| dc.description.abstract | "The Bosnian War that raged between 1992 and 1995 and its aftermath have dramatically affected Bosnian society and culture, a situation that can be referred to as cultural trauma. Apart from the casualties and damage of the war itself, the Dayton Accords that ended it established an overly complicated governmental structure that formalized the ethnic segregation of Bosnian Muslims and Croats in de Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina on the one hand from Serbs in the Republika Srpska on the other. The border between these entities runs through the capital of Sarajevo, which had been under siege by Serbian forces for four years. More than two decades after the war the memory of Bosnian war still resonates in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Sarajevo in particular. A neglected voice in this situation is that of the youth belonging to the different ethno-national groups. This comparative research has tried to give insight in different ways the cultural trauma is experienced by Serbian and Bosnian Muslim adolescents, which has led to the following research question: What are the differences between the experience of cultural trauma as a result of the 1991-1995 war between Bosnian Muslim and Serb adolescents (born after 1995) living in Sarajevo? To answer this question we have conducted qualitative anthropological research in Sarajevo and its vicinity. We have used the methods of participant observation and interviewing. Cultural trauma can be briefly defined as ...the culturally interpreted wound to cultural tissue itself (Sztompka, 2000: 458). We have found that there are two different cultural traumas among these two groups. Among Bosnian Muslims, this centres on the experience of victimization, which is particularly evident in narratives about the siege of Sarajevo and the genocide of Srebrenica. For the Serbs the cultural trauma centres a sense of frustration caused by experience of imposed vilification by Bosnian Muslims and the Western world. The strong identification of young Serbs in turn leads them to experience the cultural trauma of their people very strongly. A common experience of cultural trauma of both research groups is the contemporary detrimental economy and the corruption of politicians. This can be perceived as being part of the aftermath of the war, namely the economic stagnation, the ethnically-based political parties and the ethnic separation in society. This cultural trauma influences the identification process of the respective populations in different ways. In the case of the Bosnian Muslims identity is a complex dilemma to deal with. Most
98
resist against the external ascription of an ethnic identity and try to cope with victimization by trying to move away from the Bosniak ethnicity which they perceive to be focused on the past. They identify with a national Bosnian identity that emphasizes mutual coexistence. The unity of Bosnian Muslims is furthermore strengthened through historical narratives of the historical Bosnian nation and life under the rule of foreign powers. Another important idea within Bosnian collective memory is the idea of mutual coexistence with Serbs and Croats, which is brought forward in the idea of Yugoslavia for example. Serbs on the other hand, grow up surrounded with Serbian culture in fairly isolated communities in the Republika Srpska which strengthen their collective identity. This Serbian identity is furthermore strengthened through a collective memory centred on the historical narratives about the Serbian nation. For Bosnian Muslim adolescents, cultural trauma is mostly transmitted through personal stories from their parents and other family members, various digital media, newspapers, politicians, museums, monuments, commemorations, and the cityscape. In the Serbian case, cultural trauma is transmitted mostly through stories from parents and other family members, monuments, and various digital and written media. Many Serbs use such media in particular in order to counter the vilification of Serbs in Bosnian and Western media and thereby divert the blame for the war away from themselves. Some are less involved with countering these narratives and express the cultural trauma by focusing on contemporary problems in BiH, fleeing the country, or establishing social contact with Muslims and Croats. Bosnian Muslims express their cultural trauma in various ways, such as commemorating Srebrenica, humour, escaping the country, fighting for their collective memory about the war, moving on by focusing on contemporary problems for example. They contest the established collective memory of the war by researching it themselves and rejecting the strong emphasis on dominant stories like Srebrenica, the vilification of all Serbs, the victimization of Bosnian Muslims, and the politicization of entire collective memory. In conclusion, although the experience of cultural trauma of adolescent Bosnian Muslims and Serbs differs substantially, similarities can be discerned with how the collective memory about the war is transmitted to them and some of the strategies that they use to deal with the cultural trauma." | |
