Bogdan Dražeta
Bogdan Dražeta graduated in 2015 from the Department of Ethnology and Anthropology, Faculty of Philosophy, Belgrade, Serbia. He received his M.A. degree at the same Department and Faculty in 2016. He defended doctoral dissertation at the same institution in 2019, regarding identity building process among population of Mostar and Sarajevo as (un)officially and (in)formally divided cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Currently he works at the Institute and the Department of Ethnology and Anthropology, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade. So far, he has participated in five international conferences and published over thirty articles.
He conducted ethnological and anthropological field research in eastern Serbia, western Serbia, AP of Kosovo and Metohija (Gora), Serbia, north and south Dalmatia, Croatia, southeastern Albania, while in Bosnia and Herzegovina he conducted fieldwork in central-eastern, central, eastern, southeastern, northeastern, north, western, and southwestern Bosnia, as well as central, eastern, western, and northern Herzegovina. Bogdan's fields of scientific interest are: anthropology of borders, organizational (corporate) anthropology, ethnology of the Balkans, ethnology of Bosnia and Herzegovina, ethnic relations and processes, ethnic, religious, regional and local identities, and the study of Jewish and Chinese community in the Balkans.
Phone: +381 64 1180 202
He conducted ethnological and anthropological field research in eastern Serbia, western Serbia, AP of Kosovo and Metohija (Gora), Serbia, north and south Dalmatia, Croatia, southeastern Albania, while in Bosnia and Herzegovina he conducted fieldwork in central-eastern, central, eastern, southeastern, northeastern, north, western, and southwestern Bosnia, as well as central, eastern, western, and northern Herzegovina. Bogdan's fields of scientific interest are: anthropology of borders, organizational (corporate) anthropology, ethnology of the Balkans, ethnology of Bosnia and Herzegovina, ethnic relations and processes, ethnic, religious, regional and local identities, and the study of Jewish and Chinese community in the Balkans.
Phone: +381 64 1180 202
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Papers by Bogdan Dražeta
On the Balkan Peninsula, family slava occurs among various ethnic and religious communities, but as a custom, it is most widespread among Christian Orthodox Serbs. Ethnology and anthropology observe slava in the contemporary social, economic and political context, trying to see the continuity of the customary practice itself, as well as its practical application and meaning. On the other hand, ethnomusicology approaches family slava through a review of its musical components, i.e. the vocal folk music tradition. Family slava in the area of Romanija in central-eastern Bosnia, that is, the eastern part of Republika Srpska, has so far been the subject of ethnomusicological, ethnological and anthropological research to a lesser extent. Sporadic examples of collecting material on the celebration of the patron saint’s day within the mentioned cultural-geographical space in the past were not clearly marked as something that needs to be further analyzed. The cultural phenomenon of family slava in this paper will be treated on the basis of fieldwork conducted during the second and the beginning of the third decade of the twenty-first century, from the ethnomusicological and ethnological-anthropological perspectives. We believe that the rootedness of family slava in the contemporary culture of Romanija region’s population should be explained and presented to the scientific community. This is the case not only because researchers have very weak or almost no direction towards that part of the Republika Srpska-Bosnia and Herzegovina, but also because of the importance that family slava has for the Serbian community members as part of their heritage. We believe that in this respect we have made a contribution that can encourage other researchers to approach fieldwork and study various phenomena and processes, thereby slava, within the mentioned cultural-geographical space.
