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
Φωτοσκιάσεις στη Βυζαντινή Μουσική. Μικρή εισαγωγή στον κόσμο της ψαλτικής τέχνης [Byzantine Music Shades: A Brief Introduction to “The Art of Chanting” World]
This book is an exciting journey into the world of Byzantine music. It explicitly explores and presents the essence of Byzantine chanting and its twofold character, namely that of strict rules and spirituality but also of creativity and cosmopolitanism. Based on field research and personal experiences (namely years of the author’s travels to parishes and monasteries in Serbia, Greece and elsewhere), the reader comes across useful information which is both grounded and emotional. Its pages shed light on the monophonic chanting of the Eastern Orthodox Church by looking both at its past history and meditating onto its future, with an ultimate goal to capture the inner rhythm that penetrates the oral and written tradition of Byzantine music.
Copyright (c) 2022 Bulletin of the Institute of Ethnography SASA https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
Materijalna kultura iz novog ugla. Danijela Velimirović, Kible, baklave i fistani: tradicionalna materijalna kultura Srba u XIX i početkom XX veka
Živimo u vremenu kada je tradicionalni način života, pa samim tim i materijalno stvaranje koje ga je karakterisalo, gotovo u potpunosti potisnuto ne samo iz svakodnevnog života, nego većim delom i iz obredno-običajne prakse. Iz tih razloga svaki rad koji se bavi problematikom materijalne kulture od izuzetnog je značaja jer doprinosi boljem upoznavanju ne samo prošlosti naroda koji ju je stvarao, već je istovremeno podsećanje na tu istu prošlost. U tom smislu se može posmatrati i monografska studija Kible, baklave i fistani: tradicionalna materijalna kultura Srba u XIX i početkom XX veka.
Prisustvo tradicionalne muzike u Srbiji danas u izmenjenom radnom i prazničnom svakodnevlju
U tematskom zborniku Prisustvo tradicionalne muzike u Srbiji danas u izmenjenom radnom i prazničnom svakodnevlju, šest radova eminentnih naučnih imena iz Srbije, ukazalo je na značaj tradicionalne muzike, na njeno prisustvo danas i transformacije koje je doživela, kao i na načine na koje se danas predstavlja. Početna zamisao urednika publikacije bila je davanje odgovora na pitanje mesta i uloge muzike u savremenom životu Srbije, koji su se mogli jedino i ponuditi sa različitih tački gledišta, iz različitih disciplina, jer muzika ne predstavlja samo zvučni fenomen, već je i vitalno važan deo svake kulture kao sinkretične celine. Ovaj prvi po redu zbornik, jer postoje želje da se rad na ovoj temi nastavi, uredili su dopisni član SANU Jelena Jovanović i prof. dr Dragan Žunić, a objavljen je u izdanju Srpske akademije nauka i umetnosti, tj. Ogranka SANU u Nišu.
The features of the Linguacultural Concept of ̓ Clothing ̓ in the Serbian Speech of Prizren
The concept of ’clothing’ represents one of the key mental, cultural and linguistic constants in the conceptosphere, which makes it a current subject matter of scien tific study, considering that on the one hand, clothing has particular importance in the everyday life of representatives of various society, and on the other, that it has from as far back as we can remember, been a means of conceptualizing the world by reflecting the objective reality and realizing various social functions – the aes thetic, utilitarian, gender, ethnic, ritualistic. The reconstruction of the concept from the linguacultural aspect includes an analysis of the elements of its verbal explica tion and the interpretation on the linguistic image of the world of a particular lin guistic or speech community. Our task is to describe the concept of clothing of the Serbian speech of Prizren using lexical units which contain a cultural component of meaning and reflect the features of traditional culture, view of the world, and the mentality of the Serbian linguistic persona from the end of the 19th and begin ning of the 20th century. Based on the material from the Zbirka reči iz Prizrena by Dimitrije Čemerikić we will present a structure of the concept with the lexical dom inants of obúklo, rúba, tе́še, which include qualificatives that complete the image of the everyday, special occasion, and ritual apparel in the life of Prizren; activities re lated to clothing; individual items of men’s and women’s clothing; ornaments as an important component of the aesthetic experience of the old inhabitants of Prizren. The conceptualization of clothing in the consciousnesses of the Prizren linguistic persona is reflected in the corresponding lexical units, and manifests the cultural and value dominants of an urban peripheral multinational, multicultural, and mul tilingual community in a certain historical period of time, reflecting the impact and permeating effect of elements of the culture of clothing of various ethnic groups.
