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Staging Socialist Femininity

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Balkan Studies Library

Editor-in-Chief
Zoran Milutinovic, University College London

Editorial Board
Gordon N. Bardos, Columbia University
Alex Drace-Francis, University of Liverpool
Jasna Dragovic-Soso, Goldsmiths, University of London
Christian Voss, Humboldt University, Berlin

Advisory Board
Marie-Janine Calic, University of Munich
Lenard J. Cohen, Simon Fraser University
Radmila Gorup, Columbia University
Robert M. Hayden, University of Pittsburgh
Robert Hodel, Hamburg University
Anna Krasteva, New Bulgarian University
Galin Tihanov, The University of Manchester
Maria Todorova, University of Illinois
Andrew Wachtel, Northwestern University

VOLUME 1

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Staging Socialist Femininity
Gender Politics and Folklore Performance in Serbia

By
Ana Hofman

LEIDEN • BOSTON
2010

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This book is printed on acid-free paper.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

ISSN 1877-6272
ISBN 978 90 04 19179 2

Copyright 2010 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands.


Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Hotei Publishing,
IDC Publishers, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers and VSP.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated,


stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic,
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Koninklijke Brill NV provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to
The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910,
Danvers, MA 01923, USA.
Fees are subject to change.

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CONTENTS

Preface and Acknowledgements ....................................................... vii


Abbreviations ....................................................................................... xi
List of Music Examples ...................................................................... xiii
List of Audio and Video Examples on CD ..................................... xv
List of Photographs ............................................................................. xvii
List of Figures ...................................................................................... xix

Introduction ......................................................................................... 1

Chapter One
Gender Performance in Southeastern Serbia ............................. 7
Concepts of Femininity in Rural Serbia ....................................... 7
Portraits of the Female Singers ...................................................... 12
Performing Femininity .................................................................... 17

Chapter Two
Village Gatherings: The Politics of Representation ................... 35
Creating the New Folk Culture ...................................................... 35
The Ambiguity of Cultural Policy .................................................. 38
Village Gatherings in the Official Discourses ............................... 45
Village Gatherings in the Personal Narratives ............................. 54

Chapter Three
Repertoire ........................................................................................ 65
Official Music and Local Taste ...................................................... 65
Indirect Intervention in the Repertoire ......................................... 69
Direct Intervention in the Repertoire ............................................ 73
Transgressing Gender Roles? .......................................................... 78

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vi contents

Chapter Four
Singing Exclusion ........................................................................... 85
State Feminism ................................................................................ 85
Gender and Body Politics in Niško Polje ...................................... 89
Overstepping the Boundaries ......................................................... 94
Dangerous Profession ...................................................................... 97
Stage Performance as Performative Negotiation ......................... 100
New Concepts of Identity, Subjectivity and
Self-Representation ...................................................................... 103

Concluding Remarks .......................................................................... 111

References ............................................................................................ 115


Appendix One
List of Villages and Interlocutors ................................................. 123
Appendix Two
The Constitution of the Competition of Serbian
Villages ......................................................................................... 125
Pravilnik Takmičenja Sela Srbije .................................................. 127
Pravilnik O Radu Ocenjivačkih Komisija Takmičenja
Sela Srbije .................................................................................... 135
Appendix Three
Villages – Winners at Republic Level ......................................... 141
Appendix Four
The Programme of Donja Studena and Gornja Studena
Villages (1994) ............................................................................ 143

Index ..................................................................................................... 145

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PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The initial idea for this book came from the results of the project
‘Research and Presentation of the Traditional Music and Dance Heritage
of the Niš Area.’ The study was supported by financial aid from the
city of Niš and the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Serbia. The
first phase of the fieldwork was carried out by a research team from
the Centre for Balkan Music Research in Belgrade, which consisted
of ethnomusicologists and students of ethnomusicology. Systematized
materials were transcribed and resulted in the book, The Vocal Musi-
cal Tradition of the Niš area, published by the Centre for Balkan Music
Research in 2005 (Hofman and Marković 2005). I embarked on my
personal fieldwork one year later, shifting my focus to elderly rural
women, to reflect my fascination with the drastic change in their
lifestyle over the past sixty years. In contrast to the initial project, my
individual fieldwork was carried out in a more informal way. It became
a long-term research project, consisting of many short-term trips over
a period of two years (from February 2005 through to March 2007).
A specific aspect of this fieldwork was the fact that my family lives in
the city of Niš and that relatives, neighbors and family friends strongly
supported my work. They introduced me to their relatives and friends
who were active within the amateur groups from the Niško Polje vil-
lages. In addition, at the time I was working as an Assistant Professor
of Ethnomusicology at the Faculty of Arts at the University of Niš, and
many of my students also contributed to this project by putting me in
touch with their grandparents and their friends.
While collecting the data, I also consulted resources from the Archive
of Yugoslavia, written resources on the Village Gatherings (Susreti sela)
and other state sponsored cultural events that were organized in this
area during the socialist period, using personal archives of the partici-
pants and organizers, local newspapers and magazines. Systematized
documentation and video recordings of Village Gatherings consisted
of just a few recordings of the stage performances made by a local
TV station, participants, and their relatives, which made work on this
project more difficult.

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viii preface and acknowledgements

Since my relatives, friends and students were often indirectly involved


in the research, I was presented as a cousin or a friend, which meant
the relationship between my interlocutors and myself was closer and
more intimate. Therefore, the present work has been created together
with the people involved in the research, who have actively participated
as collaborators and as co-authors of the project. I express deep appre-
ciation to all of those involved in the research who made this work
possible. Their warmth and openness inspired me both as a scholar
and as a woman. I thank Aleksandra Marković, Iva Tarabić and Jelena
Jelić, my colleagues who participated in the completion of the initial
fieldwork and the systematization of the material. My gratitude goes
to all the people who helped with the fieldwork: Milica Veljković from
Niš, Dragiša Stojanović from Donja Studena village, Slaviša Mihajlović
and Saša Milojković from Prosek village, Dragan Todorović from Vuk-
manovo village, and Bata Belević from Niška Banja who kindly allowed
me to use his personal video recordings.
Most of the manuscript is a revised version of my doctoral dissertation,
while the final draft of the book was completed during my postdoctoral
Robert Bosch Regional Fellowship. I greatly appreciate the support of
my dissertation advisers, Svanibor Pettan (Faculty of Arts, University of
Ljubljana) and Mirjam Milharčič-Hladnik (Scientific Research Centre
of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Ljubljana), for their
encouraging suggestions and significant contribution to this work. I
am very grateful to the dissertation committee members – Oto Luthar
(Scientific Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and
Arts, Ljubljana), coordinator of my study program, for all his support
during my studies and Jane Sugarman (Graduate Center of The City
University of New York), who enthusiastically agreed to be a committee
member even though her schedule was already full of obligations.
I am extremely grateful for the array of grants and fellowships awarded
to me while working on the book. I am particularly obliged to the
Scientific Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and
Arts for awarding me a full scholarship for my doctoral studies, and
the bilateral fellowship of the Ministry of Education of the Republic of
Serbia and the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Slovenia in the
period from December 2005 to June 2006; the Wenner-Gren Foundation
of New York for granting me a Library Residency Fellowship in 2005;
and the Russian, East European, and Eurasian Center at the University
of Illinois, which enabled me to participate in the 2006 Illinois Summer
Research Laboratory and the Balkan Studies Workshop at the Univer-

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preface and acknowledgements ix

sity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. I would like to acknowledge the


assistance of the Regenstein Library of the University of Chicago, and
the libraries of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the
University of California, Berkeley. I am grateful to Philip Bohlman, my
mentor during the fellowship at the Music Department of the University
of Chicago, and the Petković family, my hosts and dear friends from
Chicago. I also appreciate the resources offered to me by the New Europe
College in Bucharest, Romania and the Max Planck Institute for Social
Anthropology in Halle, Germany.
I am very thankful to Naila Ceribašić, Senior Research Associate at
the Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Research in Zagreb for insightful
comments on an earlier version of Chapter Two of the book; my dear
colleague Tanja Petrović for suggestions, conversations and comments
on issues that have arisen in this work, but also for being my close
friend and a strong support during my student life in Ljubljana; Martin
Pogačar for inspiring talks; Dean Vuletić and Emira Ibrahimpašić for
help in editing and improving my English; Marijana Đukić and Dejana
Đurđević who helped in the editing process; Anita Knezy for technical
support and Teja Komel for her patience, collegiality and administra-
tive assistance.
Special thanks go to the Editor-in-Chief for Balkan Studies Series
in Brill publishing, Zoran Milutinović (School of Slavonic and East
European Studies, University College London), for his patient read-
ing and critical and thoughtful eye, Ivo Romain, Editor for Slavic and
Eurasian Studies Publishing Program for technical support, and to the
anonymous Brill reviewer for constructive and inspiring suggestions
for revision of the manuscript.
Finally, my deepest gratitude goes to my family and particularly to my
mother Svetlana, who was involved in the research from the very begin-
ning. Special thanks go to Danilo, who understood what this research
meant to me and gave silent support throughout the project.

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i-xxii_HOFMAN_f1.indd x 9/27/2010 10:44:39 AM
ABBREVIATIONS

AGITPROP Komisija za školstvo Uprave za propagandu i agitaciju


Centralnog komiteta SKJ or the Commission for Educa-
tion of the Department for Propaganda and Agitation of
the Central Committee of the League of Communists of
Yugoslavia
AFŽ Antifašistički front žena Jugoslavije or the Anti-Fascist
Women’s Front of Yugoslavia
KPJ Komunistička partija Jugoslavije or the Communist Party
of Yugoslavia
KPZ Kulturno-prosvetna zajednica or the Cultural-Educational
Association
KUD Kulturno-umetničko društvo or the Cultural-Artistic Society
SIZ Samoupravna interesna zajednica or the Self-governing
Interest Society
SKJ Savez komunista Jugoslavije or the League of Communists
of Yugoslavia
SSRNJ Socijalistički savez radnog naroda Jugoslavije or the Social-
ist Alliance of Working People of Yugoslavia

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LIST OF MUSIC EXAMPLES

Music example 1: Lazarica song, Ljiljana Cvetković, Gornji


Matejevac village (track 1) ................................. 22
Music example 2: Kraljica’s song ‘on the road,’ Ruža Zdravković,
Rujnik village ....................................................... 26
Music example 3: Kraljica song ‘on bees,’ Desanka Petrović,
Donja Vrežina village (track 2) ......................... 28
Music example 4: Đurđevdan song, Radica Zlatanović and
Petrija Vučković, Gornja Studena village
(track 3) ................................................................ 29
Music example 5: Đurđevdan song, Svetlana Makarić, Jelašnica
village .................................................................... 30
Music example 6: Sedenjka song, Jagodinka Mitrović, Rujnik
village .................................................................... 32
Music example 7: Zapevala čobanica mlada, Miroslava
Jovanović, Malča village ..................................... 72
Music example 8: Sedenjka song, Donja Studena village
(track 4) ................................................................ 75
Music example 9: Sedenjka song, Savka Milanović, Olga
Stanković, Donja Studena village (track 5) ..... 75
Music example 10: Sedenjka song, Miroslava Jovanović, Malča
village ................................................................. 76
Music example 11: Ballad, Jelena Mitrović, Malča village ........... 77
Music example 12: Duet by Ljiljana and Sava Radonjić, Prosek
village (track 6) ................................................. 78

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LIST OF AUDIO AND VIDEO EXAMPLES ON CD

Track 1: Lazarica song, Ljiljana Cvetković, Gornji Matejevac village


Track 2: Kraljica song ‘on bees,’ Desanka Petrović, Donja Vrežina
village
Track 3: Đurđevdan song, Radica Zlatanović and Petrija Vučković,
Gornja Studena village
Track 4: Sedenjka song, Donja Studena village
Track 5: Sedenjka song, Savka Milanović, Olga Stanković, Donja Studena
village
Track 6: Duet by Ljiljana and Sava Radonjić, Prosek village

Video example 1: The Village Gatherings in Komren village, welcome


party (1995)
Video example 2: The Village Gatherings in Komren village, stage per-
formances of Young folklore group and farewall song (1995)

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LIST OF PHOTOGRAPHS

Photograph 1: Kraljice group from Lužnica, 1939/40 ................. 25


Photograph 2: Village Gatherings in Trupale village, 1983 ....... 48
Photograph 3: Village Gatherings in Trupale village, 1987 ....... 49
Photograph 4: Village Gatherings in Trupale village, 1987 ....... 51
Photograph 5: Village Gatherings in Trupale village, 1990 ....... 53
Photograph 6: The Krstonoše custom, Prosek village, (1990s) ... 55
Photograph 7: Dance in front of the House of Culture in
Trupale village, Village Gatherings, 1987 ........... 58
Photograph 8: KUD Vukmanovo, from Vukmanovo village
at the International Folklore Festival in
Zagreb, 1982 ............................................................ 61
Photograph 9: Enactment of the sedenjka, Trupale village,
1990 .......................................................................... 67
Photograph 10: Folklore group from Prosek village at the
Village Gatherings, 1978 ....................................... 71
Photograph 11: Duet by Srbijanka Stojanović and Miodrag
Tasić, Jelašnica village, 1992 ................................. 79
Photograph 12: The performance of two schoolgirl
instrumentalists, Trupale village, 1983 ............... 81
Photograph 13: The lejka’s orchestra, Jelašnica village, 1992 ...... 81
Photograph 14: Women from the Mitić family, Kamenica
village, 1944 ............................................................. 91
Photograph 15: Enactment of the custom of Đurđevdan,
Trupale village, 1990 .............................................. 93
Photograph 16: Vocal group from Trupale village, Village
Gatherings, 1990 ..................................................... 101
Photograph 17: Trupale village vocal group before the trip to
Macedonia ............................................................... 106
Photograph 18: KUD Vukmanovo in Zagreb, after the
performance at the International Folklore
Festival, 1982 ........................................................... 108

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LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1: Map of Serbia ..................................................................... xx


Figure 2: Map of Niško Polje ............................................................ xxi
Figure 3: The position of singers and dancers in the lazarica
group .................................................................................... 22
Figure 4: The position of singers and dancers in the kraljica
group .................................................................................... 26
Figure 5: Population statistics in the Niško Polje villages ............ 46
Figure 6: Changes in the textual structure ..................................... 73
Figure 7: Tonal structure of drone and syllabic drone singing
style ...................................................................................... 74
Figure 8: Female board members and female leaders of
Syndicates of agricultural, food and tobacco workers –
statistics from 1964 ............................................................ 87

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Figure 1: Map of Serbia

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Figure 2: Map of Niško Polje

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INTRODUCTION

Around ten in the morning, the man from the village office (mesna
kancelarija) called all the women to come immediately. They called us
to go to the Village Gatherings. They told us that when we performed in
Topola, people were amazed since they had not heard such songs before.
The people were completely stunned, and they wanted us to perform
again.
This was how Ilinka Despotović from the village of Trupale near Niš
began her story about the activities of an amateur vocal group. She and
her friends, she said, were known for having the most beautiful voices –
not only in the village, but also in the wider vicinity. She wistfully
recollected their most striking performances and the most enjoyable
tours. During the short breaks in our conversation, she proudly showed
me the photographs of and press clippings about their performances.
One photograph showed six smiling women dressed in folk costumes,
with the obligatory scarf and peasant footwear (opanci), accompanied
by seven men, standing in front of the bus before their trip to Mace-
donia for the Balkan Festival of Folklore Heritage. This was the group
that won the regional competitions in 1988 and 1989 and performed
on the national TV show portraying village life called Znanje imanje.1
Ilinka’s story was a recollection of their most successful performances,
the most beautiful songs, and many unforgettable experiences.
This book presents the stories of women who were active in the
amateur vocal groups in their villages from the beginning of the 1970s
to the mid-1990s. Their stage performances at socialist cultural events,
which were an important element in creating socialist femininity in a
public arena, introduced new patterns of gender representation into
the rural areas of southeastern Serbia. The female singers’ experiences
of socialist gender politics reflect the dynamic relationship between
the official discourse of gender and its everyday performance. Their
accounts subvert the boundaries between the ‘authoritarian socialist
state center’ and ‘local practices,’ transgressing the binaries usually
present in thinking about socialism, such as official/unofficial, public/

1
This show, dedicated to farmers and the rural population in general, was widerly
popular in the former Yugoslavia during 1970s and 1980s. A host village welcomed a
village from another area (usually another Yugoslav Republic).

