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
Маја Стокин, Терминологија зимског циклуса обичаја и веровања у Новом Саду
Copyright (c) 2023 Bulletin of the Institute of Ethnography SASA https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
Antropologija sporta, igara i detinjstva: zbornik radova u čast dr Aleksandra Krela (1968–2021) (ur. Bojan Žikić, Ivan Đorđević i Vladeta Petrović)
Миедка – „она коју је обележио медвед, она која живи између два света“
The Ethno-Demographic Context of Declining Birth Rates and Birth Control in Eastern Serbia – an Example of an Atypical Demographic Transition
The restrictive reproductive model in Eastern Serbia, which appeared in pre– industrial rural society and without of sufficient development potential that would lead to the redefinition of ethical and general social norms, was in many ways similar to industrialized and urbanized societies. The expansive spread of the restricted model of reproduction was atypical in relation to the verme, place and conditions in which it appeared, and beyond all the theoretical postulates of the demographic transition. The paper analyzes the dynamics of change in both components of the natural population movement at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century and considers the ethnodemographic, ecocultural and socioeconomic context of birth and mortality, which interrelationship indicates the stages of the demographic transition. In addition to objective problems related to the quality of statistical data, the regional demographic differentiation of changes in birth mortality rates indicates a certain correlation between the intensity of the decline in birth and the ethnic structure of the population.
Clothing Narrative on the Example of Belgrade
In each city, clothing stories (narratives) can be followed over a longer or shorter period of time. The clothing of the residents of Belgrade went through several stages – from a copy of Turkish clothing to the creation of the so-called national costume in the 19th and early 20th centuries, and up to fashion clothing in the 20th century. In the past two centuries, the clothing appearance of the inhabitants of Belgrade has been completely changed and adapted to the challenges of the time in the production of clothing. Political, financial, economic, cultural, educational and other changes that accompanied the social development of the restored state and its capital – Belgrade, were also reflected in the clothing of its inhabitants. The paper will refer to some of the clothing narratives of the inhabitants of Belgrade as important indicators of the development of society, as well as the various influences that were intertwined in the appearance of the clothing of its inhabitants.
Anthropological, Ethnopsychological and Characterological Studies on Corruption in Serbia
The paper examines the views and approaches of anthropologists, ethnopsychologists and characterologists Jovan Cvijić and Vladimir Dvorniković from the beginning of the 20th century, as well as Bojan Jovanović and Žarko Trebješanin from the end of the 20th century. Their views and research of the causes, reasons and motives why the inhabitants of Serbia have accepted and participated in corruptive activities are significant and valuable for contemporary research of corruption. In their opinion, the causes are related to the dark side of human nature, particularly, greed, due to which bad features in the characters have become pronounced. These features are: subjugation, furtiveness, distrust, treachery and dishonesty. The reasons have derived from unfavourable living circumstances such as slavery and poverty. The motive is related to the fulfilment of needs and interests without choosing means for survival and/or persistence. By accepting corruption as a way of surviving, with the passage of time, a pattern of corruptive behaviour has been created. The pattern is of profound nature and long-lasting. Even today it still pressurizes people in modern Serbia. The pattern particularly emerges at the moments of thorough changes in the political order and social crises. The paper is aimed at analyzing the research by the above-listed authors to use the results as a basis for getting more comprehensive insights into the origin, structure, forms and development of corruption in modern Serbia.
Performances of Memory in the “New Normal” – Commemorations without Bodies in Action
Commemorations as site-specific performances are dependent on time-limited interaction of bodies that create space for manifestation of memory. As social practices they have a goal of formulating a living memory of the past that can shape the future based on the lesson learned. The need for establishing controlled interactions was recognized as a crucial reference point for deeper understanding of these practices and their short- and long-term consequences. Therefore, the question can be asked if these performances can occur if the bodies in interaction are not present within the earlier defined performance sites and timeframes? Since March 2020 within the framework of “new normal” we have witnessed a change towards interactions within public space, which demands new forms of mandatory social distance between the appearing bodies. This paper analyses possibilities of collective part taking in spatial practices of commemoration without being physically present. Through selected examples of events taking place in Serbia and in Europe during the ear of the “new normal”, the faith of spaces, practices, and narratives of memory without bodies in action being present at same site and at the same time, will be investigated.
