Serbian Ethnology Research Articles

Honour and Shame: A sketch of an alternative history of Serbian ethnology

This text draws a pa­ral­lel bet­we­en a "gu­ilt com­plex" in post­co­lo­nial and post­mo­dern anthro­po­logy, and cer­tain si­mi­lar ten­den­ci­es in analyses of the hi­story of Ser­bian eth­no­logy. Sin­ce et­hno­logy and anthro­po­logy in Ser­bia ha­ve de­ve­lo­ped in dif­fe­rent cir­cum­stan­ces and ha­ve exer­ted a de­ci­dedly les­ser in­flu­en­ce on ge­ne­ral po­licy than Ame­ri­can or Bri­tish anthro­po­logy, I cla­im the­re is no ob­jec­ti­ve re­a­son for Ser­bian eth­no­lo­gists to con­ti­nue uti­li­zing the ele­ment of "gu­ilt" in the­ir texts. Fi­nally, I con­si­der whet­her re­le­a­se from this nar­ra­ti­ve co­uld br­in­g po­si­ti­­ve con­­se­­q­u­en­ces to t­he ­i­ma­ge­ and ­st­a­tus of e­t­h­no­­logy a­nd anthro­po­lo­gy in Ser­­bia.

Reception of structuralism exemplified by research on rite-de-passage in Serbian ethnology and anthropology

Research on rite-de-passage marked Serbian ethnology and anthropology especially during the seventies, eighties and to some extent nineties of the 20th century. This paper offers some observations on the attitudes of Serbian scientists towards this method, on the novelties that the rite-de-passage introduced to interpretation of rituals, as well as some shortfalls of this analytical method in Serbia. For future analysis the author proposes more attention on the qualitative change that any ritual incurs, and towards this aim suggests some of the advantages of Van Genep's approach to rites-de-passage.

Gesture in an exoteric context

Anthropological approach to gesture studies is based on the cultural communication as well on defining the context of occurrence within the general cultural context, where latter provides the frame of reference for the communication issued. The particular gesture is reviewed according to the relation of the morphology of physical movement to the semantic contents achieved and transmitted within the contexts of relevance. The gestures discussed are those performed by the players of the Italian football clubs "Torino" and "Juventus" after scoring the goals at the games between those clubs in some past seasons. The explanatory procedure links this discussion to the gesture studies in Serbian ethnology and anthropology by structural-homologic consideration of some further contexts of relevance.