Terminology of the Border Studies as an Interdisciplinary Problem of the Ethnological Discourse

Abstract

The article is about the relevance of border studies in modern European ethnological discourse focused on the symbolic, cultural, geographic, sociological, political, anthropological and other aspects of the investigation. Correlation of the global and the local, or macro- and micro levels in border studies seems to be one of the fundamental theoretical proposition, especially when the question is on the ethnically mosaic Balkan region. The many-sided scientific study causes considerably the breadth of the terminology, connected with the necessity to discern the terms boundary, border, frontier, understanding that each of them can give the adequate model constructing different border zone peculiarities. Anthropological discourse is based on the concept of the boundary as a real territory and at the same time as a symbolically existing space marked with the certain cultural and mythological senses. The processes of the European integration are held simultaneously with the new borders establishment – both real and symbolic, that is especially typical for the Balkan region which ethnocultural space appears as a row of the variants. The article is aimed at the description of the necessity to take into account the interaction and correlation of various historical periods, traditions and cultures during the analysis of a certain ethno-cultural dialect. The relevance of such discourse is determined by the historical heritage of the region revealed as the continuation of tradition or is followed as its reflection.