The Balkan refugee corridor was active in 2015 and 2016 in order to facilitate and control the movement of refugees towards their destination countries in the EU. In this article, the Slavonski Brod ...camp, a kind of obligatory stopover in the Croatian section of the Balkan corridor, is approached as a site where the concept of a "lone child" in migration was defined and re-defined in practice. After presenting a short overview of the corridor and the camp, and the genealogy of the concept of the child traveling alone, the article discusses the procedures and practices regarding the position of such a child in this unique form of the European migration regime. The article focuses on the interrelation between changing norms of the corridor and conceptualization/behavior of "lone child" in migration. In that framework we follow the transformation of child traveling alone as privileged humanitarian subject to the child traveling alone as competent social actor.
Hidden migrant routes through Croatia lead through forest areas (among other types of terrain) which include those along state borders, but also forests in the interior of the territory. Those ...forests can variously be seen as shelters for migrants, albeit harsh, or as green tunnels leading to desired destinations, and as scenes of suffering and violence. This article approaches the forests in question as landscapes that have been transformed from a neutral natural environment into active factors for creating and maintaining border control regimes and deterring and expelling unwanted migrants. Based on our long-term field research and publicly available (archival, media and other) sources, we seek to document, interpret, and interconnect the objects and practices involved in constructing the forest as a hostile terrain and perilous environment for migrants, and as an important element in controlling unwanted migrations. These are, on the one hand, objects and practices that intervene into forests, such as setting up cameras or cutting down trees, and, on the other, interventions that take place in forests, such as police interception or expulsion. Apart from these external interventions, in this context of remodeling forests into dangerous environments, one can also discuss the role of nature itself and its characteristics, as well as the causes of why migrants find themselves in nature in the first place. Although, at first glance, it seems that people on the move choose the forest as the place and route of their movement of their own volition, they are pushed and expelled into these forests by exclusionary policies (visa regimes, asylum systems, etc.). This, ultimately, classifies forests in Croatia as weaponized landscapes of exclusion and death, such as the desert (e.g., De León 2015), mountain (Del Biaggio et al. 2020), maritime (e.g., Albahari 2015) or archipelago (Mountz 2017) landscapes.
U ovom se radu na temelju etnografskih zapisa nastalih u suglasju s Osnovom za sabiranje i proučavanje građe o narodnom životu iz 1897. nastoje dati obrisi osobite prakse vezane uz dojenje djeteta u ...seoskoj sredini na prijelazu iz 19. u 20. stoljeće. Riječ je o dojenju tuđeg djeteta, odnosno o prepuštanju dojenja ženi koja nije djetetova majka. Etnografskim zapisima iz Zbornika za narodni život i običaje južnih Slavena koji su, s ponekim retrospektivnim uvidima, uglavnom usmjereni na ondašnju suvremenost, pristupa se kao izvorima za etnologiju i povijest svakodnevice. Međusobno povezujući odlomke o dojenju iz različitih zborničkih zapisa, ali i one koji se na dojenje referiraju posredno, tekst među ostalim upućuje na važnost razlikovanja između kontinuiranog davanja djeteta na dojenje zbog bolesti majke ili njezinih problema s dojenjem i povremenog prepuštanja dojenja ženi koja nije djetetova majka poradi majčine privremene, kratkotrajne odsutnosti. Tekst se zanima i pitanjem (materijalne) naknade za dojenje ili njezinim izostankom te, s time povezano, odnosom između nastojanja na zaradi s jedne strane i solidarnosti s druge te eventualnom profesionalizacijom dojenja koja pitanjima iz Osnove nije obuhvaćena, a u samim zapisima je tek naznačena.
