Can we think of the artifact as an integral part of an anthropology of life as it has developed in the wake of the anthropology of nature founded by Philippe Descola? Judaism clearly fits within this perspective since a vast body of normative texts, notably the Babylonian Talmud, defines and discusses the jewishness of artifacts - whether ritual or everyday - by endeavoring to determine their correct position on a graduated scale ranging from nature to artifice, understood here as emic categories. This article aims to support this reflection by studying two ritual objects related to the festival of Sukkot: the skhakh, the roof of the sukka hut, and the lulav, the bouquet of the four species. As we shall see, the making of the ritual object according to specific rules shows us its place in the encounter with the supernatural, the goal towards which any ritual device aspires. After a theoretical analysis of the Talmudic prescriptions, we will look at some of the practical ways in which the Sukkot hut can be documented photographically in the Balkans, in the broadest sense of the term. We will present examples from Greece, Romania and Bulgaria.

The paper aims to present the promulgation process of the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Landesstatut) in the context of the Austro-Hungarian colonial administration of this territory. The passing of the promised constitution, locally known as Zemaljski statut, was an important political issue in the Dual Monarchy and attracted significant attention among contemporaries. The complex internal dynamics of Austria- Hungary and the peculiar legal status of Bosnia and Herzegovina make the process of enacting the supreme legal act of the newly annexed territory an intriguing case study within a colonial regime.

The author unravels the history (from June to September 1957) of the origin, formalization and promotion of the initiative of the Romanian government (?the Chivu Stoica Plan?) to organize multilateral cooperation in the Balkan region. An analysis of the course of events is presented as a result of a study of recently declassified documents from Russian archives (RGANI, AVP RF). The consulting of them allowed the author to supplement significantly previous knowledge of the course of events and their various actors, identify in detail the degree of participation of the Soviet Union in them, clarify and expand the agenda of issues discussed during interactions between Bucharest and Moscow, and clarify the dates and planned options for the development of this initiative. This article supplements and corrects pre-existing opinions of world historiography about the allegedly sharply negative attitude of the Kremlin to this proposal of the Romanian leadership, as well as the perception of this initiative by historians as not only aiming to establish multilateral regional cooperation but also as a result of the Soviet bloc?s desire to establish a nuclear-free zone in the Balkans already in 1957.

This paper will analyze the status that various religious communities enjoyed in the Independent State of Croatia (Nezavisna Drzava Hrvatska; hereafter NDH), focusing on the legal status and relations, both practical and financial, these communities enjoyed with the Ustasha movement and state authorities. The religious question was a key political problem in the NDH: the treatment of different religious communities serves as a paradigm of the character of the NDH as a state. Numerous studies have been written on the participation of Catholic clergy in the atrocities of the Ustasha movement and the NDH with the earliest being published immediately after the end of the war in 1945. The persecution of the Serbian Orthodox Church has been well documented in a number of important studies. Instead, this article will focus on legal and administrative issues and financial exchange between various religious communities and the NDH authorities as well as the state?s program of mass religious conversion since these illustrate the authentic intentions of the Ustasha regime and the Roman Catholic Church in Croatia, as the dominant social and political forces in the state, regarding state religious policy. The article is largely based on primary archival sources drawn from the Croatian and Serbian state archives.

The modern Bulgarian state was founded as a result of the Russian intervention on the Balkan Peninsula in 1877-1878. Until June 1879, the tsarist army occupied the newly created state, which was divided into the Principality of Bulgaria and Eastern Rumelia pursuant to the decision of the Congress of Berlin. During this period, the Russians made all the most important decisions in the eastern Balkans, including those concerning migrations. As a result of the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878, about 100,000 Christian Slavs left their homes fleeing the hostilities. After the cease-fire, at the beginning of 1878, most of the refugees came back home; however, the Christians from Macedonia and Thrace, the lands which remained under the Ottoman Empire?s control in accordance with the Treaty of Berlin of July 1878, also started to migrate to Bulgaria. This was a result of unsuccessful uprisings as well as the will to live in a country ruled by the men of the same religion and ethnicity.

