Културна прожимања: aнтрополошке перспективе
Cultural permeations : anthropological perspectives
Contributor(s): Srđan Radović (Editor)
Subject(s): Anthropology, Social Sciences
Published by: Етнографски институт САНУ
Keywords: Anthropological boundaries; Cultural permeations ; Borderline communities; Ethnic and religious differences; Comparative regional studies
Summary/Abstract: Boundaries understood as socially constructed lines of differentiation (but also of transition), and actual boundaries, borders (in the first place political ones) as factors determining culture and lives of people, represent central research issues of articles in the Collection of Papers of the Institute of Ethnography SASA no. 28 entitled Cultural Permeations: Anthropological Perspectives. Creation of boundaries and cultures, transition of such boundaries, and cultural permeations between communities and cultures are elaborated in articles which mostly discuss particular case studies and several ethnic, religious and other groups, with a few papers which also theorize construction and understanding of anthropological borders. Boundaries, communities and their mutual encounters are presented by cases from several Central-European and Balkan countries. Authors represent academic communities from seven European countries, thus giving this edited volume a truly international character with papers being written in English, Serbian and Croatian. Most of the articles present anthropological perspectives on particular questions, but contributions stemming from historical, sociological and linguistic discourses are also included. Problems of cultural permeations, conceptualization of boundaries and issues of communities and cultures in borderline regions were the main topics of the international research conference Cultures and Borders organized by the Institute of Ethnography SASA in 2011 in Vršac in Serbia. All sixteen studies present in this edited volume are based on presentations given at this conference. Geographical diversity of phenomena and communities scrutinized in this volume is bounded by thematic similarities of papers which generally analyze symbolic/anthropological boundaries created in face of ethnic, religious and other differences and cultural and social dynamics of communities living in borderline regions. Discussions in this publication represent at the same time an invitation for further research of these issues, asserting that comparative view on related problems in different places can still be useful and inspiring.
- Print-ISBN-13: 978-86-7587-071-5
- Page Count: 252
- Publication Year: 2013
- Language: English, Serbian
Culture and Boundaries: Antiquated, Useful, or Vital Concepts?
Culture and Boundaries: Antiquated, Useful, or Vital Concepts?
(Culture and Boundaries: Antiquated, Useful, or Vital Concepts?)
- Author(s):Ingrid Slavec Gradišnik
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Anthropology, Sociology
- Page Range:15-29
- No. of Pages:15
- Keywords:culture; boundary; collective identity; individual identity; identification; Serbia; Slovenia
- Summary/Abstract:The paper reviews two main concepts of culture and boundary – the essentialist and the anti-essentialist one – to introduce the completed research carried out within an ongoing collaboration between Serbian and Slovenian ethnologists. The published studies are characterized by the fact that they have surpassed the old disciplinary paradigm of ethnically/nationally defined ethnologies rooted in the essentialist cultural concept. Rather than within the boundaries of what is supposed to be “ethnic” or “national” they situate the research in discrete social contexts. Collective and individual cultural affiliations are not a priori subordinated to the ethnic and national identities that were employed formerly to “measure” or interpret specific cultural profiles and identifications. Moreover, these are not always delineated by political or administrative borders, as well as not inevitably by ethnic and linguistic ones. Contextual and hybrid identifications are produced in ongoing flows of people, goods, experiences and ideas in individual, familial, generational, interest-related contexts and trajectories. As such they require non-essentialist conceptualisations of culture and boundaries that are grounded in everyday practices and reflected in theorizing about the everyday.
