Religion and the Politics of Identity in Kosovo

by Duijzings, Gerlachus

• ISBN13: 9780231120999
• ISBN10: 0231120990
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-09-01
• Publisher: Columbia Univ Pr

Summary

Observers have traditionally viewed Kosovo as a frontier society where two Balkan nations, Albanian and Serb, as well as two religions, Islam and Christianity, clash over conflicts of national and religious identity. While this rift is usually perceived as hard and fast, Duijzings shows that the area also has a history of coexistence through cultural contact, religious exchange, and conversion. His new perspective challenges the notion that Balkan conflicts have evolved around clear-cut and fixed ethno-religious groups, and instead discusses evidence that Balkan identities are full of ambiguities caused by processes that are important survival strategies in conditions of violence and insecurity. This tension between conflict and symbiosis is at the core of his perspective, which contains compelling case studies of various ethnic groups and examines how religion shapes their efforts to construct or reconstruct their identities. Though focusing on Kosovo, the scope of these chapters is much wider, covering developments in Croatia, Bosnia, Albania, Macedonia, and Serbia. Religion and the Politics of Identity in Kosovo is a fascinating and timely study of the interaction of religious identity with the politics of nationalism.

Author Biography

Ger Duijzings, a cultural anthopologist who obtained his Ph.D. at the University of Amsterdam, is lecturer in Serbian and Croatian studies at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London

Table of Contents

Preface and Acknowledgements	ix
Introduction	1	(36)
Kosovo as an ethnic shatter zone	5	(13)
The concept of identity	18	(4)
States and the politics of identity	22	(5)
Religion and religious regimes	27	(5)
Violence, identity and the nation-state	32	(5)
The Exodus of Kosovo Croats: A Chronicle of Ethnic Unmixing	37	(28)
An ethnographic sketch of Letnica	38	(7)
Letnica 1992	45	(2)
The exodus	47	(5)
Resettlement in Western Slavonia	52	(13)
Christian Shrines and Muslim Pilgrims: Joint Pilgrimages and Ambiguous Sanctuaries	65	(21)
The Muslim Gypsy pilgrimage to Gracanica	66	(5)
Zociste: the end of a `mixed' pilgrimage	71	(5)
Unrest in the Ostrog monastery	76	(3)
Ambiguous sanctuaries and dervish orders	79	(1)
The Bektashi order and Sari Saltuk	80	(6)
The Martyrs of Stublla: Albanian Crypto-Catholics and the Franciscan Mission	86	(20)
A historical survey of the parish of Letnica	87	(2)
The Martyrs of Stublla, 1846-48	89	(6)
The Tanzimat reforms and the Franciscan offensive	95	(11)
Albanian Dervishes versus Bosnian Ulema: The Revival of Popular Sufism in Kosovo	106	(26)
Dervishes under attack from Serbian nationalists	108	(3)
Dervish orders in Kosovo: a survey	111	(7)
Polemics between Kosovar sheikhs and the Islamic Community	118	(2)
Sh'ite tendencies	120	(4)
The revival and its background	124	(8)
The Making of Egyptians in Kosovo and Macedonia	132	(25)
The ethnonym `Egyptian'	134	(5)
The Egyptians in Yugoslavia	139	(3)
Serbian and Macedonian support	142	(2)
Former Albanianization of the Egyptians	144	(3)
Ethnic mimicry among Gypsies	147	(3)
Censuses and ethnic strife: large groups swallow small ones	150	(7)
Naim Frasheri's Qerbelaja: Religion and Nationalism among the Albanians	157	(19)
Albanian nationalism and overcoming religious divisions	158	(7)
Frasheri's blend of Albanian nationalism and Bektashi doctrine	165	(4)
The Bektashis' response	169	(5)
Frasheri's failure to promote Bektashism as the national creed	174	(2)
The Kosovo Epic: Religion and Nationalism among the Serbs	176	(27)
The theme of suffering	178	(4)
The Kosovo myth	182	(5)
Kosovo in the Active Mood	187	(5)
Folk poetics and populist politics	192	(4)
The recent political use of the myth	196	(5)
Republika Srpska as the realm of the Kosovo spirit	201	(2)
Conclusion	203	(8)
References	211	(17)
Index	228