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
Pages
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- Anthropological Research of Communication in Contemporary Serbia
- Сажетак Пројекат има изразито антрополошки приступ испитивању комуникације. Он треба да анализира и интерпретира принципе значења комуникације, комуникационе процесе, као и њихове бројне комплексне интеракције у друштву (али и између друштава) у коме/којима су настале и развијале се. Дијахрона антрополошка анализа различитих модела продукције и социјалне интеграције, као незаобилазни део комуникације у различитим етничким/културним групама у Србији − на макро, локалном и индивидуалном нивоу, јесте окосница рада истраживача на овом пројекту. Посебна пажња биће посвећена анализирању релација између најзначајнијих система/форми комуникације различитих етничких/културних група.
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- Anthropological analysis of cultural representations of Serbia and the European Union by EU female citizens living in Belgrade
- This article researches Europeanization of everyday life in Serbia on a micro level. It combines cultural representations approach from cognitive theory with an analysis of life stories from migration studies. Thus, the paper analyses the results of in-depth semistructured interviews with eight EU female citizens from Austria, Estonia, France, Finland, Great Britain, Greece, Germany, and Slovenia. They have chosen to live in Serbia, more precisely in Belgrade from the end of 1999. The aim of the paper is to point out different cultural values and the use of diverse cultural strategies which EU female citizens utilize in their everyday life in Serbia. In the light of the “brain drain” issue in Serbia, the reasons of interlocutors to live in Serbia may represent the subject of new cultural and migratory policies in Serbia. The most significant advantage of living in Serbia for the interlocutors is the high quality of life: the possibility to have free and unorganized time which allows them to socialize more than it would be possible in the EU. However, many see benefits in the EU-integration process of Serbia, such are introduction of regulations of the environment, higher quality of health, legislative and educational system, and more efficient fight against corruption. On the other hand, as possible disadvantages of the EU-integrations, they stress the exploitation of domestic market, the loss of freedom of decision-making or rise of corruption among domestic politicians. [Project of the Serbian Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, Grant no. 177017: Identitetske politike Evropske unije: Prilagođavanje i primena u Republici Srbiji]
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- Anthropological concept of spectacle in the network of rituals, ceremonies and events
- In anthropology, the phenomenon of spectacle is not integrally studied. Spectacle has remained on scientific margin since it was difficult to position its symbolic character in social and cultural realities. Based on past relevant theoretical guidelines, the phenomenon of spectacle can be de-conceptualized into the anthropological research problem. This implies that a new discourse option should be established in the relation ritual - ceremony - event, which is the basic matrices of spectacle. In this way, various social and cultural phenomena can be followed at different levels of spectacle performance, that is, the degree of visualization and representation. In anthropological discourse, ritual is needed so as to establish order in individual and group activities, that is, to point out direction of ritual transitions from one into other social reality. Ceremony is needed in order to point out symbolic elements, which form the metaphor of togetherness and community. Event is needed in order to create time in its linear and irreversible passage. Spectacle requires their complementary in order to express complete multi-layered ness of visual and scenic field (over)view. Then it can be understood that spectacle is not only a total imagined picture of perfect performance, but rather it is profoundly formed by the most complex relations of power, interests, hegemony, subordination and domination, wishes, needs and visions.