Slaying the “Political Vampire”: Aberration as a Socio-Political Construct
The concept of vampirism in the tradition of peasant culture is an inversion of social norms by individuals or groups, which the community recognizes as responsible for social problems and crises. “Vampire” as a social institution has a role in resolving the crisis, but also manifests power of the collective and the desirable model of worldview. However, the experience of field research imposes a perspective that does not perceive the “vampire” as a rigid institution, but also an adaptable tool of social or political communication. By analyzing two cases (performances) of “murder of a political vampire” (Josip Broz Tito and Slobodan Milosevic), as a performance of political communication, I try to point out the crucial importance of understanding the context, position and motivation of actors in dialogue. The focus of the analysis is on “vampires”, the signifier of the aberrant, who uses vampire symbolism as a means of spreading political information but also achieving political goals.
Rethinking Participation through Dance: a Historical-theoretical Intersection
The paper deals with the idea of participation or community in dance. The idea of community has become key in contemporary discussions about the globalization of contemporary societies, and dance has a large share in the reflections of these global processes. Dance also has a very long tradition of community thinking. From this long and rich tradition, this paper will point out the ways in which the idea of community is reflected in social and artistic dances, pointing out both concrete dance forms and theoretical concepts, ideas and practices. Of the dance forms, the paper will discuss the tango pair dance, the flash mob dancegathering form as well as the contact improvisation developed within postmodern dance. Of the theoretical and philosophical settings that underpin discussions of community in dance studies, the paper will discuss the concept of kinesthesia or “kinesthetic empathy”, “mirror neurons” in neuroscience as well as philosophical reflections on affect.
From Alienation to Irony: Critical Film Studies and Kynical Subversion in Serbian Film
In this paper, we will discuss two issues. First, the relation between political theory and film studies is discussed as the basis for the emergence of critical film studies and its contemporary transformation. Second, we consider the kynical subversion and ironic appropriation as a set of frameworks for understanding the social reality and politics in the Yugoslav Black Wave cinema as well as in the movies of the contemporary Serbian cinematography. New forms of popular appropriations of cinematographic heritage show the ways through which both the very movies and critical film studies have disassociated themselves from Althusserian social critique and embraced contemporary ideas of kynical appropriation and irony as forms of social critique.
Dynamics and Transformations in Small Disciplinary Communities: Some Remarks on Institutional and Paradigm Shifts in Ethnology/Anthropology in Post-Yugoslav States
The paper presents an overview of some major paradigmatic and thematic currents developing in ethnology (or ethnologies) in what used to be Yugoslavia and after the breakup of this country; these processes are discussed also by monitoring the evolution of institutions and through dynamics in numerously small disciplinary communities of ethnologists/anthropologists. After almost a hundred years of relatively slow paradigmatic, yet intensive institutional development, ethnological communities in this part of Europe accelerated their uplift in the last quarter of the 20th century with their theoretical modernization (sometimes also coined ‘anthropologization’), which is in the most recent times followed by acceleration in overall scholarly production (bordering on proliferation), of research topics and outputs (which can also be dubbed as ‘projectification’), much in line with trends enveloping in the global scientific markets. The paper calls upon a renewed collaboration between academic and museological anthropology as a potential impetus for increasing the discipline’s local relevance and for the creation of new research areas.
Upper Primary School Children’s Cosmogonic Ideas: Childhood and Space
This paper collates research on the ideas about the origin of the universe and the planet Earth that pupils from Years 5 to 8 of primary school in Belgrade have. Such knowledge should open space for us to further analyse the attitude of young people towards science and the world it describes. With them, it is possible to gain a better insight into the basic ideas about reality that people build and adopt in general. The starting hypothesis is that pupils themselves create hybrid concepts that combine knowledge from classes, ideas from popular culture, and modern scientific theories that are available to them through various media. The cosmological knowledge offered to pupils in geography classes will be analysed, along with the popular discourse accessible to young people. Finally, a preliminary ethnographic study of pupils’ cosmogonic ideas conducted on a pilot sample will be presented. The aim of the research is to understand the pupils’ fundamental knowledge about reality, about the formation of a cognitive framework in which pupils inscribe their own ideas about the place of the Earth and life in space.