(Не) разумети Дарвина: еволуција и конструкција границе између људи и животиња
(Не) разумети Дарвина: еволуција и конструкција границе између људи и животиња
((Mis)Understanding Darwin: Evolution and Cultural Conceptualization of the Human- Animal Boundary in Anthropological Perspective)
- Author(s):Sonja Žakula
- Language:Serbian
- Subject(s):Anthropology, Social Sciences
- Page Range:31-50
- No. of Pages:20
- Keywords:folk interpretations of evolution; social sciences; moral order vs. natural order; imagining boundaries; the missing link
- Summary/Abstract:The social sciences in general and anthropology in particular have a long and complicated relationship with Darwin’s theory of evolution. The ways in which biological evolution came to be understood from the 19th century onward had direct implications on ways in which social scientists, for their part, understood and explained human cultures and societies. The topic of this presentation will be, firstly, parallels between folk interpretations of evolution and earlier notions about ‘the order of things’ which were based on Christian theology and existed in European society prior to the Enlightenment. I will argue that it is these very folk interpretations that, by becoming part of the discourse of social scientists created, on the one hand dangerous ideas like attempts at “scientific” legitimization of racism, and on the other a complete separation of natural and social sciences. The basis of the flawed logic that went first into understanding the process of biological evolution and then into applying Darwinism to human societies was that evolution (even since Darwin's time) tended to be understood in terms of chains and ladders, terms which implied value and moral judgment – in short – in terms usually reserved for origin myths. Evolution had put human beings squarely and undeniably in the realm of what was (up until then) “brute creation”, and by doing so practically destroyed the ideological boundary between nature and culture. By doing so it endowed people with a ‘brute’ rather than a ‘divine’ nature, and hence it became important to construct a new kind of boundary between humans and animals. This confusion between moral and natural order, the implicit belief that nature is somehow endowed with intent and that evolution has a goal had serious consequences for the social sciences. It is in the place where the misunderstanding of biological evolution brought about the moral imperative to invent a way by which human kind could be “scientifically” distanced from the animal kingdom that the modern concept of culture was born. And what occurred then was a subtle switch: the uncomfortable idea about the brute nature of mankind was replaced by the story of the evolution of culture. The animals meanwhile became the passive objects of natural histories. To paraphrase Barbara Noske (1993), the social sciences became sciences of discontinuity between humans and animals. This discontinuity however isn’t (nor was it ever) a static set of traits, and the more we learn about ‘the animal kingdom’, the more the boundaries grow fuzzy and unclear. If we were to factor in contemporary technological achievements – hybrids, animals grown with human genes and xenotransplantation (among other things), boundaries, not just conceptual but biological, visceral are challenged. These new situations and practices pose new questions to which social scientists should supply answers. However, in order for these questions to be recognized as valid in the first place, we must comprehend the ways in which and reasons why such boundaries were set up in the first place. For this I believe it is imperative for us to understand why we misunderstood Darwin.
Симболичка географија Балкана: гранични простор у енглеским и америчким путописима 1835–1909.
Симболичка географија Балкана: гранични простор у енглеским и америчким путописима 1835–1909.
(Symbolic Geography of the Balkans: A Border Space in English and American Travelogues 1835–1909)
- Author(s):Sanja Lazarević Radak
- Language:Serbian
- Subject(s):Anthropology, Social Sciences
- Page Range:51-63
- No. of Pages:13
- Keywords:Representations; the Balkans; border; Orient; Occident; symbolic geography
- Summary/Abstract:The inventing of a symbolic map of the Balkans goes back to the 19th century. This is the period in which thousands of accounts, novels and travelogues which represent this part of the world as a border between civilization and non-civilization originated; Europe and Asia were produced, establishing long-term representations. Ambiguity and repetition enabled its permanence. In this paper three key representations of liminal quality are recognized as: the orientalization of the Balkans based on its discursive relation with Africa and Asia; the construction of the „Balkan characters“ as „European, but „non-occidental“, and imagining the Balkans as a border between East and West.
Communities and Boundaries along the Southern Bulgarian Black Sea Coastline
Communities and Boundaries along the Southern Bulgarian Black Sea Coastline
(Communities and Boundaries along the Southern Bulgarian Black Sea Coastline)
- Author(s):Ana Luleva
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Anthropology, Social Sciences
- Page Range:67-76
- No. of Pages:10
- Keywords:border zones; boundaries; ethnicity; gender
- Summary/Abstract:The article deals with the structuring of the boundaries and the communities in the region of the Southern Bulgarian Black Sea coast – the towns of Sozopol, Pomorie and Nessebar. As a result of the migration waves after WWI coexisting in these towns were the local Greek population and the refugees from the Eastern and Aegean Thrace and Macedonia. This region could be described as border zone “where one thing gradually shifts into something else, where is blurring, ambiguity and uncertainty” (Hannerz 1998). On the basis of the field research, an attempt is made to outline the borders, meaningful for the structuring of the collective identities: the territorial border, the state frontier, the socio-cultural boundaries between the local Greeks and the immigrants ( refugees), between the hosts and tourists, between local inhabitants and the “newly rich”. It is drawn the conclusion that the collective identities are changing within a different political context; they are contradictory and without any stable and unchangeable borders. The communities are not homogenous; in the everyday life there are different levels of interaction – between relatives, friends, neighbors, locals and researchers etc.; the communities and boundaries are constructed in a context-determined manner. Part of the ethnographic contribution to their understanding is precisely the deciphering of the way the borders are structured and the meaning that people attach to them. This also raises the question about the role of the researchers in the structuring of the communities.
