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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Christian identity of secular Europe
Christian identity of secular Europe
The Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy began after twelve editorial cartoons, most of which depicted the Islamic prophet Muhammad, were published in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten on September 30, 2005. The newspaper explained that this publication was a contribution to debate regarding criticism of Islam and self-censorship. In response, Danish Muslim organizations held public protests and spread knowledge of Jyllands-Postens publication. As the controversy grew, some or all of the cartoons were reprinted in newspapers in more than fifty other countries, which led to violent protests, particularly in the Muslim world. Critics of the cartoons describe them as islamophobic and argue that they are blasphemous, intended to humiliate a marginalized Danish minority, and a manifestation of ignorance about the history of western imperialism, from colonialism to the current conflicts in the Middle East. Supporters of the cartoons claim they illustrate an important issue in an age of Islamic extremist terrorism and that their publication is a legitimate exercise of the right of free speech. They also note that similar cartoons about other religions are frequently printed, arguing that the followers of Islam were not targeted in a discriminatory way. The dispute has again pointed out to the relevance of religion and religious differences in the contemporary world. Again, several questions presented themselves as significant: citizen freedom, values and the rights to exercise them, secularism, tolerance, multiculturalism majority-minority relationships and so on. The resolution to these issues appears as of the outmost importance, considering the existing tendencies of united Europe to even more firmly establish cultural, economic, and political associations, in order to launch a one, joined European identity with vanishing national, ethnic and religious differences. Therefore, the question becomes: what could serve as a foundation for such a united identity? The reactions to the idea of "united Europe" that provoked rising nationalism xenophobia, and resistance towards immigrants in general show that a construction of the identity of this kind represents a very complicated undertaking, with still blurred ending. This paper, thus, discusses basics misunderstandings between "Euro-enthusiastic" and the ones who worry about their own national identity, and points out to the existence of some intrashared values that could serve as a foundation for a future, united European identity.
Christianization of folk customs
Christianization of folk customs
This paper deals with the process of transformation of a pre-Christian custom in Zuce, a village near by Belgrade. The custom is called 'provlaka', held all until the WW II on August 29. This custom was established after the cattle pest in the village. Since WW II, however, this day is celebrated as the village St. patrons/slava day. After the village church has been built and blessed in 2002, the day became also celebrated as one of the church's slava days. Transformation of holidays assumes vanishing of some and appearance of some other segments of the given custom: 1. Until WW II the most important segment of the custom 'provlaka' was extracting wild fire and passage of people and cattle. This custom was maintained with an aim of preventive protection against epidemics. 2. A significant feature of annual celebration of calendar holidays included collective gatherings. On this day people visit relatives from other villages, attend lunch together, and gather at a particular village spot in the afternoon. 3. The beginning of the church building has allowed introduction of religious elements in celebration. In the morning, it is a time usually to attend a liturgy, while what follows represent some inherited customs like reception and eating together with relatives and friends. 4. After the village church has been built and blessed in 2002, the day became also celebrated as one of the church's slava days. This assumes presentation of the village cake maker and cake cutting in the church, accompanied by a local priest.
Christmas customs among Serbs in Timisoara
Christmas customs among Serbs in Timisoara
The first part of the paper describes a variety of changes that encompass the traditional model of Christmas celebration among Serbs living in Timisoara Romania (reduction, simplification, revival of tradition, adoption of foreign cultural elements and so on), during different time periods. My analysis shows that Christmas customs stand for as markers of the Serbian family and minority in both ethnic and social sense; at the same time, the customs serve as means of ethnic identification and facilitate social hierarchy within the given minority and majority.
Clifford Geertz
Clifford Geertz
The paper presents some concepts of the recently deceased American anthropologist Clifford Geertz, putting them into the specific context of his rich and interesting career, influences that he had, as well as some reactions to his ideas. A particular attention is placed upon the concept of culture, as the key concept in the 20th century American anthropology.
Collections and cultural transmission
Collections and cultural transmission
Since the end of XX century, an aboundancy of studies exploring the evolutionary perspective on human culture and the mechanisms underlying this process offered theoretical grounds and novel paradigms and approaches, thus allowing for more clear foundations of the field of cultural evolution (CE). Starting from this body or theory and the possible significance of material culture for cultural transmission, this paper considers evolutionary aspects of musealization and the role of museums in cumulative cultural evolution, by taking the perspective of the Niche construction theory (NCT). The argumentation is based on the view of a museum as a cultural niche and the dialectics of preservation and reconstruction in cultural transmission processes in analogy with museum conservation-interpretation dilemma. It ends with the conclusion that a museum can be seen as a niche re-construction site, thus offering a solution to the dilemma, where the notion of cultural niche implies persistence of cultural elements, but allowing, at the same time, for construction of knowledge in each generation.
Colours of the new face of Serbia
Colours of the new face of Serbia
In this paper I address nationalist iconography in Serbian popular music especially the role of women as the symbols of nation building. Case in point is the victory of Serbian representative Marija Serifovic in Eurovision Song Contest in 2007. I analyze the way power struggle and strategic use of the differences are embodied and embedded through a media figure of Marija Serifovic in the process of showing the 'new face of Serbia'.