Children’s Perception of the Visual Identity of Belgrade
The focus of this paper is a research field that has (until now) remained outside the main academic theoretical frameworks – the question of the visual identity of Belgrade seen (and experienced) from the perspective of children. In methodological terms, the paper relies on the results of field research conducted in March 2021 at the Kneginja Milica (Princess Milica) Primary School in New Belgrade, which included a sample of 60 children from Years 1 to 4. The aim of the paper is to discuss from an anthropological perspective some of the key issues of perceiving the appearance of the capital as a visual entity per se: 1) Which visual markers of Belgrade, in the opinion of children, are key to its visual identity and what are the central points on the symbolic map of the capital?; 2) What is the main symbol of Belgrade and what criteria guide the participating children when selecting this central visual marker?; 3) (To what extent) are individual children’s perceptions of the panorama of the capital compatible with each other and what are the characteristics of the general children’s image of the capital?; 4) (In what way) Is the children’s image of the city in harmony with the ‘official’ image of Belgrade? and 5) Is the child’s perception of the visual identity of the capital the result of direct or in direct urban experience?
The “Banner of Peace” Assembly as a National Brand of Bulgaria during Socialism
On December 21st 1976, the UN General Assembly proclaimed 1979 as the Inter national Year of the Child on the occasion of the 20th Anniversary of the adoption of the UN Declaration of the Rights of the Child. In June 1978, Lyudmila Zhivkova, Chair of the Committee for Art and Culture, proposed to organize an exhibition of talented children in Bulgaria to mark the occasion. This was how the idea for the “Banner of Peace” Assembly came about, which evolved into an international festival of children’s art, held under the auspices of UNESCO. In the period of late socialism the “Banner of Peace” movement became a national cultural brand of supranational significance. The communist regime in Bulgaria “advertised” itself and utilized the resources of the “soft power” in an attempt to mitigate the ide ological opposition during the Cold War. Unlike “hard power”, which uses mili tary and economic means of coercion, “soft power” works through images and symbols – carriers of positive suggestions: art, creativity, beauty, spiritual devel opment, childhood, peace and cooperation. In this paper the “Banner of Peace” Assembly is juxtaposed to another intercultural project with a political and ide ological orientation – “Plovdiv – European Capital of Culture 2019”.
The Pioneer Organization and the School in Bulgaria: an Attempt to Discipline the Individual
The article presents and analyzes the approaches, used by the Dimitrov’s pioneer organization (DPO) ‘Septemvrijče’ in Bulgaria to obsess and control the students and teachers’ school life (and in some aspects even their personal life), in order to prepare and discipline the future loyal citizens of the socialist society. The emphasis here is on Foucault’s concept of the ‘exam’ (in the broadest sense of the term) as a form of disciplinary control that should make the individuals visible and readable for the Authority. At the same time, I refer to Dejan Dejanov’s critical thesis about the double public gaze which allows the Authority to control both the examinees and the examiners. My research is based on a study of official documents of DPO ‘Septemvrijče’, school documents, biographical interviews and my own memories.
Youth Labor in Socialist Bulgaria – from Ideology to Labor Practices
The research is aimed at an important part of the state policy in socialist Bulgaria – the forced engagement of young people, future intellectuals as an unpaid or lowpaid labor force in various sectors of economy. Through this compulsory employment of high school and university students in summer free months the ruling elites aim to discipline the young intelligentsia and to educate them in work habits. The main form of forced labor is the participation in youth brigades, but other alternative forms of youth labor are gradually being adopted and imposed. The text presents an ethnological study of youth seasonal labor in the sector of international tourism in the 1970s and 1980s, looking at the perspective of young intellectuals working during their summer vacations in the Youth Travel Bureau “Orbita” as part time tour guides of foreign groups. This form of temporary employment of young people is accepted as an alternative to the participation in youth brigades and is related to intellectual work. The aim is to analyze the main features of the labor culture of part time guides working at the International Youth Center “Georgi Dimitrov” near Primorsko. The officially imposed principles and norms for the work of the young collaborators are presented and their application in the working life of the guides is studied. The subjects of research are the attitudes for working with tourists, the relations in the work environment, the labor practices, the difficulties in everyday working life and the ways of overcoming them, the informal aspects of the activities. The study is based on biographical interviews with former guides between the ages of 50 and 65, conducted in 2019 and 2020. As a participant for six summer seasons in this type of work, the author also relies on the method of the reflexive anthropology. The results of the study show how the discrepancy between the expectations and intentions of the ideologues of the provided tourist services, on the one hand, and the behavior and labor practices of young people actually occurs. The examples are indicative of the changes “from below”, through everyday strategies of young people, of the initially conceived system of the international youth tourism in socialist Bulgaria.
