female subculture. Besides, changes in clothing imply and initiate changes in other spheres of life, especially in the sphere of (self) identification, on several levels at the same time (gender, religious, ethnic, etc.). The initiation of the clothing changes impacted the women in such a way to become somewhat at odds with themselves, to feel discomfort because of the fear that the (non) acceptance of the novelty could cause conflicts with some family members and relatives. A reconciliation with oneself and others imply that a women accepts a new way of dressing, but also the rest of whatever this may imply. Such reconciliation - assessed in this way - is not an end in itself. It is a process that involves several aspects simultaneously, and clothing is just one among them. In addition, a reconciliation on a personal level does not imply in itself reconciliation with others, and vice versa. Conflicts due to clothing do not represent an exception in this respect, but proved to be indicative for understanding complex socio-cultural processes such as reconciliation.
Everyday life through the eyes of ethnologists
Everyday life through the eyes of ethnologists
This research focuses on some of the new and distinctive patterns of scientific discourse with special reference to the differences between ethnological research of ordinary life and history of everyday life as a part of "new social history". The author try to show the changing paradigms in humanities, reorganization of its problematic, new sociological (ethnometodological, interdisciplinary) methods which were adopted in modern ethnology, as well as in the social history as a whole.
Exhumation and reburials of some anticommunist partisans in county of Cluj, Romania, 2009-2010
Exhumation and reburials of some anticommunist partisans in county of Cluj, Romania, 2009-2010
After the Second World War, Romania entered under the USSR political and military sphere of influence, which led to the installation of the communist government. In years that followed many Romanian citizens who didn’t agree with the new regime or its ideology were subjected to terror and repression. Any person suspected of being an enemy of the people would end up in political jails or put to death through collective executions. But there were also people who stood up against the regime. Groups of partisans emerged, groups that endured in forests and mountains for many years, standing up to the Securitatea, the repressive instrument of the state. After the fall of the communist regime, the former “enemies of the people”, victims of repression, benefited from reconsideration and rehabilitation that transformed them into anticommunist heroes. A series of commemorative actions that initiated a new post-communist tradition constitute part of a process called the politics of memory. The processes of unearthing and identification of the victims’ served to map out the magnitude of the crimes, and inventory evidence against the perpetrators. The factual data gathered will be used as incriminating evidence which will help with convicting the executioners. At the same time, the commemorative actions of a large number of victims may, through the representative voices of the survivors’ descendants, symbolically reopen the wounds, cultivate trauma, demonize the Other, identify the Scapegoat. My research aims to show how these theories and mechanisms remain valid and apply to the case of people who were victims of communist repression through isolated and almost anonymous executions. The murder was committed in silence and the murdered is condemned to being forgotten. The exhumation and reburial also remain events with local reverberations.
Exit Noise Summer Fest
Exit Noise Summer Fest
In Ethnology, studying festivals is a relevant activity since it could enlighten a number of complex cultural and social processes. The festivals represent public events, public ceremonies, cluster of rituals and produce many symbols, and as such, they are in fact a creative reflection of a society. In this paper, we analyze the Exit Noise Summer Fest, the biggest music festival in SE Europe. The aim of the analysis is to gain understanding of the cultural event of this kind and its protagonists, namely, the audience. Shedding a light to a music spectacle, from a standpoint of social and symbolic communication, directs to a different perspective in reading of rituals, communities zones, and semantic constructions of noise and body in the center of ritual behaviors. The research shows that the music experience and atmosphere of the celebration, though having somewhat unclear ritual borderline and zone, are compatible with the daily culture and social processes, in which the event is created and further reflects itself through various mediums.
Face to face
Face to face
The film Face to face (1963) has been directed by Branko Bauer and is often regarded to be the first political and critical film in Yugoslavia. The plot is set on a workers’ council, after a worker has been fired and his colleague (Milun Koprivica) stands up for him and openly confront the director. This act leads to the punishment of Koprivica - his exclusion from the Communist Party. The whole film is a complex psychological drama that includes all who are present, opening many questions that belong to the domain of anthropology, such as the attitude of the collective towards the individual, the dynamics of the collective that is disciplined, hierarchy, mechanisms of the belonging to (and rejection from) the collective, taking (political) responsibility etc. The film was produced during the period of selfmanaging socialism in Yugoslavia with the attempt to decrease the power of the newly established class of political elite. In that sense, the film has also didactical component. Its thematic and socio-temporal perspective resembles the famous film Twelve angry people (1957). The film Face to face (1963) has been directed by Branko Bauer and is often regarded to be the first political and critical film in Yugoslavia. The plot is set on a workers’ council, after a worker has been fired and his colleague (Milun Koprivica) stands up for him and openly confront the director. This act leads to the punishment of Koprivica – his exclusion from the Communist Party. The whole film is a complex psychological drama that includes all who are present, opening many questions that belong to the domain of anthropology, such as the attitude of the collective towards the individual, the dynamics of the collective that is disciplined, hierarchy, mechanisms of the belonging to (and rejection from) the collective, taking (political) responsibility etc. The film was produced during the period of self-managing socialism in Yugoslavia characteristic for the attempt to decrease the power of the newly established class of political elite. In that sense, the film has also didactical component. Its thematic and socio-temporal perspective resembles the famous film Twelve angry people (1957). [Project of the Serbian Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, Grant no. 177026: Kulturno nasleđe i identitet]

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