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Impressum – Content list

«Impressum – Content list»

by NO AUTHOR SPECIFIED

Source:Ethnologia Balkanica (Ethnologia Balkanica), issue: 12 / 2008, pages: 1-4, on www.ceeol.com.

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Region, Regional Identityand Regionalism in Southeastern Europe

Part 2

Edited by

Klaus Roth and Vesna Vučinić-Nešković

Ethnologia BalkanicaJournal for Southeast European Anthropology

Zeitschrift für die Anthropologie SüdosteuropasJournal d’ethnologie du sud-est européen

Volume 12/2008

LIT

any


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ISSN 1111–0411Copyright ©2008 InASEA, LIT Verlag Dr. W. Hopf Berlin Printed in GermanyEditor-in-chief: Prof. Dr. Klaus RothCo-editor: Prof. Dr. Vesna Vučinić-Nešković, BelgradeEditorial Board: Milena Benovska-Săbkova (Bulgaria), Keith Brown (USA), Ulf Brunnbauer (Germany), JasnaČapo-Žmegač (Croatia), Nicolae Constantinescu (Romania), Albert Doja (France), Christian Giordano (Swit-zerland), Robert Hayden (USA), Deema Kaneff (Germany), Karl Kaser (Austria), Jutta Lauth Bacas (Greece),Damiana Otoiu (Romania), François Ruegg (Switzerland), Stephanie Schwandner-Sievers (England).

Editorial assistant: Tomislav Helebrant (Munich)

The journal is published by the International Association for Southeast European Anthropology (InASEA). Itpublishes articles by members of InASEA as well as by non-members. All articles are anonymously reviewed.Languages of publication: English, French, German Contributions must be supplied with a short abstract in English.

Cover: A variety of traditional dishes from southeastern Serbia presented at the Sixth Festival “Golden Hands”(Šesti sabor “Zlatne ruke”), held at the Monastery of St. Prohor Pčinski, Southeastern Serbia, in September1992. (Photo by Ivana Masniković-Antić).

Subscription: Subscription price (one volume per year):Students: 10 €, Individuals: 16 €, Institutions: 20 €Individuals and institutions in Southeast Europe: 10 €.

Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek

The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliographie;detailed bibliographic data are available in the internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de

ISBN 978-3-643-10107-5

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

© LIT VERLAG Dr. W. Hopf Berlin 2009Fresnostr. 2 D – 48159 Münster

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Contents

Editorial 5

Region and Cultural Production

Aleksandra Marković, Amsterdam

Goran Bregović, the Balkan Music Composer 9

Evgenia Krăsteva-Blagoeva, Sofia

Tasting the Balkans: Food and Identity 25

Nikolai Vukov, Miglena Ivanova, Sofia

Food Labels, Meal Specialties, and Regional Identities:The Case of Bulgaria 37

Danijela Velimirović, Belgrade

Region, Identity and Cultural Production: Yugoslav Fashion in the“National Style” 59

Alexey Pamporov, SofiaThe Regional and the Subgroup Features of the Kinship Terminology ofRoma/Gypsies in Bulgaria 79

Constructing and Deconstructing Regional Identities

Eckehard Pistrick, Halle

Migration Memories in the Borderlands: The Constructions of RegionalIdentity and Memory in Zagoria (Southern Albania) through

Place and Sound 97

Simona Adam, Timişoara

The Construction of Banat Regional Identity throughLife-Story Interviews 111

Melinda Dincă, Laurenţiu Ţîru, Timişoara

Regional and Ethnic Identity in the Rural Areaof Timiş County, Romania 123

Ethnologia Balkanica 12 (2008)


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4 Contents

Mirjana Pavlović, Belgrade

Regional Identity: The Serbs in Timişoara 135

Sanja Zlatanović, Belgrade

The Literary Opus of Bora Stanković and the Construction ofLocal Identity 147

Karolina Bielenin-Lenczowska, Warsaw

The Construction of Identity in a Multiethnic Community: A CaseStudy on the Torbeši of Centar Župa Commune, Western Macedonia(FYROM) 167

Nevena Dimova, Sofia

Identity of the Nation(s), Identity of the State: Politics and Ethnicity inthe Republic of Macedonia, 1990–2000 183

Petko Hristov, Sofia

Trans-border Exchange of Seasonal Workers in the Central Regions ofthe Balkans (19th – 20th Century) 215

Planning in Metropolitan Regions

Dora Alexa-Morcov, Bucarest

Les jeux de la construction d’une région métropolitaine dans laRoumanie après le 1989: Le cas de la zone métropolitaine de Bucarest 231

Tamara Maričić, Jasna Petrić, Belgrade

Physical Expansion and Subregional Disparities in the GrowingMetropolitan Region of Belgrade 245

Addresses of authors and editors 267

Instructions to Authors 270


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Editorial

«Editorial»

by Klaus Roth




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Editorial

This volume of Ethnologia Balkanica, the journal of the International Asso-

ciation for Southeast European Anthropology (InASEA), presents the second

part of a selection of papers of the 4th InASEA conference which took place in

Timişoara, Romania, on 24–27 May, 2007. With its topic “Region, Regional

Identity, and Regionalism in Southeastern Europe”, the conference attracted

more than 150 paper presenters. It was organised by Mircea Alexiu and Ata-

lia Ştefanescu from the West University of Timişoara and received the finan -

cial support of the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, the

German Science Foundation and the West University of Timişoara. We are verygrateful to all of them and extend our thanks to the authors of the papers and

particularly to the reviewers.

It was the goal of the conference, and it is the goal of the two volumes, to

promote the ethnological study of region, regionalism, and regional identities in

Southeast Europe in view of the fact that the awareness of “region” and regional

belonging as well as the regional cooperation and political or cultural decentral-

isation are of increasing relevance in Southeast Europe. Both volumes present

papers which analyse aspects of the regional dimensions of social, political, and

above all cultural processes – processes in which the regional policies of the Eu-ropean Union play a more and more decisive role.

The contributions to this second volume focus equally on tangible and intan -

gible dimensions of the region, representing the region both as a territorial unit

that can be perceived with one’s senses, and as a mental construct laden with

symbolic meaning and emotion. The papers demonstrate that regions, be it the

entire Balkan Peninsula or be it a small area in the Rhodope Mountains, can be-

come palpable, visible, and audible. They can produce culture and they can, at

the same time, be products of culture – and of deliberate spatial planning from

“above”. Very often, though, regions are constructions of those who inhabitthem, serving purposes of spatial, ethnic, religious or even professional identi-

fication, or of politically motivated ethnic border-drawing. In any case, both the

physical and the symbolic regions continue to be, as the extreme disparities be-

tween metropolitan and rural regions or the quarrel about the name of the cross-

border region of Macedonia indicate, a very relevant issue in Southeast Europe.

Hopefully the present volume will help to elucidate some of the questions aris-

ing from this fact.

Klaus Roth, editor-in-chief Munich, February 2009


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6 Editorial

Dieser Band der Ethnologia Balkanica, der Zeitschrift der International Associ-

ation for Southeast European Anthropology (InASEA), präsentiert den zweiten

Teil einer Auswahl von Vorträgen der 4. InASEA Konferenz, die vom 24.–27.

Mai 2007 in Timişoara, Rumänien, stattfand. Mit ihrem Thema „Region, regi-

onale Identität und Regionalismus in Südosteuropa“ zog sie mehr als 150 aktiveTeilnehmer an. Sie wurde von Mircea Alexiu und Atalia Ştefanescu an der West

Universität von Timişoara organisiert und erhielt finanzielle Unterstützung von

der Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, der Deutschen For-

schungsgemeinschaft und der West Universität von Timişoara. Wir sind ihnen

allen zu Dank verpflichtet und möchten zudem allen Autoren sowie insbesonde-

re den Rezensenten danken.

Es war das Ziel der Konferenz, und es ist das Ziel der beiden Bände, die

ethnologische Erforschung der Region, des Regionalismus und der regionalen

Identitäten in Südosteuropa voranzutreiben, und zwar vor dem Hintergrund der

Tatsache, dass dort das Bewusstsein für Region und regionale Zugehörigkeit

ebenso wie auch die regionale Kooperation und die politische wie kulturelle

Dezentralisierung wachsende Bedeutung haben. Beide Bände enthalten Beiträge,

die verschiedene Aspekte der regionalen Dimensionen sozialer, politischer und

vor allem kultureller Prozesse analysieren – Prozesse, bei denen die Regionalpo-

litik der Europäischen Union eine immer entscheidendere Rolle spielt.