Inter national Youth Center “Georgi Dimitrov”
The Past of the Socialist Childhood through the Lens of the Bulgarian Literature
The Childhood during the Statesocialist Bulgaria is thematized in a plethora of novels and autofictional literature, published in the last three decades. Many of these works pose the question “Is the past of my own childhood a ‘foreign country’ for me”? This is a question very close to the anthropological one: “Could we know and understand our own (childhood’s) past as insiders?” In this paper I will take a close look at the presentations of the Socialist Childhood in some popular Bul garian novels, written after the Fall of Communism by authors belonging to dif ferent generations. I will discuss them from an anthropological perspective. How this past is presented, reflected, and as such – becomes an important part of the cultural memory about the Bulgarian State Socialism, is the main research ques tion of this paper.
Odrastanje iz antropološke perspektive – primeri iz Sofije i Beograda: uvod u temat
Juna 2000. godine je deset saradnika Etnografskog instituta SANU krenulo put Sofije na Prvu bugarsko–srpsku naučnu konferenciju. Naučna konferencija „Životni ciklus“ je bila prva po redu u okviru trogodišnjeg projekta „Paralelno istraživanje životnog ciklusa u Srbiji i Bugarskoj“, koji je realizovan u tom periodu između Etnografskog instituta sa muzejom pri Bugarskoj akademiji nauka (BAN) i Etnografskog instituta SANU. Potom su usledile druga i treća bugarsko–srpska / srpsko–bugarska konferencija, a zatim još nekoliko naučnih konferencija koje su realizovane između dveju naučnih institucija. Pomenuti projekat, kao i ostali koji su sledili, ostvareni su u okviru međuakademijske saradnje između Bugarske akademije nauka i Srpske akademije nauka i umetnosti. Zajedničke publikacije, poput zbornika radova i temata objavljenih u Glasniku Etnografskog instituta SANU, predstavljaju jedan od značajnih rezultata koji proizilaze iz saradnje koja se uspešno nastavlja i u sadašnjosti.
Researching Migration and Religious Diversity – летња школа за докторанде и младе истраживаче у Каунусу (Литванија)
Ján Botík, Slovenská dolná zem. Historický a etnokultúrny vývin slovenských minorít v Maďarsku, Rumunsku, Srbsku a Bulharsku
Ljiljana Bubnjević and Dragana Radojičić, A Mosaic of Archival Closeness. Anthropology of Memories from the Pannonian to the Adriatic Sea
Dragana Radojičić and Ivana Bašić, Maps and Memories
Марта Стојић Митровић, Европски гранични режим и екстернализација контроле граница ЕУ: Србија на Балканској миграцијској рути
She Wears a Nylon Underskirt and Raffia Opanci Shoes: Women’s Costume Narratives in the Caricatures of “Jež” Newspaper
Женски лик у карикатури листа „Јеж“ доживео је током прошлог века трансформацију приказа: док је тридесетих година лик сељанке био сведен на једноставну графичку форму, грубу и без детаља, од средине века се, путем карикатуре, пре свега у цртежу ауторке Десе Глишић, појављује атрактивна сељанка у краткој сукњи, уског струка и бујног попрсја. Она је, ипак, по традиционалном обрасцу, обучена у народну ношњу. Шире гледано, Десини женски ликови парафразирали су помаму за новитетима из београдских комисиона. Оваква визуализација жене кроз синергију традиције и модерности, тачније одевања и моде, показала се као згодна платформа за тумачење потенцијалне објектификације жена (Fredrickson & Roberts). Уједно, утврдићемо да ли је поменути приказ жене пореклом са села угрозио дотадашњи доминантни патријархални образац визуализовања жена, чија је функција симбола традиционалних вредности, кроз улогу мајке и домаћице, доживела трансформацију.