The challenges and problems in the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage in Bosnia and Herzegovina are reflected in all the ethnic communities that constitute the country. Bosniaks, Serbs and Croats, as well as members of other communities living in Bosnia and Herzegovina, face a number of obstacles when it comes to identifying, documenting, protecting and promoting their heritage. This is due, on the one hand, to the lack of internal consensus on what is and what is not part of their heritage (dissonant heritage) and, on the other hand, to the complex arrangement of heritage that corresponds to the complex constitutional structure of Bosnia and Herzegovina. This paper uses the heritage of Serbs in Herzegovina as a case study to illustrate how the lack of support from central authorities, the weak network of institutional actors and the lack of agreement on cultural issues complicate the processes related to heritage protection. This paper aims to provide an incentive for overcoming the challenges and problems of ICH safeguarding in Bosnia and Herzegovina and to offer some suggestions for reforming the system to make it more inclusive and provide a framework for the protection of all citizens and communities living in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
lifestyle choices, and environmental issues have become prevalent. The collected narratives contain the following motives: the weakening of traditional norms related to the “mountain regime”; the revival of pastoralist practices in the post-war situation; the modern commercialization of traditional forms of pastoralism; lifestyle choices and issues of personal freedom. The primary interest of the research was to determine the influence of the contemporary situation on the way our informants described their social reality.
Over time, additional problems opened up. First, the question of the way in which media texts thematize pastoral life. Second, the influence media narratives have on pastoralists’ perceptions of themselves. Media texts created in the last fifteen years bear witness to the romanticization and exoticization of pastoralist life. Thus, stereotypical representations
of “arduous pastoral life” and equally simplified images of “Eden-like living conditions” and “unspoiled nature” are observed. The result of such practices is the simplification of notions about the everyday life of pastoralists in Eastern Herzegovina. The paradox of connecting ideas of both the hardship and facileness of pastoralism is resolved in some
narratives through the dichotomy of past and present life. In this sense, there is a great responsibility of all those who produce narratives: the pastoralists themselves, those who subject them to research, and those who create media representations about them. This responsibility concerns the fate of the pastoralists themselves, their animals, as well as
the nature in which they live and work, and in a certain sense also the wider society.
South Slavic themes and motives are not only “popular” but also necessary fields of study in ethnology and anthropology. Although all South Slavic present-day states are heterogeneous and important for the social sciences and humanities in the research sense, Bosnia and Herzegovina is less studied to a certain extent. The three ethnic communities (the Bosniaks, Serbs, and Croats) and the mutual relations of their members are simplified and often remain unknown both to themselves and to those “from the outside”, by which the residents of the neighboring countries are referred to, not only people from the rest of the European continent and the world. The author of this text believes that, accordingly, “double exoticization” is at work—observing and imagining the peoples of Bosnia and Herzegovina as always at conflict with each other, but benevolent and unprepared for novelties in everyday life and other domains. Permeation, alienation, and disputes among the three communities at the beginning of the 21st century are a chance for a different and better understanding of them, because without this part, the South Slavic cultural puzzle is not complete. It is legitimate if someone dislikes someone for some reason, but it is not legitimate when it is not seen that someone respects and even likes someone, so that there is at least one thread or a few links whose roles are immeasurable in the times ahead. Without such settings, the work of ethnologists and other colleagues from more than a century ago was in vain and, accordingly, any attempt for the South Slavs to continue living in peace and harmony has no perspective. What lies ahead is further shredding, dismemberment, and splitting of their own small cakes.
The culture of growing grapevine and singing about it is an important part of the traditional and the contemporary culture of Slavic and other groups of peoples. The subject of our article will be a review and analysis of making grape products such as wine, brandy and juice among members of the South Slavic peoples (Serbs, Bosniaks and Croats) in the Republic of Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. In addition, traditional songs related to the grapevine among these peoples in different regions of Bosnia and Herzegovina will be contextualized, as a contribution to the subject of study. The basic method by which the material was collected, along with fieldwork and archive search, was a semi-structured interview conducted with certain Serbs in the Upper Srem (Serbia), Bosniaks in central Herzegovina, and Croats in western Herzegovina (Bosnia and Herzegovina). The criterion for choosing the interlocutors was their amateur or professional cultivation of grapevine, i.e. their possession of a certain knowledge about this practice, as well as about certain customs and rituals associated with it. This ethnological and anthropological perspective on the one hand, and the ethnomusicological perspective on the other, shows how the cooperation between the two disciplines contributes to a broader understanding of both traditional and contemporary culture among the part of South Slavic peoples, which is important for the contemporary Serbian, Slav, and Balkan folkloristics.