Die Beiträge dieses zweiten Bandes behandeln gleichermaßen die materiellen

und immateriellen Dimensionen der Region, so dass sie die Region als eine mitden Sinnen erfassbare territoriale Einheit ebenso wie auch als mentales Kon-

strukt behandeln, das mit symbolischer Bedeutung und Emotion geladen ist. Die

Artikel zeigen, dass Regionen, sei es die gesamte Balkanhalbinsel oder sei es

ein kleines Gebiet in den Rhodopen, fühlbar, sichtbar und hörbar werden kön -

nen. Sie können Kultur produzieren und sie können gleichzeitig Produkte der

Kultur – und der Raumplanung von “oben” sein. Sehr oft sind Regionen jedoch

Konstruktionen ihrer Bewohner und dienen deren räumlicher, ethnischer, reli-

giöser oder sogar beruflicher Identifikation oder aber der politisch motivierten

ethnischen Grenzziehung. Auf jeden Fall haben physische wie auch symbolischeRegionen, wie etwa die extremen Disparitäten zwischen großstädtischen und

ländlichen Regionen sowie der Streit über den Namen der grenzüberschreiten -

den Region Mazedonien zeigen, in Südosteuropa eine überaus große Bedeutung.

Der vorliegende Band kann hoffentlich dazu beitragen, einige der sich hieraus

ergebenden Fragen zu klären.

Klaus Roth, Herausgeber München, Februar 2009

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7Editorial

Ce volume de Ethnologia Balkanica, la revue de l’Association internationale

pour l’anthropologie du sud-est européen (InASEA), présente le deuxième volet

d’une sélection de contributions de la 4ème conférence de l’InASEA qui a eu lieu

à Timişoara, Roumanie, du 24 au 27 mai 2007. Avec sa thématique portant sur

« Region, Regional Identity, and Regionalism in Southeastern Europe », la confé-rence a donné lieu à plus de 150 présentations. Elle a été organisée par Mircea

Alexiu et Atalia Ştefanescu de la West University de Timişoara et a bénéficié du

support financier de la Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research,

de la Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft et de la West University de Timişoara.

Nous leur sommes très reconnaissants et nos remerciements vont aux auteurs

des contributions et plus en particulier à ceux qui en ont fait la relecture.

Le but de la conférence, et le but des deux volumes, est de promouvoir

l’étude ethnologique de la région, du régionalisme et des identités régionales en

Europe du Sud-Est du fait que la conscience de la « région » et de l’appartenance

régionale tout comme la coopération régionale et la décentralisation politique

ou culturelle prennent une importance grandissante en Europe du Sud-Est. Les

deux volumes présentent des contributions qui analysent les aspects des dimen -

sions régionales des processus sociaux, politiques et surtout culturels – proces-

sus dans lesquels les politiques régionales de l’Union Européenne jouent un rôle

de plus en plus décisif.

Les contributions de ce deuxième volume portent autant sur les dimensions

tangibles qu’intangibles de la région, et représentent la région en tant qu’unitéterritoriale. Celle-ci peut être perçue à la fois avec sa propre sensibilité et en tant

que construction mentale, chargée de significations symboliques et d’émotion.

Les contributions démontrent que les régions, qu’il s’agisse de la péninsule des

Balkans toute entière ou d’une petite aire géographique dans le massif montag-

neux des Rhodopes, peuvent devenir tangibles, visibles et audibles. Elles peu-

vent produire de la culture et en même temps être des produits de la culture – et

d’une planification spatiale délibérée. Très souvent cependant, les régions sont le

résultat des constructions de ceux qui les habitent. Elles servent d’identification

spatiale, ethnique, religieuse ou même professionnelle ou à dessiner des fron -tières ethniques pour des motifs politiques. Dans tous les cas, les régions phy-

siques aussi bien que les régions symboliques continuent d’être, comme le dé-

montrent les disparités extrêmes entre les régions rurales et métropolitaines ou la

querelle à propos du nom de la Macédoine, région à cheval sur la frontière, une

thématique très pertinente pour l’Europe du Sud Est. Espérons que le présent

volume aidera à élucider quelques unes des questions surgissant à ce propos !

Klaus Roth, rédacteur en chef Munich, février 2009


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Goran Bregović, the Balkan Music Composer

«Goran Bregović, the Balkan Music Composer»

by Aleksandra Marković




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Goran Bregović, the Balkan Music Composer

Aleksandra Marković, Amsterdam

The Balkans and Balkanism

The critical approach to the discourse about the Balkans has become an elabo-

rated field in the last two decades. In one of the first studies focussing on this

topic, Bakić-Hayden introduced the idea of “nesting Orientalisms” (1995) bymeans of which Orientalist ideas can be transported and “nested” into other ar-

eas. However, although initially derived from Orientalism due to obvious simi-larities as discourses about the “other”, further analogies with this concept im-mediately showed important differences. The ideas discussed by Bakić-Haydenwere further developed and challenged in Maria Todorova’s Imagining the Bal - kans (1997) where she coined the term “Balkanism” and explored its histori-cal and political causes. The critical assessment of the applicability of “Balkan -ism” as a form of Orientalism was continued by Kathryn Fleming (2000), whopointed out the aspects in which these two concepts differ, most notably in thelack of actual Western colonial legacies on the Balkans (as opposed to its “meta-

phoric” or “surrogate” colonization, or “colonialism of the mind”, ibid., 1223)and the fact that, in case of the Balkans, one cannot speak of a clear other, but

rather of an “outsider within” or “internal other” (ibid., 1220, 1229). In additionto the position of the internal other, Todorova discussed another important dif -ference to Said’s concept of Orientalism: the Balkans are marked by their “in-betweenness” (1997: 58). She emphasized the “mongrel” nature of the Balkansand its peoples who are, in her words, imagined as “semideveloped, semicolo-nial, semicivilized, semioriental” (ibid., 16). The Balkans are, she concludes,an ambiguous, liminal space, a space of blurred borders between West and East,

self and other, a region that is not Europe anymore, but not Orient yet, and viceversa (ibid., 47).

All these researchers stress how ideas about the area are coloured by a vastcorpus of preconceptions that have been accumulating for the last several hun -dred years. The dichotomies that employ the Balkans at its one pole, and Eu-rope (or the West) at its other pole, show divisions along confessional, national,political, and other lines. The Balkans are associated with Orthodox Christian -ity, but also with Islam, Ottoman Empire, Slavs, and communism. As a conse-quence, there are notions that are attributed to this regional image and as such

perpetuated in diverse contexts. Bringing this point even further, and writing


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10 Aleksandra Marković

about “nausea against the ‘semi-other’,” Kiossev describes the perception of thepeninsula as “a disgusting and obscure place ‘where everything is perverted,’a contaminated kingdom of repressed European demons: cruelty, machismo,hysterical passion, murderousness, barbarism, ignorance, arrogance, undisci-

plined eroticism, pollution, forbidden corporeal pleasure, and dirtiness” (Kios-sev 2005: 180).

Simultaneously with the analysis of the Balkanist discourse, there are at -tempts to explore how such ideas influence the self-image of Balkan nations.In each country there are discourses that use “Balkan” as an adjective to referto that country’s perceived “backward” (less modern, barbaric, non-Europe-an) nature. Depending on each country’s physical location and political history,it is easier or harder to accept or reject the imposed image. This phenomenonwas studied by Bakić-Hayden (1995) and Fleming (2000), as they discussed theways Orientalist rhetoric is internalized and used within Balkan countries. Oth-er scholars dealt with psychological mechanisms behind this self-identification,and Kiossev explored new forms of popular culture and music developing in Bal-kan countries as a consequence of being stigmatized. Claiming that these newforms stem from the psychological reaction to being stigmatized (which leadsthrough a process of self-stigmatising to self-exoticization), he quotes Živkovićwho deals with the Serbian self-image, but his remarks are essentially applicableto the whole Balkan region:

The stigma they bear combines the stigmas of the South and of the East,both Slavdom and Turkish taint, of congenital communism and Balkanviolence. … Accepting this largely negative stigma, their responses os-cillate between playing it back in exaggerated form as ‘minstrelization’and various shades of ambivalent self-exoticization (Živković, quoted inKiossev 2005: 189).