Lessons Learned from Applied Participatory Practices in Museums and Inclusion of People from Vulnerable Social Groups
In the article, the author reflects on contemporary museology and cultural anthropology paradigms that focus on participation and collaboration to include people from vulnerable groups in the museum work. The article presents how the paradigm shift to participation or collaboration changes the epistemological value of experiential knowledge related to cultural heritages and the way museums work. Finally, the author shows how three experimental participatory, collaborative practices in national museums with the change of perspective on people’s role from passive visitors to active collaborators also changed the perspective on their vulnerability and presented a valuable tool for better social inclusion. Through participatory approaches, museums can gain more social relevance in contemporary society.
Death and Suicide in Ethnographic Field: The Case of Buell H. Quain
The immediate reason for writing this article is the novel Nine Nights by the Brazilian writer Bernardo Carvalho, and the subject is the thematization of anthropological thanatography and suicidology on the example of writing about the death of the forgotten anthropologist Buell Quain among the Brazilian Indians. The story of his anthropological work and suicide, once a taboo topic in the discipline, forms an integral part of a significant, but lesser-known episode in the history of American and Brazilian anthropology in the first half of the 20th century. The literary work in question is treated as one of the heuristic sources for the reconstruction of Quaine’s biography and ethnography and the anthropological-historical analysis of the case, and not as an analytical subject in itself. The anthropological understanding and interpretation of the ethnographer’s suicide in the field includes a number of interrelated subjective and objective factors: the idiosyncratic life history, the very nature and conditions of ethnographic research, the actual condition of the studied Indian communities, and the political climate in Brazil on the eve of World War II.
history of North American and Brazilian anthropology
A myth as a replacement for a history: Ethnogenetic elements in De Administrando Imperio and the Chronicle of the Priest of Duklja
We will examine how the diversity of historical sources affects the portrayal of the Balkan Slavs by following two writings that notably differ. First is De Аdministrando Imperio, written in the X century. Our second source is the Chronicle of the Priest of Duklja about which very little is known. The two sources have a strong influence on our understanding of the earliest history of the Slavs that dwell in the Western Balkans. Hence, on our understanding of the modern nations, i.e. Croats and Serbs. These sources are so different when regarding their historicity, time of composition etc. But in terms of myths, we see the same patterns: coming of pagan peoples in Roman Dalmatia, story of their origin, how they were baptised, who were their rulers, what kind of dynasties they had, when did it happen and many more. Following this general ethnogenetic and mythological framework, we will try to conclude the relationship between myth and the identity of a European populace. To achieve this goal, we used qualitative and quantitative content analysis and provided their narrative networks of the mentioned texts. These networks illustrate patterns of connections between different ethnogenetic elements in the writings that serve to form groups identities of interest.
Divine genius, subversive hero, or creative entrepreneur? Exploring various facets of the artist as a mythical figure
People have always related art to the creation and transmission of myths. While myth as a theme in art has been thoroughly addressed, research about the “mythic” nature of the artist figure is far less common. The 20th and 21st centuries brought challenges to the status of art and artists in society, historically situated archetypes and stereotypes that we associate with the figure of the “artist” still survive to this day (e.g. “genius”, “subversive artists”, “child prodigy”, “eccentric”, etc.). In this paper, we set out to analyze various tropes used persistently to describe artists and explore how relevant the resulting myths are in (self) perceptions of Serbian contemporary artists. Our multidisciplinary approach to this topic combines a historical-theoretical and empirical perspective. Through historical research of the relevant literature, we described and mapped the key tropes of the (mythical) artist figure as it developed in Western culture. In the theoretical analysis we address the inseparability of digital culture with everyday life of people today, which we call postdigital. We explore how the transition into contemporaneity affects the determination of the “artist-figure”, i.e., how it impacts the contemporary process of myth-making. Following our historical-theoretical analysis, we conducted five in-depth interviews with contemporary Serbian artists to understand better how relevant the artist- myth tropes are for their self-perception.
The Anthropological Implications of Plutarch’s Eschatological Myths
This paper offers a comparative discourse analysis of three eschatological myths authored by Plutarch, with special emphasis on the anthropological implications of the myths and Plutarch’s literary-philosophical ambiguity concerning the relationship between mythos and logos. The myths describe the ecstatic journeus of their heroes, as well as their cosmic visions of the Beyond. The analysis points to Plutarch’s tripartite notion of human identity and his peculiar interpretation of the idea of demons as part of this notion.