Based on a reading of the ethnographic accounts that were written in accordance with the Osnova za sabiranje i proučavanje građe o narodnom životu (Foundations for Collecting and Studying Materials about Folk Life) published in 1897, this paper attempts to outline some of the features of wet-nursing as specific breastfeeding related practices in rural areas at the turn of the 19TH to the 20TH century. Ethnographic accounts published in the Zbornik za narodni život i običaje južnih Slavena (Journal of Folk Life and Traditions of South Slavs) that are, with some retrospective insights, mainly focused on what were then contemporary practices, are approached in this paper as sources of the ethnology and the history of everyday life. Through connecting passages on breastfeeding and also passages that refer indirectly to breastfeeding, this paper underlines the importance of differentiation between the practices of regular wet-nursing (caused by a mother’s illness or her problems with breastfeeding) and occasional wet-nursing (because of a mother’s temporary, short-term absence). This paper also deals with the issue of (material) compensation for wet-nursing and, connected to this, with the relation between women’s efforts to earn an income on the one hand and women’s solidarity on the other. It also deals with the issue of the professionalization of wet-nursing that is not covered in the questions from Osnova (Foundations for Collecting and Studying Materials about Folk Life) and is only indicated in ethnographic accounts from the Zbornik (Journal of Folk Life and Traditions of South Slavs).
Etnografski zapisi s kraja 19. i početka 20. stoljeća, nastali u suglasju s Osnovom za sabiranje i proučavanje građe o narodnom životu te objavljeni u Zborniku za narodni život i običaje južnih ...Slavena, nude mogućnost razgradnje popularnog narativa o zlatnom dobu dojenja u prošlosti, prije razvoja industrije dojenačkih mliječnih pripravaka, te podupiru razumijevanje dojenja, suprotno diskursima o njegovoj prirodnosti, kao kulturno i društveno utemeljene prakse. Na temelju čitanja spomenutih etnografskih zapisa ovaj se tekst bavi odstupanjima od norme postavljene u Osnovi, a prihvaćene i u stručnoj literaturi, po kojoj (u seoskoj sredini na prijelazu stoljeća) (svaka) majka doji svoje dijete. Tekst se tako bavi problemima vezanim za dojenje i laktaciju s kojima su se susretale majke novorođenčadi i dojenčadi te tzv. umjetnom prehranom najmanje djece, a upućuje i na prakse davanja djeteta na dojenje, kombiniranja ženskog rada i brige o malome djetetu i sl. što sve govori i o uvjetima u kojima se dojenje odvijalo a koji su bili, za žene i djecu, izrazito nepovoljni. Tekst također upućuje na potencijal povezivanja uvida koje nudi Zbornik za narodni život i običaje sa suvremenim diskursima o dojenju.
Ethnographic accounts from the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century that were written in accordance with the
Osnova za sabiranje i proučavanje građe o narodnom životu
(
Foundations for Collecting and Studying Materials about Folk Life
) and published in the
Zbornik za narodni život i običaje južnih Slavena
(
Journal of Folk Life and Traditions of South Slavs
) offer a possibility to explore contemporary narratives about the golden age of breastfeeding in the past, before the development of infant food industry. Based on the reading of these accounts, this paper deals with divergences from the norm as defined in the
Osnova
(
Foundations
) and accepted in the professional literature, according to which (in rural areas at the turn of the century) (each) mother breastfed her child. The paper deals with breastfeeding and lactation problems encountered by mothers of newborns and infants, the so-called artificial feeding, and also points to the practice of wet-nursing, combining women’s work with caring for infants, etc. which reveals the social context of breastfeeding that was often extremely disadvantageous for the mother and the child. The paper also shows the potential of connecting the insights offered in the
Journal of Folk Life and Traditions of South Slavs
with contemporary breastfeeding discourses.