The result, according to Kiossev, is “less a music of protest and trauma … thana tricksterlike, comic and aggressive transformation. It turns the lowermost pic-

ture of the Balkans upside down and converts the stigma into a joyful consump-tion of pleasures forbidden by European norms and taste” (ibid., 185).Balkanism proves to be an applicable theoretical approach when discussing

popular culture of the region, as it is “as much a conceptual designator as a geo-graphic one” (Fleming 2000: 1230). In accordance with research into the impactof popular literature on shaping the image of the Balkans (the topic that has been

extensively dealt with by Todorova and others), it is possible to explore Balkanmusic and its role in the same process.

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11Goran Bregović, the Balkan Music Composer

An ambassador of the Balkans

This paper focusses on statements about the music of Goran Bregović, displayedin interviews with him and articles about him. Interestingly, rather than offer-

ing some actual biographical data about Bregović, his website (Bregović Offi-cial Website: Biography) offers but a schematized, romanticized version of hislife and career. Yet it is possible to discern that prior to his international career

he was a member of Bijelo Dugme (The White Button), one of the most popu-

lar rock bands of former Yugoslavia. The band’s immense success lasted for al-most 20 years throughout the 1970s and until the late 1980s. The political tur-bulences that would lead to the break-up of the SFR Yugoslavia coincided withthe last projects of Bijelo Dugme. In the early 1990s, Bregović moved to Parisand started his cooperation with Emir Kusturica, one of the most popular film

directors from the region. Bregović collaborated with Kusturica by compos-ing music for three of his movies (Time of the Gypsies in 1989, Arizona Dream in 1993, and Underground in 1995). These soundtracks (especially the Under-ground ) have brought worldwide fame to Bregović, who since then performs allover the world with his Wedding and Funeral Band (called also Wedding and

Funeral Orchestra).

Goran Bregović is regarded as one of the characteristic and most popular art -ists in what is labelled and sold on the world music market as “Balkan music”.This music style is marketed as encompassing mainly traditional musics from

the Balkans, but in reality it also includes diverse forms of popular music. Thepopularity of Balkan music is explored by Laušević (2007); bearing in mind theterritorial shift (she deals with Balkan music and dance in the United States),

many of her conclusions are applicable to the European context, where the Bal-kan music scene is arguably even more pronounced. Apart from the obviousproximity of the Balkans to the rest of Europe, one of the main reasons for thelarger presence of Balkan music in Western Europe might be the larger number

of displaced persons as a consequence of the wars in former Yugoslavia, andtherefore a bigger need (at least initially) for an increased offer of such musi-

cal events. In time, though, the Balkan scene began to appeal to more and morenon-Balkan audiences, and this is a trend that still continues.

The popularity of Balkan (in this case Bulgarian) music in Western Europeis commented on by Todorov:

Unique or ‘savage’, Bulgarian musical folklore is sought by foreigners intheir quest for individual harmony … For the foreigners, the represen -tations of our folklore music … are not an anachronistic restoration ofBalkan exoticism, but new chronotopes of their own vitality which they

have achieved through the vitality of our own Bulgarian voices (Todorov,quoted in Todorova 1997: 60 f.).


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The analysis of the reasons for this wide popularity and reception of Balkan mu-sic, as well as of the accuracy of this quote, goes beyond the scope of this paper.Furthermore, the perception of this music is in this context less relevant thanits representation. Nevertheless, it is important to stress that the music of Goran

Bregović is embedded in the overall framework of what is marketed as Balkanmusic, which is currently gaining in popularity.

As mentioned above, among the artists dedicated to this music style GoranBregović is one of the best known and the most popular. In interviews and ar-ticles about his music, he is often referred to as a Balkan composer, sometimes

even as an “undisputed ambassador of Balkan music” (Neveux 2006). The im-age of him as an “ambassador”, implying that he is someone who offers a de-sirable, representative idea of the region and is entitled to speak on its behalf,is very common (as is the case with a German article that refers to him as a“Botschafter des Balkans”, Bednarz 1999). Statements like those displayed onEmir Kusturica’s official website (kustu.com 2007) that describe him as “sure-ly the most known composer of the balkans [sic]” further underline his link tothis region.

Coming from the Balkans and being called an “ambassador of the Bal-kans”, Bregović is regarded as an authority in what “genuine” Balkan music is(cf. Laušević 2007: 195). In other words, he is in a position to (re)construct theimage of the region and (re)present it to those unfamiliar with its geographical,

cultural, historical, and (above all) music traits. His activities can be exploredas a form of music revival as described by Livingston (1999), who discusses theframework and motivation behind reviving a music tradition. Although her fo-cus is on processes within a society or a nation, her concept can be transposedonto the international level. Her claim that “[i]n certain cases traditions are cho-sen [for reviving] because they are associated by the dominant society with theminority’s culture” (68 f.) reveals a mechanism of choice of those elements ofthe music tradition (as suitable for reviving) that are perceived as representativeof the group that performs them. In a similar vein, Bregović’s music revives se-

lected elements of Balkan music tradition(s) that conform to the audience’s per-ception of the region and expectations of what Balkan music should sound like.In an article about his concerts in Romania, Bregović’s music is given an

even more important role:

With his music, Bregović affirms Balkan culture and preserves its richmusical heritage … Under a title “Bregović is saving the Balkans”, theRomanian daily “Chronica Româna” writes that Bregović is breakingprejudices about this region, which is regarded mainly as a “powder keg”in spite of its vast cultural richness, tradition, Byzantine heritage inter-twined with influences of Western civilisation. Bregović’s music is a pro-


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test to all those who understand nothing and know nothing about this part

of the world (Bregović spasava Balkan 2001).1

However, in spite of the power attributed to Bregović to change the overall

image of the Balkans, his music (and statements about his music) rarely oppos-es common ideas already present in the public’s imagery about this peninsula.His comments usually maintain the same lines that essentialize the Balkans andbring it down to a powder-keg area inhabited predominantly by Orthodox Chris-tians, and mostly by Slav and Roma peoples. In this respect, Bregović’s music,and comments about it, are in accordance with the Balkanized image of thearea. Todorova claims that

the Balkan architects of the different self-images have been involved fromthe very outset in a complex and creative dynamic relationship with this[Balkanist] discourse: some were (and are) excessively self-conscious,others defiant, still others paranoic, a great many arrogant and even ag-gressive, but all without exception were and continue to be conscious ofit (1997: 61).

Aware of this discourse, Bregović readily accepts Balkan images that are attributed to his music, and in fact builds his statements on an assumed exotic value of Balkan music belonging to (an already existing) image of the Balkans, “a piece of discourse that refers to background knowledge the speaker and audience

share” (Močnik 2005: 95).Both when emphasising his roots in claiming his “return to the origins, at

the same time Slavic and gypsy” (kustu.com 2007), and when the “hypnoticpower of his music” is described (Bregović Official Website: Press in English),in Bregović’s Balkans it is possible to discern an exotic other, guided by ancientforces stronger than reason. “Roots in the Balkans where he stems from, headin the 21st century which he fully inhabits, Goran Bregović … [is] creating mu-sic that our soul recognizes instinctively and the body greets with an irresist -ible urge to dance” (Bregović Official Website: Biography). The imagined “es-

sence” of the Balkans is best summarized in the excerpt from the press sectionof Bregović’s website, where his music is described as a “great gypsy circus, il-luminated by bright and blinding light, but also full of melancholy … Odor ofincense, sacredness and paganism” (Bregović Official Website: Press in Italian).A related impression of “extremes” is present in Bregović’s own attempt to de-scribe the “Balkan soul”: “I think we are a bit more self-pitying than other Euro-peans. And I think that we are sometimes too emotional. We actually move only

1

All translations from the Serbian (Bosnian, Croatian), German and Italian into Englishwere made by the author. I am grateful to Mariana Gómez de la Villa for assisting me intranslating quotes in Spanish.


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in extremes, there is either too much happiness or too many tears, but nothingin between” (Buhre 2001). These extremes reveal dichotomies that are relatableto the idea of Balkanism, where the image of the ancient, emotional East is con-

fronted with the image of the modern, emotionless West.

