Glasnik Etnografskog Instituta SANU
Primary tabs
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
-
- The spiritual body - concept of the (Slavic) soul
- This work analyses the concept of the soul in the Slavic and the Serbian cultures in the context of general views on soul and concludes that the dual conception body-soul did not exist in the pagan Slavic world picture. It was developed in Slavic and Serbian culture along with the acceptance of Christianity, while the earlier, pagan culture held in a higher esteem the notion of the vegetative and emotive soul, closely related to the body and the idea of free soul - man’s double, who, nevertheless, implies a certain, although immaterial and not always apparent embodiment (“spiritual body” - ‘telo duhovno’). The iconicity of the lexeme ‘duša’ rests upon the opposition visible-invisible, which is reserved for the vegetative or organic soul, while the free soul depends on the opposition material-immaterial. The difference in the iconicity of the lexemes ‘duša’ (“soul”) and ‘duh’ (“spirit”) - although both stand in an etymological relation to ‘dah’ (“breath”), ‘disati’ (“to breath”), ‘duvati’ (“to blow”) - lies in the fact that ‘duh’ is conceptualized as a divine breath, ‘sila duhovna’ (“a divine force”), which can be individuated in part, but which maintains the characteristics of its divine or demonic origin and is related to the intellect and the will, elements of air and fire, while the ‘duša’ is individuated and linked to “lower” levels of human being - bodily functions and sensitivity related to the element of water. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. 177027: Multietnicitet, multikulturalnost, migracije - savremeni procesi]
-
- The study of human-animal relations in anthropology and archaeology (I)
- This paper is the first of the two planned, in which we will focus on the approaches to the study of human-animal relations in ethnology and anthropology and archaeology. Even though interest in the role of animals in human societies is almost as old as the disciplines the authors of this paper come from, changes and turbulences that the social sciences and the humanities went through in the 1980’s meant that the old foundations on which this interest was based came into question. Given the complexity and scope of the topic, the narrative on the study of human-animal relations in anthropology and archaeology is divided into two parts. In this first paper, we will offer a diachronic review of approaches to the study of animals, animal remains and human-animal relations from the establishment of our disciplines to approximately the end of the 20th century, and map changes and convergent theoretical and methodological tendencies which have led to asking new and different questions about relationships between humans and other animals, but also opened vast possibilities for interdisciplinary collaboration. [Project of the Serbian Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, Grant no. III 47001: Kulturno nasleđe i identitet" and Grant no. 177026: Bioarheologija drevne Evrope: ljudi, životinje i biljke u praistoriji Srbije]
-
- The study of human-animal relations in anthropology and archaeology II
- This paper represents the second of two planned articles in which we focus on the issue of the study of human-animal relations in ethnology and anthropology and archaeology. In the first paper (Žakula & Živaljević 2018), we mapped out the ways in which the issue of animals and their interrelations with humans was treated in our disciplines up untill, roughly, the 1980's. In this paper, we will present new research tendencies which developed since the 1980's and are characterized by the treatment of animals as active participants in human society and culture, and can be lumped together under the umbrella term the animal turn. [Projects of the Serbian Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, Grant no. 177026: Kulturno nasleđe i identitet) and Grant no. III47001: Bioarheologija drevne Evrope: ljudi, životinje i biljke u praistoriji Srbije]
-
- The testimony of the time
- Short literary form known as aphorism in the beginning of its development relied on saying. Aphorism concisely expresses general experience, life philosophy, situation and position of a man in this world, socio-political and historical paradoxes etc. Although it is often taken as a criticism of society, it can also be understood as a testimony of time. This paper reveals one aspect of this phenomenon that was neglected by literary theory - aphorism as a form of expressing author’s attitude towards society and its reality.
-
- The transformation of contemporary analyses of oral folklore
- The study focuses on contemporary forms of folklore and their relationship to literary forms like Fantasy, Sci-fi, Horror and Fantasy Game. The first problem is the specification of the terms and the classification of the internal structure of these terms. A typical structure of contemporary oral folklore, such as urban legends, is a combination of classical forms of folklore (subject matter from fairy tales, anecdotes etc.) and the influence of films, television and books. This contamination is really typical for postmodern culture. Fantasy stories can de divided into five categories - 1. alternative history (variants of past history or future evolution); 2. classical fantasy (variants of mythology or classical fairy tales or legends); 3. parody of fantasy or humour fantasy (the fantasy world is mostly only background); 4. urban fantasy (more or less a part of urban legend); 5. comics (the importance of graphic form - Superman, Batman etc.). Sci-fi and horror stories are mostly literary products influenced by classical legends or urban legends. Party games, especially “Dungeons & Dragons”, and their enactments by fans are a special part of the fantasy world. Ethnologists are faced with the questions of which method to use to carry out field research and what is actually relevant. Based on the first experiences we can see that for the research into this “new” field we can use the standard methods without problems. But for a better understanding we need to read fantasy, sci-fi and horror books, watch fantasy, sci-fi and horror movies, and get acquainted with the websites related to fantasy or sci-fi content. For a good analysis of fantasy party games one needs to become a member of a gamers’ group. The use of modern recording equipment like digital video cameras and cameras etc. is also very important.
-
- The use of ethnological knowledge in state governance
- The notions about the subject and research agendas within our discipline do not remain unchanged. Contemplating the relationship between science and government and the real practical role of science within society, as experts who are professionally interested in issues of ethnicity, we are interested in the practical social significance of ethnological knowledge. Over the last two decades, the applied significance of ethnology in Russia has gone through a number of changes, with a marked increase in the variety of spheres in which ethnological knowledge can be applied. The paper discusses the Russian experience of using ethnological knowledge in state governance.
