The Importance of Observation, Classification and Description in the Construction of the Ethnic Identity of Bunjevci from Bačka (1851–1910)

Abstract

This paper considers the influence of ideological, scientific-ethnographic and census classification schemes and descriptions on the formation of the ethnic identity of Bunjevci from Bačka during the period from 1851 to 1910. Starting from the standpoint of a theory of social systems and institutions, the influences of observational apparatuses, observations, classifications, and descriptions on the construction of ethnic identity are discussed. It is shown that transformations in the social order lead to changes in the construction principles of perception and classification schemes. Accordingly, the interaction of commonsensical, ideological, scientific, and official statistical classification schemes and descriptions in the modern social order created an ethno-nationalistic discourse that strongly affected the formation of the ethnic identity of Bunjevci from Bačka.

Full text

69
ABSTRACT
The Importance of Observation, Classification and Description in the
Construction of the Ethnic Identity of Bunjevci from Bačka (1851–1910)



ences of observational apparatuses, observations, classications, and descriptions on the construction

      




IZVLEČEK
Pomen opazovanja, klasificiranja in opisovanja nastajanja etnične identitete v
Bunjevcih v Bački (1851–1910)
  

valnih orodij, opazovanj, klasikacij in opisov na nastanek etnične identitete obravnava z vidika teorije
družbenih sistemov in inštitucij. Izkaže se, da spremembe družbenega reda vodijo v spremembe prin
cipov oblikovanja zaznavnih in klasikacijskih sistemov. Skladno s tem je interakcija zdravorazumskih,
ideoloških, znanstvenih in uradnih statističnih klasikacijskih metod in opisov v sodobnem družbenem
  
njevcih.

THE IMPORTANCE OF OBSERVATION,
CLASSIFICATION AND DESCRIPTION IN THE
CONSTRUCTION OF THE ETHNIC IDENTITY OF
BUNJEVCI FROM BAČKA (1851–1910)
III

     

    
    


Aleksandar VUKIĆ, Mario BARA
70
INTRODUCTION

the central focal points of social research.
 
   
  
    
special attention must be devoted to systems of classication of human collectives. Modern debates on

objective ethnic structure, the second focuses on the construc
tivist3
This paper begins with the premise that ethnic structure is a product of the permeation of internal




denitions.






           
    knowledge, which is
power over others, the power to label, categorize, and classify others. Modern western institutions and
the discourses associated with them have created a modern classication scheme at the centre of which

       th

         
 

  


of managing and controlling its population.
  
   

3 



     

rization of others.
         

The Importance of Observation, Classification and Description in the Construction of the Ethnic Identity of Bunjevci ...
71



      
basis of information collected about itself and its environment,
 
cal, and statistical discourse of itself,
 society, market, and population, whose purpose
is to manage the population and control it through a new scheme of denoting, categorizing, and

 
   
    
political nation,
 

its residents.
ETHNIC GROUPS/INSTITUTIONS IN SOCIAL SYSTEMS
THEORY

   
forms of organization of human populations developed through evolution, whose basic function is to

gress and change in the structure and identities of ethnic groups are not the result of their cultural dif

dierentiating
  dierentiations
that enable the observer to select and sort objects into classes and categories. The internal mechanisms
    

factor, then the selective purpose of institutions becomes signicant.  


        
  


      

  Institutions take credit for making routine decisions, solving common problems, and doing much of the routine





Aleksandar VUKIĆ, Mario BARA
72
       




from the dialectic of inner coding and outer classications.










boundaries.
PRINCIPLES OF CONSTRUCTING CLASSIFICATION
SHEMES


       
sication schemes are institutionalized forms that steer action and communication in one of several
potential directions. The possible directions of consideration, functioning, and behaviour depend on

7
Through the evolution of the social order from hunting and agrarian societies to traditional socie



a congenital attribute of the human mind.
basic operations inherent to each individual to simple, but for human culture constitutive, classication