The Balkans in Bregović’s music

In an interview titled “My address is the Balkans”, Bregović states: “I am aboveall a Balkan composer and the addressee of my music is the Balkans. My musicis inspired by the Balkans and is written for the Balkans, and the fact it is ac-cepted in the rest of the world is nice” (Mičeta 1999). However, the music anal-ysis of his pieces (and the discourse surrounding it) lead to the conclusion that

he is in fact composing for the West as a target group, rather than the Balkans.On his official website, Bregović’s music is described as a “synthesis of the Bal-kans” (Bregović Official Website: Press in English). This “synthesis” creates arepresentative version, an interpretation of the region and its complexities, ena-bling those outside the Balkans a (feeling of) better insight and understanding

of the region and its music. It is by the composer himself referred to as a “hy-pothetical Balkans”:

When I was young, I thought my music had to sound like Western mu-sic. So I did not believe in the domestic musical heritage, the way I be-lieve in it now. … It [Bregović’s recent music] is our music inspired byour environment. Foreigners may think that we in the Balkans play suchmusic. But that is, of course, not true. The music I play is nowhere in theBalkans created in that way. Therefore, my music is not the music of thereal Balkans; it is the music of the hypothetical Balkans. In it are mixedthings that had never mixed in the Balkans on their own (Mijatović 2002:41, italics added).

Although hypothetical, the Balkans depicted in Bregović’s music exist as a spa-

tial reference. Reflecting the ambiguity of the physical and political position ofthe region (elaborated above), Bregović’s statements about its actual location aretwofold.

The first group of statements places the Balkans undoubtedly outside Eu-rope. These remarks focus on differences between the (imagined) Balkans and

(imagined) Europe, recalling all the usual dichotomies about the East and the

West. When imagining the Balkans outside Europe, Bregović usually emphasiz-es “differences between us and Europe that have always existed … There has al-ways been this civilisation gap between us and Europe that we can hardly catch

up with” (Ferina 2002), and underlines the (already mentioned) role of his musicin overcoming these differences: his music should be “some kind of communica-


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tion between us as we are, pathetic and crappy, and the bright world. For twentyyears everybody criticized me for it, but at the end it turned out I am a moderncomposer” (Mijatović 2002: 48). Within this image, the Balkans are in fact sub-stituting the Orient; in Todorova’s words it is not “an innate characteristic of the

Balkans that bestows it in the air of mystery but the reflected light of the Ori-ent” (1997: 15). In locating the Balkans, Bregović gives it a physical epicentre,and discusses the “quintessence” of the region being in Istanbul:

Greece and Turkey are very interesting places for me. For centuries, Is-tanbul was the capital of the empire which we belonged to. So for fivecenturies, all the best was accumulated there. If you really want to findthe things you feel to be your roots, you’ll find their quintessence in Is-tanbul (Mijatović 2002: 51).

A related image reflects the position of an “outsider within” discussed by Flem-ing (2000: 1220). The Balkans are, although still not Europe, placed within Europe and surrounded by it. This perspective shows the idea of Europe meto-nymically replaced by the European Union, and the idea of the Balkans meto-nymically replaced by former Yugoslavia (or rather some of its former repub-lics). Thus, changes induced by the EU’s most recent enlargement by Bulgariaand Romania influence Bregović’s perception of these countries’ place in or out -side Europe.

For him [Bregović], “the future of the European continent will inevitablybe played out in the Balkans. It would be a problem for Europe, whichsurrounds us, to have ‘wild’ countries at its centre: Greece to the south,

Bulgaria to the north and soon Romania …” Between his whisky, guitarand accordion, Goran Bregovic admits to being more than optimistic: “itis in the EU’s best interests to integrate the ‘wild ones’ like us,” he con -cludes with a smile (Neveux 2006, italics added).

The second group of statements dealing with the physical location of the Balkans

reflects the idea of this region being on the border between East and West, Asiaand Europe. This transitory status of the region, as elaborated above, is a com-mon topic in discussions of Balkanism, for it is often perceived as a space thatis neither Europe nor Orient (or both of them). The blurriness of the Balkansas a consequence of their liminality is underlined in Bregović’s statements andsometimes serves as justification for his artistic decisions, when he discusses theeclecticism of his music (which will be elaborated below).

The blurriness of the Balkans is often correlated to cohabiting ethnic, nation-

al and confessional groups, resulting in the “musical melting pot” that Bregović

creates with his hypothetical Balkans:


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You created, in a way, a musical melting pot that was accepted by the

West. – Through history the Balkans used to be one of the darkest places.Through history it used to be a border among three confronted worlds –Orthodox, Catholic and Islamic. Borders are dark places that nobody

wants to deal with … Our image in the world is horrible (Mičeta 1999).At the same time, he refers to the same border quality as a source of inspiration,

using the same idea of the border as a “dark place” to emphasize its ambiguityand strangeness:

I get my inspiration at the border between Catholics, Orthodox and Mus-lims … Borders are dark places … Art from such places is completely

unknown. Music from that border might be the last big music revelationand I am revealing it to the world (Mijatović 2002: 42 f.).

This statement entirely reflects Todorova’s view that “border” and “bridge”are ubiquitous metaphors for imagining the Balkans, acquiring a “mantralikequality that most writers on the region like to evoke as its central attribute”(1997: 59). Perpetuating this constructed image, Bregović, the ambassador ofthe “wild ones”, presents to the West the music of the dark, blurry, liminalBalkans.

Synthesizing the Balkans

Two notions elaborated above, Bregović’s roots in the Balkans and the meta-phoric position of the Balkans in or outside Europe, are used by him to justifyhis artistic choices. In other words, he uses “background knowledge” (Močnik2005: 95) about the Balkans to legitimate his music by giving it the stamp of“Balkanness” especially in cases when he is criticized for stepping away fromwhat are considered to be his Balkan roots, or when his choices are assessed as

ethically questionable.

It is possible to discern several different applications of the Balkan-relateddiscourse in Bregović’s statements. One of the main notions that Bregović usesto refer to his composing process is eclecticism that builds on the idea of the

“mongrel” nature of the Balkans mentioned earlier. He describes himself as“a composer who comes from a very eclectic place, from a land dominated byTurks for five centuries, the only direct border between Orthodox, Catholics andMuslims” (Neveux 2006). This notion is most often supported by adding twofacts from his biography, a consequence of what is often described as a “cultural

jigsaw” (Bednarz 1999): the fact that he grew up in multicultural Sarajevo, and

the fact that he comes from a multiethnic family (as his father was Croatian andhis mother Serbian). These two facts are repeated over and over again in intro-


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ductory segments of almost every interview and article about Bregović, as if to underline from the very beginning the blurry image of the Balkans. These factsare also described as the basis for his treatment of traditional music.

Bregović claims that eclecticism as an artistic approach, resulting in “mé-

langé” (Bregović Official Website: Press in French), stems from his Balkanorigins: it is “very natural; it just goes naturally from the place I’m from”(Mijatović 2002: 43). The notion of eclecticism is corroborated by what Flem-ing, when commenting on West European and North American perception of

the Balkans, described as a “tendency to lump them [the Balkans] all together,to overlook any differences that might exist between countries, regimes, peo-ples, or even names of countries” (2000: 1219). In building his “hypotheticalBalkans”, a construct of such an amalgamated nature, Bregović (perhaps under-standably) mirrors the blurriness of his listeners’ perception, “in order to caterto their preconceptions” (Laušević 2007: 44).

Stressing his “natural” eclecticism legitimizes his composing choices, whichare also claimed to stem from an “eclectic” treatment of music sources. Suchan idea is further supported by the events in the Balkans at the end of the twen -tieth century, when the break-up of Yugoslavia led to the displacement of hun -dreds of thousands of people. Heavily influenced by political circumstances,Bregović creates a music that is not “a nostalgic painting of a deserted house,but an enthralling fresco about the richness of diversity … What is a musician to

do, whose family, godfathers and friends are children of the cursed Balkans?”(Mijatović 2002: 42).An answer to this question is offered by Bregović himself: “Displaced from

my own homeland, cultural, mental and emotional homeland, at first I wasfrightened and horrified, but eventually I started enjoying it” (Interviews withGoran Bregović, n. d.). At the same time, he explains that “the direct conse-quence of the war is the fact that I do not have a homeland anymore … Forsomeone who writes songs it is a serious handicap, because I cannot write po-

ems anymore, I cannot write them in my own language anymore. This is why

now I only recycle songs” (ibid.). In this way, Bregović is interpreting the facthe had to leave his country (as a consequence of wars) both as a limiting and aliberating creative force.