The Rhodopes: Perceptions about Boundaries
The Rhodopes: Perceptions about Boundaries
(The Rhodopes: Perceptions about Boundaries)
- Author(s):Evgenia Troeva
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Anthropology, Sociology, Politics and Identity, Identity of Collectives
- Page Range:77-87
- No. of Pages:11
- Keywords:religious signs; identity; boundaries; Bulgaria
- Summary/Abstract:The objective of this paper is to present an interesting example from Bulgaria – the Rhodope Mountains abounding in visible and invisible boundaries. That is the location of the political border of Bulgaria, separating it from Greece. The centuries-old cohabitation of people with different ethnic and religious identities in the Rhodopes has created a flexible system of finding unifying or dividing elements in accordance with the necessities of the specific context. The three basic ethno-religious groups inhabiting the mountain (Turks, Muslim Bulgarians and Christian Bulgarians) possess a complex of cultural characteristics such as language, name, self-identification, marriage patterns, traditional and ritual system, religious affiliation, clothing etc., which are instrumentalized with the objective to achieving closer relations or drawing dividing lines between different communities. The process of eradication and establishment of new boundaries is especially dynamic with regard to Muslim Bulgarians. They perceive themselves as a boundary community, and in fact are regarded as such both by Christian Bulgarians and Turks. In their attempts to overcome that border situation, the middle and younger generations of Muslim Bulgarians in the Middle and Eastern Rhodopes have started to express more frequently a Bulgarian identity. The elder Muslim Bulgarians as well as the younger ones in the regions of Gotse Delchev, Madan, Rudozem, place their Muslim belonging more frequently in the center of their personal and group identity. Thus, depending on the specific context, some features loose their role as distinguishing identifiers for communities and individuals, while others start to exercise a stronger impact.
The creation of local community and identity.Boundaries in the Bulgarian town of Kardzhali
The creation of local community and identity.Boundaries in the Bulgarian town of Kardzhali
(The creation of local community and identity.Boundaries in the Bulgarian town of Kardzhali)
- Author(s):Maria Markova
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Anthropology, Sociology, Politics and Identity, Identity of Collectives
- Page Range:89-106
- No. of Pages:18
- Keywords:Kardzhali; city name; borders; cultures; identity; city; Turkish; Bulgarian; refugees; coexistence
- Summary/Abstract:During the first half of the 20th century the Bulgarian city of Kardzhali was a border area, where the old (Turkish, Gypsies) and the newly arrived communities (Bulgarians, Jewish, Armenians, Russians) coexisted and cooperated. This region experienced a variety of transformations and the creation of the local community. The transformational processes are somewhat reflected in the name of the city which has the function of both a visible and an invisible anthropological border. The main ethnical opposition between Bulgarians and Turks is maintained even nowadays in the territorial positioning of the communities in the city. One of the focal points are the legends of the city’s name. The Turkish and the Bulgarian versions represent another demarcation and community selfidentification by the means of remembrance. The Turkish versions have been permanently guarded in the collective memory of the local Turkish population and are among the bases of its identity. They are distinguished by anthropocentrism, mythologizing of The Ancestor, argumentation for the purity of the origin of the local population by the myth of common descent, connection with the Ottoman invasion and the colonization of the Eastern Rhodopes, binding of the city territory and name with the Muslim and the Turkish community.
Културна граница у искуству чешког лекара др Бохумила Боучека поводом боравка у Црној Гори 1875/76. године
Културна граница у искуству чешког лекара др Бохумила Боучека поводом боравка у Црној Гори 1875/76. године
(Cultural Boundary in the Experience of Czech Doctor Bohumul Bouček Regarding his Stay in Montenegro 1875/76.)
