Bunjevačko pitanje kao simbolički konflikt politika identiteta

Gotal, Mihovil. (2016). Bunjevačko pitanje kao simbolički konflikt politika identiteta. Diploma Thesis. Filozofski fakultet u Zagrebu, Department of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology. [mentor Grbić, Jadranka].

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Abstract

The Bunjevac question represents a socio-political problem in the Republic of Serbia, which comes from different interpretations of identity of the Bunjevac people from Bačka in Vojvodina. The majority of the Bunjevac ethnonym carriers are deeply divided by that issue into two dominant sides, which can, in the political sense, be regarded as two separate Bunjevac communities. One is composed of those Bunjevac people who interpret their identity as a sub-ethnic group belonging to the Croatian ethnic community and hence to the Croatian nation. Based on that, they represent a part of the Croatian national minority in Serbia. The other community is composed of those Bunjevac people who consider themselves being a separate ethnic community and as such they have been recognized as a separate national minority in Serbia since 2002. At the same time, all carriers of the ethnonym Bunjevac generalize their identity discourse onto all Bunjevac people and consider all of them to be constituting one community which is split inside. In this paper we analyse this problem fundamentally starting with the constructivist paradigm, especially with the theoretical approach of Fredrik Barth (1969), who emphasizes the relational character of identity of ethnic communities, which is evident in the selection of symbols which are used by both communities to establish boundaries between themselves. We examine that process in more detail through the concept of identity politics. It includes all forms of activities carried out by the actors on the position of power, aimed at constructing the identity of a certain community, seeking its recognition in the broader society on the one hand, and acting within the community by choosing the symbols which make them distinguished in the community, on the other hand. This type of activity of the two Bunjevac communities leads to their mutual symbolic conflict. It is noticeable on the example of affirmative campaigns carried out before the 2011 census in Serbia. However, the focus of the analysis is directed towards dužijanca, which represents a public event of great symbolic meaning for both of the Bunjevac communities. Because of their mutually opposed identity discourse, they both organize it as parallel events. By applying the typology of symbolic conflict proposed by Simon Harrison (1995) we point out in the conclusion the complexity of the Bunjevac question itself, which actually arises from the essentialist understanding of the nature of collective identity.

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