Bulletin of the Institute of Ethnography SASA
О гласнику Часопис Гласник Етнографског института САНУ објављује оригиналне, претходно необјављене радове: оригинални научни рад, прегледни научни рад, научна критика и полемика, приказ, научна библиографија. Часопис Гласник Етнографског института САНУ доступан је у режиму отвореног приступа. Публиковање у Гласнику Етнографског института САНУ је бесплатно. У часопису Гласник Етнографског института САНУ објављују се радови из области етнологије и антропологије и сродних друштвених и хуманистичких дисциплина. Радови могу бити написани на српском и сродним језицима и на енглеском језику. Радови на српском језику штампају се ћириличним писмом. Гласник Етнографског института САНУ излази минимум два пута годишње. Објављује и специјалне бројеве, са посебном тематиком и гостујућим уредником. Сва издања Гласника Етнографског института САНУ, почевши од првог броја, доступна су на следећој адреси: https://dais.sanu.ac.rs/handle/123456789/4515
REVIEWS · REPORTS · CRITICAL ESSAYS
Copyright (c) 2026 Bulletin of the Institute of Ethnography SASA https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
Copyright (c) 2023 Bulletin of the Institute of Ethnography SASA https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
Jasmina Tumbas, “I am Jugoslovenka!” Feminist Performance Politics During and After Yugoslav Socialism
Гордана Благојевић, Словачко наивно сликарство у Србији. Етноантрополошка студија идентитетских пракси
Наивно, књижевно, фолклорно – стваралаштво маргине у контексту треће културе
The Last of the Living: Quarantine as a Critique in Two Popular Culture Apocalyptic Narratives
This paper analyzes two popular culture narratives created in the period of the COVID-19 pandemic: the movie Songbird, made in 2020, and the TV show The Last of Us, from 2023. The main idea of this paper is to analyze the ways in which popular culture, through different pandemic narratives, perceives the future of social systems after the appearance of the deadly disease, as experienced in current reality as well as in pop-cultural narratives. The paper will point to the pandemic apocalypse as an environment of a new social reality, that is, the quarantine as a critique of state organization and regulation.
Children’s Birthday Celebrations in Public Green Spaces in Belgrade – an Example of Projecting Cultural Content onto Physical Space
In this paper we present the results of preliminary research into children’s birthday celebrations in public green spaces in Belgrade during the second decade of the 21st century. This period is characterized by the widespread practice of celebrating children’s birthdays in commercial children’s playrooms. Birthday celebrations “in nature” were very rare in comparison. Thus we decided to focus on birthday celebrations held in public green spaces. This social practice is analyzed in the context of utilizing urban public space, public greens for organizing private events with the intent to consider the reasons for its appearance at a time when children’s birthdays were becoming part of the processes of the institutionalization and commercialization of childhood. The analysis is based on empirical material gathered through informal conversations with parents who organized birthday parties “in the open”, “in nature”. Children’s birthday parties we attended were organized at the Sava quay, in Košutnjak and at Ada Ciganlija. The fieldwork was conducted periodically from 2014 to 2018, and entailed the application of classical fieldwork methods in ethnology and anthropology (participant observation and interviews with the participants of the events).
The Motif of the “Lost Paradise” in Blockbuster Films Set in the Post-Apocalypse
Considering that mythology and storytelling are an integral part of the human experience, in this paper we will take a look at contemporary iterations of certain archetypal myths. While the authors do not espouse the idea that “science fiction is the mythology of modern society”, we believe that there is something to be said about popular culture as a medium of narrative transmission in post-industrialist society. In this sense, the paper analyses the utilization of origin myths in post-apocalyptic science fiction movies: Waterworld (1995), The Matrix franchise (four installments 1999–2021), Wall-E (2008), the Mad Max franchise (four installments 1979–2015), among others. Common to all of these narratives is that they are set after a global catastrophe that frames the “Earth before” as a paradise that was lost due to human agency. Some of these narratives also feature a search for the remnants of that lost world (most notably Waterworld and Mad Max: Fury Road), as well as “lesser” origin myths that pertain to groups of survivors themselves (e.g. Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome). In the context of current debates on the Anthropocene, an era rapidly leading towards a global catastrophe, and following Donna Haraway’s work on storytelling, we believe that the act of telling these stories, and the ways in which they are told is of vital importance if we, as a species, are to survive. Furthermore, post-apocalyptic science fiction offers not only a warning but also possible outcomes exemplified through new, emerging and different naturecultures. These naturecultures range from the emergence of new and better adept bodies of a minority (which triggers stigma), to bodies which are increasingly dependent on other actants, e.g., AI. We argue that within the genre of science fiction these novel postapocalyptic naturecultures are framed as imperfect, and that such framing strengthens the myth of Earth before the apocalypse as a lost paradise. Consequently, posthumanist bodies are seen in a Biblical manner as bodies “after the Fall”, rather than as bodies which have not only the potential to survive but also to prevent the catastrophe.