In hunting and agrarian societies, each member of an ethnic group must learn to dierentiate


we belong to the culture, and they belong to nature.
7 

     



during the evolution of mankind. The creation of categories follows a similar universal natural path. The human


The Importance of Observation, Classification and Description in the Construction of the Ethnic Identity of Bunjevci ...
73
In traditional social orders, the classication criterion is the place that a certain social group pos

from the concept of place, and not just place of origin, but an entire set of institutionalized relationships






 


  

th
  
    
th


         



it merged local ethnic groups into territorial ethnic communities or, if the conditions were favourable,
into nations.
SCIENTIFIC AND IDEOLOGICAL CLASSIFICATION
SCHEMES AND CONSTRUCTION OF ETHNIC IDENTITIES
IN THE HABSBURG MONARCHY

   

occurring at the time of the censuses.
Censuses show that the classication schemes in traditional orders categorized and registered the
population according to class and religious background. From a religious standpoint, the apparatus of

  


 For this reason, records on the popu

  



Aleksandar VUKIĆ, Mario BARA
74
The rst classication schemes from the Romantic era which aspired to organize this world in the
language as the fundamental dierential

language
propinquity
     


   
        
  
   
Novine
horvatzke
      

territorial


    
     etc., as opposed to a single


     


 
   
characteristics related to language, religion, and historical mentality together with the territorial-ecologi-
cal conditions 


teresting than the estimate itself, however, is the classication scheme applied to these nations. Croats







      

              
  Bunjevci (pl. of Bunjevac


   


The Importance of Observation, Classification and Description in the Construction of the Ethnic Identity of Bunjevci ...
75





are therefore one nation. Following the same logic, the South Slavic languages are divided into four


ideological, and communicational eects were of great signicance for the development of the dis



 




   
         



   

            

     

       
  

OFFICIAL STATISTICAL CLASSIFICATION SCHEMES
AND THEIR INFLUENCE ON THE IDENTITY OF BUNJEVCI
FROM BAČKA

       

          




  


Aleksandar VUKIĆ, Mario BARA
76

      
gin. As a result, in later centuries census takers were in doubt as to how to dene the dierent groups
  
             

th


       
categories, individuals and groups developed identities that distanced them from their origin.
Classification perplexity in the censuses of the Habsburg Monarchy
      
 
    
Illyrians and RasciansDalmatians, which

Šokci and Bunjevci   


    


  
   


    
 



ŠokciDalmatians when



      



Croat
th   
ththDalmatians,
Croats, Bunjevci, or Illyrians th th 
(although the name Dalmatiansth
       

The Importance of Observation, Classification and Description in the Construction of the Ethnic Identity of Bunjevci ...
77



   
 


 Croats was
used much more often than Šokci


level as well.


   
Bunjevci

   
Bunjevci

   
the group would continue to develop and strengthen and under which the national revival would be

      




  









 

Dalmatians



 
 




Aleksandar VUKIĆ, Mario BARA
78



       

 

Bunjevačko
šokačke novine 




 
Croatian label. Starting with the representatives of the cultural elite, this spread through other levels of



vanished.

tial for decades to come. It is thus evident that the perception of ethnic groups and the data on them in



    


Type of
classication
scheme
Classier Year the
scheme was
developed
Subject of the
classication
scheme
Principle of
classication
Divisional
class
Categories Sub-categories

government
statistical
Feudal gover
nment admini
stration
 Members of
classes
Class,
Religion
Class,
Confession
Nobles and



Nobles, State

Merchants,
Peasants

government
statistical
Feudal
government
administration
 Commoners,
Men
Religion Commo
ners,
Men
Catholics,



Scientic   Population of

 Native
speakers
Croats,
Slovenes,
Serbs
Kajkavian
Croats, Ortho


Montenegrins...
Scienticide
ological
  South Slavic
population


South Slavs 
rians, Serbs,
Slovenes

Slavonians,


Montenegrins

The Importance of Observation, Classification and Description in the Construction of the Ethnic Identity of Bunjevci ...
79
Type of
classication
scheme
Classier Year the
scheme was
developed
Subject of the
classication
scheme
Principle of
classication
Divisional
class
Categories Sub-categories
Scientic   Population of


