New rituals and new Serbian anthropology – The process of mutual constituting

Abstract

The intensive shift toward studying new rituals in the mid-80 is one of the key points of modernization and anthropologization of Serbian ethnology. The key initiator of this shift was the Ethnological society of Serbia, the scene of events were the yearly councils of the Ethnological society, and Papers in Ethnology, the society’s journal, published the first papers about new rituals. In the ambience of ethnology back then, wherein the foremost interests were concerned with recording memories of rural life in the 19th century, the innovative character of researching the send-off of retiring workers, entrance of children into the pioneer organization, send off of men to obligatory military service, the behavior in coffee shops or at the promenade, was more than obvious. From today’s perspective, thirty years later, the significance of these events for the constituting of the new Serbian anthropology is reviewed.