ANTHROPOLOGY IN SERBIA AND DEALING WITH THE PAST

Abstract

In this text I offer a critical review of the recent reconstructions of history of Serbian ethnology and anthropology. These reconstructions are examined with the help of the concept of dealing with, or facing the, past. I offer an interpretation of the role and purpose of disciplinary histories, and a possible explanation for their recent proliferation on the Serbian anthropological scene. Disciplinary histories are viewed as constitutive of the discipline itself, as a tool for identity building; while their proliferation is explained in the context of transition in the Serbian society that includes a thorough transformation of academic and scientific community. In this light, reconstructions of disciplinary history are taken to be a form of internalized reexamination of founding principles, imported from the general discursive levels of society into disciplinary circles. In the end, I comment on the possibilities as well as possible failures of this trend in the future.