Women in Bulgarian (Post) Socialistic Theatre on and beyond Stage
This paper attempts to draw a rough sketch of several major, intertwined lines of Bulgarian cultural and social history that will have a long-term effect and influence on many processes in the next few decades. As a beginning, it looks into the early phase of the establishment of state socialism in Bulgaria, focusing simultaneously on the processes taking place in the theatre system as part of the larger new political and ideological project of industrialization and modernization and the social role prescribed to it in this intensely changing social landscape. At the same time, the paper follows the parallel introduction of two somewhat contradictory new visions about women’s role in society: giving them full election rights and encouraging them to enter the labor force, while simultaneously introducing measures like the “bachelor tax”, stimulating men and women to enter marriage, creating a network of policies and notions, and encouraging women to give birth to as many children as possible and to be the main caregivers in the household. That is why the foundation of this research is precisely the paradoxical situation in which women were in the socialist theatre and outside it.
Women’s Press in Socialist Yugoslavia – Mediaportrayal of Dobrila Smiljanić in the Women’s Magazine “Bazar”
This paper examines the way in which the character of Dobrila Smiljanić was presented in the media discourse of socialist Yugoslavia. She was a fashion designer who, using motifs from the traditional thesaurus, created the fashion brand Sirogojno style, recognizable on the national and international markets during the second half of the 20th century. The work aims to: 1) recognize and distinguish fabricated media images of Dobrila Smiljanić; 2) point to the degree of harmonization of those (and such) media representations of the fashion designer with the official socialist idea of women and “female nature”, and 3) discuss, in the context of socialist ideology, the manifest and latent role of the messages that were thus sent to the Yugoslav readers’ audience. In a methodological sense, the paper relies on the data obtained from the analysis of textual and visual messages in the highly circulated Yugoslav women’s magazine “Bazar” during the 1970s (issues no. 129–389), as well as the data obtained from a semistructured interview conducted in 2014 with fashion designer Dobrila Smiljanić.
The Role of Women in the Production and Distribution of Series in Yugoslavia – Creators of Socialist Cultural Heritage
The paper deals with the research of the presence and roles of women in the creation of series in socialist Yugoslavia during the sixties and seventies of the 20th century. Besides the primary objective of identification, this study aims to identify specific patterns in work allocation, highlight significant female contributors, and underscore their contributions to the development of television series, thereby shedding light on values, cultural patterns, and societal practices. Also, Cultural Identity Theory was implemented to provide a valuable framework for understanding how women’s contributions behind the scenes in Yugoslav television series production during the 1960s and 1970s are intricately linked to the construction of cultural identity. Further, the paper analyzes the list of employees involved in the creation of 17 Yugoslav series created during the 1960s and 1970s. All information about the employees was found on the site IMDB.com. With the help of a specially constructed code list, they were listed and classified, and descriptive and comparative statistics of data analysis were carried out in the SPSS 24.0 program. In the second part of the analysis, the most significant women in this process were singled out and presented. The re sults clearly demonstrate that women held significantly fewer positions than men, with a distinct division of labor based on gender roles. Men are more often those who relate to the main positions in making series, and women to logistics and aesthetics of the characters. Also, the conclusion of the research is that, in order to be successful, a woman in that period often had to be supported by a man, but that, when she was recognized, she played a significant role in many projects, thus participating in defining the cultural heritage of an entire era.