After leaving Sarajevo and moving to Paris, he started his international ca-reer by producing music in a manner usually referred to as recycling. This com-posing technique is in the centre of controversies related to Bregović’s career.Sometimes strongly criticized for using samples (of his earlier pieces and tra-ditional music of the Balkans) as building blocks of his tunes, Bregović read-ily admits to accusations of recycling and adds: “I constantly recycle, my own

and somebody else’s [music]. This is how I imagine music” (ibid.). By this state-ment, Bregović embeds his actions in the framework of a “traditional” musician.


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Among his audiences and in the public sphere, his recycling technique is bothapproved of and strongly criticized, which arguably can be explained by his ex-istence in two realms – the realm of “traditional music” where preservationistideals are a priority and authenticity of music is highly regarded, and the realm

of the contemporary world music market, where music traditions from all overthe world are fused into new styles without restraint.

Consequently, the critique of Bregović’s work usually revolves around thesame two perspectives, and they exist simultaneously in his statements as well,mutually excluding each other. Such a double perspective can, paradoxically,be found even in a single argument, for example in Gourgouris’ claim that“Bregović relies on folk elements, but what he does with that tradition breaksit apart” (2005: 343). In the same text, though, he contradicts himself by stat -ing that “[t]his is how ‘ethnic music’ can still be renewed: by being performedagainst the grain, relieved from the quicksand of nostalgic fetish” (ibid., 341).Not dissimilar to the idea of the blurry Balkans, his additional comment empha-sizes Bregović creating a simulacrum of traditions he uses as sources:

No doubt, his genius is one of absorption and appropriation. … The con -necting thread – the thread of secondary revision – is precisely the can -nibalization of one’s refracted, indigenous musical forms. Bregović isexplicitly drawn to variation, re-circulation, rearrangement, repetition,continuous self-quotation, continuous blurring of the ‘original’ instance

and the instance of its reproduction (ibid.).

In Bregović’s statements about his music, his recycling is facilitated by his ec-lectic approach to composing, which in itself is a consequence of his Balkan

roots and the region’s recent political history. It entirely mirrors the perceivedmelange of nations and cultures, so often stressed by those involved in the anal-ysis of the Balkanist discourse. Music quotes (coming from diverse sources)are pasted by the composer into a “collage” which is a method he defines as“bringing different [music] items into random relations” (Interviews with Goran

Bregović, n. d.). In another interview, he elaborates: “As a composer, I am a col-lagist. Just as there are painters collagists, I belong to the group of composerscollagists. I paste things one to the other and, where the glue holds, the collage

stays; there where it does not hold, I simply discard it [the collage] and look fora new one” (Nikcevich 1995). This seems to point to a further function of theBalkanist discourse in Bregović’s statements because, due to such a compositionprocess and use of musical sources, he cannot ensure the “historical continuityand organic purity” (Livingston 1999: 74) of his music, and therefore needs toembed it in the Balkan framework and give it an unquestionable label of “Bal-

kanness”. This legitimizes him as someone who “grew” from the Balkans andwhose music is therefore “music of the Balkans”.


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Bregović’s recycling compositional technique is embedded in the context ofhis attitude towards traditional music. He disputes criticisms (that he uses mo-tives that do not belong to him) with an elaborate discussion on traditional mu-sic and musicians. The main point he makes is that he should be regarded as a

“folk musician”, which is an idea related to the image of “authentic folk songs”,as summarised by Livingston: “they must be old, they must be anonymous,they must exist in oral tradition, they must have variant forms, and they mustcome from uneducated rural peoples” (1999: 75). Disregarding all implicationsof composing and performing in the context of the globalized world music mar-ket, Bregović equates himself with anonymous musicians in a distant past whohad communally recreated music by varying already existing music material andorally transmitting it to other community members. In that respect, all music be-longs to everybody and is available for everybody to play and develop further.

The image of the traditional musician in Bregović’s statements is connectedto the Balkans that, according to him, still cherish art created by anonymousand unaccredited community members. When asked about musicians he cooper-ates with and who sometimes are, but sometimes are not given credit on his la-bels, he claims that “[h]ere and more to the East, all music becomes traditional,

unknown people paint churches and buildings. We come from the part of the

world where art is depersonalized, where there were never any names. This isthe world my artists come from” (Ferina 2002). He summarizes his attitude by

stating that “the tradition is there to steal it, and everybody bases their creationson anonymous tradition. I know of no one who had invented something withoutrelying on tradition, from Stravinsky to Bela Bartok” (Sanz 2001). Apparently,his attitude towards tradition is twofold: on the one hand, he refers to the ideaof communal recreation in order to validate his similar treatment of music ma-terial, as well as to ensure for his music a label of what Laušević calls “imag-ined antiquity and purity of its origin” (2007: 178). At any other level, though,tradition is abandoned as unnecessary, since Bregović does not share the ideals

underlining music revivals, nor does his audience show any appreciation for the

level of authenticity of performed tunes.Bregović’s image of traditional musicians playing traditional music is espe-cially noticeable in his statements about Roma musicians and his cooperationwith them. Described as a “connoisseur of Gypsy cultures” (Neveux 2006), heis embedding his music in his representation of the Balkans, and emphasizesRoma people as living remains of the “Balkan soul”. His comments on Romamusicians mostly express two attitudes: first, he builds a romantic image of a no-mad nation that is free from the constraints of modern life. This image seems to

have a special appeal to Bregović, as he arguably relates to it on a personal level

and feeling of homelessness due to the break-up of Yugoslavia:


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I wrote in gypsy language because my Serbo-Croatian language does notexist any more. One speaks either Serb, or Croatian, or Bosnian. Gyp-sy is a simple language with few words. That enables me to focus onthe sounds of the words. It is in the tradition of the Slavic texts, some-

how pathetic. If the people do not understand, that does not prevent themfrom singing with me, even if unfortunately I do not have gypsy roots …Unfortunately? – But because everyone wants to be a gypsy (kustu.com2007).

The second notion expressed in Bregović’s appreciation of Roma musicians istheir presumed attitude towards music and appropriation of music that he seems

to share. The image of folk musicians mentioned above is combined with his im-pression of Roma being more “natural” and therefore more authentic than other

nations from the same area, which he considers a desirable quality:With Gypsies one always does something eclectic, but natural, ancient.They steal music in a way it was being stolen five hundred years ago,without any shame. They like the harmony from one song, the melodyfrom another, the rhythm from a third one, and they simply like to playit, and it becomes their music. This is how the music developed normallyfor years. But since there are copyright agencies, everything stopped. Be-cause in their music [i. e., music produced by agencies] there is no crea-

tivity, no natural flow of ideas. Gypsies are not bothered by this problemand this is why their music is warm, and still up to date, modern (Inter-views with Goran Bregović, n. d.).

In contrast to the above quote, Bregović’s career shows that his idealized imageof folk musicians freely exchanging music among themselves does not extend tothe issue of protecting his authorship and copyrights. Nevertheless, in many in -terviews he stresses the importance of his tunes being accepted by the audienceand living a life of their own, as if they were indeed communally recreated: “Itmakes me happy that in time it was forgotten who composed it [his song Djur-djevdan], and nowadays it is sung in restaurants as folk song. That happens onlyonce in a composer’s career: to create something that sounds as if it were notcomposed, but rather emerged on its own” (ibid.). In this respect, his statementsare in accordance with ideals shared by those involved in music revivals: firstly,that music grows “naturally” from the people; and secondly, preferring what islabelled as “traditional music” over contemporary music forms. He brings hispoint further by stating that “[i]f I would know that in one hundred years a songof mine is still performed at a wedding or a funeral, I would know that I did not

compose in vain for all these years. That is my final composing ambition” (Fe-


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rina 2002). In that way, Bregović’s music would indeed become “folk music” ofthe Balkans.