- Author(s):Miloš Luković
- Language:Serbian
- Subject(s):Anthropology, Social Sciences, Ethnohistory
- Page Range:107-121
- No. of Pages:15
- Keywords:Dr Bouček; Czech (Habsburg royal country); Montenegro; cultural differences
- Summary/Abstract:Czech doctor Bohumil Bouček was sent to Montenegro by the Austro-Hungarian government in order to give medical aid-treatment to participants of the Herzegovina Uprising (1875/76), who were treated in Šavnik, on the border between Montenegro and Herzegovina. Staying in an unfamiliar society dr. Bouček faced huge cultural differences in relations with the Czech and Austro-Hungarian society where he originated. That is why he hardly endured crude life in the Dinara’s area where he was staying, as well as the manners and habits of Durmitor’s highlanders (he tried to change some of these manners and habits). In time dr. Bouček started to understand the socio-political structure of that society and the mentality of its people. He especially liked the children. Later, when he left Montenegro he kept in touch with some people in this society. Moreover, dr. Bouček sent musician Ludvig Kuba and his son – a doctor and other intellectuals from the Czech to Šavnik. When the Balkan Wars broke out in 1912, he was encouraged to sum up his experience during this stay in Šavnik and Montenegro, and wrote a book titled “With Wounded Montenigrins“ (1912). This book, based on published letters, had various editions. In this book and further appearances he identified himself with people from Montenegro he had met, and crossed cultural differences between Montenegrin society and his homeland.
Приче са моравско-словачке границе
Приче са моравско-словачке границе
(Stories from the Moravian-Slovakian Border)
- Author(s):Jana Pospíšilová
- Language:Serbian
- Subject(s):Anthropology, Social Sciences, Inter-Ethnic Relations, Identity of Collectives
- Page Range:125-135
- No. of Pages:11
- Keywords:ethnology; Czecho-Slovak relations; Moravian-Slovakian border; local identity; collective memory
- Summary/Abstract:When Czechoslovakia was established in 1918, the political border between Slovakia (Hungary) and Moravia ceased to exist. In the period between the two world wars, ‘vanishing’ of the frontier was strengthened by the idea of Czechoslovakism which was supported not only by politicians but also by ethnographers. Except for the short period of the Slovakian State (1939-1945), the border was perceived merely as a historical and cultural line until the division of Czechoslovakia in 1993. The newly formed borderline unexpectedly became part of people’s lives, but it did not bring an interruption of cultural contacts or family relations of the inhabitants of the frontier. Ethnological field research discloses changes in the lives of people inhabiting the Moravian-Slovakian frontier and understanding of the real and the mental border with the region of Nedašovské Závrší used as a case study.
Perception of Differences? One Cultural Phenomenon in Two Language Groups – Contribution to the Research of Symbolic Group Boundaries
Perception of Differences? One Cultural Phenomenon in Two Language Groups – Contribution to the Research of Symbolic Group Boundaries
(Perception of Differences? One Cultural Phenomenon in Two Language Groups – Contribution to the Research of Symbolic Group Boundaries)
- Author(s):Gabriela Kiliánová
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Anthropology, Sociology, Inter-Ethnic Relations, Identity of Collectives
- Page Range:137-144
- No. of Pages:8
- Keywords:perception of difference; language group; Slovaks; Germans
- Summary/Abstract:The paper will deal with the analysis of one cultural phenomenon which can show differences because of its existence in two language groups. Using empirical data from fieldwork among the Slovak and German inhabitants in one small town in Slovakia, the author will follow whether the cultural phenomenon is or is not perceived as different element among the members of the two groups. Further, she will ask whether the phenomenon has potential to create symbolic boundaries which would separate one group from the other. The author will present a case study which deals with the personification of the Death as public representation in the two groups. The personification of Death is connected in the traditional German oral narratives with the figure of a man while in the Slovak narratives with the figure of a woman. Using the results from the field work about the personification of Death among the local inhabitants she will show the ambivalence of the representation in the language mixed locality, she will describe the collective and individual representations, their similarities and differences among the members of the two language groups.
Language and Identity: Vignettes on Language Use among Members of the Slovenian Minority in Austrian Carinthia
Language and Identity: Vignettes on Language Use among Members of the Slovenian Minority in Austrian Carinthia
(Language and Identity: Vignettes on Language Use among Members of the Slovenian Minority in Austrian Carinthia)
- Author(s):Saša Poljak Istenič
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Anthropology, Inter-Ethnic Relations, Politics and Identity, Identity of Collectives
- Page Range:145-157
- No. of Pages:13
- Keywords:mother tongue; identity; private and public situations; Slovenian minority in the Austrian Carinthia
- Summary/Abstract:Language has been a crucial element in constituting national identity throughout Slovenian history. The study of communication is therefore of key importance in estimating the vitality of the ethnic group. Because of the language policies and the asymmetry in the relationship between minority and majority languages, the decision to use the mother tongue among the Slovenian minority in Austria nowadays becomes an affirmation of Slovenian identity. This paper, based on two case studies in Austrian Carinthia, presents the use of language in everyday private and public situations.
