Polish people in Zagreb – practices of maintaining and identity construction in the private and public sphere

Jambor, Sonja. (2019). Polish people in Zagreb – practices of maintaining and identity construction in the private and public sphere. Diploma Thesis. Filozofski fakultet u Zagrebu, Department of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology. [mentor Rajković Iveta, Marijeta].

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Abstract

The aim of this thesis was to examine the identities of Polish people in Zagreb, namely the ways how an individual nurtures his identity through the Polish Cultural Association „Mikołaj Kopernik“ and within the family. Following the theoretical starting point of identity, practices in the private mode and the public face were examined. The research is based on semi-structured interviews with female migrants from Poland and their offspring. In the epistemological – methodological sense, the starting point were fully examined individual cases, whereas using the life story method a migrant/minority experience was depicted. The research showed that the public and private sphere were inseparable symbolical spaces – the private sphere is the personal space of an individual and the public sphere is the site of the Polish Cultural Association where all personal identities of the immigrants interwine and form the inter-identity of the Association. With such created identity the Association is presented to the public, i.e. to the citizens of the Republic of Croatia. The thesis describes some of the Christmas and Easter practices, with a focus on Polish gastronomy, which proved to be the most important in maintaining, transferring and constructing identity in both spheres. While examining celebrations of traditions, cultural processes of selection of individual elements of traditional Polish culture which are recorded in the created identity of the Association and ascription of certain folklore elements as common to all members of the Association were detected.

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