Tamburitza Practice as an Intangible Cultural Heritage
In the paper, through the example of the tamburitza orchestra tradition in Serbia, the elements that place musical practice in the concept of intangible cultural heritage are defined. The results of the research conducted during the application process of the tamburitza practice in the National Register of Intangible Cultural Heritage of the Republic of Serbia are presented. The research provided answers to the questions of which communities consider the tamburitza practice as their intangible cultural heritage and part of their identity. The paper contains an analysis of collected field and archival data and a theoretical approach to the element on the basis of which the other factors and characteristics that make it an intangible cultural heritage were determined. The final part of the paper contains a brief overview of the concept of planning and implementation of measures to protect the element of intangible cultural heritage in the example of the tamburitza playing.
Death or (just) Dying? Philosophical – Anthropological Conversations about the Interpretations of the Experience of Death
In the article, we deal with death as a universal problem of human existence, which nevertheless experiences certain transformations over time, since it depends partly on the specific historical and social context. We talked about death with people who no longer practice traditional posthumous customs and whose religious belief does not affect attitudes towards death, i.e. with people who have a “mundane”, skeptical attitude towards death. The co-author talked with her informants from Croatia about the meaning and impact of the deaths of those close to them on themselves, but also the presence of death in their daily lives. In the article, we describe the notions, roles, and meaning that death has in their lives. Our anthropological orientation updated with this research is close to the thinking of Tim Ingold, who, wondering about the purpose of anthropological research, defined anthropology as philosophizing in the world and with people.
Stunting, Maternal Investment, and Early Child Development in Serbian Roma Children Aged 36–59 Months
Stunting has shown negative associations with poor child developmental indicators. However, in poor ethnic minority populations the evidence for associations of anthropometric growth indicators and child development is limited. This study examined associations between stunting, height for age z scores (HAZ) and other determinants, with Early Child Development (ECD) among children in poor Roma communities. Publicly available data from Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys for Serbian Roma settlements were used to assess a cohort of 1075 Roma children aged 36–59 months. Indicators of child growth and nutrition included children’s HAZ scores and stunting. ECD assessed physical, learning/cognition, literacy/numeracy and socio-emotional developmental domains. Multiple regressions were used to assess the association between HAZ and stunting with ECD, controlling for maternal and child confounders. Sum score for ECD in Roma children was low, and 18% of children were stunted. After adjusting for potential confounders, HAZ and stunting revealed no significant associations with developmental outcomes. Instead, increasing maternal investment was positively associated with overall ECD score and higher scores in each of the individual developmental domains, except socio-emotional. In a low-resource setting, maternal investment appeared a good predictor of child development: it may buffer against the effects of poverty and stimulate child development.
Vaccine Hesitancy in Western and Eastern Europe: The Significance of Contextual Influences
Using the example of Eastern and Western Europe, the paper points out the importance of contextual influences on decisions and behaviour regarding vaccines and vaccination. Contextual determinants have been identified as important in theorizing the concept of vaccine hesitancy that allows for a comprehensive understanding of the reasons why the public questions vaccines. Therefore, the paper first presents the theoretical elaboration of the aforementioned concept, and then discusses the contextual influences on vaccine hesitancy within the European region in order to showcase the differences that exist in this respect between Western and Eastern Europe, as well as between certain minority communities and the majority population in some Western European countries. In all cases, vaccine hesitancy appears to be a matter of trust which has been further eroded by social, political and economic experiences characteristic for the post-socialist context in Eastern Europe and the conditions in which some minority communities live in Western Europe. The theoretical framework of the concept of vaccine hesitancy is presented according to the report of the SAGE Working Group on Vaccine Hesitancy, while the presentation of contextual determinants is based on the results of quantitative and qualitative research in different European countries and reviews of studies that focus on these influences.
socio-cultural and political determinants
Women in the Legal Professions: from the Eradication of Direct Discrimination to the Prevalence of “Epistfemicide” and the Glass Ceiling
The article analyses the situation of women in the legal professions in Argentina, with special reference to the Argentine judicial system. It enquires into the context of the main socio-legal transformations that allowed Argentine women, initially, to access higher education, professional practice and political citizenship and, later, to access the rights that provide the framework to have a life free of gender-based discrimination, including the cluster of LGBTI+ rights. It describes the incorporation of gender mainstreaming into the legal and institutional universe of legal professions in recent decades. Lastly, it reflects on two dimensions of gender-based discrimination that still prevail: that of epistfemicide and that of the glass ceiling, and provides some keys to design strategies for its eradication.