The Ambiguities and Contradictions of the State-Socialist Way of Women’s Emancipation in Hungary (1948–1989). Overview and Search for the Traces of Feminist Resistance
The literature about the ex-state-socialist countries of Central and Eastern Europe raised the questions in what way women benefited from the legislation guaranteeing equal rights and the measures of emancipation during the decades of state socialism. The authors that also argued after 1990, the time of the social, economic and political transitions in the region, that women became the big losers of the changes. The paper aims to reflect on these examinations of gender relations during the state-socialist period and point out the contradictory ways of the introduction of women’s emancipation that led to ambiguous results in the propagated program of gender equality. Furthermore it discusses in which ways women’s positions remained subordinated and how the sexist representations of women increased in public life, the media and culture in Hungary after the 1970’s. A review of the main findings of earlier research accumulated so far concerning women’s lifes and gender relations in Hungary during state socialism will be followed by the question of in what ways these controversies of the system were articulated by the contemporary oppositional voices. Did the activists of the dissident Hungarian democratic opposition embrace the ideas of feminism and women’s issues in their criticism of the one-party system? On the base of contemporary documents and recent interviews with ex-activists it will be examined how feminist voices were articulated, yet controversially marginalized among the dissidents.
Girls Build! Female Architects who Shaped the Modern History of Novi Sad
The recovery from the Second World War brought significant changes and the implementation of socialist ideology in Yugoslavia that went in parallel with the emancipation of women. This is particularly noticeable in the rise of women with university education and their enrolment in various occupations, such as construction engineering and architecture. The increased interest in pursuing architectural education among women has been rising since the 1950s, when they already represented 46% of total students at Belgrade University. The rebuilding of the country meant great urbanistic and architectural projects, with radical reconstruction and reconceptualization of cities and public spaces. Young female architects embraced an opportunity to be equally involved and active in urban development. Their roles and impacts were diverse: they held positions within planning institutes, architectural bureaus, and public offices in urbanism and construction; furthermore, they were responsible engineers at the construction sites; and they became teachers and educators for the new generations of architects and civil engineers. They worked individually, in pairs, and in teams, demonstrating the ability to be actively and equally involved in the profession in every possible aspect and domain. The research positions their roles and contributions within the broader framework of the process of female emancipation in socialist Yugoslavia, focusing on three remarkable architects engaged in the postwar reconstruction of Novi Sad: Julka Majtan, Tatjana Vanjifatov Savić, and Milena Đorđević.
Women and Socialist Cultural Heritage: New Perspectives of Reinterpretation: Introduction
The issue entitled Women and socialist cultural heritage: new perspectives of reinterpretation brings five papers and one book review. The issue arose as a result of the work of the conference held on October 15, 2021, organized by the Society for Creative Initiatives RE.KreAKTa and supported by the Ministry of Culture and Information of the Republic of Serbia.
From а Fly to a Bone-Setter: How to Catch a Krsnik?
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Prikaz: Emancipacija žena u istraživanjima dr Kristine Jorgić Stepanović
The paper analyzes the development of neofeminism in Yugoslavia as a socialist and non-aligned country with self-management as the dominant mode of social organization. We set out to examine to what extent this social and political background influenced the appearance of neofeminism in the early 1960s, its development, transformations and branching out into different forms and eventual decline in the late 1980s. It is our contention that in the late-socialist culture in Yugoslavia, feminist theory was present from the 1960s to 1980s in different forms. Yugoslav female and male authors openly debated and wrote about feminist issues, they were also influenced by numerous translations of the works of feminist authors. The paper discusses two main branches of Yugoslav neofeminism: socialist neofeminism and Marxist neofeminism. In conclusion, we reflect upon the legacy of neofeminism in Serbia as a post-Yugoslav society.
Back to Nature Ideology, the Case Study of Western Serbia
This paper focuses on the perception of nature and the natural, which I marked as an ideological viewpoint and will analyze as such. I have based my research on the following sources: different platforms of internet communities connected by the desire to “return to nature” and interviews from the field research in Western Serbia that I have been conducting continuously since 2018. The goal of the paper is to contribute to a better understanding of the concept of “living in harmony with nature” and the impact that this idea has had on different aspects of the community’s social and political life.