The Mythopoetics of Narcissus/Asphodel in Ivan V. Lalić’s Poem Exercise
The mythopoetic framework of Lalić’s poem Exercise implies complex figures of Demeter, Persephone and Hades and their manifestations within the Eleusinian Mysteries. The paper focuses on the floral symbolism associated with the mythological figuration of Kore/Persephone, “the flower-faced maiden”, as characterized in The Homeric Hymn to Demeter, since at the root of this Greek myth lies a floral symbolism (initial fascination with the flowers: roses, irises, violets, saffron, hyacinths, then picking the fatal daffodil, and lastly consuming pomegranate seeds). The dual nature of Kore/Persephone is also indicated through the symbolism of the flowers that determine her destiny – the narcissus/asphodel. Lalić’s poem is concentrated on this binary opposition. The Asfodel in the underground world appears as a counterpart of the daffodil, it is placed as a central symbol in Lalic’s poem and recognized as a variant of the afterlife daffodil – a fallen daffodil. The title of Lalić’s poem suggests that it is not just a mere reproduction of a myth, but it can be viewed as a kind of poem-poetics within which the lyrical subject engages in thinking about the creative process itself. This interpretation is supported by the fact that a specific species of white daffodil is called Narcissus poeticus, in our culture also known as sunovrat, and such a pale-faced flower symbolizes the poet himself.
This paper will primarily focus on the philosophical depictions of Medea’s character and actions. The following identities will be examined: gender (which roles defined a woman in antiquity and are these definitions still relevant today), political (what does it mean to be a foreigner and not belong to a particular political community), and psychological (do passions inevitably lead to a split in the psyche or, on the contrary, constitute it). These will serve as frames that outline Medea’s exceptional (in)humanness in the Greco-Roman society.
A Twice-born God. Reimagining the Myth in Euripides’ Bacchae
The paper examines the myth of Dionysusʼs double birth as a hidden semantic axis of the Bacchae, starting from the hypothesis that the importance of this narrative goes beyond the poetic context in which it is found and that it represents an important step in the reimagining of the concept of myth, which occurs at the height of the polis culture. Having come to Thebes to prove his divine nature and Zeus’ paternity, Dionysus, in the incipit, before saying his name, defines himself as “the child of Zeus”, while in the final epiphany he defines himself as “divine offspring”. Neither the divine nature of Dionysus, nor the fatherhood of Zeus in the tragedy are proven explicitly, but only implicitly – through the ability of the young god to dissect the human mind, reason, rational will, thus confirming and strengthening the sphere of the irrational, to which the myth remains firmly attached. The paper aims at proving the hypothesis that this attachment of the myth to the sphere of the non-rational is the Euripides’ decisive contribution to the transformation of the concept of myth.
Myth and Identity: А Cross-Cultural and Intertemporal Approach – Introduction
The issue entitled Myth and Identity: А Cross-Cultural and Intertemporal Approach brings six papers and a handful of new perspectives, methodologies, proposed interpretations, problem reviews and original scientific contributions. In the first part of the introductory text, the basic theoretical concepts important for understanding the topic are very briefly explained, and in the second part, the papers are briefly presented. We believe that these six excellent studies as a whole succeeded in bringing to the fore the dynamic and experiential dimensions of myth and identity.
REVIEWS · REPORTS · CRITICAL ESSAYS
Copyright (c) 2026 Bulletin of the Institute of Ethnography SASA https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
Бела Крајина. Срби у Словенији: Насеља и порекло становништва, обичаји.
Copyright (c) 2023 Bulletin of the Institute of Ethnography SASA https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Rea Kakampoura & Aphrodite-Lidia Nounanaki, Ta Mimidia (memes) tis Pandemias COVID-19. Psiphiaki Laographia kai Humor sta Ellinika Mesa Kinonikis Diktiosis [Memes of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Digital Folklore and Humor in Greek Social Media]
Manolis Varvounis & Georgios Kouzas, Eisagogi stin Astiki Laographia, Theoritikes Prossegisis, Methodologia, Thematikes [An Introduction to Urban Folklore. Theoretical Approaches – Methodology – Themes]
Internet Memes as Heritage in Becoming and its Problems: The Methodology of Heritization and the Formation of Cultural Memory in Cyberspace
After defining Internet memes and their place within broader popular culture, this paper examines the methodology and interpretation of a large-scale collection of Internet memes used by the KnowYourMeme database. By observing the changed context in which Internet memes are created, shared, or forgotten, questions are raised about the formation of meme cultural memory in cyberspace, leading to critical commentary on the ways in which they are collected. By analyzing the heritization of Internet memes, this paper addresses the following issues: the formation of the future meme heritage, scope of cultural memory in cyberspace, redefinition of remembering and forgetting within the panmnemonic tendencies of online heritage projects. Using the KnowYourMeme database as an example, the problems of cyberspace heritage are discussed, and the different online projects dealing with Internet memes as heritage are compared. By defining “on-the-fly” memory, which indicates the simultaneity of the process of creating and preserving heritage, this paper offers a critical review of the existing cyber projects of “saving everything”.