Community on a cruise ship
Community on a cruise ship
Originating from a very small part of the industry of ocean passenger transport, the cruise ship phenomenon grew into a global international business for organizing vacation and travel, becoming by the mid-20th century the fastest-growing branch of tourism industry. Seen as both a process and a project of globalization, and a manifestation of the fluidity of modern society, a series of scientific research questions were raised regarding the nature of globalization and consumerism. As opposed to the wider social, economic and cultural processes, the experiences of cruise ship workers offer a completely different perspective to this phenomenon. As the “fluid” nature of the industry and the ships themselves blurs the borders between places and space, within which communities of cruise ship workers are appearing, in this text I will try to point out the existence of a “social order” on the ships which is simultaneously defined by wider globalization processes and established regulations of cruise ship companies. With the ethnographic approach to researching the cruise ship industry, this text aims to offer a view from “within”: from the perspective of those who live and work on cruise ships, thus pointing out the existence and the particularities of “displaced enclaves” being formed on the ships, as well as the important connection between work, everyday life and travel.
Comparative analytical review of the latest genetic studies of the Serbs and the Serbian population
Comparative analytical review of the latest genetic studies of the Serbs and the Serbian population
This paper presents a comparative analysis of the results of several latest genetic researches into the origin (with a focus on the multidisciplinary studies of Aleksandrovac district), in which the results of genetic studies are correlated with ethnological and other findings and approaches. In this way it is possible to solve significant ethno genetic and genealogical issues and perplexities, which could however not be resolved without the application of various scientific disciplines. Above all, the results of the preliminary survey the authors carried out - compared to the latest relevant surveys by other authors and institutions - indicated the dominance of 12a and R1a haplogroups, decisive in the ethno genesis of the Slavs, which matches common and prevalent Serbian perception of the Serbs as of a nation of the Slav language and origin.
Concept of ugly in Serbian language
Concept of ugly in Serbian language
We analyze lexical iconicity of basic aesthetic expression categories in Serbian language which expressed concept of ugly-ružno and grdno (“ugly“). Their iconicity is, first of all, associated with the imagination of earthly substance (grdan), but is formed in connection with divine-human-animal opposition (ružno). The lexeme ružno (<*ureng- “bend” which is also contained in režati „growl”, „snarl”) which has taken over semantic components of the lexeme grdno is, on the other hand, determined by an opposition of human-inhuman and its iconicity contains images of animal like, deviant behaviour unsuitable to a human. Concept of grdno (<*gьrdь <*gher- “abrade”, or *ghreu- “sharp”) is determined by an image of a substance which is uneven, rough and unsuitable for moulding. Esthetical and ethical categories in both former and later cognitive thinking are interconnected - evil and ugly oppose beautiful and good but they are also defined by them. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. 47016: Interdisciplinarno istraživanje kulturnog i jezičkog nasleđa Srbije. Izrada multimedijalnog internet-portala Pojmovnik srpske kulture]
Conceptualization, strategies and realization of ethnic/national identity in historical discourse
Conceptualization, strategies and realization of ethnic/national identity in historical discourse
This paper discusses conceptualization of ethnic/national identity among the Serbs in Timisoara and Banat, both on the level of individual and that of collective within historical discourse. In addition, the paper analyzes diverse strategies that were developed by the individuals and the community during many centuries of inhabitance of the multi-ethnic area of Banat, in formation, realization and preservation of ethnicity.
Concern for the state
Concern for the state
Ethnographies of the post-Yugoslav region often focus on the production of the ‘state effect’ through narratives of statelessness, namely on the normative imagination evident in the yearnings for ‘normal life’. Drawing from fieldwork research in various after-sites of ‘Zastava’ industrial complex in Kragujevac - from car enthusiasts to the newly unemployed - I explore how such entrenched discursive tropes transform in a context of chronic superfluity in the job market and reliance on the state as the new interventionist hegemon. My interlocutors shared a belief that a significant positive change could only come from the ‘state’, while simultaneously agreeing that those who were excluded from that state were more morally fit to impersonate its key functions than the very statesmen and bureaucrats were. Turning moral superiority into a distributional claim, they described themselves not only as deserving, but as materially valuable for the state. This process elucidates a new hegemonic framework currently reshaping the Serbian welfare apparatus and social actors’ pragmatic adaptations to it.
Condom as a professional symbol among the persons engaged in sex work in Belgrade
Condom as a professional symbol among the persons engaged in sex work in Belgrade
Based on qualitative research data, this article exams the meaning of condom among persons engaged in sex work. Sex-work is a specific activity, with a sex service being an object of economic transaction. In order to delineate private sexual relationship and business sexual relationship sex workers rely on a professional code. Abiding to this code is valued positively by the professional group whereas disrespecting it leads to stigmatization of the offender within the group. The basic markers separating professional and private life in a continuum of sexuality are money as a sign and condom as a symbol. Use of condom during the sex-work relation is a symbol of correct approach to work and as such marks the border between professional and unprofessional way for doing the job in addition to marking the border between work and private life. The data show that within this borderline area in real-life situations, complex interactive relationship between sex-workers and their immediate environment leads to discrepancies in the consistency of condom use. The lack of consistent condom is present when a client or type of service is perceived as safe, i.e. carries the meaning of the category "with condom", or when some ambiguous environmental circumstances are present such as influence of the police or pimps, protectors and people related to private life of sex-worker. In the field of sex-work, condom grows from an object of infection prevention into an object that symbolizes professional ethics within sex-work and, in that way, it keeps an atmosphere of a healthy and clean private life for sex-workers.

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