Serbian Anthropology Research Articles

"A Raindrop in the Ocean for a Kafana in the Balkans": The Balkan "Barbarogenius" in the Narratives of the Turbotronic Scene

This paper is part of ongoing research conducted by the authors which aims to map the turbotronic scene and provide an answer to the question of what music can reveal about the broader dynamic of sociocultural life in contemporary Serbia. The paper follows the paths of the anthropology of music, already well established in Serbian anthropology. It focuses on the seemingly banal, everyday discursive practices of ordinary people, situates them in a wider framework of symbolic geographies, and suggests that turbotronic narratives belong to the discourse of the Balkan "barbarogenius". The paper shows, to use Hertzfeld's terminology, "how and under what pressure people resort to stereotypes, and even represent them directly – act them out, as it were". It answers the question of where the creators of turbotronic find binary oppositions consisting of essentialist constructs, how they instrumentalize them strategically, and how they use them in negotiating power. Our analysis shows that the following value signs assigned to the key pairs of oppositions in the discourse of the "Second Serbia" – (+) Western/European : (–) Balkan, (+) civilized : (–) primitive – have switched places within turbotronic discourse, and that the following pairs of oppositions have been added – (+) emotions : (–) reason, and (+) authentic : (–) fake. We propose that the change be interpreted as a potential reflection in the literature of the wider changes in the reception of the Ottoman heritage in Serbian culture but also in the wider region of the Balkans. An analysis of ethnographic material will show why the authors of turbotronic take the side of "the people" and "ordinary folk", why they insist on the "banished Balkan heritage", and will shed light on the function and symbolic significance that the kafana (a type of Balkan pub) assumes in their narratives. Finally, we suggest directions for future research of this analytically fruitful phenomenon.

Of men and beasts: an anthropological analysis of the movie "Men and Chicken"

Following the path established in Serbian anthropology by the subdiscipline of the anthropology of film, as well as the anthropological "section" for the study of science fiction, the analytical focus of this paper is the film Men and Chicken. Contrary to critics who saw in this film "an unreadable, morbid and cynical postmodern horror", the basic thesis of this paper is that the film helps us not only to question public ideas about science, but also to shed light on the hopes, fears and conceptual dilemmas caused by the advance of biotechnologies. It helps us to, using a product of popular culture close to the experience of the general public, analyze the way in which the imaginarium of the film deals with the "paradox at the heart" of western thought - the simultaneous claim that humans are animals and that animality is the polar opposite of what we hold to be human. The paradox in question need not be an intellectual chew toy for a bored mind, nor an opportunity for demonstrating the wondrous power of an analytical process of Levi-Straussian calibre, rather a very relevant question in current institutional and public discussions on creating hybrid embryos/species at the heart of which are attempts to establish the biological, moral and cultural status of humans, non-humans and hybrids.

The anthropology of film in Serbia

The term ‘film’ refers to feature length commercial movies both of foreign and domestic production. The phenomenon of film is approached as a form of popular culture which means that the emphasis is on its cultural-communicative traits. The paper aims to make visible the dynamic field of anthropology of film present in Serbian academia, as well as introduce readers to this subdiscipline and point them towards the relevant literature – both foreign and domestic – in the field. The paper has been envisioned as an introduction to the edited volume Anthropology of film – the first book in the new series of editions titled New Serbian anthropology. Six anthropological and two sociological papers which together make up the edited volume are presented here. The aim is to highlight the thematic breadth and wealth of research in this area of anthropology.

Anthropological reading of science fiction

The paper gives an overview of the prevalence of the analysis of science fiction literature and science fiction in other segments of popular culture in Serbian anthropology. This overview is preceded by a consideration of science fiction as a genre while keeping in mind the fluidity of the genre and the interweaving of subgenres as well as the transformations which science fiction is undergoing in certain media (books, films, TV shows and video games). In Serbian anthropology research on science fiction is more prevalent than the study of other phenomena, as the number of anthropologists whose work is represented in the paper is fairly large compared to the size of the anthropological community as a whole. The causes for this can primarily be found in a collective focus on questions such as: who are we and who the others are, what the basis of creating and building identity is or what the role of context in recognition of species is. Anthropology gives answers to these questions through the interpretation, explanation and understanding of the world around us, while science fiction does it through the literary considerations of these same questions.

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

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.

“Love at first sight”: TV shows. And introduction into anthropological analysis

Television shows are a noted and important form of popular culture. They are subject to anthropological research as much as any other form of pop culture and this has been done in the new Serbian anthropology which had included them in its inventory of researchable phenomena. By researching television shows, an anthropologist researches contemporary society and the meanings and values contained in the shows, as well as through the reception of these contents. The anthropological study of TV shows in Serbia resulted in a number of papers which are mostly about shows produced in Serbia and only in one case abroad (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), studied from the aspect of reception. As it would be expected, most of the attention of anthropologists had been garnered by TV shoes with high ratings, such as Srećni ljudi, Porodično blago, Kursadžije, Mile protiv tranzicije and Moj rođak sa sela.

Dušan Bandić – context, opus, significance

The scientific opus of Dušan Bandić is viewed through the context and time frame in which he started researching folk religion in order to, through the analysis of his most important texts, arrive at the conclusion about the importance of his opus for the modernization of Serbian anthropology. This is just one segment, although the most important one, of the evaluation of the significance of an opus for the history of Serbian anthropology. Other aspects of action, which refer to institutional positioning and activity as well as one’s social and political life and ultimately the consequences such actions had are significant for the history of science, but are not encompassed by this paper. The paper deals with the description of the context and state of research into folk religion at the beginning of Bandić’s career and the general knowledge about global anthropological trends in Serbian ethnology at the time. Afterwards the focus is shifted to the contents of his work through viewing the larger ideas and methodological systems present in Bandić’s work – evolutionism, functionalism and structuralism, in order to, ultimately, come to a conclusion about the development of methods which Bandić applied, as well as the place which his opus occupied in a crucial time for Serbian ethnology.

Niko Županić and the Construction of the Balkan Ethnogenesis

The paper considers the role of Niko Županić in the processes of translation of the anthropological and archaeological knowledges into the language of the political activism during the First World War and immediately after. As recorded by Sima Trojanović, Županić was employed at the Ethnographic Museum in Belgrade in May 1914, as “anthropological clerk” with the duty to “first of all measure the Serbian people, and only after that the foreigners on the Balkan Peninsula”. He was officially stationed here up to 1922, although he spent the war years out of the country, involved in political activism, along with other Serbian and Yugoslav intellectuals, with the aim of creating the state of the Yugoslavs.
 At the outbreak of the First World War, Županić spent the first three months as a volunteer in Niš, and was then sent to Rome and London, where he took part in the activities of the Yugoslav Board. During 1916 the Serbian Government sent him to the United States, to secure the support of the American Slovenes for the Yugoslav idea. From 1915 till the end of the war, he wrote studies on the South Slavic past and political announcements, drew the borders of the desired territories, held speeches on the unity of the Serbs, Slovenes, and Croats. His book “Ethnogenesis of the Yugoslavs” (1920), written during the war and at first aimed at the English-speaking audience, richly illustrates the ways in which all these activities intertwined. Here Županić stresses the “creative potency of the blood and racial source” of brachycefaly of the Illyrian natives observed in the case of the Yugoslavs. The critical analysis and contextualization of this volume makes possible the new insights into the concepts of identity in the history of the Serbian anthropology and archaeology. This study did not receive much attention in the archaeological circles, but its ideas have subsequently, selectively and indirectly become the part of the history of the Serbian archaeology.