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- Anthropological research of the state
- The aim of this paper is twofold. It should point to the main directions in contemporary studies of the state as an idea and a set of institutional practices and to the ways in which the state can be theorized in the studies of European postsocialism. Anthropological studies of the changes in Eastern Europe after the fall of the Berlin wall can be turned in the real laboratory for the studies of the state. Central characteristic of these changes is transformation of the state and political system. Anthropological studies of these processes are not merely an illustration of global processes, but an important contribution to the understanding of contemporary political processes in general. [Project of the Serbian Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, Grant no. 47021: Rodna ravnopravnost i kultura građanskog statusa: istorijska i teorijska utemeljenja u Srbiji]
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- Anthropology and classics
- The paper deals with the relationship between two academic disciplines: anthropology and Classics that was changing through the time. Although the classical scholars that were oriented towards anthropology never represented dominant stream in the discipline that researched antiquity, we may follow the transformation of mentioned relation that reflects specific methodological positions and changes, as well as wider social and historical context that unavoidably had impact on the development and the status of the academic disciplines. The research attitude towards the Other (as the other culture or as own past) that developed in a specific way in colonialist nineteen century led gradually to disciplinary self-criticism and self-awareness of superior position of the researcher in anthropology that reflected the attitude towards own culture. Regarding the classics, I will point exactly to those researchers that had anthropological approach (even after this discipline abandoned diachrony), changing the dominant perspective from which the antiquity was perceived in order to free themselves from the position about the “cradle of European civilisation”. They started to pose new questions and changed the focus of their research, taking new perspectives for interpretation of fascinating ancient cultures. [Project of the Serbian Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, Grant no. 177026: Kulturno nasleđe i identitet]
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- Anthropology and folkloristics
- This paper investigates the relationship between anthropology and folkloristics. We are interested in theoretical and methodological similarities and differences between these disciplines, rather than in institutional (political) solutions that differenced the two and produced certain forms of knowledge. It seems that the main difference between folkloristics and anthropology lays in anthropological focus on social and cultural context and processes, while traditional folkloristics focus on folklore forms as such. Contemporary folklore studies remake anthropological idea that “folklore” is a form of communication that has to be understood in its social and cultural context. However, we believe that anthropology has still to expand its view of folklore in order to go beyond its traditional paradigms of social contextualisation that basically interpret all social phenomena in structural functionalist paradigm. In that sense, we suggest Alfred Gell’s theory of art as an experimental attempt for building of a new theoretical foundation for both disciplines. [Project of the Serbian Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, Grant no. 177026: Kulturno nasleđe i idenitet]
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- Anthropology of acting as an exploration of personal experience
- The work is carried out to analyze the relationship of acting as mimesis and acting as an expression. Performing arts to the twentieth century were relied on performance as mimesis, regarding the practice of mimicking and generating (pre)configured content of the external world. Mimetic acting was relied on the interpretation of the character and the given expression that was created an interpreter from the actor. Acting discipline in the second half of the twentieth century was based on the expressive artistic procedure. Unlike acting as mimesis, expressive acting examines the biological and cultural human behavior in a concrete situation: the actor becomes the creator of theatrical situations. Reference frames of the process of performing in the theater with the external position and the ideal of the mimetic performance, move to the inner, immanent, creating expressive dramatic character and dramatic situations, which are realized in the moment of performance. Theatre anthropology, using the expressive style of acting as an object of research, studyes human behavior within the theater laws and conditions. On this line of experiments and analysis of nature of performing arts, arises laboratory theatre of Grotowski and theatre anthropology of Barba. Based on their research, in the paper were analyzed and placed the possible processes of searching for the dramatic character. As essential elements of the process of creating the dramatic character are set: violence, artificiality, state of trance, body of artists, scenic bios, the relationship with the audience and the reflexive rationalization of the artistic act.
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- Anthropology of the state
- Project of the Serbian Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, Grant no. 47021: Rodna ravnopravnost i kultura građanskog statusa: istorijska i teorijska utemeljenja u Srbiji
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- Anthropology, tourism and transition
- Anthropological research of tourism in Serbia has usually followed a somewhat simplified concept according to which theory translates into application or practice; that is, anthropology offers conclusions to be later applied in tourism development. The domain of anthropological expertise in this matter was traditionally considered to be "popular" or folk culture, or rather its use in tourism. However, I claim that anthropology of tourism offers a greater number of research opportunities, especially in view of development of tourism as part of transitional processes. In this paper, I present the preliminary results of research on concepts of tourism development in Knjaževac, conducted in 2003 and 2005, and point to how attitudes that people have towards tourism reflect their perception and conceptualization of wider social and economical processes such as transition and globalization. Finally, I discuss some of the implications of these concepts for the future application of anthropology in tourism research.