Conclusion

In comments about his music, Goran Bregović uses Balkanist rhetoric tocommunicate the already existing idea of the Balkans to his audiences. Bregovićapplies the Balkanized image of the region mainly by making statements aboutthe position and “soul” of the Balkans. Referring to their symbolic, rather thanphysical landscapes, he locates the Balkans either outside Europe or on its bor-ders. Instead of questioning or challenging these representations, he applies

them in the creation of the region’s self-exoticized image which he calls “hy-

pothetical Balkans”. Apart from obvious promotional goals, his recurring ref -erences to the Balkans serve an additional purpose, as he uses them to explainand justify his composing techniques (such as collage and recycling). Bregović’sstatements about the Balkans are not only constructing – or rather corroborat -ing – an existing framework for the audience’s perception of his music, but arealso supporting his own compositional choices and attitudes towards tradition,

authorship and authenticity.

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URL: http://www.nin.co.yu/1999-12/30/10977.html [21. 11. 2007].Mijatović, Maja 2002: Volksmusik als kompositorisches Stilmittel im Schaf -fen von Goran Bregović. MA thesis. Universität für Musik und darstellendeKunst Wien, Institut für Volksmusikforschung und Ethnomusikologie (not

published).

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Abstract

This paper departs from ideas developed in the discourse on Balkanism and ap-plies them to the analysis of interviews and articles about Goran Bregović, one

of the most popular composers and performers of Balkan music. He frequentlyrefers to this region in his interviews and relates to what could be defined as aBalkanized image of the region, mainly by making statements about the posi-tion and “soul” of the Balkans. Referring to symbolic, rather than physical land-scapes of the region, Bregović utilizes elements of the Balkanist discourse inorder to highlight his image as a “Balkan composer”. Instead of reassessing orchallenging the Balkanized image of the area, his statements show that he is infact using this image to justify his composing choices and his complex attitudestowards issues of authenticity, tradition and authorship.


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Tasting the Balkans: Food and Identity

«Tasting the Balkans: Food and Identity»

by Evgenija Krăsteva-Blagoeva




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Tasting the Balkans: Food and Identity

Evgenija Krăsteva-Blagoeva, Sofia

Food and identity are viewed as mutually connected in the anthropology of food

or nutritional anthropology. At first glance, this connection seems a bit strange.

Food as a material, tangible phenomenon and nutrition as a specific mixture

of biology and culture appear rather alien to the prevailing concept of iden-

tity, a near virtual phenomenon – constructed, imagined or shifted. Yet food

has proved crucial for the formation and maintenance both of individual and

collective identities. As we learn what to eat, how to eat, and when to eat, we

learn “our” culture, “our” norms, and “our” values, and through this process

we learn who “we” are (Koc, Welsh 2001: 2). The concept of taste is crucial in

this context. “Having a taste means to be emotionally integrated in a culture”

(Claessens 1979: 130). Being part of a cultural system, taste and food habits are

not simply individual, but collective. Childhood deeply influences taste forma-

tion. Taste preferences constituted during childhood are deeply embedded in the

personalities of individuals; they are stable and long-lasting. Food f lavours are

quite important in this respect – their repetition becomes a source of pleasure for

the child. People tend to associate them with certain memories of childhood. In

this context it is not accidental that immigrants nostalgically attempt to recreate

the food habits of their homeland. Food proves crucial for collective identities as

well. Yet, in this respect the situation is more complicated.

From a sociological point of view, the distinctive function of taste is crucial.

According to Bourdieu, taste classifies the classifier: “Social subjects, classified

by their classifications, distinguish themselves by the distinctions they make …”

(Bourdieu 1984: 6). Because of the active social mobility, typical for post-social-

ist societies, and the respective fluid boundaries of social groups, this conclusionis not fully applicable in terms of food, especially in the context of post-socialist

Bulgaria (Krăsteva-Blagoeva 2005). Yet, it provides a useful theoretical framefor the problem of food and identity.

Historically considered, taking meals is a collective action with important

social functions; according to Bahtin it embodies the conclusion of the collective

labour process, which brings together the members of the family, kin, and set-

tlement (Bahtin 1978: 306). Sitting in a circle creates a specific relation bringing

together those sharing a meal and helping them communicate. In many socie-

ties foodways and tastes are considered unique, typical only of the communityconcerned. Various expressions of ethnocentrism through food habits, impacts


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26 Evgenija Krăsteva-Blagoeva

of food taboos, and identification of “otherness” through food have been stud-

ied. A cuisine is a social institution determined by the type of ingredients used,

the order of the meals and the etiquette of eating (Goody 1982: 151). In fact, theconcept of “national cuisine” appears to be as virtual and constructed as the na-

tion itself – people’s ways of cooking transgress borders. In this respect thereare only regional cuisines – a region may be a part of certain country, but it may

also include territories belonging to more than one country (Bradatan 2003: 2,

Mintz 1996: 114).

Balkan cuisine is an example of a regional cuisine. Nevertheless, national

implications and tensions do exist in the region and certain products and dishes

are considered “typically” national and are contested by the neighbours. Among

the most indicative examples is Turkish coffee, called this way all over the pe-

ninsula except in Greece1, where it is “Greek coffee”. Some Turkish dishes like

sarmale, stuffed peppers, baklava, and moussaka were borrowed by Balkan

cuisines and considered typically Bulgarian, Greek, Serbian, etc. The famous

“Shopska salad” that has become an emblem of Bulgarian tourism, is almost the

same as Greek salad and Turkish çoban salad (where the cheese is not gratedlike in Bulgaria, but a whole piece or cubes of it are put on the plate next to the

tomatoes and cucumbers). In the Turkish variant sometimes there is no cheese

at all; in the Greek only goat cheese is used. With the recent access of Bulgaria

to the European Union the trademark and the name of the traditional Bulgarian

grape brandyrakia

was contested by the Republic of Macedonia, claiming thatthis was a typical Macedonian drink. The list of such examples could be contin-

ued. What it actually reflects is the existence of a regional Balkan cuisine, sepa-

rated and challenged by national culinary traditions – and by stereotypes. On a

psychological level it could be seen as an expression of the “narcissism of small

differences”. This term was invented by Freud to denote the tendency of people

with minor differences between them to be more aggressive and hateful towards

each other than those with major differences (Freud 1918). In other words, we

feel threatened by those who resemble us, who mirror and reflect us. As we

shall see below, this perspective proves useful for the interpretation of “nationalotherness” in terms of food.

Balkan cuisine is part of Balkan cultural identity – a concept that is by defi-

nition expressed in various everyday practices, leisure activities, and preferences

including food choices (Koc, Welsh 2001: 2). The aim of this text is to examine

1 The Balkan names of this hot drink are the following: tursko kafe (Bulgaria, Macedonia);black, homemade (crna, domaća in Serbian), “our” coffee (naša kafa), ordinary (obična in

Serbian [Bakić-Hayden, manuscript]), turska kava (Serbia, Croatia), srpska kava (amongBosnian Serbs only); cafea turceasca (Romania), Greek coffee, Cypriot coffee (Greece,Cyprus).

any


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27Tasting the Balkans: Food and Identity

how this cultural identity has been constructed and experienced on a daily basis

by people visiting Balkan ethnic restaurants in Sofia. Conducting fieldwork 2 in

several “national” establishments (three Serbian grill restaurants, two of them in

Sofia and one in the town of Montana, NW Bulgaria; two Turkish restaurants; a

Greek-Lebanese restaurant, and a chain of Greek confectioneries in the capitalcity) we have tried to discover what the role of food is in the formation of Bal-

kan cultural identity. We wanted to learn whether common dishes and tastes are

able to create a real sense of cultural proximity overcoming national rivalries

and to see how the symbolic construction of the region and regional identity are

made instrumental by food. In other words, the main objective of the research

was to understand how people feel about these places and the food they are of-

fering. “Traditional” Bulgarian restaurants are of course also as self-consciously

“Balkan” as the ones mentioned above. Nevertheless, their analysis is only part-

ly included in the present research, firstly because they have already been stud-

ied in another paper (Krăsteva-Blagoeva 2005), and secondly because the focus ofthis text is the perception of other Balkan cuisines in Bulgaria. So, what is con-

sidered “traditionally Bulgarian” in terms of taste is mainly used as a reference

point for the perception of other national “tastes”, which are viewed as more or

less similar to the “native Bulgarian flavour”.

The most popular Serbian grill restaurant in Sofia is that of Master Miro.

The owner, Miroslav Stefanović, is Serbian and lives in Bulgaria. He has been

the champion of culinary art four times in his home country. In comparisonwith the other places offering Serbian grill, his restaurant is known as the one

with the best food. To a great extent this is due to him. In addition to being the

main chef, providing the recipes, he takes reservations and greets the diners.

