Balkanism, cultural intimacy and social transactions in the microregion of Elena (Northern Bulgaria)

Bibliographic Data

ID8905455
AuthorsStoyan Nikov (Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Studies with Ethnographic Museum, corresponding author)
Year2024
Volume73
Pages203-216
Publication date2024-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueCivilisations (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0009-8140 • E-ISSN: 2032-0442
PublisherOpenEdition (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.4000/15j2g
OpenAlexW7124975925
LanguageEN
References cited20

Situated in the Balkan Mountains of Northern Bulgaria, the town of Elena and its surrounding villages form a multiethnic and still rural municipality of around 10,000 people. This microregion provides a valuable case for the analysis of identity politics. Observing the local “cultural intimacy” and inherent sociality in the sense of Michael Herzfeld allowed me to understand the dialectical relationship according to which the identities of Balkandzhiya (the highlander) and Balkanets (the “Balkanite” associated with the lowlands) operate. By integrating Herzfeld’s framework with Fredrik Barth’s transactional approach and James C. Scott’s theory of everyday resistance, I was able to explain how local people strategically use some traditionally negative aspects of their culture associated with “balkanism”, as theorised by Maria Todorova, to resist state domination. This has also allowed me to understand and explain how people in the region sometimes turn these seemingly shameful aspects into virtues to resist the imaginary connected to “balkanism”. In this article, I demonstrate the interconnected yet divergent modes of implicit or explicit identity construction and resistance that the categories of Balkanets and Balkandzhiya represent and highlight the nuanced and often contradictory processes through which local identities are negotiated and performed

Dialectic · Ethnography · Identity (music · Sociality · State (computer science · The Imaginary · Transactional leadership · Balkans: History, Politics, Society · Cultural, Psychoanalytic, and Sociopolitical Reflections · Philippine History and Culture

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