This fascinating urban anthropological analysis of Sarajevo and its cultural complexities examines contemporary issues of social divisiveness, pluralism, and intergroup dynamics in the context of national identity and state formation. Rather than seeing Bosnia-Herzegovina as a volatile postsocialist society, the book presents its capital city as a vibrant yet wounded center of multicultural diversity, where citizens live in mutual recognition of difference while asserting a lifestyle that transcends boundaries of ethnicity and religion. It further illuminates how Sarajevans negotiate group identity in the tumultuous context of history, authoritarian rule, and interactions with the built environment and one another.
As she navigates the city, Fran Markowitz shares narratives of local citizenry played out against the larger dramas of nation and state building. She shows how Sarajevans' national identities have been forged in the crucible of power, culture, language, and politics. Sarajevo: A Bosnian Kaleidoscope acknowledges this Central European city's dramatic survival from the ravages of civil war as it advances into the present-day global arena.
| Cover Title Copyright Contents Photos Tables Acknowledgments Pronunciation Guide Bosnia-Herzegovina and Neighboring Countries Introductions 1. Meeting and Greeting the City 1. Sarajevo's Roman Catholic Cathedral of the Sacred Heart 2. Ecce Homo sculpture and Sarajevo's Serbian Orthodox Cathedral 3. Grave of a Bosnian šehid in a Sarajevo municipal park 4. "Pershing Missile" minaret 2. Practices of Place: Living in and Enlivening Sarajevo 5. Sarajevo's Baščaršija 6. Šetanje on Tito Street, April 2008 7. Šetanje on Ferhadija, April 2004 8. The eternal flame to Tito's multiethnic Partisans 9. The Vijećnica, June 2004 Bosniacs, Croats, and Serbs: The Constituent Nationsof Bosnia-Herzegovina 3. National Legibility: Lines of History, Surges of Ethnicity 10. "Don't Forget Srebrenica" 11. Dobrinja, August 2002 12. Welcome to Republika Srpska, August 2002 13. Mostar's newly rebuilt Stari Most, June 2004 4. Census and Sensibility: Confirming the Constitution 1. Bosnia-Herzegovina's Population according to Ethnicity, 1991 2. Comparative Enumerations of Sarajevo, 1991 and 2002 3. Solidifying Bosniac Identity Ostali: The Other People(s) of Bosnia-Herzegovina 5. Where Have All the Yugoslavs, Slovenes, and Gypsies Gone? 4. National Belonging in Marriage Registration Data 14. A postcard showing Gypsy children 15. Gypsy squatters 6. Sarajevo's Jews: One Community among the Others 16. Detail, Sarajevo's Ashkenazi synagogue 17. Zoran Mandlbaum at the Mostar gravesite of his mother 18. The Sarajevo Haggadah 7. Insisting on Bosnia-Herzegovina: Bosnian Hybridity 19. A display of T-shirts for sale in the Baščaršija 5. Bosnian and Undeclared Affiliations in Marriage Registration Data 20. A Bosnian house in Marjindvor 21. A stečak, medieval tombstone Conclusion 8. After Yugoslavia, after War, after All: Sarajevo's Cultural Legacies Glossary Notes References Index Back cover | "Markowitz dispels widely held myths that Sarajevo has become a purely Muslim city. . . . The author's many insights into Sarajevo and its kaleidoscope of inhabitants are welcome and valuable."Slavic Review"A warm and well-written portrait of Sarajevo during its first post-war decade."—Journal of the Royal Anthropological institute
"Markowitz has succeeded in combining a solid work of scholarship with a personal take on her subject which she explores in a very thorough and balanced way. This is a rich contribution to the scholarship on the issue of identify in present-day Bosnia & Hercegovina and deserves a wide audience,...