Digital Immortality – from Science Fiction to Potential Internet Reality
The development of technology and biotechnologies in the modern society has seemingly made immortality more approachable to humanity than ever before; medicine is advancing, life is getting longer, anti-ageing techniques are becoming more common, and artificial intelligence developers claim to be able to offer the possibility for internet users to make digital clones. Through research of existing practices and interviews with internet users who have lost someone, this paper will offer the answer about how much are these practices actually commonplace and available to all. This empirical research looks into the reality of digital immortality, especially when it comes to the social networks and the online sphere.
Neither Germans nor Czechs? Expatriates from the Czech lands in Romanian Banat in the Trap of Ethnicism
In our opinion, the scholarly and general ways of perceiving the emigrants from the Czech lands are based on methodological nationalism, which identifies the concept of society with the modern national state. Based on this, Bohemian resettlers who founded several settlements on the southern border of the Habsburg Empire in present-day Romanian Banat in the early nineteenth century have hitherto been divided, in the spirit of ethnicism and methodological nationalism, into Czechs (Böhmen) and Czech Germans (Deutschböhmen). Against this, an alternative research perspective, represented by the concept of national indifference, can be applied. The object of this article is hereby to re-assess of the collective identity of emigrants resettlers from the Czech lands towards its nationally indifferent character. We propose to overcome the ethnicist framework of the research on Bohemian resettlers by introducing what we term as the inclusive approach to expatriatism. This article is based on archival and local written sources and ethnographic field research (interviews) collected during the years 2010–2017.
Ghosts in the Streets of Athens: Ghostlore and Social Media
Ghostlore or ghost-lore is, in short, a subgenre of folklore that focuses on ghostly tales which can be found in both pre-industrial and contemporary contexts. The majority of these stories are connected to houses and other buildings that are either dilapidated or inhabited but can be described mainly as private places. Due to the nature of public places -whether they are connected to people’s experiences or could be described as non-places- it is odd to ‘find’ ghosts there, as it is odd to ‘find’ them in parks or streets. However, they remain social places open to multiple interpretations and symbolisms. Through pertinent online entries, mostly uploaded by groups describing their practices as ‘investigating’ the paranormal or the occult, this paper aims to discuss the connection between ghost-lore and public places, mainly from the city of Athens. Furthermore, a very important aspect demonstrating the effectiveness of these online entries are the comments made by the netizens following these ‘investigations’, which result in the formation of new groups. These groups are created online, but are driven by a common interest in ghosts in the offline world. Thus, in order to study how the physical public space is being reinterpreted in light of the supernatural, the paper intends to approach the digital public space of social media.
Symbolic Functions of the Urban Belgrade Landscape Components – Children’s Perspective
This anthropological paper views the urban landscape of Belgrade as a system of signs, consequently discussing the functional aspects of those urban landscape components, which children attributed the status of symbols. In a methodological sense, the work is based on the results of two field surveys – the first one, conducted in March 2021 in the Primary School “Kneginja Milica” in New Belgrade, and the second one, from November 2022, which increased the representativeness of the sample, raised the age limit of the respondents, and expanded the territorial coverage of the home city of the children who participated in the research – providing collectively a sample of 70 children aged 7–14. The aim of the work is to provide an input to the (so far rare) contributions at the intersection of two subdisciplines – urban anthropology and anthropology of children/childhood, as well as to encourage further research in this area.
Copyright (c) 2023 Bulletin of the Institute of Ethnography SASA https://creativecommons.org/licenshttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/es/by-sa/4.0/
“On the Streets of Diversity”. Urban Space as a Birthplace of Free Expression and Artistic Creation: the Case of Nikolas Asimos in the Exarchia Area of Athens
Artistic creation depends to a great extent on man-made environment and relationships that connect the artist with it, as well as on his/her experiences and perceptions. The singer and actor Nikolas Asimos still remains, 35 years after his death, an emblematic figure of Exarchia, a central area of Athens, frequently associated with intense anti-authoritarian activity. In this research, we focus on the social-cultural conditions that prevailed in the area, between 1976–1988, a period when Nikolas Asimos lived there and created the majority of his work. Through content analysis of the opinions of people who knew him or dealt with him on a professional basis, we argue that the urban space of Exarchia greatly contributed to the creative mood of the specific artist, providing him with the appropriate conditions for free expression of his work and ideas.