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2 introduction

private, ideology/practice. By telling their story (or more accurately


stories), this book reveals the complex and contradictory experiences
of socialism. It seeks to understand the ways in which people expe-
rienced social upheavals and transformations in their own lives and
attempts to show the interplay of ideology, discourse and practice as
reflected at the level of personal experience.
Studies addressing gender politics in socialist societies generally
aim to assess the success of the socialist policy of gender equality and
determine the extent of socialism’s failure (see Ramet 1999b: 105). The
most common claim is that, despite the formal rights they obtained,
women remained subordinate.2 Scholars describe the ideology of
equality as just “a thin layer over almost untouched patriarchy which
did not correspond to social reality” (Duhaček 1993: 136). Katherine
Verdery maintains that the socialist state had the position of a ‘par-
ent-state,’ or ‘paternalistic state,’ transmitting patriarchal gender roles
from the nuclear family to public discourse (Verdery 1996: 64). This
so-called ‘socialist patriarchy’ was seen as an unsuccessful attempt to
improve the position of women. Various studies of Yugoslavia argue
that, despite the evident progress that women made under socialism,
the results were disappointing, since the system only reasserted gender
inequality, albeit ‘at a higher level’ (Magaš 1999: 279).
My main goal in writing this book is not to prove or disprove a
discrepancy between the official socialist narrative and local practices.3
Nor is it my intention to simply subvert the binaries present in the
dominant scholarly narratives about socialism. Rather, I question the
tendency to categorize and produce a fixed, static concept and inter-
pretation of socialism.4 In my opinion, the complexity of gender rela-
tions under socialism requires a more nuanced interpretation than one
limited to the manifestations of discourse – power relations. Accord-
ingly, this study does not attempt to essentialize power relations and

2
For more on Yugoslavia, see: Duhaček 1993: 135; Milić 1993: 111; Morokvasić
1997: 72; Ramet 1999a: 105; Slapšak 2002: 149; for Czechoslovakia: Havelková 1993:
70; for Romania: Kligman 1998: 26; for Poland: Pine 2002: 103; for Bulgaria: Brunn-
bauer, Taylor 2004: 285; for Eastern Europe in general: Funk 1993: 6; Occhipinti
1996: 14.
3
As Maria Todorova points out, “Do we blame socialism for what it has done, or
for what it has not done?” (Todorova 1993: 31).
4
Newer studies challenge rigid boundaries between the totalitarian socialist state
and citizens and question the monolithic interpretation of socialism, also pointing to
diversity within socialist societies (see Goldman 2002; Crowley and Reid 2002; Haney
2002).

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introduction 3

ideas of authority (official or subaltern), but instead looks at experience


as a concept that vindicates or challenges the very idea of authority.5
It highlights the potential of the female singers’ accounts to express
the polyvocal nature of social processes by challenging the concepts of
consistency and fixity. Its main idea, then, is to draw attention to the
multifarious, contradictory, and creative capacity of personal experi-
ences of socialism.
The women portrayed in this study were born between 1914 and
19506 in the area of Niško Polje in southeastern Serbia.7 They belong to
the last generation of women who actively participated in traditional
customs but were also the protagonists of important changes in Ser-
bian rural society, its discourses and practices. Their active involvement
with amateur groups began during socialist times and they performed
on stage at the events called Village Gatherings that were established
in southeastern Serbia in the early 1970s. My interlocutors8 were all
very talented female singers, well-known in their villages. They gave
many public performances, mostly at exhibitions organized by vari-
ous local cultural organizations (Houses of Culture – Domovi kulture,
KPZ – Kulturno-prosvetna zajednica or Cultural-Educational Associa-
tion). Some of them also participated in other local cultural activities,
amateur theater, for example, and were recognized by officials as the
embodiment of local culture.
Since the main aim of this book is to explore the complex and poly-
vocal experiences of socialism, illuminating the often dissonant dis-
courses of my interlocutors was of the utmost importance. Therefore,

For the concept of subaltern authority, see Michel Lambek 2007: 211.
5

In the course of my fieldwork I spoke to 55 people (mainly women) in 21 villages,


6

all of whom were born prior to or during World War II (see the list in Appendix 1).
7
Niško Polje is a part of the larger region called the Valley of the Južna Morava
River, with the city of Niš as its administrative center. The vast majority of the villages
(73%) are located in the Niš and Aleksinac valley, while others are part of the moun-
tain and sub-mountain area (Simonović 1995: 163). According to the last census, the
population is ethnically quite uniform with a dominant Serbian population (360,941
citizens) and with the Roma community forming the largest minority (9,224 citizens)
(the Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia http://webrzs.stat.gov.rs/axd/en/osn.
htm?#books
8
Since I employ qualitative research methodology and a phenomenological
approach, I avoid the term ‘interviewer’ or ‘informant.’ Neither does the term ‘nar-
rator,’ which is usually associated with the oral history method, seem appropriate
because of its static meaning. In my opinion, the term ‘interlocutor’ best describes the
self-reflexive and dialogic research methodology employed in this study.

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4 introduction

I have used the oral history method,9 which enabled me to access the
women’s personal stories and their attitudes toward musical activity.
Our conversations did not revolve exclusively around gender issues;
instead, I simply provided them with an opportunity to speak freely
about their lives. By focusing on the life stories of my interlocutors,
I shifted the focus from the performer to the person performing (of a
certain age, gender, and with a political attitude).10 I used the self-
reflexive potential of experience as a key concept in researching the
dynamics between socialist gender politics and its social performance.
However, in employing the phenomenological approach, I do not
argue for the romanticized view of individual experience as true or
self-evident authentic subjective testimony,11 but as a concept shaped
by the discourse in which it is narrated, expressed or conceptualized
(Van Alphen 2004: 107). Therefore, following Scott’s claim that “there
is no individual experience, but subjects who are constituted through
experience” (Scott 1992: 26) and Jeff Titon’s concept of “the study of
people experiencing music’ (Titon 1997: 96), I see women’s subjec-
tivities as created through the discursive processing of their musical
experiences. Their accounts thus illuminate the ways in which socialist
power relations, inclusions and exclusions are perceived from a pres-
ent day, post-socialist perspective12 (Cubitt 2008: 74).
Since autobiographical testimonies contradict the holistic approach,
I do not view the women featured in this study as necessarily repre-
sentative of all Niško Polje rural women: their life stories, which are
different from those of their female neighbors and other women in
their villages, influenced their unique narratives and interpretations of

9
See Thompson 1978 [2000]; Lummis 1987; Douglas, Roberts, and Thompson
1988; Finnegan 1992; Stanley 1992; Ritchie 1995; Bolitho and Hutchison 1998.
10
The method, also called ‘narrative musical ethnography,’ ‘knowing people making
music’ (Titon 1997: 91) or ‘subject-centered musical ethnography’ (Rice 2003: 152)
contests approaches that do not consider the personal background of a performer as
an important element when researching her/his musical activities. Instead, this method
takes the experience of ‘people making music’ as the core of ethnomusicological
method and theory (Cooley and Barz 2008: 14).
11
I do not argue for an essentialist approach to women’s experiences, as suggested
by the concept of women’s oral history and which claims a particular ‘women’s history’
based on women’s specific voices and experiences (Berger Gluck 2002: 3).
12
In the new approaches in memory studies, the emphasis is on the capacity of
personal memories to express the complex nature of social processes and challenge the
authority of dominant narratives in understanding the past (Radstone and Hodgkin,
2007).

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introduction 5

the past. Indeed, my idea was neither to offer an overarching view of


stage performance under socialism in Serbia nor a general scrutiny of
gender relations in rural environments. I have concentrated on real
musical situations involving specific people and their lives; both the
methodology I used and the interpretation I propose therefore reflect
this concept. Nevertheless, many quotations in this book, giving voices
to people who were involved in the research, were included with the
intention of encouraging potential further (re)interpretations. They
illuminate many subjective positions and (often dissonant) voices,
while at the same time providing narratives of not only women’s, but
also men’s lives.
This book is designed as a dialogue between the personal accounts
of my interlocutors (including my personal voice, as well ) and the
official (state and scholarly) narratives, providing a framework for dis-
cussing and analyzing the complexity of socialist gender performance.
In Chapter One, I portray the female singers, their personal lives and
musical activities. The chapter reflects the lifestyles of the last gen-
eration of women who actively participated in old customs and be
substantially influenced by the norms of rural society. It focuses on
the dominant female cultural roles in rural society and depicts gender
performance in the musical practices of Niško Polje.
Chapter Two investigates official cultural policy and the creation of
the concept of socialist folk culture in the light of the unique historical
and social experiences of Yugoslav socialism. The focus is on the Vil-
lage Gatherings, in both official discourses and the personal accounts
of my interlocutors. These events are presented as a multidimensional
phenomenon that influenced both musical and social life in southeast-
ern Serbia at various levels, challenging the view that amateur stage
performance belonged in the strict, state-controlled domain of cultural
production.13
Chapter Three looks into the ways in which the institutionalization
of cultural life in villages and the establishment of amateur groups
brought about changes in music-making in Niško Polje. It concen-
trates on the direct and indirect influence of the Village Gatherings on

13
Although the stage performance was widely explored during socialism, the schol-
ars (ethnomusicologists, folklorists, ethnologists) were primarily concerned with the
question of the value of stage stylizations of the performance, which were assessed
as worthy or less worthy. They analyzed the way in which the process of staging
changed – ‘improved’ or ‘spoilt’ – authentic musical practices (Petrović and Zečević
1981; Zečević 1968; Fulanović-Šošić 1981).

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6 introduction

musical practices. By revealing the complexity of their stage represen-


tations, it attempts to rethink the socialist ‘folklorization’ of local rep-
ertoire by calling into question the view that it was a one-dimensional
process of transformation from tradition into folklore.
Chapter Four provides an insight into Yugoslav gender politics by
intertwining ‘official voices’ with the women’s personal accounts. It
directs attention to the central issue of the study, focusing on personal
experiences of socialism and on the negotiation of gender hierarchies
in the rural environment of Niško Polje. By drawing on the concept
of performativity, the female singers’ stage performances are examined
as being representative of cultural practices that appeared to be an
important element in the performance of socialist femininity in rural
areas of southeastern Serbia. The chapter shows how these supposedly
amateur displays enabled female singers to transfer their activity from
the periphery to the center of social happenings. Their performance
at the Village Gatherings is discussed as a performative act of re-
examining their subject positions.
The concluding section dwells further on the previous arguments,
drawing attention to the dichotomies present in the considerations
of socialist culture, such as official/unofficial, public/private, and
ideology/practice. It proposes that differences in the performance of
socialism among the countries of the former ‘Eastern Bloc’ should be
emphasized, arguing for representations that would bring to light the
multifaceted nature of socialism(s).

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CHAPTER ONE

GENDER PERFORMANCE IN SOUTHEASTERN SERBIA

Concepts of Femininity in Rural Serbia

Želim da ste nam svi živi i zdravi I wish you all good life and health,
i veseljaci i mladi i stari. Merry fellows, both old and young.
Ali želim da vam se u kuću But I wish that male children
rađaju muška deca Will be born in your house,
u svako ćošence po jedno detence. In each corner a newborn.
(The drinking song – zdravica, Jelena Mitrović, Malča village)
The organization of family life in Serbian villages was based until the
end of World War II on the institution of a large, extended family,
called kućna zadruga. The authority of fathers and husbands was piv-
otal in this type of family as well as the patrilineal inheritance of all
real estate (Antonijević 1971a: 113). Women occupied a subordinate
position within the family and were under the command of their hus-
bands (or the eldest male in the household) and his kin (Beissinger
2001: 412). These relations of power were expressed through ritualized
norms of behavior such as, for example, table seating (women often
had to remain standing during the meal), or the traditional obligation
of women to kiss the hand of the male head of the family or wash his
legs. Sometimes, they were even transmitted into the sphere of judicial
practices:
For a woman, it was strictly forbidden to cross a man’s path; they would
usually have waited for him to pass (even if he was far away when she
spotted him). However, if she had by any chance committed that offence,
she would have had to go back. Honoring this tradition, the authorities
in Šumadija sometimes punished women who were daring enough to do
that. (Bandić 1980: 324)
However, in the specific kind of age-based hierarchy (elder domi-
nance), the mother-housewife,1 who was subordinate to her husband,

1
Married women in rural society in pre-WWII Serbia played two main social roles:
the role of a mother and that of a housewife.