He treats all of them in quite an unsophisticated manner, with typical Balkan

familiarity, while on the other hand, he has adopted the “Western” attitude of

kindness and personal attention towards customers. On the whole, the quality

of service in his restaurant is highly valued. Many of its famous customers are

friends with the owner.

The Greek-Lebanese restaurant “Onar” (“dream” in Greek) is the only oneof its kind in Sofia. It is considered an extraordinary and prestigious place. The

owners are two Greeks and a Lebanese. They all studied medicine together in

Bulgaria, became friends and decided to start a business together. Several years

ago one of the Greeks tried to open a Greek place called “Giromania”3, but it

was not successful, maybe because of the strong competition of original Ara-

2 The fieldwork was carried out in the period between January and April 2007, with the par-

ticipation of a group of students of New Bulgarian University, Department of Anthropol-ogy. Fifty interviews with guests, owners, and staff were made.3 Giros is the Greek name of a special kind of Turkish-Arabic grill, called döner .


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bic djuner (döner) places in Sofia, which are very popular. The combination ofGreek and Lebanese cuisine appeared to be more successful. The Greek chain

of confectionaries “Athene” is frequented by members of the Greek community

in Sofia. In the mid-1990s one of its sweets shops even achieved certain club-

like functions. Because of its location near the Medical Academy (where manyGreeks were studying) it used to be a gathering place for the group. This was

also the place where Greek newspapers were sold, announcements of Greek

concerts were distributed, etc. These integrative functions of the place have di-

minished in recent years because of the decreasing number of Greek students

in Sofia. Yet, it is still a sign of the Greek presence in the city. The second con-

fectionary of the chain is located in one of the central trading streets. The two

Turkish restaurants studied, “T & M” (an abbreviation meaning “Turkish cui-

sine”) and “The Green Paradise”, are famous for the tasty food they offer.

The prices in all the places are relatively high, i. e., customers are expected

to be of good financial status. This leads to the first characteristic feature of this

kind of restaurant – they are fashionable and prestigious. Regular clients are fa-

mous people, members of the artistic and political elite, businessmen, and čalga4 folk singers. Ordinary people also go there, but only on special occasions.

The interior of these Balkan restaurants is not “pure” and “authentic” in

national terms. They can be viewed as a combination of ethnic elements and

characteristics of “ordinary” and contemporary establishments. Elements of the

national culture are used, but only unobtrusively. This is absolutely true in thecase of Turkish restaurants and, to a lesser extent, of the Serbian grill restau-

rants. In “T & M” oriental artifacts are used as a decoration – narghiles, paint-

ings with traditional motifs, metal candlesticks, large baking troughs, coppers,

and ablution jugs. All of them are arranged quite tastefully, while the furniture

in the whole place is fancy, but not out of the ordinary. There is an oriental hint

in the way the bill is handed to the diners – it is placed in a wooden box with

a mother-of-pearl decoration. The restrained use of oriental motifs in the inte-

rior is obviously a delicate way of avoiding potential unfriendly reactions, even

though most of the clients like it and some of them would even prefer more. Withregard to the interior, the Serbian restaurants can be divided into two groups.

The restaurants of the first group display traditional decorations and furniture

(wooden tables, chairs, wooden panelling and other wood carvings, variegated

tablecloths etc). In this respect they resemble many restaurants offering tradi-

tional Bulgarian cuisine. Maybe it is not accidental that in our research this type

of place was found in the countryside, in the town of Montana, while the two

Serbian restaurants in the capital belong to the second group of places with no

“national” elements in the interior; such symbolic elements are found only in

4 Čalga – Oriental-style new folk music, very popular in Bulgaria.


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the food and the music. This could be interpreted as a conscious and deliberate

trend towards elevating the status of the grill in the hierarchy of dishes offered

(maybe directly borrowed from Serbian cuisine). Yet even though the interiors of

all the Serbian restaurants studied were quite similar to the ordinary Bulgarian

establishments, the spirit of the places was considered different by the people:“Knowing that you are in a foreign restaurant, different from your national af-

filiation, somehow cheers you up.”5 Miro’s place is rather modern and exquisite.The only “national decoration” is the bull’s head and ropes of onion, garlic, and

spices hanging on the front door (beef is considered typically Serbian). The in-

terior of the Greek-Lebanese restaurant “Onar” is a mixture of Greek and Leba-

nese elements. Chairs are made of press-board, menus are made of textile and

wood; photographs of famous and beautiful places in both countries accompany

the list of dishes. Narghiles are scattered all over the place. Greek columns are

combined with oriental paintings and Lebanese curtains with ropes. The interi-

ors of the three sweet shops of the Greek chain “Athene” are considered Greek

by the owners, but in fact national elements are not really visible in them. The

furniture is imported from Greece.

In contrast with the interior, the music in all the restaurants is mostly na-

tional and customers really enjoy it. The biggest parties with live music take

place at Miro’s Serbian grill. Some of the clients there even claim that the music

positively influences their appetite and puts them at ease. Some people say that

customers of Serbian restaurants are “merry and joyful” people – “There is aclose resemblance between us, the Balkan people, in terms of merry-making”. Fun is an important part of the “Balkan way” of eating out. It is not accidental

that this was observed in all Serbian restaurants studied – and it is completely

lacking in the Turkish establishments. The level of conscious cultural proximity

and common identity and the affection for Serbian kafana music, that has beenwidespread in Bulgaria ever since the time of socialism, are important factors

in this respect. Only a negligible number of guests (mostly intellectuals) do not

like the music – according to them it sounds like traditional or “tavern music”,

not in tune with the modern atmosphere of the restaurant. Perhaps this is due tosome Bulgarians’ perception of the Serbian language. Because it sounds famil-

iar and resembles Western Bulgarian dialects (considered non-prestigious, since

literary Bulgarian is based on Eastern dialects) Serbian is perceived as a funny

“peasant” language. In the Greek-Lebanese restaurant music is mainly Greek,

because customers prefer it to Lebanese songs, but there is also Bulgarian čalga music. In “T & M” the music is Turkish and the clients appreciate it. Many par-

ties are held there, but with no dances and live music. This is the main differ-

ence between Turkish and other Balkan restaurants. While people go to Serbian

5 Informant M. Hristova, 40 years old, recorded by Maria Aleksieva.


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and Greek places not only to eat, but also for having fun, the Turkish ones are

mainly places for perfect culinary experiences.

The food is greatly appreciated by the customers of all restaurants stud-

ied. All of them are part of the so-called “exo-cuisine” – it includes eating out,

feasts, and special occasions. By definition it is more innovative and open toforeign influences, while the everyday home ‘endo-cuisine’ is much more con-

servative (Lévi-Strauss 1997, Roth 2006: 11). The differentiation between the

two is seen in people’s inclination to eat always the same dishes (because of the

unconscious neophobia, the fear of new food) or the opposite, to experiment andto try different dishes. In the Balkan restaurants we studied, elements of both

types of cuisines were present. Their “exo” nature is undoubted and obvious, but

people tend to go there also because they are looking for some forgotten dishes

that used to be typical of their native cuisine. Oriental in origin, these dishes

have become part of the Bulgarian habitus (Bourdieu 1984); in other words, theywere internalized into the Bulgarian culinary system. For historical and political

reasons they were to some extent excluded from the menus of Bulgarian restau-

rants and nowadays they can be found only in some Balkan restaurants. Never-

theless, they are still considered very tasty, and that is why people are motivated

to eat in such places. Among the most indicative examples in this respect are

lamb and so-called Turkish coffee. Both were typical of the Bulgarian culinary

tradition, but for some reason they are not so widespread any more. It is not ac-

cidental that in all the restaurants studied, lamb (prepared in different ways) isone of the most favoured dishes. As a result of a process of “Europeanisation”

after the liberation from Turkish rule in 1878, Balkan coffee houses rapidly

disappeared (Jezernik 2001: 202). Turkish coffee was considered “not modern

enough” and nowadays it is rarely served in ordinary cafes – so people enjoy

drinking it in the Greek chain “Athene” and in Turkish restaurants.