This paper examines the policies used by the Yugoslav central government in the Yugoslav nation-building project of the 1930s and draws comparisons with the similar experience of Czechoslovakia. It explores the centralist approaches of both governments, highlighting the rise of Croat and Slovak nationalism during the decade in question by analysing the internal political dynamics of both countries. These two communities were crucial because, unlike numerous national minorities in Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia, they were considered part of the ?state-nation.? Their integration was essential for the success of the nation-building projects in both countries. External pressure, especially the rise of Nazi Germany, became a crucial factor in the second half of the 1930s and deeply affected the decision-making process in both Belgrade and Prague.

Analyzing published and unpublished sources, the paper aims to determine to what extent the crisis in the Balkan Peninsula influenced the dynamics and stages of the negotiations in Lausanne between the Italian and Turkish delegations to end the Italo-Turkish War. The analysis spans from mid-July to the signing of the First Treaty of Lausanne (Treaty of Ouchy) and the entry of Serbia, Bulgaria, and Greece in the war against Turkey on 18 October 1912. Italy tried to end its conflict with Turkey and prevent the Balkan countries in their aspiration to disrupt the status quo in the Balkan Peninsula. Italian diplomacy used the friction between the Balkan countries and Turkey to conclude as favorable a treaty as possible, directly pressuring the Turkish delegation at Ouchy and using the great powers? pressure on Turkey. The practical results of signing the Treaty of Lausanne were the establishment of direct Italian rule in Libya and retaining temporary control of the Aegean islands.

After the 1954 Memorandum of Understanding of London, Italy and Yugoslavia settled their border dispute by partitioning what was formerly the Free Territory of Trieste. Furthermore, they also agreed to extend to each other?s national minorities living in the two zones of the former Free Territory the protection measures established by the Special Statute, an annex to the Memorandum. Neither of the two countries fully complied with the Special Statute but wanted it to be implemented in the Zone administered by the other side. Italy wanted to negotiate all further implementations and new concessions on the basis of reciprocity, the main rationale for the protection measures stipulated in the Special Statute. In contrast, Yugoslavia wanted Italy to agree to the unilateral implementation of the Special Statute in Trieste and to other concessions. This led to a stalemate in the negotiations and consequently to the poor enforcement of the Special Statute, which caused rising tensions on the local level, even though, in the meantime, the overall diplomatic relations between the two countries continued to improve. Yugoslavia?s increasing requests for unilateral implementation of the Special Statute and the Yugoslav-funded Slovene organisations in Italy resulted in a series of major anti-Yugoslav and anti-Slovene demonstrations in Trieste. After these riots and the ensuing debate on the minority issue, the need to rely on reciprocity also became evident to the Yugoslav diplomacy. Yugoslavia, therefore, dropped its old policy and started to improve the treatment of its Italian minority and agreed to negotiate based on the principle of reciprocity. This led to quick benefits for both minorities, and a new path that led Italy and Yugoslavia to sign new agreements on their mutual minorities, going even beyond the Special Statute.

Between 1906 and 1908, the Kingdom of Serbia undertook a comprehensive diplomatic effort aimed at establishing a rail connection between the Danube and the Adriatic Sea. The article first provides a brief overview of the project?s rationale. Following that, it delves into the positions of individual countries regarding the proposed initiative, covering those who offered financial and political support, as well as those who actively sought to thwart the project. Ultimately, the article points to a particular Balkan infrastructural predicament. The Adriatic Railroad project, despite obvious economic benefits, had international support above all because it had the potential to influence the balance of power in the region. This potential was, at the same time, the reason why the project had powerful opponents and why it eventually failed.

According to the Serbian Constitution, aligned laws, and international conventions, the Romani language, along with other minority languages in Serbia, is guaranteed minority linguistic rights. However, Romani continues to be stigmatized and marginalized, resulting in its infrequent public usage and a decreasing intergenerational transmission of the language. The objective of this study is to emphasize the significance of Romani in the public sphere of Serbia. By examining the use of this language in public spaces, it is possible to ascertain its status, usage, and simultaneously identify its vitality or vulnerability. Based on a search by domain of the use of the Romani language, the paper comments on the use of the Romani language at the top-down level - the level of usage guaranteed by institutions and public and local policies, the advantages and disadvantages of its use, and the violation of language rights. In addition, the analysis also includes the bottom-up level of the usage of Romani, which is based on field research and the documentation of the use of the written Romani on sacred monuments and tombstones, initiated by individuals and/or locally organised groups, which indicate its symbolic function within the public space.