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8 chapter one

retained authority over her sons and daughters-in-law. Age was in


general crucial for the social status of rural women: “At various stages
of their lives, women take different degrees of social status within the
family and the community at large” (Petrović A. 1990: 72).
Nevertheless, only in two cases could a woman’s social status be
equivalent to that of a man: as a widow, having taken over the role of
breadwinner, and as a sworn virgin (tobelija or virdžina) – a woman
assuming the role of a man in the absence of male heirs (Gremaux
1996; Pettan 2003: 293). In this regard, in Serbian villages there was
a distinct preference for male children who could carry on the family
name and inherit the farm. The birth of a daughter was greeted with
disappointment, since her presence in the household was considered
only temporary (Denich 1974: 261). Many folk maxims attest to this
attitude: “Marry your son when you want, your daughter when you
can” (Ženi sina kad ‘oćeš a udaj ‘ćer kad možeš), “A daughter is another
man’s happiness” (Žensko je tuđa sreća). As Vuk Vrčević points out, all
of the ritual acts dedicated to fertility were actually directed at securing
male descendants (Vrčević 1883: 102). For this reason, on the wedding
day, after the bride entered the groom’s household, she took a male
baby (nakonjče) into her arms to ensure that she would bear sons (the
bride would bring special presents for the child, usually consisting of a
shirt, socks and a towel). On the other hand, no particular action was
undertaken to procure the birth of female children because, consistent
with the patriarchal superstition, “every female being possesses seven
souls (like a cat), and she is (in herself ) more than a male child” (Svaka
ženska glava ima sedam duša (kao i mačka), ona je više nego muško
dete, Đorđević 1938: 93 and 1984: 318). Furthermore, in some areas of
Serbia, families avoided having weddings on so-called ‘women’s days,’
such as Wednesday, Saturday, and even Sunday, in order to prevent
the birth of female children (Bandić 1980: 346).
In Serbian villages, gender hierarchies were strongly connected to
pre-Christian beliefs and pagan concepts of female sexuality. Woman’s
connection with the life-cycle rituals and the vital importance of her
fertility reflect the special status of the female body in old religious
beliefs, being an extremely powerful ritual symbol in rural society.
Sexuality, reproduction and menstruation were recognized as phe-
nomena in which women did not have full control over their bodies
but considered ‘unclean’ having a special bond with the ‘other world.’
This being so, in the Serbian rural environment a variety of strategies,
both practical and ideological, were developed to control female sexu-

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gender performance in southeastern serbia 9

ality.2 During her period, a woman was forbidden any contact with a
man; she could not touch his personal belongings or speak with him
(especially if the man was going on a trip, doing the first sowing or
tillage).3 Another example of this type of taboo is that while giving
birth, a woman had to sequester herself, so that she would be hidden
from her husband and male members of the household. Very often
she went to the garden or the basement (Đorđević 1938: 94, 95). In
these cases, ‘uncleanliness’ was a signifier for cultural disturbance and
instability.
As Svetlana Slapšak argues, a woman’s body was without doubt the
main symbolic site for ascribing different concepts and accordingly, for
creating narratives and images in most cultures (Slapšak 2002: 152).
Various taboos confirm that the female body was seen as having spe-
cial, magical qualities. Customs described by Serbian ethnologists and
folklorists (Bandić 1997; Đorđević 1984) included the naked female
body as a crucial element for protection from or communication with
the spirits of the dead and natural forces.4 Woman’s hair carried an
important ritual meaning, as a symbol of the life-spirit and magical
power (Zečević 1983: 93; Čajkanović 1994: 143). With the beginning
of puberty, girls started wearing the scarf as a sign of their new social
status.5 For the first public ‘display’ of a young girl at local gatherings,
such as vašari, sabori, preslave (village festivities usually occurring on
religious holidays), she put on new clothes, combed her hair and put
on the scarf. This announced her initiation into the new status of a
marriageable young woman:

2
Sexuality in rural environments presented no danger per se – it was a vital force, a
requisite for the survival of society. Women were considered to be powerful and dan-
gerous beings, and sexual segregation represented a way of controlling that power.
3
It was believed that a woman in menopause (no longer fertile), could not present
any threat to men (Đorđević 1938: 31), which confirms that a woman who was no
longer sexually active lost her ritual power.
4
The best way to prevent or stop epidemics in central Serbia (an area called Resava)
was considered to involve a few old widows (čistih baba) visiting the sick men’s houses
at midnight and taking off their clothes and scarves (Trojanović 1990: 99). In Niško
Polje, there was a practice of having a woman take off her skirt and reveal her genitals
to the clouds to ensure the prevention of downpours (Dragan Todorović, Vukmanovo
village). Also, on the 14th of May, a day called Jeremijindan dedicated to the snake
cult, a naked housewife had to go round the house three times before sunrise, making
rattling sounds using metal utensils.
5
The same ritual meaning had the scarf placed on the bride’s hair during the wed-
ding ritual (sometimes after the wedding, Čajkanović 1994: 151) called ubrađivanje,
zabrađivanje, which announced that the bride had lost her mystical power and was
under the supremacy of her husband (Zečević 1983: 93).

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10 chapter one

When she dances publicly for the first time, she is considered ready for
marriage. After she finishes the dance, the others congratulate her and
from that moment on she can dance in every dance (kolo). (Zečević
1983: 87)
All of these acts were directed to improve the prospects for a girl’s
marriage arrangement, which was perceived as the most important act
in a woman’s life. Through marriage, the husband became ‘the master
of his wife’ (gospodar svoje žene), a position effected through trade
between the bride and groom’s families before the wedding. Accord-
ing to various written sources, in southeastern Serbia up until the end
of the nineteenth century it was customary for the groom’s father to
pay a large amount of money to the bride’s father, and in this way
to formally ‘buy’ a woman for his son (Antonijević 1971a: 39). The
bride was very often older than the groom, as she was meant to be
‘mature,’ ‘strong’ and ‘capable’ of working hard, both in the fields and
at home:
Valued as sex objects, mothers, and workers, wives were acquired by
the exchange of gifts, labor, and favors between men, which was seen
as a payment for the rights to enjoy and to appropriate the products of
women’s labor, sexuality, and reproductive capacity. (Woodward 1985:
237)
All of the ritual acts included in the wedding ceremony were focused
on the bride as the central figure of the ritual, crucial for the young
couple’s fertility. Introducing a new member (the bride) into the
groom’s domestic cult was realized through a complex structure of
ritual activities performed between the mother-in-law and the bride as
a symbolic passing of household responsibilities from the older to the
younger woman (Zečević 1983: 91). This kind of ritual act, in which
contact between the two women was paramount, confirms the crucial
significance of female reproductiveness in rural society. According to
the Serbian ethnologist Veselin Čajkanović, the mother-in-law was
actually the most important figure in the wedding ritual, as she was
responsible for ensuring the bride’s safe transfer to the new home and
symbolical negotiation between the ancestors from both (bride and
groom’s) cults (Čajkanović 1994: 157).
Since marriage represented the girl’s main initiation into woman-
hood, her sexual innocence was essential: “Virginity (‘a girl untainted
by male hands’ – devojka još neomilovana) and marital fidelity were
highly valued on the scale of morality” (Dvorniković 1990: 341). It

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gender performance in southeastern serbia 11

was extremely important for girls to remain virgins until marriage;


therefore, they were under the constant vigilance of the elders. Virgin-
ity was equally important to both families (the bride’s as well as the
groom’s) and was prominently verified and announced at the wedding
ceremony.
After marriage, a woman’s status within the rural society changed
completely, and many social activities became forbidden to her. The
way in which the young wife and husband conducted themselves was
regulated and involved some restriction – for instance, they were for-
bidden to use each other’s first names or to address each other directly,
which particularly applied to the woman (she was expected to use such
expressions as ‘my husband’, ‘my man’ – mužu moj, moj čovek).6 In
many Serbian areas, the bride avoided using not only the groom’s
name, but also the names of all the other members of the new family7
(Bandić 1980: 326). In addition, the possessive form of the husband’s
name used as the wife’s name deprived a woman of her social identity.
She became recognized within the community at large by the hus-
band’s surname or first name (‘Pera’s wife’ – Perinica; ‘Žika’s son of
Pera’s son of Mile’s wife’ – na Žiku Perinog Mileta žena): “For com-
munity members who do not know the family well, his name is syn-
onymous with the household” (Sugarman 1997: 170). In this regard,
women had no prospect of inheriting real estate, usually relinquishing
it to their male relatives.
However, the concept of femininity in rural society excluded an
open display of dissatisfaction. It was inconceivable for a woman to
speak her mind and express her feelings freely, especially negative
ones such as anger or frustration (Lanser 1993: 31, 32). These kinds
of complaints were suppressed by the community, and women who

6
Andrei Simić, who conducted field research into Yugoslav families from 1966
through to 1978, observes that relationships between husbands and wives generally
had a sex-segregated nature, especially in those regions that had remained longer
under Ottoman rule (Simić 1983: 74).
7
Women’s stories also confirm that in Niško Polje, the young bride used nick-
names when approaching her husband and his relatives, which was regulated during
the wedding ritual, through a custom called ‘the christening’ (krštavanje). A bride gave
special names to all the new family members: ‘mom’ and ‘dad’ for mother and father-
in-law, ‘dada’ for sister-in-law and ‘bata’ or ‘braca’ for brother-in-law (the nickname
usually used for a sister and brother in Serbian).

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12 chapter one

disobeyed the given rules were considered to be at fault and punished


accordingly.8

Portraits of the Female Singers

The female singers that I talked to belonged to the oldest generation of


women in their villages, whose life style was completely different from
that of younger rural women. They were the last generation of women
who were born and spent most of their lives in the above-mentioned
zadruga:
When I first came to my husband’s house, I was the seventeenth member
of the family: uncle, aunt, their three daughters, father-in-law, mother-
in-law, two brothers-in-law, sister-in-law, girls, another aunt, my hus-
band and myself and the daughter of my cousin – seventeen. (Desanka
Petrović, Donja Vrežina village)
The female singers’ stories illustrated already presented gender hier-
archies and concepts of rural femininity. They asserted that with the
beginning of puberty a woman’s life completely changed, and there
were numerous strict rules to control her appearance and behavior. It
was shameful for a young girl to speak out or to sit beside or dance
with a young man when not accompanied by elders in order to safe-
guard her sexual purity:
One old grandmother watched us. Our mothers were tired and sleepy.
And that granny was so smart I still admire her. She told us: “Don’t!
They (boys) will seduce you and after that they won’t have you. And if
you go to another guy, they would beat you because you are not coming
as a virgin to him.” (Milunka Đorđević, Jelašnica village)
Their stories also illustrated strict rules regarding visual presentation
of the female body. In Niško Polje, girls started wearing scarves at the
beginning of puberty:
When you are but a little child, they give you the scarf. When I go with
the flock of sheep, the scarf gets dirty and I wear it with one side facing
out one week, the second week the other one, so as not to have to wash
it every time. (Ilinka Despotović, Trupale village)

8
This claim is supported by the record of some ritual acts the bride performed in
order to avoid her husband’s violent behavior – e.g., if the bride sat on her wedding
dress before the wedding ceremony began, her husband would not beat her (Đorđević
1984: 334).

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gender performance in southeastern serbia 13

According to the dress code, unmarried girls wore a flower on the left
side of the head, married women on the right and young brides on
both sides:
A scarf is obligatory; also you have to put flowers on the head. Once you
are married, you have to put a flower on each side of the scarf, because
(it says) you are a young bride. (Ljiljana Cvetković, Gornji Matejevac
village)
Marriage, as demonstrated in much scholarly writings, was seen by my
interlocutors as the most important moment in a woman’s life. Almost
all of the female singers underlined that their marriages were arranged
and that they had barely spoken to their grooms before the wedding.
Ljiljana Cvetković from Matejevac village gave me an account of her
first encounter with her husband-to-be: “You will laugh; I met him
on Thursday and married him on Saturday.” As she went on talk-
ing, I understood that she had no suspicion of her imminent wed-
ding, since her cousin from the neighboring village – the ‘match-maker’
(navodadžija), had negotiated with the family of the potential groom
without the knowledge of Ljiljana’s family. After the two families
agreed on the marriage, Ljiljana went to town to meet the groom. She
was given just a few minutes to talk to him, which was the first and
last time she saw him until the wedding. She ended the story with a
murmur, saying she already had a boyfriend from her village at that
time but that she was obliged to obey her family and marry the chosen
man. Ljiljana’s story further testifies that in Serbian rural society the
primary function of marriage was to make connections not between
two individuals, but between two families (houses or tribes). This was
the reason why families were so engaged in the wedding preparations,
which were seen as a final step in the complex process of ‘familiariza-
tion’ (Bandić 1980: 344).
Another intriguing story about arranged marriages was told to me by
Nadežda Petrović from Hum village. She portrayed her cousin Ranka
as a very free-thinking, headstrong girl who did not want to get mar-
ried. Once her parents had found her an eligible man, they arranged
for the wedding to take place at a church and appointed the registra-
tion day with the village administrators. As soon as Ranka realized
what was happening, she escaped to a neighboring village and missed
the registration. This act, very shameful for her family and unconven-
tional in a rural environment, caused her father to punish her cruelly
and force her into a loveless marriage.

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14 chapter one

On the other hand, the story of Desanka Petrović from Donja


Vrežina village shows a quite different situation: “I did not have any
problems with him (the husband). We married for love.” She met her
future husband at the village dance (kolo), when he came from another
village to visit his relatives and meet marriageable girls. A cousin of
his recommended Desanka and one of her friends as possible brides,
and he decided to propose to Desanka. At first she was not interested,
but his persuasiveness and persistence won her over. From Desanka’s
account, I inferred that she, in contrast to Ljiljana, was allowed to
choose her partner.
In Niško Polje, all the agreements regarding a future marriage were
made by men from both families. On the wedding day, when the
groom’s family entered the bride’s house, the bride’s father and her
future father-in-law broke bread and shook hands in alliance between
the two families. In addition, it was usually the bride’s future brother-
in-law who symbolically purchased the bride from her brother: when
the suitcase of a bride’s trousseau (devojačka sprema) was put on the
carriage, her brother would sit on the case and not allow the wedding
feast to begin until someone gave him money. Upon the agreement
being made, the bride was taken to the groom’s household where the
mother-in-law welcomed her with a sieve and an apple, after which
they exchanged presents prepared for the occasion. The customary
practice required the mother-in-law to bring the bride into the house,
where the bride oiled the entrance door, came to the hearth and sat in
her mother-in-law’s lap.9
The ritual called zaprevesuvanje, prevesuvanje (‘putting on a scarf’),
symbolically announced the initiation of a girl to the status of a mar-
ried woman:
Everyone goes out, through the garden gate, and the godsister puts the
scarf on her head and splashes her with a mixture of basil and wine. After
that they part the ‘scud bread’ (grabena pogača) and the bride walks into
the room, kisses all the guests and the meal can start. (Desanka Petrović,
Gornja Vrežina village)
After the marriage, it was forbidden for a woman to go around with
uncovered hair or to comb her hair in front of male members of the
family. The scarf became an integral part of her outfit until the end

9
The importance of the mother-in-law’s role during the wedding ritual is further
emphasized by the fact that in some Niško Polje villages (Gornji Matejevac, Donja
Vrežina), the bride even slept next to her mother-in-law on the wedding night.

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gender performance in southeastern serbia 15

of her life: she did not take off her scarf even in the presence of her
husband.10 Ljiljana Radonjić from Prosek village emphasized that it
was shameful for a woman if men saw her hair, arms or legs. Her
mother-in-law, even though she was seventy-nine, still hid from her
son when she washed her hair. This ritual restriction from being seen
in an undressed state is strongly connected with cultural strategies of
in/visibility of the female body (further discussed in Chapter Four).
As mentioned earlier, virginity was the most important ‘gift’ that
the bride brought to the new household. Female relatives on the
groom’s side (usually the mother-in-law or godmother) were obliged
to remove the bed sheet used on the wedding night in order to verify
the bride’s ‘suitability.’ If everything was in accordance with expecta-
tions, then the bride’s virginity was publicly announced by serving
warmed brandy, and the mother-in-law gave the bride a broom deco-
rated with money to sweep the house. The bride’s purity having been
publicly announced, she went to the village drinking fountain accom-
panied by her mother-in-law and sister-in-law, and sometimes even by
musicians. This was her first public appearance in the community, and
usually all the villagers came out to see her.
On the other hand, if the bride was not ‘proper’ but a ‘broken vessel’
(slomljen čekrk), the brandy was served cold, and she was publicly put
to shame. In the villages of Niško Polje, some very brutal customs were
put into practice when the bride did not turn out to be sexually pure.
The groom’s family could ‘return’ the bride, binding her to a donkey
that would carry her back to her family. For girls who had some pre-
marital sexual experience, it was very difficult to find a husband –
they could only marry elderly men or widowers. Verica Miljković from
Prosek village had problems with her mother-in-law as she (Verica)
found it very stressful having to spend the wedding night sleeping
beside the groom, and they slept “as if we were brother and sister.”
Because of this, her mother-in-law declared her to be ‘improper’ and
did not allow her to go to the village drinking fountain. Then, after the
groom explained what had happened, the wedding ritual continued.
Contrary to Verica’s case, Milunka Đorđević (Jelašnica village) and
Desanka Petrović (Gornja Vrežina village) said that their husbands did
not let their mothers, sisters or godsisters check the bed sheets or ask
them about the bride’s virginity.