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- Apparitions in western Serbia
- In Serbian folk tradition, apparitions represent a special, established and separated category of beliefs, with determined and elaborated passive and active relationship about this supernatural phenomenon. There are a number of beliefs concerning the sole essence of an apparition, periods and places when such phenomenon occurs, and various different features that a person should possess in order (not) to communicate with the supernatural; these are accompanied with elaborated religious practice, to prevent or enhance such a meeting/communication. This paper takes apparitions as communications. The greatest number of beliefs is centered on the act of dying and trespasses into the other world, and a special category of deceased, so the analysis is focused on these matters. Based on the literature on the subject, we were able to construct a correct sequence of events leading into peaceful afterlife. When aberrations appear, however, the sequence is diverged, depending on the presence/absence of the mortuary rituals. This conclusion has helped us to decode a message being transferred during the contact with an aberration, and we translate it as a manual for peaceful, eternal, afterlife, which should came about as a result of a traditional norms of behavior and customs. A social function of these rules and customs we found among small communities, where losing a member could jeopardize the existence of a community itself; a social channeling of dying through rituals, reducing the act of dying to its real boundaries of a natural process, as well as a confirmation that a given community is strong enough to overcome the dying crisis, in situations like this, becomes of a vital importance. At the same time, there is an expression and a need to correct deviations from a given community which could pressure a great deal, especially if there is no other way of protection from deviant individuals.
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- Artists and art of Serbia beyond Serbian borders
- Research interest in this work is aimed at voluntary movement of artists from Serbia to Western Europe, from the 1960s till present day. Artists provoked by the "the limitations imposed by the state", and later also by “the break-up of Yugoslavia”, sought a better destination for the development and improvement of their own creative expression, unable to sufficiently do that in their own country. With migrant and indigenous artists living together, along with interweaving of their cultures, thoughts, and artistic handwritings, new artistic identities emerged. Integration of artists and their families in different cultural, social, and religious communities, along with the transformation of their artistic creativity, open up new topics in the comprehension of the migration process. Visual narratives of migrant artists nostalgically record ethnographic vignettes, medieval motifs, and poetic intimacy of Serbia, which attests that no matter where they were creating or living, in their hearts they were still in their own country. Their activities represented international artistic contributions, which is proven by numerous awards and public expositions of their works in Serbia and abroad. This paper aims to encourage institutions and individuals to establish policies that would deal with sustaining links with the artistic diaspora in order to build bridges of cooperation and exchange of experiences between the artists who create in our country and those living abroad, so as to achieve concentric cooperative ties. Artistic creativity of migrant artists, whether it is transposed, realistic or abstract, is illuminated with elements of our national culture, thus the artists, by creating their works, have become cultural ambassadors of their original country.
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- Assessing and identifying transitional losers and winners in the Serbian society
- This paper presents ways to assess and evaluate losers and winners in the Serbian transitional society, through several concrete examples. Therefore, the paper is a follow-up of the manuscript published in the previous Bulletin of Institute of ethnography, and fits into the theoretical framework already stated. The main indicator of a variety of assessment regarding losers and winners is found among comments made by visitors of relevant Internet web sites, referring to news about societal problems and issues during the process of post-socialist transformation. These are directly linked with a phenomenon of losing or winning in transition, such as unemployment, poverty, criminal, success, failure, wealth, and power. Hence, news from two internet sites "Blic" i "B92" served as a source, while their visitors ‘commentaries to the particular news served in the analysis. Specific news was used to define a particular problem or issue, and the commentaries were seen as reactions to the news. The commentaries contain readers’ attitudes, assessment of particular issues and discourses overview. These comments were chosen based on whether they refer directly to the problem of losing/winning in transition, and on their diversity regarding assessment of the problem itself. At the same time, posted texts on the mentioned sites were not unbiased, and they can also serve to identify losers and winners of transition. Defining a category of losers or winners in transition is a complex issue of various interpretations and constructions, making thus a discrepancy in attributed meanings among the members of Serbian society. Controversy and contradictions in expressed attitudes about losers and winners, as well as understanding of these categories, could be explained by various aspects and outlooks held. In brief, an existing particular social heteroglossia, assumes many different readings and attitudes regarding the categories, caused by various factors. The analysis shows several dominant, different but mutually connected aspects in assessing and evaluating losers and winners of transition. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. 177026]