Položaj Roma u Međimurju i varaždinsko-koprivničkoj Podravini i usporedba s položajem Roma u slovenskom Prekomurju i Mađarskoj
Položaj Roma u Međimurju i varaždinsko-koprivničkoj Podravini i usporedba s položajem Roma u slovenskom Prekomurju i Mađarskoj
(Situation of the Romani in Medjimurje and the region of Varaždinsko-koprivnička Podravina and comparison with their situation in Prekmurje (Slovenia) and Hungary)
- Author(s):Filip Škiljan
- Language:Serbian
- Subject(s):Anthropology, Social Sciences
- Page Range:159-191
- No. of Pages:33
- Keywords:Croatia; Medjimurje; Podravina; Romani; discrimination; segregation; Prekmurje; Hungary
- Summary/Abstract:In this paper, author presents information on the situation of the Romani in the area of Medjimurje and the region of Varaždinsko-koprivnička Podravina, and compares them with the situation of the Romani in Hungary and the Slovenian region of Prekmurje. Methodology of research of the Roma population in Medjimurje and Podravina is based on in-depth interviews with several representatives of Roma settlements. Along with the statistical data on the number of the Romani in all three countries and respective regions, author discusses issues of discrimination and segregation of the Roma minority in north-eastern Croatia, and compares data obtained from in-depth interviews with data from literature dealing with the Roma of Slovenia and Hungary.
Cross-Border Nationalism and Religious Fellowship. A Case Study of the Czech Protestant Community in Serbia
Cross-Border Nationalism and Religious Fellowship. A Case Study of the Czech Protestant Community in Serbia
(Cross-Border Nationalism and Religious Fellowship. A Case Study of the Czech Protestant Community in Serbia)
- Author(s):Michal Pavlásek
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Anthropology, Social Sciences, Nationalism Studies, Inter-Ethnic Relations
- Page Range:195-208
- No. of Pages:14
- Keywords:Migration; Serbian Banat; Czech minority; crossborder nationalism; religious ideology
- Summary/Abstract:In this article I take up the phenomenon of ethnic Czech communities abroad and the concept of the “expatriates” which appeared as part of a complex system of efforts by Czechoslovak foreign policy during the interwar period (1918-1939) to “save” the descendants of emigrant settlers from the Czech lands from assimilation in the host country. I will also introduce another category, that of cross-border nationalism, which I would like to introduce as a useful analytical term. In order to get a handle on this problem, I will analyze this phenomenon through the example of the Czech diaspora in the village of Veliko Središte in Vojvodina. Here still live the last descendants of Protestant migrants who came from Moravia, part of the Czech lands, in the 19th century. The aim of this study is to show that the communication network of the national state (interwar Czechoslovakia) and emigration from the country was based on the evangelizing mission. Besides their already existing religious, territorial and linguistic identification, the communities involved also accepted another aspect of their collective identity – identification with a shared past.
Survival and Identity. Baptist Czechs from Banat
Survival and Identity. Baptist Czechs from Banat
(Survival and Identity. Baptist Czechs from Banat)
- Author(s):Sînziana Preda
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Anthropology, Sociology, Identity of Collectives
- Page Range:209-219
- No. of Pages:8
- Keywords:Czechs; Banat; St. Helena; neo-Protestants; religious Identity
- Summary/Abstract:In Romania, the Baptist denomination includes, according to the 2002 census, about 130,000 believers. In terms of ethnicity, Romanians represent the majority, followed by Hungarians (Hungarian Baptist Convention). One of the smallest minorities in Romania, that is the Czechs, also provides a number of believers, in the village of Sfînta Elena (Coronini township, Caraş-Severin county) being found the only Czech Baptist community from our country. Here, besides Catholics, we find a Baptist community, twice as small and of relative recent origin. In the following, we intend to outline this image, based on field observations and interviews carried out between the years 2005-2010. We believe that religious identity represents, beyond all doubt, an important dimension in defining the being of Czech group, regardless of their religious orientation. We paid a particular interest in Neo-protestant group, in order to identify means of building the image of another group with a different faith, considering the double minority status, ethnical and religious. Also, we tried to capture the ratio of forces between two different faith groups that were facing the same economic and social problems, problems that have caused depopulation of villages, by massive migration of people in the Czech Republic.