10
Another term used for a woman wearing a scarf was zabuljena, which refers to
the term used for an Islamic woman: bula.

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16 chapter one

The above-mentioned association of female sexuality with ‘unclean-


liness,’ indicated in the scholarly writings, was also visible in the wom-
en’s testimonies about giving birth. As Grozdana Đokić from Leskovik
village testifies, “I gave birth to my son Zvonko downstairs in the base-
ment, yes, in the basement.” After giving birth, a woman was consid-
ered ‘unclean’ for forty days:11
Straw was brought in; not even a great bundle of it, then a mat. A mat
made of rye was put on the ground and over that some sheets and I
slept with the baby for forty days on the ground, to not be close to my
husband. Not at all good for the baby. (Jelica Jovanović, Donji Komren
village)
As the women stressed, marriage inevitably entailed various difficul-
ties in adjusting to the new environment. Bearing in mind the cultural
notion of female sexuality, modesty was an inherently feminine qual-
ity, important not only for marriageable girls, but also for married
women.12 A married woman’s bearing had to be demure, her voice
low and her eyes directed downward. She had to appear duly bashful,
especially in public:
Once you are married, you are not free and you must comport yourself
as if you were a blind person. That is true, my son! You have to. First,
you do not look at others, you mustn’t. One young man told my cousin:
“Listen to me, Violeta, you have to look at the tip of your shoes.” (Dobri-
savka Janković, Hum village)
A young bride could not participate in decision-making on important
issues concerning the family, and her mobility was limited to paying
family visits and going on short trips to town. For some time following
the wedding, still being a young wife, Desanka Petrović from Gornja
Vrežina village had to wake up first in the morning to light a fire,
remain standing during meals, and wait for her father-in-law to come
home every night in order to take off his boots:
I woke up early in the morning to light a fire, at that time we had a
furnace (kube).13 In the evening, my father-in-law came for me to take
off his boots. And the third night he said to me: “Hey, my daughter-in-

11
Similarly a bride was ‘polluted’ for forty days after the wedding.
12
A wife behaving in an immoral way was dealt with severely. The data confirm
that particularly in cities that had experienced lengthy periods of Ottoman influence,
female adultery was punished by cutting off a woman’s nose and ears or pushing her
into the water (river) to drown (Đorđević 1984: 248).
13
Kube is a wood-heated cylinder shaped metal furnace with one stovepipe.

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gender performance in southeastern serbia 17

law, let me tell you, my older daughter-in-law didn’t take off my boots,
so you are not obliged to do that anymore. I stay out all night with my
friends and come home late, completely full and drunk and you have to
wait for me – that is not OK.”
Procedures that the bride had to follow after the wedding, such as tak-
ing off her father-in-law and brother-in-law’s shoes, making their beds
or kissing the father-in-law’s hand every morning, provide insight into
the patriarchal hierarchical power relations: “This is a confirmation
of the bride’s subordinate position in relation to her husband and his
family” (Trojanović 1990: 48). On the other hand, some brides were
warmly welcomed into the new household, where they developed
good, close relationships with their spouses and their kin. Milunka
Đorđević from Jelašnica village told me that she had been very content
during her married life: “Yes. I had all complete freedom with him.
We went to Pula many times. Also, we went to Holland three times,
we flew. Then to Germany, we have traveled a lot.”
To summarize the issues discussed in the previous two sections, the
social position of women in Niško Polje was strongly interrelated with
their cultural roles. In general, being female determined the social pur-
pose of women’s existence. The bulk of women’s activities took place
in the sphere of the household, while the governed public sphere was
primarily under the control of men. Women were generally expected
to abandon their personal activities in favor of the family and commu-
nity. Gender norms were constituted in accordance with the socially
dominant position of males, where women were positioned as socially
inferior subjects. In the male-oriented society, cultural forms both
openly and symbolically embodied the domination of women by men
and hierarchical gender relations.

Performing Femininity

How are these gender roles performed in the musical practices in


Niško Polje? The general claim of scholars is that gender segregation
in traditional musical practices in Serbia has existed for many genera-
tions. They assert that old practices in music performance required
that women and men always sang separately (Vlahović 1980: 16; Dević
1990: 70; Golemović 1997: 117), except in rare, specific cases, when
close relatives could perform together on account of the harmony of
their voices (Petrović A. 1990: 73; Golemović 1997: 117). Radmila
Petrović, exploring folk music in central Serbia (Šumadija) writes:

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18 chapter one

The social norms of musical behavior divide songs between boys and
girls, or men and women, which proves that joint singing did not exist in
the past. Depending on the type (men or women), the song is performed
in a particular way. (Petrović R. 1990: 164)
She also presumes that mixed-gender performance is a new phenome-
non (ibid.). Dimitrije Golemović describes how, in Valjevska Kolubara
(an area in western Serbia), the interviewed women refused to sing
the ‘men’s tune’ (mušku ariju), but after a long hesitation, they finally
consented to perform it (Golemović 1997: 125). He asserts that, in this
part of Serbia, certain characteristics of a tune are gendered, e.g., the
refrain i14 is considered to be female while koje is seen as male (ibid.
127). Ankica Petrović, examining the female musical tradition in the
rural areas of the Dinaric area (which encompasses Bosnia, southeast-
ern Croatia, western Serbia and northern Montenegro), classifies two
separate genres of ‘male’ and ‘female’ folk music (Petrović A. 1990: 71).
She also claims that certain features of musical performance, such as a
specific pattern of melodic movement, particularly melismatic tones,
stylistic sighs and exhalations, existed only in female interpretations
(ibid. 72). The researchers generally based their claims on the idea of
the different social position of women and men:
Gender segregation in singing is just one in a row of similar particu-
larities in the relationship between men and women, which they (them-
selves) have been creating through their common history and should be
viewed in that context. (Golemović 1997: 117)
The stories from Niško Polje also revealed that gender segregated per-
formance in the field of vocal practices remains vivid in the memories
of the female singers. The terms ‘men’s songs’ and ‘women’s songs’
were present in the women’s accounts, and were mainly used in their
internal communication or in attempts to categorize parts of the vocal
tradition: “You sing in the women’s tune. After that you shift to the
men’s tune” (Grozdana Đokić, Leskovik village). The phrases ‘men’s
tune’ (muški glas) or ‘men’s song’ (muška pesma) were mentioned in
the female singers’ narratives predominantly in connection with the
custom of sedenjka for songs that largely belong to the short musical
form and the new singing style (further discussed in the last section of

14
This refrain is an exclamation performed on the vocal i – pronounced as [ee] – at
the end of the verse in the very high falsetto register as a specific kind of signal. In
Niško Polje it is called cikanje or rucanje.

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gender performance in southeastern serbia 19

this chapter). Another context in which these terms were used involved
music on TV or radio, as Ruža Zdravković from Rujnik village states:
“I sing all of the men’s songs that are actually being sung now.”
Nevertheless, it is important to highlight that such terms were used
in their narratives without clearly distinguishing between these two
categories:
Well, the men’s tune is not like ours, I mean the high tone when we sing
out . . . men’s songs are different, a different tune. Men are different from
women. (Grozdana Zlatković, Vukmanovo village)
The female singers performed the songs they had learned, as I was
told, from their fathers or male relatives, without any awareness of
their belonging to the category of men’s songs.15 Desanka Petrović
from Gornja Vrežina village spoke about the songs she learned from
her father. She explained that people were so delighted by her per-
formance that she sang at all the private parties and celebrations she
attended: “My father taught me. I sang that when I was going with my
father to a slava.”16 Furthermore, in a few villages, certain women were
presented to me as experts on male songs, particularly epic songs and
ballads:17 “Aunt Ljubinka sings these men’s songs, epic songs. Usually
men sing these songs, but you see, women also have a knack” (Dragan
Todorović, Vukmanovo village).
Scholars affirm that women were active in the vocal sphere while
men were associated with the playing of instruments:
In the field of music, men are the ones who use the instruments of cul-
ture to produce art, while women produce it naturally, as it were with
the unaided voice. (Coote 1977: 334)

15
Numerous folklorists have discerned instances of women appropriating genres
normally reserved for men with no recognition that they were going beyond their
domain (Young and Turner 1993: 13).
16
Slava, also called krsna slava or krsno ime is a celebration of family patron saint’s
day, celebrated annually by each household separately. It is inherited from father to
son, while married women normally celebrate their husbands’ saint.
17
Epic songs belong to the narrative type of songs, sometimes with over a hundred
verses in ten-syllable lines, usually accompanied on the gusle, a one string chordo-
phone instrument. Ballads are considered a ‘borderline genre’ between epic and lyric
songs, also with a large number of verses (Dević 1970: 35, 36).

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20 chapter one

They mention that there were some transgressions, but these were seen
as rare exceptions.18 During the course of the research, I found only a
few cases of female instrumentalists mentioned in the literature. They
were not presented as ‘real’ players, but as social subjects who dis-
turbed existent norms and gender hierarchies.19
According to my interlocutors, both girls and boys made seasonal
instruments that belonged to the idiophone type or free aerophone-
type (so-called children’s instruments):
Pištugaljke, on the holiday called Mladenci, you know, in the spring-
time.20 I am a shepherd and I chip off wood and make cuts at some
places and play a whistling song like a train coming to a halt. We were
capable of everything. (Ljiljana Radonjić, Prosek village)
They played a repertoire that was based on the adult repertoire, but,
as the women asserted, this activity ceased for girls at the beginning
of puberty. This practice illustrates that among pre-pubescent boys
and girls, segregation in the field of musical practices did not exist.
However, after childhood, a strong division between male and female
domains became apparent, and women did not have access to instru-
mental performance. In Niško Polje, I did not encounter any well-
known female instrumentalists, nor was I given any account of one.
I heard of only one female gusle-player21 from Malča village, and this
example was given to me as a rare exception to the rule, since playing
was considered to be an exclusively male province. On the other hand,
in all the villages I visited people talked about legendary local bagpipe,
flute (dvojnice, frula, duduk) or accordion players – all male. These
were semi-professionals who learned how to perform from relatives or
older colleagues and usually played at weddings or local celebrations.
Since some of them were well-known in the wider region, they trav-

18
Dimitrije Golemović mentions that the best male singers he met were effeminate
and that the women who played instruments usually appropriated male cultural and
social roles in the society (Golemović 1998: 54).
19
See Antonijević 1971b: 107; Rihtman 1971: 97; Petrović A. 1990: 73; Pettan 2003:
296. As Naila Ceribašić observes, the female instrumentalists often remained invisible
in the scholarly accounts, since these focused on the dominant practices and not on
the alternative ones (Ceribašić 2004: 161).
20
Mladenci is celebrated on 22th March as the day dedicated to young couples
married during the last year. That day was also connected to the snake cult and many
of the ritual acts were performed as protection from a snake – for instance, it was
forbidden to do any needlework on that day.
21
In the Serbian language there is no term for a female instrumentalist (svirač is
a noun of masculine gender, while expressions like sviračica or svirkinja are not in
use).

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gender performance in southeastern serbia 21

eled to neighboring villages to perform. Even though they were not


professional musicians, they usually received some kind of payment
for their performance.
In the relationship observed between sexuality and female social
roles, I detected a connection between particular musical activities and
the women’s age and social status (e.g., some song genres were per-
formed exclusively by marriageable girls, others by married or older
women). In general, the girls’ freedom to express themselves musically
stopped with marriage, and their repertoire was reduced (Petrović A.
1990: 78, see also Pettan 2003: 290). In the same way, a married woman
in Niško Polje was not permitted to participate in certain dances or
in customs such as collecting flowers the day before St George’s Day:
“Women went to pick flowers, which was great. When I got married,
I was not allowed to go” (Jelica Jovanović, Donji Komren village).
Since my interlocutors had been musically active within the bounds
of customary practice in their youth, I noticed that in their narra-
tives some genres were more connected with ‘femininity’ or consid-
ered exclusively female. From their perspective, these musical activities
belonged to a separate female reality, by which women expressed their
thoughts, feelings and emotions. They represented a significant ele-
ment in the performance of their female identity, and marked all the
important stages of a woman’s life in a rural society. In the following
sections, I will present four song genres associated with the customs
which appear to have been an important part of women’s cultural role
in Niško Polje.

Lazarice
Lazarice (Lazar’s Day) is a custom that was traceable in all parts of Ser-
bia. As a part of the spring ritual cycle, the lazarice pageant consisted
of six young girls (aged eight to twelve) who walked around the village
on Lazar’s day, also called Vrbica. Lazarice visited every house in the
village, danced and sang the appropriate songs dedicated to household
members and collected gifts (usually eggs). The most important mem-
ber of the group was the lazar, a girl who wore men’s clothes and the
lazarka, her female spouse. Each member of the group had her own
task: four sang and two danced (the lazar and lazarka). As leaders of
the group, the lazar and lazarka usually walked first.
Following the strict rules of the custom, lazarice kept to the same
ritual pattern in every house: the four girls stood divided into two
groups and sang in an antiphonal style, while the lazar and lazarka
danced.

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22 chapter one

Singers

Dancers

Figure 3: The position of singers and dancers in the lazarica group

There are various textual patterns of lazarice songs belonging to differ-


ent phases of the ritual. One pattern was used when the group of girls
sang along the open village road:
Cveće, cveće crveno, Red flowers,
pored druma sađeno. Planted along the road.
Tu prolaze lazarke, Here the lazarke pass by,
pa si cveće bereju, And gather them,
pa pitaju lazara. And ask the lazar.
Oj lazare, lazare, Hey, lazar, lazar,
lazarice devojko. Lazarice girl.
(Zagorka Igić, Gornji Matejevac village)

The second pattern was used when the group of girls sang outside the
front door of the house to announce their arrival:

Music example 1: Lazarica song, Ljiljana Cvetković, Gornji Matejevac


village (track 1)

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gender performance in southeastern serbia 23

Otvarajte kapije, Open the gate,


evo idu lazarke The lazarke are coming
da vi sreću donose. To bring you luck.
In the house, the lazarice first sang a song honoring the house or the
master of the house, and then the other members of the family: a boy,
a girl, and a baby. While leaving the house they sang a farewell song:
Ovuj kući idomo, We visited this house,
što ne lepo daruva. Which gave us a good gift.
(Grozdana Đokić, Leskovik village)
A few women mentioned songs that the lazarice performed in front of
a house where somebody had died, usually many years before:
Majka Jovu u kutiju čuva, Mother keeps Jova in the box,
da ga kiša ne zarosi, To keep the rain from wetting him,
da ga vetar na zapiri, To keep the wind from blowing him,
da ga slnce ne ogreje. To keep the Sun from touching him.
Jer je njemu večna kuća Because his eternal house
nije prozor, nije vrata. Has no windows and doors.
(Desanka Petrović, Donja Vrežina village)
When people did not let the lazarice enter their house, the lazarice
sang particular songs to condemn this:
Ovaj kuća lipova, This house is awful,
u nju kučka drpova. With a dirty dog.
Ona rži, a mi beži! He is barking, we run away!
(Grozdana Đokić, Leskovik village)
Girls learned lazarice songs from their mothers or female relatives,
mainly older women. I came across various melodic and textual pat-
terns in different villages with identical times of performance and
ritual acts. After World War II, in the spirit of the socialist ideology,
the lazarice gradually stopped performing; however, today they repre-
sent a custom of great emotional significance in the memories of the
women. As was evident from the female singers’ stories, the lazarice
was one of the most joyful activities. Since the performers were chil-
dren, villagers anticipated their arrival with joy. Women explained to
me that all the villagers came out of the houses to wait for the laza-
rice. During the first few years after World War II, the lazarice went
from Niško Polje villages to the city of Niš to perform the custom.
Desanka Petrović from Donja Vrežina village and Milica Cvetković

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24 chapter one

from Brenica village told me that they went to Niš accompanied by


their mothers or an older woman. Although sentimentally attached
to memories of their childhood performances in the period up to and
immediately following World War II, the women have mainly forgot-
ten the melodic patterns of lazarice songs. Interestingly enough, dur-
ing the past five years attempts have been made to revive this custom
in the villages of Brenica and Malča. Several older women have tried
to teach their grandchildren to sing lazarica songs and re-establish
the custom.

