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
Subject(s): Anthropology, Social Sciences, Nationalism Studies, Inter-Ethnic Relations
Published by: Етнографски институт САНУ
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.

• Details
• Contents