Religion,



groups
Croats, Serbs,


Czechs…
Croats, Serbs,
Montenegrins,

Kliments

Scientic Czoernig  Population of


Religion,



groups
Croats, Serbs,


Czechs…
Croats, Serbs,
Morlachs,


service…
Scienticide
ological
 
published in

South Slavic
population
 South Slavs 


Kajkavian

rians, Serbs



Slovenes
Scienticide
ological
  South Slavic
population
 South Slavs Croats, Slo
venes, Serbs,


government
statistical
Modern
government
administration
 Population
of Serbian


Religion
Population 

Serbs, Croats



Ideological Ideologists of

 Population
of the

Cultural
heritage
Races in the

Slavs,



Croats, Serbs,
Poles, Italians,


Ideological   South Slavic
population

and state
legislation

nations
Croats,


Croats

government
statistical
Modern
state
administration
 Population
of Serbian

Religion Population Roman Cath.,


CONCLUSION
Interaction between inner and outer classication schemes in times of modernization had a great eect


             


 

– a world of meaning that is




 
standing, the world,

Aleksandar VUKIĆ, Mario BARA
80
 
economic manipulations,
 
rational state apparatus,
         
become an important communication theme
 
the integration and political mobilization of an ethnos for the achievement of political goals.
The strength of classication schemes is also visible in the processes of forming modern ethnic identi

  

  
precise numerical indicators served, on one hand, the process of transforming some ethnic categories





identities and communities.
REFERENCES
Antunovics,          Házank
/
          Census
and Identity: The Politics of Race, Ethnicity and Language in a National Censuses
 

thActa Ethnologica Danubiana

Mind and Nature: A Necessary Unity. 

Letopis srbski za 1864
Magyarország a XX. évszázad elején
Die Vertheilung der Voelkerstaemme und deren Gruppen in der ősterreichischen Mon-
archie (Sprachgraenzen und Sprachinseln) sammt einer statistisch-ethnographischen Űbersicht. 
Ethos and Identity.
Magyarország statistikája.
 Magyarország geographiai szótára mellyben minden város, falu  puszta körülmé-
nyesen leiratik
The History of Sexuality. 
Discipline and Punish: the Birth of the Prison. 
. Danica Horvatska, Slavonska i Dalmatinska
Povijest pravaške ideologije. 
Počeci moderne Hrvatske.

The Importance of Observation, Classification and Description in the Construction of the Ethnic Identity of Bunjevci ...
81
  Reconstructing Individualism. 

 The Taming of Chance. 
Muza uči pisati. 
Geographisches Lexikon des Königreichs Ungarn und der serbischen Woiwod-
schaft mit dem temescher Banate
 Ethnic Identity and Equality: Varieties of Experience
in a Canadian City. 

Južnoslavenski nacionalizmi. 
Social Identity. 
Kovčežić za istoriju, jezik i običaje Srba sva tri zakona
manastira.
Slobodan seljak i vojnik. 
Sporna zajednica.
Census and Identity: The Politics of Race, Ethnicity and Lan-
guage in a National Censuses. 
Levi-Strauss.
Totemism.  
Essays of Self-Reference
Društveni sistemi. 
Znanost društva. 
The Social System. 
Action Theory and the Human Condition.
Teorije o etnicitetu. 
Bargaining for Reality: The Construction of Social Relations in a Muslim Commu-
nity. 
Nacionalizam i modernizam. 
Politički spisi. 
. Društveni razvoj u Hrvatskoj od 16. do početka 20 stoljeća (ed. Mirjana

Habsburška monarhija. 
Privreda i društvo. 
Nacionalizam. 
Bunjevačke i šokačke novine

Migracijske i etničke teme