Kraljice
The custom of kraljice (‘Queens’) in the Niško Polje villages was per-
formed regularly until the middle of the last century.22 It had many
elements in common with the observation of lazarice, and the songs
associated with the two customs were often mixed up in the women’s
accounts. The kraljice was performed on St. George’s Day (6th May, in
the Orthodox calendar). In written records, the most common name
was kraljice (in the region of Lužnica it was called kralj). As a ritual
group, kraljice had a strictly defined role for each participant, and con-
sisted of eight ‘mature’ girls, aged between sixteen and twenty-three.
As with the lazarice, each girl in the group had a particular role – there
was a king and a queen, two more girls who danced (“king, queen,
and two dancers; two dance and another two dance across” – kralj,
kraljička i dve igravačke; dve igraju, a dve preigruju) and four girls who
sang (“four of them dance and four sing” – četri šetu, a četri poju). The
king was the central figure in the custom. He led the group, carrying
a banner (barjak), or in some villages a kerchief.
Unlike other areas in southeastern Serbia, where the king was
dressed in men’s clothing, in Niško Polje the girl who played the king
was dressed in the same way as the other girls in the kraljice group
(“everything is the same, only the king carries the banner” – sve je isto,
ženska nošnja, samo što se ukite i to je kralj koji nosi barjak). The king
was responsible for conducting communication with the household

22
Traces of this custom are found in the area of Podunavlje (Bačka and Đerdap),
Posavina (Slavonija, Srem, in the vicinity of Belgrade), Pomoravlje, south and south-
eastern Serbia (Aleksinačko Pomoravlje, Nišava, Lužnica, Leskovačka Morava, Vra-
njsko Pomoravlje) and parts of northeastern Serbia (Homolje, Negotinska and Timočka
Krajina).

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gender performance in southeastern serbia 25

Photograph 1: Kraljice group from Lužnica, 1939/4023

members and for choosing the songs that would be performed. The
queen was the main dance-partner of the king during the performance
(“King and queen change places, change in the cross” – Kralj i kraljica
se menjaju, u krs, tako se prominjuju). In some villages the other two
girls who danced with the king and queen were called ‘banner carriers’
(barjaktari). Girls practiced for a few weeks before participating in the
custom. Usually, one older woman taught the girls to sing the kraljica
songs.23
As in the custom of lazarice, the kraljice went around the village
visiting each house. The data confirm that the custom consisted of
ritual phases: walking around the villages, entering the houses, sing-
ing and dancing for the household members and finally, leaving and
saying farewell. A special song accompanied each ritual phase. When
the kraljice began their walk from the king’s house, they sang songs
throughout the village:

23
The photographs used in this study were borrowed from the personal archives
of my interlocutors and from the Cultural Center in the village of Trupale, thanks to
Vukašin Mitić.

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26 chapter one

Music example 2: Kraljica’s song ‘on the road,’ Ruža Zdravković,


Rujnik village

Ušini se, kralje, Stand aside, the King,


kralje barjaktare. The King, the Banner carrier.
Kraljice da projdu, Let the Queens pass by,
kralja da provedu, To carry the King,
kralja barjaktara. The King, the Banner carrier.
Once they had arrived in front of the house and entered the court-
yard, the dancers formed the characteristic ‘cross’ figure while the two
groups of singers stood one on each side:

Singers

Dancers

Figure 4: The position of singers and dancers in the kraljica group

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gender performance in southeastern serbia 27

In the kraljica dance, the two pairs of dancers (including the king and
queen) constantly switched places. First they sang the song dedicated to
the house or the host. It was the text of these songs that remained most
vivid, and survived in the greatest variety in the women’s memories:
Kralje barjaktare, The King, the Banner carrier,
otvorte mi porte. Open the gate.
(Zagorka Igić, Gornji Matejevac village)
Ovaj kuća bogata, This house is rich,
na nju ima troja vrata. It has three doors.
Prva vrata od dukata, The first door made of ducats,
druga vrata od zlata, The second door made of gold,
a taj treća od šimšira. The third one made of flowers.
(Rusanda Arsić, Donja Vrežina village)
Those songs meant to be performed for other household members
were performed only “if and when the host bids it” (pevalo se isključivo
kada i šta domaćin naredi). Especially numerous were songs with love
themes dedicated to young boys and girls:
Oj, devojko, materina brigo, Hey, the girl, the mother’s care,
sve se brineš, udati se nećeš. You worry that you won’t get married.
Udaćeš se i pokajaćeš se, You will get married and you will be sorry,
steć ćeš svekra, venućeš ko cvećka, You will get a father-in-law,
steć ćeš muža, venućeš ko ruža, You will fade like a flower,
steć ćeš dece, kajati se nećeš. You will get a husband,
You will fade like a rose,
You will have children,
You will not regret thus.
(Ruža Zdravković, Rujnik village)
The songs ‘to bees’ (na pčele) were danced in a different manner: all
the girls danced together in a circle dance (kolo). As the women told
me, this was to prevent the bees from escaping, and to cluster them
for the housewife:24

24
Singing ‘to bees’ was charactetistic of other parts of southeastern Serbia as well
(in the neighboring area of Lužnica and Zaplanje within the custom of lazarica).

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28 chapter one

Music example 3: Kraljica song ‘on bees,’ Desanka Petrović, Donja Vrežina
village (track 2)

Tuku, tuku rojići, Fly, fly, swarm of bees,


dojdete mi pčelice, Come to me, bees,
doneste mi ćupence, Bring me a bowlful of honey.
sa med da ga napunite, In every leg, one piece,
na nožicu po lovnicu, In the bum, one bowl.
na dupence ćupence.
After the ritual ended, the kraljice left the house, singing a farewell
song. The kraljice were given money for their performance, which they
later shared among themselves in the king’s house, during a joint din-
ner. Community members believed that the kraljice should visit all
the houses in a village; otherwise, it would be a bad omen for both the
unvisited household and for the whole community.
The stories from the field reveal that the kraljice were honored guests
in all the households in Niško Polje (“You look forward to them com-
ing to your house” – Jedva čekaš da ti dođu u kuću) and that it was
one of the most revered customs. Some women, like Vera Đorđević
from the village of Brenica, believed that the kraljice were so important
that if the group broke up or the custom ceased, one of the girl mem-
bers would die. Their testimonies underlined the important role of this
ritual for girls’ initiation: it was believed that when a girl had spent
three years in the kraljica, she could be considered as ready for mar-
riage. My impression was that the symbolic significance of this custom
was still very strong in the women’s recollections, particularly taking
into account that it was banned by the socialist authorities after World
War II (this is further discussed in the following chapter). Regardless
of the minor variations in their individual narratives, in all of their
minds the memory of kraljice lingered as a custom that had marked
their youth.

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gender performance in southeastern serbia 29

Đurđevdan
Đurđevdan (St. George’s Day or ‘the collecting of herbs and flowers’ –
kad se viju venci) was another custom practiced exclusively by women.
Đurđevdan songs were among the songs most frequently performed by
female singers. This custom was connected with raising farm animals, i
n particular the raising of sheep, a practice often found in the moun-
tain villages of Niško Polje. On the day before St. George’s Day (6th of
May), girls and women went into the hills to gather herbs and flowers.
I received varied information about the ages of the women partici-
pants. In some villages, both girls and married women were included,
in others only girls and newly-married women.
Following the prescribed activities, they left for the hills before
dawn to gather herbs that would be used as stock food on Đurđevdan.
Women sang to announce that the custom was just starting and to
invite other women to join them. I found a few variants of songs
performed on this occasion:
Dizajte se, malo i golemo, Wake up, people,
da vijemo tri venca zelena: To make three wreaths:
prvi venac za to belo stado, The first wreath for the white sheep,
drugi venac za vedro šareno, The second wreath for,
treći venac za domaćina. the colorful copper pot.
And the third one for the householder.
(Ljiljana Cvetković, Gornji Matejevac village)
Mi idemo u goru zelenu, We are going to the hill,
da beremo svakojake travke, To gather the various plants,
ponajviše zdravac merišljavac. The sweet zdravac the most.
(Grozdana Đokić, Leskovik village)

Music example 4: Đurđevdan song, Radica Zlatanović and Petrija Vučković,


Gornja Studena village (track 3)

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30 chapter one

Pošle devojke u cvejke, Girls went to gather


da beru cveće svakakvo, The various plants.
ponajviše zdravac zeleni. Green zdravac the most.
As can be inferred from numerous stories, young wives had a special
role in the observance of the custom. They had to participate in it dur-
ing the first year of marriage, clad especially for this day in full-dress
for a joint breakfast or lunch in the hills. During the lunch, brides had
to kiss each other and other women on the cheek (preljube se). This act
denoted the initiation of young women and their integration into the
female community. One widespread textual variant of the songs sung
during this custom is as follows:

Music example 5: Đurđevdan song, Svetlana Makarić, Jelašnica village

Venče zdravče beru li te mome? Girls, are you gathering the zdravac?
Beru, beru, kako da ne beru, They gather, they gather, of course,
od dve kite tri venca izviše. From two bouquets, they made three
wreaths.
Prvi venac za veliko vedro, The first wreath for the big copper pot,
drugi venac za ranićku ovcu, The second wreath for the first sheep,
treći venac za malo jagnje. And the third one for the small lamb.
The most important part of the custom, in all of its local varieties,
was the sprinkling of water. In some villages, after they had finished
gathering the flowers, the women went to the banks of a local river,
where they made the wreaths for the evening part of the custom. In the
process of making these, the women sprinkled themselves with water
and put wreaths on their heads or around their waists, while trying to
push each other into the river. Women told me that the purpose of
this immersion was to ensure that the sheep produced enough milk. In
some variations of the custom, girls and women danced the kolo across
the river (the village of Rujnik). When they returned to the village they
adorned the houses with wreaths. It was required that one wreath be
put above the main entrance. Usually all the family members washed
their faces using water in which the wreaths had been placed.

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gender performance in southeastern serbia 31

The second part of the custom, called Muzigrudva (in some vil-
lages Muzigrud), was practiced individually. In the evening, a woman
milked sheep through the wreaths and usually put a hair comb in the
copper milk pot (bakrač) so that the sheep would give more milk. She
also made the bread (kravajče) especially for this occasion and pre-
pared plants for the sheep to eat.
The women seemed to have fond memories of Đurđevdan. Milunka
Đorđević from the Jelašnica village told me that she had never been
able to sleep the night before Đurđevdan because she wanted to be
ready for the beginning of the custom. She said that for girls, it was
an opportunity to spend time together laughing, singing and enjoying
themselves:
While we are gathering in the village to go to the mountain, we just
laugh and make jokes. As we pass through the village, everybody watches.
(Ljiljana Cvetković, Gornji Matejevac village)

Sedenjke
Sedenjke (‘Spinning bees’ – prela, sedeljke, sedenće in southeastern Ser-
bia) were female gatherings devoted to doing handwork as a kind of
‘female socializing.’25 They were informal parties that were both a form
of work-gathering and a form of entertainment. These gatherings were
not part of the wider annual ritual system, being informal and more
spontaneous. Women usually gathered around a fire, brought their
handwork and spent the time weaving, knitting or doing needlework.
In Niško Polje, sedenjke were organized up until the end of the 1960s,
when following changes in living conditions (primarily electrification
and the appearance of radio and TV), women stopped gathering in this
way. They usually started in the autumn (after the holiday Preobraženje,
18th August) and carried on until the end of winter. Women met in the
evenings at the main crossroads or in front of a house if it was too cold
in a room. There were no strict rules about who could participate –
girls and women of all ages were included. Usually, grandmothers,
mothers or mothers-in-law brought their daughters and daughters-in-
law. At the beginning of the sedenjka, the women performed a song to
announce that the gathering had begun:

25
In Bulgaria the same custom is called sedenki or tlaki (Buchanan 2006: 84).

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32 chapter one

Music example 6: Sedenjka song, Jagodinka Mitrović, Rujnik village

Koja mi gu ovde nema? Who is missing here?


Milica gu ovde nema. Milica is missing here.
Da dođe da ne dođe, To come or not to come,
da dođe pa da prođe. To come not to pass by.
Singing was essential here, and the women also joked and discussed
‘women’s topics.’ Unlike the other customs presented, which totally
excluded men, sedenjke allowed male participation to some degree.
They usually came at the end of the event to chip with the women.
Their presence was an important part of the custom, particularly
for unmarried girls. This was a great opportunity for them to meet
boyfriends in a more informal way, without being restrained by the
elders:
And boys come while we are in the middle of the spinning, pretending
that they want to put wood on the fire. But they extinguish it and we
are left in the dark. We scream, run away. But when our parents hear
what has happened, boys run away, nobody is left. And after, you know
we have problems with the parents. They do not allow us to do sedenjka,
but we slip out and do it anyway. Youth is crazy! (Milunka Đorđević,
Jelašnica village)
The central elements of this custom were lascivious behavior and gen-
der roles transgression. Certain erotic elements appeared in the crude
joking (e.g., playing with the hemp as if with the phallus). However,
the songs called pripojke, pripevaljke, pripojanje or pripevuvanje were
the main sources of sexual innuendo. The lyrics of the songs per-
formed often contained lascivious elements and an imaginary dialogue

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gender performance in southeastern serbia 33

between a man and woman. Because of this ‘specific’ content, some


women were ashamed to talk about these songs. Dragan Todorović,
explained why his neighbor did not want to sing: “Dene does not want
to talk about that, she is a decent housewife.”
The most important aspect of performing these songs was that it
gave women an opportunity to voice their emotions publicly, which
was not something commonly practiced. The content of the songs
referred to the symbolic coupling of girls and young men from a
village:
Krca, krca, nova kolca, Klick-klack new car,
koji mi se u nji vozi? Who is riding inside?
Jela mi se u nji vozi, Jela is riding inside,
a Boba mi po nji ide. Boba is following behind.
(Grozdana Đokić, Leskovik village)
Lenjir mi se klati, klati, The ruler is staking up and down,
devojka mi se mlati, mlati, The girl is shaking,
koj li će mi u ruke dopadne? Who will come to my arms?
Evo mene ja sam pored tebe. Here I am next to you.
(Desanka Petrović, Gornja Vrežina village)
Pipa pipa, pa napipa, dragi bre, Fumble, fumble my dear,
punu šaku sitnu dlaku, Jelena. A full hand of pubic hair, Jelena.
(Mladenka Živković, Gornja Vrežina village)
Women referred to some of these songs with explicit erotic content as
‘men’s,’ ‘rakish’ or ‘to the men’s tune’ (muške, mangupske, na muški
glas), as has already been mentioned in discussing the female singers’
discourses on gender segregated performances. This transgression at
the level of discourse revealed that the songs belonged to the ‘other’
sphere of men and were taboo in regular settings. Thus the songs were
an outlet for women’s free, uninhibited spirit, made possible by their
special status during the sedenjka:
In this particular performance context, they appropriate and subvert
male genres to gain power in a new way, by inverting the situation so
that it is the males who are stereotyped as these jokes become vehicles
for portraying women’s views on male language usage. (Young and
Turner 1993: 13, 14)
Through their activities during the sedenjka, women negotiated the
boundaries between gender segregated performances and challenged