-
- The wedding act in Serbia in the light of social changes
- Traditional form of getting married included wedding ceremony in which we had, among other rituals, obligatory church wedding. Church wedding was omitted in certain cases, as it was, for example, marriage of underage partners. When transformation of traditional life begun, church wedding was omitted more often, though it was still norm (in traditional and civilian law). In this period, traditional wedding ceremony was considered as popular way of marking the start of new wedding community. At the end of 19th and beginning of 20th century, the civilian ceremony of getting married was introduced, but most of couples still got married in church. This was custom until The Second World War, when the church form of wedding became undesirable. Communist ideology meant the complete breaking up with religious and national traditions. This brought to the reduction of numbers of church weddings, but not to their complete leaving. Economic crises, war destructions, low life standards and disturbance of system of values, at the end of 20th cent resulted in retraditionalisation processes as for instance, revitalization of church life, or some of it’s elements. Last few years in Serbia, young couples approach both the civilian marriage -because it is an obligation and the church marriage -because of different reasons: need to make continuity with historical heritage, or to invent new one. I will try to show this course of transformation of act of getting married, through analyses of social meaning of some wedding ceremony elements.
-
- The “unbearable lightness” (of the subversion) of nationalism
- This paper analyzes the cult of the nation and Orthodoxy in popular music of postsocialist Serbia in gender perspective. First I present historical revisionism regarding gender roles and the construction of gender identities in the nationalist discourses of postsocialist Serbia. I locate this issue into the register of neofolk music, i.e. the so called estrada (music show business). Following a diachronic recapitulation of a female singer’s role in popular folk music, through a case study of the icon of Saint Ceca, but also referring to other examples, I analyze the interconnection of national, religious and class factors in the construction of gender identities of body in estrada. The purpose of this analysis is to indicate how these bodies assert discourses of nationalism and Orthodox religiousness as its core, but also to map the points of their potential subversiveness in relation to these discourses.
-
- There is no need to push the bus. An analysis of Berger-Luckmann's philosophy without philosophy
- This paper examines the theoretical decision of Berger and Luckmann to place and develope the question of social constructionism on the other side of philosophy. By the immanent textual analysis, within the relevant epistemological environment, it is shown that their position is rich in philosophical assumptions and consequences, and the most problematic is the abolition of the autonomy of the intentional objectivity. Both the exclusion of philosophy and the unreflective “dealing“ with her exposed Berger-Luckman’s social constructionism to serious, in this paper raised objections.
-
- Time with or without death
- Topics of ethnological research, as well as scientific discourse in general often represent the mirror of social reality. This paper researches the ways in which dealing with death and current ethnological approaches in Serbian ethnology during the second half of the 20th century, reflect the Zeitgeist. The intensity and the quality of interests for this important anthropological theme varied during the researched period, wherefore it is possible to differentiate two types of works and authors: those who write about funeral rituals, and those who 'read' them. From 1980s until nowadays there are three subgroups of contributions to this theme that reflect critical moments of the contemporary Serbian history. The issues raised in this paper are the following: The way in which state/society regards death the way in which it structures death, the way in which it gives meaning to death, as well as the usage of death for political purpose and the constant effort of civilization to repress it into oblivion.
-
- To be unworthy of national stage. Women’s disobedience as performative practices
- On August 5, 2015, two dramatizations were played in the public space of a small Croatian city. The scene for the first of them was the theatre stage in Rijeka, where five women of different nationalities "presented" their private stories. Second, its climax had at the door of the theatre, and members of veteran and war volunteer associations, and supporters of the Armada football club played the main roles. The twentieth anniversary of Operation „Storm” seems to be a meaningful example of the way in which the processes and acts of its commemoration took place in public space: at the theatre and streets of the city. The situation of commemoration launched the processes and practices in which social performance became at the same time a creative act that expressed opposition as well as action supporting normative protocols and structures of power. Social dramatizations in Rijeka, both "in" and "in front of" the theatre, show that theatre is a very important type of public space, which not only exists as a specific place of communication, but it also has a status of conceptual subject with a particular history and separate semantic dimensions. In order to understand the entitled "disobedience”, it is necessary to deal with several essential issues, such as: performance of resistance and obedience, categories of "national theatre" and “experts” of everyday life; public space and the right to it; memory and “counter-memory” and relationship between performance and archive.
-
- Tourism in Bela Crkva
- This paper discusses several tourists’ attraction/manifestations in Bela Crkva, Banat, and the relationship between the events, local community and wider social influences. The paper focuses especially on the three events: Hunting Besi - a traditional fishing of the mythological catfish in the city’s lake, that has started in the 19080’s; Flower carnival- a renewed tourist manifestation, started in the 1990’s, originated from the religious ceremonies in the 19th century; and Bela Crkva in apples, a tourist and industrial manifestation, started in the first decade of the 21st century. These manifestations have started successively, covering the periods of pre-transition, “war-transition” during the fall of the former Yugoslavia and the contemporary transitional processes in Serbia. The organizational design of these events indicate that the participants of various backgrounds have tried to discontinue the socialist heritage in the domain of sustainable economy, and in this way, to post new measures for a different kind of distribution of the social authority. Hence, the tourism in Bela Crkva, at least in the past decades, has become one of the instruments for the community sustainable development in various social and economic environments, but also one of the pillars for reconstruction and new ways of defining of the layered identity. An analysis of societal change is thus possible, through researching tourist models: these changes are reflected in symbolic communicative exchange, included in these manifestations.