Italianicity Is in the Eye of a Beholder: Analysis of Audience Reception to the Italian Tourist Campaign Italia. Open to Meraviglia
In April 2023, the Ministry of Tourism of the Republic of Italy launched the Italia. Open to Meraviglia (Italy. Open to Wonder) campaign with the intention of promoting the beauty of Italy abroad. The Ministry introduced Botticelli’s Venus as a virtual and modern influencer at Lake Como, in front of the Colosseum, and on St. Mark’s Square in Venice. The first advertisements sparked controversy in Italian society, and Eco characterized such phenomena as divisions between apocalyptic thinkers and integrated intellectuals as early as 1964. The aim of this work is to uncover the reasons for such polarization through the content analysis of more than 3000 public comments on the Ministry’s Instagram profile’s most popular posts/images. The study establishes connections between audience reactions and the posts, as well as between the audience and the Ministry (as the senders of this advertising campaign). The analysis also includes a study of the news discourse of the campaign author’s responses in Corriere della Sera, the most circulated daily newspaper in Italy. The harshest criticisms tend to lean towards Eco’s apocalyptic view of popular culture and Hall’s (2017) oppositional reading. On the other side, the authors responded that there was no such thing as bad publicity and pointed to Italian identity as a global phenomenon.
Serbs in the Petrinja district - Historiographical and Ethnographic Overview
Based on archival material, literature and narrators' testimonies, the author provides information about the elements of the national identity of the Serbs of the Petrinja region. In particular, it deals with the Orthodox religion and the narrator’s memories of everyday life during socialism, the last war (1991-1995) and the nowadays. The text also provides demographic data of Serbs population in the Petrinja region.
Hidden Religious Minorities in Rural Areas of Post-Socialist Countries – The Example of Rural Adventist Communities in Bosnia and Herzegovina
The subject of this paper are the Adventist communities present in the rural areas of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which are mainly concentrated along the northern border of the mentioned country. The text is based on the field work that was carried out in 2023. The research included the villages: Laminci, Kukulje, Nožičko and Grabik-Ilova, and in addition to visiting the mentioned places, it also included conversations with members of the Christian Adventist Church there. In the first part of the paper, general information about the specificities of neo-Protestant communities, as well as the place they occupy in the religiously diverse Bosnian and Herzegovinian society, is presented. The second part of the work, which directly concerns the Adventists, contains the data on the historical development of the aforementioned rural communities, as well as the upbringing, life and current state of individuals who are their members, or were in the past. Based on the narratives of ten interlocutors, born in Adventist families, as well as additional material from their private “archives” (photos, memoirs, brochures and diaries), this text will try to convey to the readers how the various events that took place in the wider socio-political plan during the previous few decades influenced these once numerous and quite lively Adventist “communes” to reach the state of “living on a life-support system”.
Traces of Ottoman Culture in Urban Infrastructure and Living Community of Niš During the Reign of Obrenović Dynasty (1878–1903)
Even though the Europeanization of Niš under the Obrenović dynasty (1878–1903) was a continuation of the Ottoman westernization, carried out in Niš during the late Tanzimat (1856–1878), it was not only a continued adoption of the advanced achievements of European culture and society. In Niš, under the Obrenovićs, the effort was also spent on removing everything that belonged to the culture and heritage of the Ottomans, and replacing it with Serbian, so that the city would catch up with other developed cities in the Principality of Serbia, in terms of appearance and the way of life of its inhabitants. This paper aims to show how deep the roots of the Ottoman influence were in Niš during the reign of the last Obrenovićs, through the most visible characteristics of its urban layout and the daily life of its inhabitants (habits, language, and clothing). Since the preserved archival materials written in the language of the administration mostly do not contain data on the mentioned aspects of everyday life, the research used the narrative records of authors who stayed in Niš during this period and left their observations about it.
The Impact of Japonisme on European Art and Painting in the Late 19th Century: Characteristics of Cultural Exchange During the Rise Of European Imperialism
Since the opening of Japan to trade with the West, a cult of Japanese aesthetics in the art and design has been created in Europe. Japonisme exerted a remarkable influence on the emergence of Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, including a recognizable individual influence on key artists within those movements. Motifs, technique, composition, colors were directly borrowed from Japanese art, especially woodcats (ukiyo-e). Japonisme also influenced some later movements in painting and design, but Impressionism and Post-Impressionism represented the initial turning point. Only by considering the imperial expansion of Europe is possible to understand the essential components of that transmission, which requires not only art criticism, but rather, in its complexity, significantly overflows into the field of social critique and anthropology of art. The aim of this study is to trace the pathways and networks of exchange and power that facilitated the spread of Japonisme in Europe – to show how elements of Japanese culture were adopted, assimilated, and to what extent the inventions and originality of new styles and the establishment of new aesthetic standards relied on the dominant position of European culture, which could appropriate elements from other cultures. The study highlights how this transfer was marked by an exotic and Orientalist vision of Japan in Europe and examines the reception of the exoticization of Japan within Japan itself.