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34 chapter one

boundaries between male and female domains. Transgression is also


visible in the practice where the female participants masked them-
selves, thus playing with existing gender roles. They usually donned
masks of men and bears, or blackened their faces:
We put on the masks. Vera and I go in through the window, and roll
over women and scratch them. And we get their hemp off, wonderful!
Wonderful! (Ljiljana Radonjić, Prosek village)
These acts can be perceived as a subversion of dominant cultural cat-
egories and ‘prescribed’ gender roles. Through such behavior, women
played with social norms and ‘appropriate’ female behavior. Froma
Zeitlin, in her examination of antique female rituals, argues that
these were performed to demonstrate that boundaries were slight and
weak:
All those relations are unstable and reversible; they cross boundaries and
invade each other’s territories, erase and reinstate hierarchical distances,
reflecting ironically upon each other and themselves. (Zeitlin 1995: 377)
In my view, all these customs functioned to allow women to express
their individuality freely without compromising the rural society.
Regarding their significant role in the construction of ‘femininity’
and women’s subjectivity, the ritual songs contain personal attitudes
and feelings. During enactments of these customs, women occupied
their ‘own space’ beyond ‘regular time’ and beyond the control of
men, which offered them a chance to enjoy all the freedom they did
not have in their daily lives. Nevertheless, while women felt free to
express their opinions and feelings during the sedenjka custom, they
were occasionally afraid that their husbands might hear them sing the
lascivious songs, which proves that their behavior was still regulated
by the existing norms: “Aye, our husbands stood there in front of the
door, do not sing that” (Desanka Petrović, Donja Vrežina village).
Taking into account that these customs emerged as a part of the wider
system of cultural practices in rural society, they represented a space
for the articulation of female power. These events confirm women’s
‘internal’ authority (women’s power ‘behind the throne’) compared
to the real social power of men. Regarded in this way, they cannot be
seen as subversive activities, but rather as outlets for female expres-
sion. Through constant repetition, these practices actually maintained
the established social roles and protected the existing order.

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CHAPTER TWO

VILLAGE GATHERINGS: THE POLITICS


OF REPRESENTATION

Creating the New Folk Culture

Igra kolo sve partizan, All partisans dance the kolo,


Srbin, Hrvat i Musliman. A Serb, a Croat and a Muslim.
Svi narodi veselo, All nations are merry,
veselo je sve selo. All the villages make merry.
Socijalizam mi gradimo, We are building socialism,
ničju pomoć ne tražimo. And do not ask for any help.
(Nedeljković, unpublished manuscript)
The Village Gatherings, an event at which female singers began per-
forming on stage and which played an important role in the repre-
sentation of socialist femininity, were a part of the larger project of
Yugoslav cultural policy. The political agenda of progress and mod-
ernization was directed at eliminating national differences, by building
a concept of a shared Yugoslav identity based on economic develop-
ment and equality, tolerance among nations, gender balance and equal
laws and rights for all citizens (Sekulić, Massey, and Hodson 1994:
95). Official narratives claimed that existing differences would vanish
under the “supremacy of the proletariat” (Echols 1981: 4).
Official cultural policy also aimed to achieve a balance among the
ethnic and regional diversities by creating a multicultural canon of
culture, which was represented as a joint product and reflection of all
working people (peasants, workers and the intelligentsia). Party offi-
cials emphasized that the term ‘national’ had a different meaning from
that of the past when it referred more specifically to the peasants.1 The
socialist notion of the term narodno (which actually means ‘people’s’
or ‘popular’) included the rural population, workers and so-called
‘honest intelligentsia’ and therefore the inhabitants of both villages

1
In contrast to the connotation that this term had in the nineteenth century, espe-
cially in relation to romantic nationalism, during the socialist period it was used to
propagate the homogeneity of the people and the ‘undifferentiated’ masses (Buchanan
2006: 35).

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36 chapter two

and cities (Marjanović 1959: 108; Nedeljković 1962: 100; Nedeljković


1968: 45). In this way, the concept of national culture changed, since
the ‘new folk culture’ (narodna or pučka kultura) now included all
people (all working masses). The concept of musical folklore was con-
ceptualized in the same way:
Musical folklore is the music created and passed on from generation to
generation by wider layers of working people, who do so in accordance
with their natural artistic instinct, disregarding the learned conventions
of music theory. (Žganec 1962: 6)
The creation of new folk culture was part of the broader ‘moderniza-
tion project’ that was characteristic of socialist societies in general. The
socialist ideology was based on Marxist-Leninist notions of ‘progress’
and ‘improvement’ of the entire society, economically as well as spiri-
tually. As Deema Kaneff claims, the development program needed a
display to show that social transformation had occurred, and the field
of folk culture was one public field where the state commitment to
progress was demonstrated (Kaneff 2004: 140).
On the other hand, the traditional heritage was seen as an amuse-
ment and a form of popular entertainment, and not as a real threat
to the state’s multicultural politics. Customs, music and dances were
regarded as part of people’s everyday lives, deeply rooted in their life-
styles and mentality:
But church gatherings (crkveni sabori), slava, and various entertaining
village dances from ancient times are not only the outcome of backward
influences or the result of a wider agenda for their presevervation, but in
great part a desire for amusement and expression. (Archive of Yugosla-
via, League of Communists of Yugoslavia, hereafter: AJ. 142, The Report
on the Plenary of SSRNJ – Socijalistički savez radnog naroda Jugoslavije
or the Socialist Alliance of Working People of Yugoslavia 1959, F-616)
As Mirjana Laušević also points out, since it had a local rather than
a national (ethnic) character, traditional rural music had never been
considered dangerous to Yugoslav supracultural ideology and so was
not placed under strict control (Laušević 1996: 119). The officials’
main intention was to offer new, ‘contemporary’ content created in
accordance with socialist demands, but in connection with the ‘exist-
ing cultural forms.’ The ‘artistic’ presentation of folk heritage was
intended to improve traditional culture and society as a whole. Party
leaders asserted that the new folk culture should be represented in
a ‘cultured way’ as confirmation of the society’s overall development

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village gatherings: the politics of representation 37

and the “natural process of the development of folk heritage in the


future development of the nation” (Zečević 1968: 219).
The concept of amateurism (amaterizam) was the most important
feature in the creation of the new folk culture in the official discourses.
Amateurism was presented as a spontaneous collective expression and
“a basic necessity of each individual subject in the aspiration to be part
of the ‘wider social community’ ” (Supek 1974: 8, 9). As emphasized in
the official narratives, this concept of culture emerged as a response
to the old traditional cultural life, on the one hand, and the elitist ori-
ented activities of high culture, on the other. It was conceptualized as
the culture of all working people, spontaneous mass cultural activity
(ibid. 11). Shared cultural activities and their voluntary character were
particularly presented as a symbol of the new enthusiasm: “Amateur-
ism connected volition and creativity with the new ideology and the
true belief in a better future” (Đorđević 1997: 230).
As part of the process of creating the new folk culture, the state estab-
lished new institutions and agencies to suit the demands of the new
cultural policy such as Houses of Culture, Collective Houses (Zadružni
domovi), KPZs, and various amateur associations and groups. Among
the main protagonists in policy making and bearers of amateur cul-
tural activities were the state-sponsored KUDs – Kulturno-umetnička
društva or Cultural-Artistic Societies, established or reconstituted
across Yugoslavia after World War II.2 These usually consisted of junior
and senior dance groups, singing groups and folk music orchestras.
Depending on the level of the KUD’s ranking, it performed at various
state (Federal ), Republic3 or local events, but also traveled to interna-
tional festivals.4 The ideology of ‘brotherhood and unity’ was advo-
cated through KUDs’ repertoires based on the folk songs and dances

2
Professional state KUDs were established in the capitals of each of the six Yugoslav
Republics. The most prominent ensembles in Serbia were KUD Branko Krsmanović,
KUD Žikica Jovanović Španac and KUD Kolo from Belgrade. These top-ranking
ensembles, led by professional choreographers and experts in the field of folk heritage,
were and still are considered to be the ‘folk-ballet’ ensembles (http://www.krsmanovic
.co.yu/files/main_en.php).
3
The term Republic referred to the constituent federal unit of Yugoslavia – Repub-
lika.
4
For instance, KUD Kolo, founded in 1948, gave concerts in more than thirty
countries in its first twenty years of work: Switzerland, Austria, United Kingdom,
The Netherlands, Belgium, France, Monaco, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Germany, Soviet
Union, China, Burma, Canada, USA, Israel, Poland, Tunisia, Japan, Australia, Indo-
nesia, India, Egypt, Morocco, Luxembourg, Bulgaria, Ireland, Hungary, Finland etc.
(www.kolo.co.yu).

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38 chapter two

of all the nations and nationalities of Yugoslavia,5 apart from the local
(national ) repertoire. Practicing each other’s folk songs and dances-
provided a sense of unity and a first-hand experience of multicultur-
ality. The officials particularly insisted on close cooperation between
village and city KUDs among the Yugoslav Republics (Fulanović-Šošić
1981: 268). Through the inclusion of dance and music heritage from
all the Republics, diversity was displayed as a positive aspect of Yugo-
slav society (Laušević 1996: 119). Apart from presenting the equality
of all Yugoslav national cultures, KUD performances were considered
the most ‘artistic’ representation of cultural heritage (Petranović 1988:
319). They represented each nation or ethnic group by its most char-
acteristic folk pieces, creating a highly standardized version of folk
culture. These ‘stylized performances’ were used as the main elements
in the battle against ‘backwardness’ associated with the old forms of
folklore performance. Creating the ‘highest quality of interpretation,’
would, in the opinion of the policy makers, affect the further develop-
ment of folk dances and music (AJ-507, Materials of Commission for
Ideological-Educational Work, 47–165).

The Ambiguity of Cultural Policy

On the ground, the policy regarding folk culture was often applied
controversially and changed in accordance with the overall socio-eco-
nomic transformations of Yugoslavia. In the first years after World War
II, the centralized system of party committees supervised all aspects
of social activity: civil organizations, the economy, international rela-
tions, education and culture (Petranović 1988: 72). The state’s Agitprop
services6 were aimed at ‘channeling’ all spontaneous behavior of the
people and sending it in the ‘right direction’ (AJ, Central Commit-
tee of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia, Minutes from the

5
Yugoslavia was a multinational and multiethnic society, consisting of six constitu-
ent nations (Croats, Macedonians, Muslims/Bosniaks, Montenegrins, Serbs and Slo-
venians) and nationalities (Albanians, Bulgarians, Hungarians, Italians, Romanians,
Roma, Slovaks, and Turks). Nations were recognized as full citizens, while nationali-
ties had a highly developed level of minority rights.
6
The Ideological Commission of the Central Committee of the League of Com-
munists of Yugoslavia (Ideološka komisija Centralnog komiteta komunističke partije
Jugoslavije) and the Commission for Education of the Department for Propaganda
and Agitation of the Central Committee of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia
(Komisija za školstvo Uprave za propagandu i agitaciju Centralnog komiteta SKJ) were
called the Agitprop services.

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village gatherings: the politics of representation 39

Commission Meetings, 507, VIII-1). The cultural department of the


Agitprop provided prospects for the organization and development of
culture by establishing theaters, orchestras, literary and various music
groups. The development of mass culture was asserted as the princi-
pal goal of official cultural policy. By the end of 1947, more than 400
Houses of Culture and Collective Houses had been built in villages
in order to spread the mass cultural activities. Their main aim was to
implement the state’s program of education and propaganda about
‘positive norms and values.’ In the newly opened cultural institutions,
‘responsible party comrades’ (odgovorni drugovi) organized cultural
and educational activities, “propagating the ideas of brotherhood and
unity, Slavic solidarity and Marxist theory” (Đorđević 1997: 73). Artis-
tic freedom and domestic and international cultural cooperation were
presented as the main cultural policy goals. At that time, the first folk-
lore festival was organized in Belgrade.7
With the beginning of the 1950s, political relations with the West
grew progressively warmer, which resulted in the further liberaliza-
tion of certain segments of political, public and economic spheres of
life in Yugoslavia (Naumović 1996: 56). The period of ‘revolutionary
romanticism’ when culture was evaluated on the basis of socio-polit-
ical criteria, was broadly criticized in dominant discourses, and the
strong state-party cultural policy model was sidelined (Đokić 1974:
95). In rural areas, the process of collectivization was abandoned in
1953, owing to its divergence from the dominant ideology of ‘self-
management’ (samoupravljanje).8 The post-war project of establishing
Collective Houses in villages around Yugoslavia began losing momen-
tum by the early 1950s, as a result of the changes in policy regard-
ing collectivization. The dominant narratives criticized the invasion of
amateurism (also called ‘folkloromania’), particularly the ‘low’ quality
of the repertoire and the absence of contemporary, realistic topics:
The performing of folk dances today in culturally developed environments
represents an artistic event for neither the audience nor the performers

7
Folklore festivals do not have a long history in Serbia. Before World War II there
had been only one event of this kind in Belgrade (that was in 1938, organized by the
Association of Journalists) (Petrović and Zečević 1981: 283).
8
The concept of ‘self-management’ was introduced in the 1950s as a way of reduc-
ing state control over the economy and enabling decision-making by the workers
themselves. Socially owned companies were supervised by worker councils, which
were made up of all employees, who decided on issues concerning division of labor,
general production methods, scheduling, customer care, etc.

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40 chapter two

themselves. This kind of widespread activity emphasizes negative aspects


of folkloromania as a phenomenon in our social life, which represents
the rural influence and the retrograde past. A dominant orientation
toward folk song and dance ensembles suppresses other, more appro-
priate forms of amateurism, which makes for poor results and causes the
decline of culture and entertainment (kulturno-zabavni život) in general.
(AJ-142, Report on the Plenary of SSRNJ 1956, F-616)
The second half of the 1950s was particularly marked by ideological
tensions between mass culture, on the one hand, and artistic ‘high’ cul-
ture, on the other. The policy makers insisted on the ‘modernization’
of peasant culture by importing ‘high culture’ elements into culture
and entertainment in villages (for example, modern dances at village
dance gatherings).9 The importance of close cooperation between vil-
lage and city KUDs and their joint contributions to various cultural
events combining rural/urban repertoires was especially emphasized
(AJ-142, Materials of Commission for Ideological-Educational Work,
47–164).
From the 1960s, various councils for culture or cultural funds were
established, with the aim to achieve more centralized institutionaliza-
tion of cultural activities. The Council of Cultural-Educational Asso-
ciations of Yugoslavia (Kulturno-prosvetno veće Jugoslavije), which
was established as a joint Yugoslav institution in 1954, reactualized its
activities. In Serbia, the most important was the network of KPZs and
the state-supported festivals and reviews, which represented crucial
elements in ‘channeling’ amateur cultural-artistic activities (AJ-142,
Materials of Commission for Ideological-Educational Work, 47–164).
With the establishment of brass band festivals and correspond-
ing events,10 the re-actualization of discourses of amateurism began,
along with a new phase of revival of local heritage (Lukić Krstanović
2004: 57). Amateur bodies were the main organizers of cultural pre-
sentations, together with individuals from local communities – writ-
ers, ethnologists, composers, and journalists, and local authorities and
party administrators.