The same tendency holds true for the grill dishes and grill restaurants. In

the period before 1989 sophisticated meals were prepared at home, while the

restaurants served mostly grill dishes. This appears to be the main character-

istic of “Balkantourist” style, named after the only tourist agency in socialistBulgaria. Despite its popularity it was not considered exquisite, but rather an

ordinary, unpretentious dish (it was often consumed on the street with bread,

as fast food), but it also used to be a symbol of restaurant food. It was usually

eaten with beer and the places of the so-called “grill and beer” type were al-

ways full of people. With regard to their interior they were taverns rather than

restaurants. So, one of the visible changes that occurred with the appearance of

Serbian grill after 1989 was the transformation of these humble places into real

restaurants. This raised the status of the grill itself; particularly the Serbian one

is considered special and quite delicious. Its taste is a bit different from its Bul-garian equivalent, and generally it is more expensive. In fact, most Bulgarian


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“grill and beer” places disappeared and were replaced by Serbian grill restau-

rants. Nowadays Bulgarian restaurants offer grill together with other dishes, but

the special grill places remain mainly Serbian. They simply replaced Bulgarian

establishments of this kind, which implies the highest level of cultural proxim-

ity (but not identity).In Miro’s place Bulgarians are very fond of the grilled meat kebapče, which

is typical for the entire region. In contrast to the Bulgarian equivalent, Serbian

kebabče is more gingery and spicy. In an informant’s words: “Although it re-sembles the Bulgarian one, the two can not be compared. In comparison withall other places, Miro’s grill is much more juicy and fragrant, especially accom-

panied by the irresistible plum rakia.”6 In addition to the grill, beef sausages,the pork specialty of the house (baked with yellow cheese, ham, and spices) and

“Serbian bean soup” are among the favourites. Even though Bulgarians consider

themselves great fans of hot foods, it was necessary for the owner to reduce the

hot spices to meet to their taste. He offers extra Bulgarian spices to be added

by the guests. For instance, savoury and mint are not used by the Serbs at all,

their place is taken by the universal spice vegeta, and according to Master Mirothat is why their dishes are more savoury. Deserts are Serbian. In the Serbian

restaurant in Montana, in addition to the Serbian grill pleskavica, chicken andSerbian ljutenica are among the most popular dishes. The third Serbian restau-rant studied, the so-called “Golden Serbian grill” in Sofia, is also very popular

because of its perfect meat dishes. In the owner’s words, “there is no specialtyof the house, here everything is special and people come because of the grill”. Salads and starters are Bulgarian.

Even though all three Serbian restaurants are quite fashionable and the food

is considered perfect, none of the diners claimed that the food tasted better than

Bulgarian food. It is also indicative that people organize private parties there,

but none of the respondents were inclined to invite foreign visitors – in such cas-

es they all prefer traditional Bulgarian restaurants. People like this food a lot,

but maybe because of the “narcissism of small differences” they do not wish to

express and acknowledge this directly. Here are some examples illustrating foodconservatism in terms of taste and the high esteem for native dishes: “The foodis more gingery, but not more tasty than ours. We are very good cooks, too, butsometimes we wish to try something different”; “We do highly value our cuisine,but we like this, too. Simply some of our Serbian brothers decided to try to dosomething special in Bulgaria and it came out successful, people like it”7. Thekey phrase in the last quotation is “our Serbian brothers”. It was also used by the

owner of the place. In his words, he chose Bulgaria, because “I like the country

6 Informant Čavdar, 26 years old, barman, recorded by Silvia Stefanova.7 Informant Iskren, waiter, recorded by Tanja Trajanova.


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and the people – they have hot blood, just like us. In fact, we – Bulgarians andSerbs – we are brothers”8. It is worth noting that “the brotherhood” subject wasnot recorded anywhere else except in Serbian restaurants. In everyday discourse

it exists only in relation to Serbs, not to Greeks and much less to Turks. It re-

flects the awareness of cultural proximity at all levels, but even this awarenesscannot overcome the preference for the native cuisine. On the other hand, the

existence of ethnic restaurants (especially Balkan) is highly valued by the din-

ers, while not affecting in any way their national sentiments. Most of them indi-

cate even indifference to all “national” topics, but as seen above, not in terms of

taste. This leads to the archetypal nature of taste as something not constructed

or figured out, but deeply coded in the very essence of the self. On the basis of

the “elemental” taste, a “secondary” national cuisine has been established. In

this process its regional core remains hidden or unconscious. The taste of the

Serbian grill is highly valued precisely because “it is like our own, but not ex-

actly”. The similarity to what is perceived as Bulgarian cuisine, the fact that it is

situated on the very edge of “ours” and “foreign” (extracting the best from both

of them in terms of “endo” and “exo”) cuisine is among the main factors for the

success of the Serbian grill.

By contrast with the Serbian grill, similarities between Bulgarian cuisine and

the Greek-Lebanese dishes are hard to find. From the Greek part of the menu

fish, grill, Greek spaghetti pasticio, moussaka (a Turkish dish, also typical of

Bulgarian cuisine), and deserts with walnuts and couscous are preferred. Lamb, prepared in various ways, is the most popular Lebanese dish. Greek cuisine is

considered more oily and doughy than the Lebanese one. As a whole, the latter

is preferred by Bulgarian customers – according to the owners, this may be due

to the closeness of the Greek and Bulgarian cuisine and the fact that Lebanese

cuisine is considered more exotic. In this case, thus, resemblance in taste and

cultural proximity are interpreted differently in comparison with the Serbian

case. In other words, “close” no longer means “tasty”, or at least the degree of

this notional coincidence is not so great. For reasons mentioned above (desir-

ing almost forgotten dishes and drinks from the past), the situation with coffeeis the opposite. “Greek” Turkish coffee is preferred by the clients, as Lebanese

coffee is not so well liked because of the Arabic habit of putting cardamom in

it. Like the owners of the Serbian grill, Greek and Lebanese chefs had to reduce

the spices and the quantity of hot flavourings. According to a Greek client of the

place, it resembles Greek restaurants a lot: “Greek and Lebanese cuisines areincompatible, but the combination of dishes offered here is irresistible.”9 Nev-

8 Informant Miroslav Stefanović,owner of the place, recorded by Tanja Trajanova.9 Informant Iorgos, 27 years old, recorded by Iva Ivanova.


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ertheless, the number of Greeks visiting the place is smaller than the number

of Arabs.

The sweets in the sweet shops of “Athene” are made according to Greek rec-

ipes. For instance, Greek Christmas cookies, traditionally prepared by young

maidens10, are only available in these sweet shops during the Christmas season.Fresh juices and Greek ouzo are well liked by the clients. Prices are consideredto be relatively high, but most people claim that it is worth it, because the serv-

ice and the quality of the sweets is also high. Greek confectioneries are the fa-

vourites of many people because of the coffee, which is not available in ordi-

nary Bulgarian cafes. Fans of this type of coffee, one that is usually prepared at

home, are regular clients of Greek coffee houses. These are the only places in

Sofia where Turkish coffee is called Greek coffee. Because most Bulgarians are

accustomed to calling it “Turkish”coffee, they sometimes get annoyed because

waiters (all of them Bulgarians) constantly correct them, insisting that this was

“Greek coffee”. Exactly the same reaction is found in Greece – some clients re-

counted how Greek waiters got angry when they tried to order Turkish coffee.

For Bulgarians the name of the coffee has lost any national connotation: “Turk-

ish coffee” means nothing else than a coffee prepared the old-fashioned way, in

a copper coffee pot and over the fire, not in a machine. This does not hold true

for Greeks. They not only insist on its Greek origin, but also claim that the first

cafe in Europe was established by a Greek in Paris. In fact, there is a slight dif-

ference in taste between Greek and Turkish coffee, but it is overlooked by Bul-garians. They identify the drink not so much in terms of its taste, as in terms

of its preparation, which is why they continue calling it Turkish coffee, even in

Greek cafes.

As a whole, the perception of the Turkish cuisine by Bulgarians is associat-

ed with the idea of “extreme taste”. This is seen in one informant’s words: “I’vebeen to Turkey, I don’t remember what exactly I ate there, but it was absolutelytasty”11. A considerable number of dishes belonging to the “Bulgarian” cuisineare in fact borrowed from the Ottomans. Turkish cuisine forms the core of Bal-

kan cuisine, its meals have been borrowed by all Balkan peoples and to someextent are imagined as being local and typical only of the respective national

cuisine. Despite these common dishes and tastes, there are some pec

ethnologia balkanika.2008.no.12

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