Interculturality on Canvas – Collages of Religions and Cultures in the Oeuvre of Gustave Moreau
Using the oeuvre of the French artist Gustave Moreau as an example, it will be shown how the French culture of the second half of the 19th century and the art of Symbolism adopted and depicted themes and motifs taken from Eastern cultures and religions, how they incorporated them into their own cultural pat terns and what roles they assigned to them. Such “borrowings” are considered one of the basic features of Moreau’s work, which is generally cited as a good example of the interculturality of that period. The paper will highlight the intentional mistakes that the painter made in his paintings and explain the idea of erasing clear boundaries between cultural contents and their deliberate mixing within a single work.
Language, Conceptualization, and Cultural Linguistics. The Role of Culture in the Formation of Cognitive Schemas in Languages
The relationship between language, culture, and cognition is a key aspect within the interdisciplinary feild of cultural linguistics research. It attempts to describe how language reflects and shows cultural norms, values, and beliefs, throught cognitive frameworks like conceptualization, schema, and categorization. Meanwhile, studies in cognitive linguistics also have shown that language is formed based on conceptualizations and schemas directly influenced by culture. This paper, in its theoretical section, reviews the key concepts of cultural linguistics and its background. Additionally, it presents a case study on the Persian language, aiming to examine the cultural conceptualizations of “politeness” and the cultural schema of Iranian compliment Ta’arof by reviewing and analysing various examples. The analysis indicates that selecting and using specific language features can serve as indicators of conceptualizations or of specific cognitive schemas rooted in culture, consequently confirming the notion that culture significantly shapes language.
In order to create an orderly state, the first imperial chronicles emerged in the early 8th century in the territory of modern Japan through the integration and systematization of mythical elements that proved the legitimacy of the government and the descent of the imperial Yamato lineage from the supreme deity of the Shinto pantheon - the Great Sun Goddess Amaterasu. This mythic paradigm was created on the existing mytho-historical foundations fostered by cultural and political contacts with the Korean kingdoms and the Chinese empire. There is evidence that the cult of the solar deity, originally portrayed as a male principle, originated in a corpus outside the Yamato mythological system. And since male-female pairs of rulers were common (first it was the gods, later the ruler and the shamaness), it is possible that at some point the distinction between the sexes was blurred and then the female side prevailed. However, the female ancestral deity does not indicate a period of matriarchy. This symbolic type of goddess, who initiates a patrimonial lineage with rare female exceptions, was created by members of a privileged group of powerful men to legitimize their own power structures. Moreover, the cult of the mother goddess is not limited to the solar principle, but is associated with weaving, silk production, and agriculture. Thus, the simple assertion that the Yamato imperial lineage descended from the goddess Amaterasu raises numerous questions and doubts, which this essay attempts to answer.
From the perspective of our time, it is difficult to guess what Zhuangzi wanted to tell us with the expression “zuo wang 坐忘”. Different angles of looking at the world give us pictures of different worlds. In the text “Zhuangzi: Oblivion and Happiness”, I will try to shed light on the various possibilities that the term “zuo wang 坐忘” offers us. In this light, the possibility opens up to understand to what extent it is the path to our happiness. At the same time, numerous philosophical questions arise: the relationship towards the body, self, dao, de, towards dream, reality, the cultivation of one’s being, wisdom, etc.
Emergence of the discourse on the imitability of the Qur’an
Numerous disciplines emerged for interpreting and assessing the Qur’an, establishing the dogma of its incomparable text. Over time, an interpretative community coalesced around this axiom, shaping and expanding the discourse on the Qur’an’s inimitability. In parallel, a counter-discourse, termed in this paper as “the imitability of the Qur’an,” evolved, illustrating its genesis and the methods of its interpretative community. This discourse encompasses two manifestations: linguistic and stylistic imitation of the Qur’an and a critical approach viewing the Qur’an as a text that imitates others, raising uncertainties about its motives, authorship, originality, and authenticity.
discourse of the inimitability of the Qur’an
discourse of the imitability of the Qur’an
Intercultural Dialogues: Cultures of the East – Introduction
Copyright (c) 2025 Bulletin of the Institute of Ethnography SASA https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
Јан Н. Бремер Иницијација у мистерије античког света
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