Dancing the waltz or other ‘modern’ dances together with folk dances at dance
9

gatherings in villages was asserted as an extremely positive practice (AJ-142, The


Report on the Plenary of SSRNJ1956, F-616).
10
The first Balkan Festival of Folk Dance, Music and Song was organized under
the aegis of the First Belgrade Tourist Fair in Belgrade in 1960 (AJ-142, Materials of
Commission for Ideological-Educational Work, 47–165). Guča, today one of the most
famous brass band festivals was founded in 1961.

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village gatherings: the politics of representation 41

The period up to the mid-1960s was marked by economic reform


and extensive industrialization. The dominant trend was mass migra-
tion from villages to cities,11 and the main goal of the young rural pop-
ulation was to obtain non-agricultural employment (Puljiz 1989: 11).
Cooperation with the West increased even more. The tourist indus-
try that developed in Yugoslavia called for the establishment of new
regional folklore festivals. In 1968, after the intervention of the Cul-
tural Council of the Socialist Republic of Serbia (Savet za kulturu
Socijalisičke Republike Srbije) and the Cultural-Educational Council of
the Parliament of Serbia (Kulturno-prosvetno veće Skupštine Srbije),
a relatively new phase in cultural policy began. Rural culture was
presented as the key issue in the cultural policy in general. With the
revived interest in village culture and increasing scholarly work in the
field of traditional heritage, different courses of action for the pres-
ervation of traditional musical genres were undertaken, not only at
state level, but also in local settings (Petrović and Zečević 1981: 283).
This shift in official policy resulted in the foundation of new state-
supported cultural events dedicated to rural culture at the Republic
level, and one of them was the Village Gatherings.
The 1970s were marked by significant political and economic
transformations, which made the social climate in Yugoslavia more
complex. The Constitution adopted in 1974 introduced a concept of
cooperative relations among the Yugoslav Republics as independent
entities within the Federation (Petranović 1988: 415). Solving the
‘peasant question’ continued to be presented as the ultimate goal of
the new socio-economic policy. The Constitution contained the Asso-
ciated Labor Act, which regulated the position of private farmers, and
the position of the peasantry and its rights in general (First-Dilić 1986:
355). The Act stated that private farmers had “fundamentally the same
rights as workers,” assuring an improvement in living conditions for
people working in agriculture. The urbanization trend in rural areas
continued, and the mechanization and modernization of agricultural
work particularly expanded (Puljiz 1989: 19).
In the field of culture, the Tenth Congress of SKJ – Savez komuni-
sta Jugoslavije or the League of Communists of Yugoslavia (held in
Belgrade, from 27th to 30th May 1974) brought about the most sig-
nificant shift in the general course of official cultural policy. A struggle

11
It is estimated that in the period from 1949 to 1971, 5.5 million people aban-
doned agricultural work (Puljiz 1989: 24).

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42 chapter two

against all features of nationalism and all kinds of cultural ‘kitsch’ was
declared,12 as a response to the overall intellectual crises and national
tensions (Đokić 1974: 174). Insistence on the equal treatment of all
national and ethnic cultures, and restraints on competition and all
kinds of ‘social anomalies,’ were intended to prevent further conflicts
between Yugoslav Republics. Party authorities particularly criticized
the intellectual elites for their bourgeois and nationalistic culture-
oriented attitudes, which were recognized as subversive of Yugoslav
multiculturality. They presented the lack of cultural exchange and
the low level of cooperation among the national cultures as the main
problem.13 Cultural cooperation between Yugoslav Republics was pro-
claimed to be beneficial for all national cultures, by insisting on the
plurality of Yugoslav cultural traditions and their interlinkage.
Administrative forms of cultural cooperation, highly formalized and
based on professional contacts between institutions and cultural orga-
nizations, were asserted to be an inadequate model for the multicul-
tural nature of Yugoslav society (Majstorović 1974: 185). The policy
makers claimed a huge gap between the working class and artists (i.e.,
‘cultural producers’). The concept of mass culture was no longer posi-
tioned in opposition to elite culture, but the latter was instead con-
sidered to be part of the mass activities. Thus, emphasis was now on
direct, first-hand experience and cooperation realized through direct
contact between working people and the ‘cultural producers.’ In order
to support more direct cooperation, institutions called SIZs – Samou-
pravne interesne zajednice or Self-Governing Interest Societies were
founded, aimed to mobilize people into taking an active part in deci-
sion-making processes. A new concept of ‘joint work’ (udruženi rad)
was introduced, as an alternative element of social unity and cohesion.
Official narratives propagated the new concept of Yugoslav culture

12
The phenomenon of ‘kitsch’ in the local context included all kinds of artistic
works considered aesthetically impoverished and morally dubious. In the field of
music, the newly-composed folk music – NCFM (novokomponovana narodna muz-
ika) was particularly criticized as kitsch, a musical form of the lowest quality. NCFM
emerged in the mid-1960s in the former Yugoslavia as the genre which combined the
local folk music with Western production and technology. Its emergence is situated
within the process of the migration of the rural population to cities, visible in its aes-
thetic duality which converged in pop culture and the idealization of peasant ‘roots’
(Vidić Rasmussen 1995: 241).
13
During the 1970s and 1980s, the Republics became more and more indepen-
dent and increasingly isolated from each other, which enabled the sub-elites (Republic
elites) to obtain more power (Morokvasić 1997: 70).

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village gatherings: the politics of representation 43

created as a result of joint work and ‘self-management free coopera-


tion’ (samoupravna slobodna saradnja) (Dretar 1981: 117). The main
idea was to overcome all national and regional differences by creating
an alternative method of cultural production through “the social-pro-
ductive everyday activity within the local community and joint work
organizations” (ibid.). The official rhetoric supported decentralization
of cultural policy, transferring responsibility from regional or Repub-
lican cultural institutions to local SIZs, which had their own working
plan and budget. The centralized system of supervision was changed
in favor of greater engagement of predominantly local authorities and
local Houses of Culture or KPZs. As part of the main narrative of the
‘democratization of cultural relations’ or the ‘socialization of cultural
policy’ (Hadžagić 1979: 167), the old administrative-bureaucratic way
of financing culture was abandoned, announcing the end of cultural
policy ‘from above’ (Gavriš 1981: 113). As a result, a certain number of
events still remained under the authority of the Republican ministries,
but many of them were now organized by local cultural bodies (Lukić
Krstanović 2004: 57). It was asserted that this process would erase
national differences and usher in the new concept of unity (Gavriš
1981: 119).
This radical shift in the course of cultural policy revealed the increase
in nationalistic forces across Yugoslavia and growing conflict between
national cultural elites. The cultural climate of the time was marked by
conflicts and tensions, and the predominance of nationalist discourses
over concepts of multiculturality and Yugoslav supra-culture. The
battle against rising nationalism was the dominant narrative in public
discourse, particularly visible in the field of culture, which became the
main arena for struggle over problematic identity issues.
The same policy was continued during the 1980s, when the central-
ized system of supervision was further transformed in favor of the
greater engagement of local initiatives. However, the concept of national
culture remained the focus of public debate. After Tito’s death, in the
1980s, processes of privatization and economic re-structuring started,
followed by an overall economic and political crisis, which culminated
in the breakup of the country at the beginning of the 1990s.
The narratives of the official cultural policy presented above illus-
trate the concepts and goals of the intellectual and political elites,
while in practice their application was, as stated, often controversial.
The discrepancies between official narratives and their social perfor-
mance seem to be particularly visible in the field of rural culture.

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44 chapter two

Despite the ideological emphasis on progress and modernization, slug-


gish agrarian reforms, industrialization and low investment in agri-
culture showed that the rural areas were largely neglected by official
policy in Yugoslavia (Hoffman 1959: 562). As a result of the post-war
project of ‘de-agrarianization,’ the role of agriculture in the Yugoslav
economy gradually diminished.14 In the case of village cultural life, the
situation was essentially similar. Even though official representatives
propagated development away from ‘traditional cultural backward-
ness,’ in practice few concrete actions were taken in the field of village
culture. In his article on the impossibility of village cultural develop-
ment, Ivanišević argues that the treatment directed at village cultural
life actually revealed the marginal position occupied by rural culture
in the overall policy in Yugoslavia. He points out that the village has
always been designated as a retrograde force in society and a sym-
bol of backwardness, neglected by official policy and the authorities
(Ivanišević 1977: 173). Taking into account the generally low level of
investment in rural culture in Yugoslavia,15 cultural activities in Ser-
bian villages were dependent on the level of regional development,
with visible inequalities between areas. A strong bureaucratic structure
and centralized budget resulted from the fact that more than 90 per-
cent of the money went to financing cultural institutions in munici-
palities, and just 10 percent to the villages. As a result, cultural life was
mainly in the hands of local cultural workers and enthusiasts, who
usually worked as volunteers, which was the case with Village Gather-
ings. Unlike state spectacles at the Republican or Federal level, with
their highly formalized structure and supervision by party leaders and
policymakers,16 local village cultural events in Serbia were free from
strict supervision by state authorities. Events such as Village Gather-
ings, which were focused on local rural culture, were rather considered
marginal and neglected by the policy makers and party authorities.
Regarding this discrepancy between official policy and its application
in practice, in the following sections I will present both the official

14
In the period 1948–1971, the total number of the agricultural population declined
by 26.1 percent, and their proportion in the total population by 33.7 percent (First-
Dilić 1986: 344).
15
In 1978, from the entire budget of the Republic of Serbia’s Cultural Association
(Republička zajednica kulture), only 4 percent was dedicated to rural areas (Ivanišević
1977: 171).
16
The most important and biggest ones were organized on Federal holidays such
as the Celebration of 25th May – Marshal Tito’s Birthday and 29th November – Day
of the Republic.

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village gatherings: the politics of representation 45

discourse of Village Gatherings and the personal accounts of my inter-


locutors, in order to offer a multi-sided interpretation of cultural life
under socialism in Niško Polje.

Village Gatherings in the Official Discourses

With the beginning of the 1950s, Niš became the economic, cultural
and educational center of southeastern Serbia. The re-establishment of
the National Theater and National Library and the foundation of the
Symphonic Orchestra in 1952 made for a rather rich cultural life in the
city (Milovanović 1975: 425). Together with the cultural institutions,
the work of the city’s KUDs was revived; these were established within
the newly-founded factories.17 In 1958, the Cultural-Educational Asso-
ciation of the Niš Municipality was founded, while in 1965 the Minis-
try of Education established the University of Niš (ibid. 431, 423).
In the 1960s and 1970s, the policy of industrialization and recruit-
ment of employees for the new factories produced rapid mass migra-
tion from the neighboring villages to the city of Niš. This resulted in
a significant decrease in the agricultural population, from 53.7 per-
cent in 1931 to 7.49 percent in 1981. On the other hand, an increase
in the mixed population – daily migrants or commuters18 – occurred
(Simonović 1995: 83). These people remained active in agriculture
and continued to live with their families in the countryside while
also working in industry. As a result, many of the agricultural house-
holds were transformed into mixed-type households with two kinds
of income (from and beyond agricultural work). The immediate con-
sequence of the rural-urban migrations was that the number of Niš
citizens doubled in the first thirty years after World War II.19 In the
period from 1961 to 1991, several villages became part of the Niš sub-
urban area, while others joined the city (the villages of Donji Komren,
Donja Vrežina, Brzi Brod and Novo Selo). Hence, migrants from poor

17
Such as KUD Stanko Paunović within the Syndicate of the Railway Section and
KUDs of the Mechanical and Tobacco Industry of Niš (Mašinska industrija Niš and
Duvanska industrija Niš).
18
Donna Buchanan uses the term ‘urban villagers’ for the same phenomenon in
Bulgaria (Buchanan 2006: 39).
19
According to the last census from 2002, this area has 381757 inhabitants: in the
city of Niš 250518 and the surrounding areas 131239 (The Statistical Office of the
Republic of Serbia http://webrzs.stat.gov.rs/axd/en/osn.htm?#books).

35-64_HOFMAN_f4.indd 45 9/25/2010 4:37:35 PM


46 chapter two

and distant villages migrated to villages closer to Niš, which influenced


changes in the population of the villages in Niško Polje.20

Village 1948 1981 1991


Brenica 767 596 600
Brzi Brod 568 2939 3665
Čukljenik 562 357 318
Donja Vrežina 552 2262 2696
Donja Studena 730 464 384
Donji Komren 589 4204 4919
Gornja Studena 523 443 433
Gornja Vrežina 1531 1301 1290
Gornji Komren 606 840 722
Gornji Matejevac 4058 3086 2924
Hum 1270 1435 1497
Jelašnica 1817 1778 1724
Kamenica 2044 1017 900
Leskovik 485 415 347
Malča 1692 1344 1249
Novo Selo 607 2973 3689
Prosek 287 438 470
Rujnik 723 642 585
Trupale 1667 2128 2223
Vukmanovo 633 469 406

Figure 5: Population statistics in the Niško Polje villages

In the area of Niško Polje, electricity, running water, sewage systems,


and asphalt roads contributed to a lifestyle transformation. They also
influenced changes in village cultural life. Considering the state’s
attempts to institutionalize the cultural activities in villages, in the
mid-1960s, the regional authorities, along with cultural workers and
village enthusiasts, started to organize amateur folklore groups. Mar-
jan Radaković, writing about cultural life in his village of Donji Kom-
ren, comments that during the late 1960s and 1970s the cultural life
in the villages of Niško Polje flourished (Radaković 1997: 5). The local
cultural centers established various sections: folklore groups, a dance
school, literary groups and others. Marjan Radojković had this to say
about amateur activities in his village of Gornji Matejevac:

20
However, people from the rural areas not only migrated to Niš or neighboring
cities, but also to Vojvodina (the northern province of Serbia) or emigrated abroad,
becoming ‘guest workers’ or Gastarbeiters (predominantly in Austria, Germany and
Switzerland).

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village gatherings: the politics of representation 47

Today’s village, a village of socialist relationships, maintains only the


socialist culture. This requires that the amateurism in a village should
be, in its true meaning, a part of the overall amateur and cultural life in
our society. (Radojković 1974: 7)
Village Gatherings, as the first organized annual cultural activities,
were established in 1973 by the Government of the Republic of Serbia.21
There were some corresponding events in other Yugoslav Republics,
but overall the focus was predominantly on Serbia and its two prov-
inces, Vojvodina and Kosovo. The formal leader was the KPZ of Serbia
situated in Belgrade, but the real organizers, as well as the last link in
the bureaucratic chain, were the KPZs and the Houses of Culture at
the local level. These institutions were established as part of the above-
mentioned overall project of the ‘enlightenment of villages,’ with the
function of educating the village population and developing the cul-
ture of rural areas after World War II (AJ-142, The status of women
in villages, materials from 1959–1962, F-616). The official name for
the event was ‘The Competition of Serbian Villages,’ but in a local
variation in Niško Polje as well as in colloquial language, they were
called Village Gatherings. The competitions were organized at four
levels of territorial governance: the local (lokalni-seoski), the municipal
(opštinski), the regional (regionalni) and the Republican (republički).
All activities were assessed by a jury appointed by the Regional Board,
comprising five to seven qualified cultural and educational workers,
medical doctors, agricultural experts, architects, ethnologists, music
teachers and journalists (from the Regulation).
Local competitions were organized within one region as specific
gatherings of villages, where one village hosted its rival. Local winners
were given an opportunity to compete at the regional level, and, if suc-
cessful, at the final show organized at the Republic level. The so-called
final parade was organized in the village that won the final competition
(see the list of village winners in appendix 3). The program of the final
competition was broadcast by the media (usually the Second Channel
of National Television), and winners at all levels were awarded various
prizes (which were given to the village and ranged from books for the
local library to television sets for the local House of Culture).