Ethnographic accounts from the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century that were written in accordance with the Osnova za sabiranje i proučavanje građe o narodnom životu (Foundations ...for Collecting and Studying Materials about Folk Life) and published in the Zbornik za narodni život i običaje južnih Slavena (Journal of Folk Life and Traditions of South Slavs) offer a possibility to explore contemporary narratives about the golden age of breastfeeding in the past, before the development of infant food industry. Based on the reading of these accounts, this paper deals with divergences from the norm as defined in the Osnova (Foundations) and accepted in the professional literature, according to which (in rural areas at the turn of the century) (each) mother breastfed her child. The paper deals with breastfeeding and lactation problems encountered by mothers of newborns and infants, the so-called artificial feeding, and also points to the practice of wet-nursing, combining women’s work with caring for infants, etc. which reveals the social context of breastfeeding that was often extremely disadvantageous for the mother and the child. The paper also shows the potential of connecting the insights offered in the Journal of Folk Life and Traditions of South Slavs with contemporary breastfeeding discourses.
Starting in January and ending in April 2016, we stayed at the Winter Reception and Transit Center – i.e. the refugee camp in Slavonski Brod – on a number of occasions. At this time, this was the ...only place where refugees from the war-stricken, or otherwise deprived countries could stop on their way to Western Europe. This paper deals with the methodological issues, research methods and procedures (ranging from entering the field and the issues of researcher and participant roles, through observation and note taking to participation, and interviews) which we were employing and testing during our stay at the camp, and which we consider significant for the understanding of the camp itself. We focus on the numerous faces of methodological reductionism and methodological pluralism of our research at the camp. Certain ethnographic methods in our study were frequently reduced to their bare contours, but, upon taking a step away or their combination with other methods, they opened and created multiple doorways to the research field, taking on, among other things, the characteristics of investigative work.
This paper explores the problems which arise when people attempt to communicate across cultural boundaries. I draw on my fieldwork experience in various settings in Eastern and Central Europe – ...camps, courts, schools and businesses – where I found that communication works best when trust is established, and that the necessary step to fulfil this condition was to learn how to unlearn deeply rooted assumptions on both sides. The paper begins with a discussion of racial and ethnic stereotypes, drawing on a range of insights from evolutionary psychology and cognitive science. I then turn to memory myths, suggesting how to apply recent findings from specialized memory research. In the second part of the paper, I challenge the concept of "intercultural", which can all too easily legitimate the "clash of civilisations" ideology. In order to establish real intercultural communication, I suggest that we must abandon models of verbatim translation and instead take advantage of recent anthropological insights into how language works, how meanings are socially constructed and how shared understandings are achieved. In all this, I build on the work of linguistic and legal anthropologists who are already contributing to this endeavour and conclude with some meditations on the related themes of counter-dominance and laughter.
Aleksandra Muraj umirovljena je etnologinja, zaslužna znanstvenica Instituta za etnologiju i folkloristiku te dobitnica nagrade Hrvatskog etnološkog društva za životno djelo. Povod razgovoru njezina ...je nova knjiga objavljena prošle godine pod nazivom Zagrebačka blagdanska ozračja. Slavlja, priredbe, zabave na početku 20. stoljeća. Teme u knjizi dotiču istraživanja grada, običaja, svakodnevice i društvenih odnosa u turbulentnom razdoblju prvih dvadeset godina dvadesetog stoljeća. Ova je knjiga obilježena studioznim pristupom izvorima, osjetljivošću za društvenu i kulturnu dinamiku te dijakronijsku kontekstualizaciju, a to su ujedno i važne odrednice ukupnog pristupa i znanstvenog rada Aleksandre Muraj. Kao etnologinja koja je djelovala u raznim sferama etnološkoga rada (muzeološkom, nastavnom, znanstvenom), koja je inovirala neka područja istraživanja (kultura stanovanja, istraživanja nošnje), nastojala za interdisciplinarnošću i raznolikošću pristupa nestandardnim etnografskim izvorima (novine, crteži, pisma), Aleksandra Muraj sugovornica je s uvidom u više od pola stoljeća hrvatske etnologije.
The author examines the possibilities of defining her own research of electronic correspondence as fieldwork, and describes and interprets certain aspects and stages of that research. She deals with ...two connected aspects of fieldwork research: the issue of physical groundedness of the field and the issue of her relationship with "the subjects of the research" ‡ placing them in a context of researching an Internet topic, email.
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