Конфесионалне границе у Банату: пример Срба у Банатској клисури
Конфесионалне границе у Банату: пример Срба у Банатској клисури
(Confessional Borders in Banat: the Case of Serbs in the Danube Gorge)
- Author(s):Aleksandra Đurić-Milovanović
- Language:Serbian
- Subject(s):Anthropology, Sociology, Identity of Collectives
- Page Range:217-228
- No. of Pages:12
- Keywords:Serbs in Romania; religious identity; confessional borders; Baptists; orthodox
- Summary/Abstract:The subject of this paper is to examine the role of symbolic borders between different confessional communities in the multicultural area of Romanian Banat. Living in an ethnically and confessionally heterogeneous environment, Serbs in Romania, although majority belong to the Serbian Orthodox Church, during the last decades, also converted and became members of different neo-Protestant communities. This paper is based on ethnographic field research conducted in August 2010 among the Serbian communities living in the region of the Danube gorge, in western Romania, where neo-Protestant communities are most numerous. One of the aims of this paper is to analyze the perception of the religious other, i.e. the way the Orthodox Serbs see themselves in relation to Serbs, members of some other confession (non-Orthodox Serbs) as well as the way in which Serbs, members of one minority religion articulate their religious identity and build relations with the confession accepted by the majority group.
Румуни у Банату. Особености идентитета
Румуни у Банату. Особености идентитета
(The Romanians in Banat. Particularities of Identity)
- Author(s):Mircea Măran
- Language:Serbian
- Subject(s):Anthropology, Social Sciences, Identity of Collectives
- Page Range:229-238
- No. of Pages:10
- Keywords:identity; Romanians; Banat; minority; bilingualism
- Summary/Abstract:Romanians are a Banat ethnic minority of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, a minority which has played a role in the historical development of the province. Present in over 40 settlements in the area, Romanians have from the very beginning been an integral part of a multiethnic, multicultural and multiconfessional milieu which has maintained its characteristics until now. This population’s expression of their identity has different forms which make it unique for many reasons. Besides the national and ethnic Romanian identity, there are other forms of identity, namely: state – formerly Yugoslavian, now Serbian, regional – Banat identity, which is very prominent in most members of this minority, local – related to affiliation to a certain place of birth or residence and finally religious, mostly Orthodox Christian, which in most cases is concomitant with the ethnic identity. All these types of identity are intertwined, complementing each other, but can also cause some degree of confusion and uncertainty, and even led to conflict and cancelling each other out. These findings were confirmed by our research, conducted among the students of the final year of high school late last year, and the results are presented in this paper.
Компаративна етнографија односа становника Баната према земљи – земља као симболички ресурс
Компаративна етнографија односа становника Баната према земљи – земља као симболички ресурс
(Comparative Ethnography of Banat’s Inhabitants Stances towards their Land: Land as a Symbolic Resource)
- Author(s):Jovana Diković
- Language:Serbian
- Subject(s):Anthropology, Social Sciences
- Page Range:239-250
- No. of Pages:12
- Keywords:Banat; land; symbolic resource; comparative ethnography; Gaj; Aradac
- Summary/Abstract:This paper represents an introduction to comparative research of villages of Aradac and Gaj in the Banat region, and of different ethnic groups living there. In this research, inhabitants’ attitudes toward the land will be examined, especially in the period of the land reforms and immediately afterwards, and since the democratic changed until present. Special attention will be paid to the land as a symbolic resource, i.e. “symbolic real estate”. The research would mostly focus on how this symbolic relationship toward the land has been shaped historically (in the light of historic and political circumstances), and how it looks today. Possibilities for transformation of this symbolic relation with land and most important reasons determining it will also be analyzed. The aim of this paper is to point out the importance of the comparative ethnographic method, possible results which could shed light on a very specific relation ‘individual – land’, and complexity and characteristics of such a relation. This research would additionally stress the multicultural character of the Banat region through cases of cultural and customary diversity of attitudes toward the land.
