article
Dismembering Yugoslavia: nationalist ideologies and the symbolic revival of genocide
American ethnologist • 21 (2) • Published In 1994 • Pages: 367-390
By: Denich, Bette.
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
In this article Denich deals with the ideological and historical context under which the practice of 'ethnic cleansing' evolved, with a focus on the symbolic dynamics of genocide as a critical underlying issue in the ethnic war that began in Croatia in 1991 and spread to Bosnia-Herzegovina in the following year. Croatia's extermination policy directed against the Serbs, developed during World War II. This policy is examined in terms of the history and structural logic of mutually exclusive nineteenth century Serbian and Croatian nation-state ideologies. The post-Titoist era rebirth of these ideologies was involved with symbolic revivals of both the wartime Croatian state and the memory of genocide, which had very different meanings for Serbs and Croats. 'The 'forgotten' burial sites of massacre victims provided a powerful reservoir of traumatic memory, subject to manipulation on the part of all who seized the 'disjunctive moment' to reconstitute the state according to nationalist definitions' (p. 367).
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Tribe and nation
- Political movements
- Revolution
- Warfare
- Aftermath of combat
- cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
- Serbs
- HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
- 1997
- RegionThe area the document pertains to
- Europe
- Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
- Southeastern Europe
- Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
- article
- Evaluation
- Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
- Ethnologist
- Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
- 5: Excellent Primary Data
- AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
- John Beierle ; 1996
- Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
- 1987-1990
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- 1987-1992
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- Serbia
- NotesAdditional notes
- Bette Denich
- Includes bibliographical references (p. 386-390)
- LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
- 74644326
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Serbs