The Musical Identity of the Roma People on the Streets of Belgrade
This paper deals with the musical street practice of the Roma people on the territory of Belgrade. An attempt shall be made to present this practice in its entirety, with all its particularities, based on data obtained in the field (through interviews with performers), Internet sources (YouTube videos, texts, etc.), and academic literature. The Romani practice is possibly the most common street musical practice on the territory of Belgrade, and while it is undoubtedly diverse, it still possesses numerous characteristics which shape its particular identity. Therefore, the elements of the aforementioned musical practice shall be presented and analyzed, including: 1. forms of musical performance, 2. Types of performing ensembles, 3. choice and condition of the instruments used in performing, 4. choice of musical repertoire, 5. the language being sung in, 6. choice of public spaces at which it takes place, 7. events and special occasions during which this musical practice occurs, 8. career development and 9. Child exploitation. The aim of the paper is to provide a relevant insight into the special musical identity of the Romani street musical practice in Belgrade by way of analyzing the segments of this street musical practice presented. Moreover, the goal of this research is to construct a model which may serve to conduct further research into the Romani street musical practice in other Serbian cities, as well as enable a comparative analysis and insight into the common, general features of this musical identity.
Committed Travelers, Reluctant Listeners: Playing Music and Displaying Authority on Public Transport in Modern-Day Greece
This study deals with the use (and misuse) of music in modern Greek public transport, particularly in the long-distance buses, commonly known as KTEL (from their acronym). In short, Greek drivers seem to impose their own repertoire, often loudly, through speakers on passengers, who are not able (or willing) to react efficiently. This happens despite official restrictions by the Ministry of Transport on the public use of music both for drivers and passengers. This phenomenon, allied with other incidents of inappropriate treatment of passengers, has been seen by the latter as a display of power or a sign of indifference. It is also connected with other (occasional) violations by some drivers, such as smoking and talking on mobile phone (both prohibited by the law). Furthermore, the use of music is placed in the broader context of musical entertainment in modern-Greek daily life. This is probably the first such study in Greek bibliography, and among the few in international bibliography, where the issue has recently been taken up. Although I was not allowed to take formal interviews, I managed to talk to several passengers (and to a lesser extent to drivers) and keep detailed notes on the spot. Therefore, my study may be said to employ the methods of empirical investigation and participant observation in a loose sense, since I have been a regular passenger for several years.
The City as Multispecies Space: Dog Walking in Downtown Belgrade during the COVID-19 Lockdown
This paper represents an autoethnographic account of dog walking in a residential area of downtown Belgrade during the COVID-19 lockdown of early 2020. It is also an attempt at, or rather, the result, of the largely experimental practice of canine-assisted ethnography, as my dogs Dita and Ripley were instrumental during fieldwork. The lockdown, with its ill-thought-out and constantly changing rules about dog walking underlined three basic issues: 1) in a city with a huge dog owning population, public policy with regard to this issue is virtually non-existent; 2) the city lacks public green spaces, and 3) the movement patterns of dog walkers tend to converge due to the fact that the needs of the canines (both biological and social) are embedded into the architecture and planning of local neighborhoods. In this sense, the city emerges as a multispecies space, and the social patterns and walking routes of its residents who keep dogs are influenced, if not completely determined by the human-animal bond at play. This became especially visible during lockdown at times when dog walkers were the only people allowed outside. Thus, this paper analyzes how interspecies (in this case human-dog) relationships shape the functions of urban space in Belgrade.
Pedestrians and Pedestrian Streets in Belgrade: An Anthropological Take on Space, Mobility, and Hospitality Industry in the City Center
In the past decades, Belgrade experienced a significant transformation of its downtown area also with regards to an increasing number of public spaces turned into pedestrian zones, primarily by closing roads for automotive transport, and establishing new pedestrian zones. This trend of pedestrianization of urban cores in Europe (initiated in the mid-20th century), found its strongest expression in Belgrade in the eighties with the complete transformation of Knez Mihailova street and its paving, and later with the expansion of the pedestrian zone to the adjoining streets. With the beginning of the 21st century, a special rise of a commercialized type of “street life” occurred – an increasing number of outdoor restaurant facilities were established. In the last twenty years, the services sector has become one of the most important in the city’s economy, and the tourism and hospitality industry employs a significant number of people; thus, the urban public space is increasingly adapting to the needs of consumers of such services, residents and guests alike. The visible expansion of restaurant facilities on public pedestrian areas in Belgrade raises questions about priorities in the use of public space. This paper will examine questions of space use, pedestrian mobility, and hospitality industries.