The Long Road to Equality: University and Gender in Argentina
In the first decades of the 20th century in Argentina, especially in 1918, there was a university reform promoted by the student movement and that promoted the democratization of the universities. However, the massive incorporation of women into the country’s national universities is going to arrive almost around the end of the century. Thus, in the first decades of the 21st century, several reforms were produced in most of the Argentine universities, which were promoted by the feminist movement, the women professors and researchers, the students and the administrative workers. The main reforms were the enactment of protocols in cases of violence and / or discrimination based on gender, the creation of gender areas in the administrative and organizational structures of the universities, and the inclusion of parity for the selection of authorities. In this chapter, the latest feminist transformations and reforms in Argentine national universities will be analyzed based on three key areas: (i) violence and discrimination based on gender, (ii) processes of institutionalization of gender areas, and (iii) inclusion of parity for the selection of authorities. Likewise, there will be a brief description of the main inequalities at the university level such as horizontal and vertical segmentation.
The Role of Women in Higher Education: The Connection Between the Opera Artist and the Vocal Pedagogue in the Period of Yugoslav Socialism
The subject of this paper relates to the research on the role of women in higher education in the context of Yugoslav socialism (1945–1990) with a focus on creating an opera artist through education and professional experience to vocal pedagogue at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade. In this sense, the paper will cover the period in which future primadonnas trained their voices (1950s), built their domestic and foreign opera careers (from the 1960s to the 1990s) and then their pedagogical work (from 1990s). For the purposes of the research, it was necessary to collect and systematize material that includes biographies and testimonies of primadonnas, from which conclusions were drawn about vocal music practice, ie. solo singing at the Faculty of Music, and about the opportunities that education provides to young students for affirmation in this vocation. The aim of the paper is to place the life stories of the primadonna of the Belgrade Opera in the context of the Yugoslav socialist society, with the intention of shedding light on educational, career and pedagogical development, as well as the conditions that contributed to their artistic and later pedagogical vocation.
Opera of the National Theater in Belgrade
The First Women Ethnologists in the Education
The first ethnologists in Serbia appeared in the last decade of the 19th century. The Department of Ethnology at the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade was founded in 1906. The first woman with a degree in ethnology in the period before the Second World War was Milena Lapcevic. After the Second World War, enrolment of women in ethnology department at the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade increased. In the 1950s, women graduate ethnologists get the opportunity to work as lecturers. Until the 1970s professors at the Department of Ethnology were mostly men. However, since then, women have taken over the primacy at the department. Hence, the inclusion of women in teaching expands research topics. This paper gives an overview from the beginnings of the work of women ethnologists in education as well as their research areas.
Incorporation of Arebica in Sandžak and its Significance in the Process of Muslim Womens’ Education
Arebica is mentioned in the literature in the context of Aljamiado literature, considering that Aljamiado literature was written in this script (a form of Aebica adapted to the phonetic spelling of the Serbian and Bosnian languages, used mainly by Muslims). Aljamiado literature, as well as religious and other literature, were printed in Arebica. Thus, in some schools in Sandžak, even in the last decade of the 20th century, Arebica was still used. In this paper, it will be demonstrated how the Arebica was created, how it was used in Sandžak and the role it played in the literacy of Muslim women in the 20th century, considering their departure from ‘secular’ schools. The aim of this study is to survey the use of the Arebica among the Muslim population in Serbia from the perspective of the education in the 20th century with a special emphasis on the women, but also to recall the circumstances that contributed to the existence of a special culture of language and writing which will remain in our region until the end of the 20th century. In addition to the scientific literature, the paper will also present transcripts based on conversations with interlocutors in the field (Tutin, Novi Pazar and Pešter Municipality).