21
In the same year the Regulation concerning it was also ratified, functioning as
the main official document of this event (see the adapted version of the Constitution
from 1990, appendix 2).

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48 chapter two

Photograph 2: Village Gatherings in Trupale village, 1983

Owing to the socialist ideology of modernization, the principal


objective of the event was, according to the Regulation, “enhancing
the development of villages, providing better living conditions and
upgrading their cultural life, as well as improving production, health,
communal and other services concerning village populations” (clause
one of the Regulation, see Appendix 2). The socialist agenda of raising
the educational and cultural level of the rural population was directed
at improvements in the cultural life of rural areas.22 The villages com-
peted in five domains:

– Organization of agricultural production and the results accom-


plished in this field
– Development of education
– Building and settling of the village
– Cultural activities
– Protection and development of the environment

22
The socialist project of ‘modernization’ was particularly directed toward groups
that were associated with ‘backwardness,’ such as peasants and women. Donna Buch-
anan points out that peasants became the backdrop against which ‘progress’ was mea-
sured, at the same time as being its source (Buchanan 2006: 41).

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village gatherings: the politics of representation 49

Photograph 3: Village Gatherings in Trupale village, 1987

In the field of culture and entertainment activities, villages competed


in the following disciplines:

– Usage and popularization of books


– Usage of press, radio and television
– Organization of amateur cultural activities and mass-participation
of children, teenagers and adults in different areas of creative activ-
ity (theater, music, dance, literature, visual arts, photography, etc.)
– Collecting, systematizing and preserving cultural heritage
– Knowledge of local history
– Collection of oral folk heritage and data for the book series ‘Village
Chronicles’ (Hronike sela)
– A variety of cultural events (literary and musical shows, theatrical
performances, exhibitions, movie shows, etc.)
– Sports activities

These kinds of communal activities were greatly encouraged by the


authorities. The activities within amateur groups and collectives were
seen as crucial in reinforcing sociability, a sense of responsibility and

35-64_HOFMAN_f4.indd 49 9/25/2010 4:37:38 PM


50 chapter two

organization and many other positive qualities of young people (AJ-


142, Materials of Commission for Ideological-Educational Work,
47–164). More extensive participation in Village Gatherings was rec-
ommended, which could include all villagers regardless of their age
and occupation:
We had here all generations from pre-school children to people a
hundred years old. They were united by the cultural-artistic life, some
through folklore, others through ‘genuine’ songs (izvorne pesme),23 all
were united. We had around five generations and all of them stayed on
the stage – including those singers who sang the old, ‘genuine’ songs,
that is to say, the folk songs. (Velibor Stanković, Prosek)
Education, as the most important element in the new Yugoslav peas-
ant family ideal (Woodward 1985: 244), was promoted through Vil-
lage Gatherings as having a crucial role in creating ‘healthy’ socialist
subjects and suppressing ‘retrograde’ ideas and ‘old’ attitudes towards
life and culture. Local schools were therefore particularly involved:
apart from the performances of local folklore and vocal and instru-
mental groups, the required part of the program comprised school
choir performances.
The concepts of modernization and emancipation were embodied
in the structure of the repertoire through the import of ‘high culture’
elements such as the music school students’ performances, or a mod-
ern dance. By the 1980s, pop and rock music with electric instruments
were also included in the program of Village Gatherings (Radaković
1997: 11).24
Village Gatherings represented the rural social milieu but also an
attempt to reconcile the ‘old’ with the ‘contemporary,’ which was a fea-
ture of the socialist lifestyle in general. The above-mentioned inclusion
of contemporary urban trends in the program was part of the overall
agenda to modernize and develop rural areas. Diverse elements in the
program of the Village Gatherings enabled this perfect relationship,
since different generations who participated in the program provided
the connection between contemporary trends and ‘tradition.’ This
concept offered equal significance and the desired harmony between

23
The category of ‘genuine’ songs was discursively associated with the ‘authen-
tic’ and ‘pure’ traditional folk music and conceptualized in opposition to the above-
mentioned newly-composed folk music – NCFM, which were perceived as a hybrid
product, folk music appropriated for the mass-market.
24
See the programme of the Gornja and Donja Studena village in appendix 4.

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village gatherings: the politics of representation 51

Photograph 4: Village Gatherings in Trupale village, 1987

rural and urban cultures, as an integrating process of all social subjects


in building a classless, socialist society. Nevertheless, since Gatherings
were focused on rural life and achievements in local culture, the urban
public was not particularly interested in these events.25
The minority cultures (kulture nacionalnosti) were represented at
Village Gatherings through the participation of villages from Vojvo-
dina, a multi-ethnic province of Serbia. In the case of Serbia proper,
the Republic organizers confirmed the active participation of the Vlach
community from villages in northeastern Serbia. According to their
statements, the Roma, the biggest minority community in southeast-
ern Serbia, was not well integrated into peasant society, and for this
reason did not take part in the event.

25
As Rudi Supek wrote in his article about amateur activities and public practices
in Yugoslavia during the 1970s, the events focused on village culture were not pro-
moted and propagated in the public sphere. Not only the authorities, but also the
media considered them irrelevant and did not pay enough attention to these types
of activities (Supek 1974: 15). My interlocutors also emphasized that at the regional
reviews, which took place in the city of Niš, the audience consisted mainly of the par-
ticipants’ relatives and villagers, while the urban population was not interested.

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52 chapter two

The 1990s and After


The attitude toward Village Gatherings varied over the years, accord-
ing to political and economic changes in Serbia. The event began to
lose momentum after the breakup of Yugoslavia but still continued to
exist during the leadership of Slobodan Milošević.26 Milošević’s con-
troversial politics of flirting with both socialist and nationalist ideas
(propagating at the same time both Serbian nationalism and the Yugo-
slavian identity) (Jansen 2005: 21), resulted in the survival of many
socialist cultural practices, in addition to the new ones created in
accordance with the new political demands. The policy of continu-
ity with the socialist past allowed the preservation of several socialist
manifestations and holidays.27 Paradoxically, in the rural environment,
which was at the same time proclaimed to be the main force support-
ing nationalist politics, cultural life functioned just as it had for the
past thirty years. As has been mentioned, during Milošević’s rule, Vil-
lage Gatherings continued to be held in many areas.
However, with the beginning of the 1990s, the weakening of the
administrative system of the KPZs and the generally volatile political
climate caused a loss of interest in the Gatherings among the villages
themselves. Interlocutors emphasized that the multi-party system,
which brought about a strong polarization of political orientations,
was the main obstacle to organizing the event. One of the members of
the board of the KPZ Cultural-Educational Association of Serbia and
Editor-in-Chief of the book series ‘Village Chronicles,’ Petar Marković,
emphasized that, after the democratically oriented parties won the
local elections in Niš municipality in 1996 and with the dissension
between the Republic and local authorities, organizing Village Gather-
ings became increasingly difficult. Frequent changes in local govern-
ments and party conflict were the principal reasons why it was very
difficult to find people willing to cooperate on the same project in the
1990s.
After the end of Milošević’s rule and with the democratic changes
which began on October 5th 2000, the network of KPZs was recog-

26
Marija Bišof, the current secretary of the Serbian KPZ Cultural-Educational Asso-
ciation, states that some leading administrators of this organization during the 1990s
were closely connected to Milošević’s Socialist Party of Serbia.
27
For instance, 7th July, a socialist holiday celebrating the Uprising Day against
Fascistic Occupations (Dan ustanka protiv fašističke okupacije) continued to be cel-
ebrated during Milošević’s regime, and was abolished in 2001.

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village gatherings: the politics of representation 53

Photograph 5: Village Gatherings in Trupale village, 1990

nized as inappropriate due to its association with socialism and con-


nection with Milošević’s policy, and stopped being supported by the
state. As a result, what had been the most important cultural institu-
tion in Serbia for more than forty years, with more than eighty local
branches, lost its official status and financial support. As a specific kind
of substitute for the KPZ, the Ministry of Culture established an insti-
tution called ‘The Agency for Cultural Production’ (Agencija za kul-
turnu produkciju). Today, the main KPZ in Belgrade is one step from
closing, with just two employees (including the director), and without
financial support, awaiting an official decision about its formal status.
As for KPZs at the regional level, almost all of them were shut down,
transformed into Cultural Centers or making way for existing ones.
Only six of them are still active under the same name. In Niško Polje
the KPZs are closed, their property has been stolen, and most of the
villages’ libraries and Houses of Culture have been abandoned.
The closure of the state institutions that made up its institutional
framework meant that Village Gatherings were no longer organized
and deemed irrelevant and frivolous. In general, the event was criticized
because of its ‘old fashioned’ concept, which was not in accordance
with the current social and political moment, and the new demands of
the post-socialist market economy and entertainment industry. Apart

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54 chapter two

from political changes, other factors that caused the discontinuation


of Village Gatherings included the lessening of the once crucial role
of schools. Because of the absence of state support, the active partici-
pation of local schools in its realization was no longer required, and
teachers stopped being involved in the organization.
Although Village Gatherings were considered irrelevant by the
‘Democratic parties’ bloc, the attitudes of the local authorities varied,
regardless of their political orientation: in some municipalities, the
Socialist Party of Serbia, the main supporter of KPZ activities during
the 1990s, came out against the Gatherings, while some local authori-
ties belonging to the ‘Democratic parties’ bloc backed both the KPZ
and the event. As a result of such a policy, the Gatherings still have
continuity in certain regions of Serbia (predominantly in eastern and
central Serbia in the municipalities of Zaječar, Jagodina, Kruševac,
Kraljevo, Kučevo, Leskovac, Požarevac and Petrovac na Mlavi), but
only as an independent project of the local cultural institutions, with-
out governmental support.

Village Gatherings in the Personal Narratives

How did the female singers, other participants and local organizers
perceive Village Gatherings? Talking about the socialist period some-
times triggered contradictory emotions in my interlocutors. Taking
this into account, their stories unveiled the strategies of remember-
ing and reconstructing the past, but also the ways in which current
economic, political and cultural changes have shaped their narratives
of the socialist past. As I mentioned in the Introduction, the women’s
stories about musical experiences during the socialist period contain
the current social climate. In this way, post-socialism entered the focus
of this study as a moment in which memories about the past are con-
structed and narrated, as the interpretative standpoint of people’s per-
sonal accounts.28
Recollecting the past, my interlocutors stated that after World War
II many customs were forbidden by the new authorities. They con-

28
Mojca Ramšak, a Slovenian ethnologist who uses the biographical method in her
research, asserts that personal memories and life stories are crucial for understanding
the way people connect personal experience and an interpretation of the past with
their social environment (Ramšak 2000: 30).

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village gatherings: the politics of representation 55

Photograph 6: The Krstonoše custom, Prosek village (1990s)

firmed that party officials sanctioned celebrations which were seen


as contradictory to the Communist Party’s ideology. Deemed espe-
cially ‘dangerous’ were the collective rituals connected with religious
holidays and the Orthodox Church, first and foremost the custom of
Krstonoše (a village custom dedicated to the fertility of the fields, led
by an Orthodox priest).
Similarly, the kraljice, discussed in Chapter One, whose name was
reminiscent of royalty, was also strictly proscribed. In some villages,
girls tried to rename this custom Titovke (instead of saying Kralj –
King, they used Tito in the refrain of the songs):
Text:
Reci, kralju, kraljice gospođo. Tell, the King, the Queen lady.
Da podigne barjak u visine, To raise a banner high,
da vidimo vojsku devojačku. So we can see the girl’s army.
became:
Reci, Tito, titovke devojke, Tell, Tito, Tito’s girls,
da podigne barjak u visine, To raise a banner high,
da vidimo vojsku devojačku. So we can see the girl’s army.
However, this altered version in practice did not take firm root:

35-64_HOFMAN_f4.indd 55 9/25/2010 4:37:42 PM


56 chapter two

With titovke, it was like that. And just when it should have been done,
they did not allow us. In the municipality, in the villages, they did
not allow us to organize kraljice and mention the word Kralj. And we
changed it so that instead of kraljica we turned the words into Tito,
Tito’s girls. (Rusanda Arsić, Donja Vrežina village)
Moreover, I heard from Vera Đorđević from Brenica village that in the
first few years after World War II, her father was punished and fined
for allowing her to be kraljica. Životka and Zorica Stanković from
Brzi Brod also told me that as young girls still in primary school, they
were flogged by their teacher because they participated in the custom
of lazarice. Kostadin Gocić from Donja Vrežina village was impris-
oned and questioned by the Intelligence service (Uprava državne bez-
bednosti – UDBA) as to why he had participated in the custom of
Krstonoše. Furthermore, local authorities punished disloyal villagers
who practiced customs such as Slava, Orthodox holidays – Mother’s
Day (Materice) and Father’s Day (Oci) or the celebration of the Ortho-
dox New Year (Vasuljica). However, villagers told me that while there
were many punishments for practicing the old customs in the first
few years following World War II, the authorities later became more
lenient, and many people practiced religious holidays, though mainly
in the domestic sphere. On the other hand, new holidays were estab-
lished such as the 1st May – International Worker’s Day, and 29th
November – Day of the Republic or the New Year, with the intention
of replacing existing holidays.29
Replacement of existing community rituals and celebrations by the
new tendency to institutionalize cultural activities was not met with
approval in the villages. Organizers of Village Gatherings emphasized
that in the first few years of holding the event, it was very difficult to
introduce this new way of cultural consumption to villagers. Velibor
Stanković complained that it was a struggle to present new activities to
the villagers: “You know, that was all a difficult struggle, I needed great
patience. That could not be worked out so easily.” Dragan Todorović

29
In the first years following World War II, the establishment of new village holi-
days connected with the revolutionary past, supposed to be substitutes for the old
religious ones, was insisted upon, such as the day of the village, the day of the foun-
dation of the local school, the day of the village’s electrification or the building of a
canal for irrigation (AJ-142, The Report on the Plenary of the Socialist Alliance of
SSRNJ 1959, F-616). There is an interesting data about introducing the new custom
called communist slava, in fact the family’s slava used in the new political context
(Antonijević 1978: 91).

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village gatherings: the politics of representation 57

from Vukmanovo village explained to me that he had experienced


serious problems in persuading people to participate in Village Gath-
erings. He decided to apply for participation in the regional competi-
tion in the name of his village by himself. Yet Vukmanovo was a very
poor village, and there were not enough people interested in support-
ing this idea:
No, they did not know what was good. I told them: People, we are
expanding our society, but we are stuck here, we have closed ourselves
off and do not talk with anyone, living just between field and house
(njiva-kuća) and that’s it. We are blind, here we are blind even though
we have eyes. Let’s open up to neighboring villages, to see how they live,
what kind of people they are, what they drink, eat, wear, what they think.
And to get to know this, let’s apply.
He encountered obstacles in organizing vocal and dance groups in
the first years of the event, as villagers considered his work flawed and
irrelevant:
I went from house to house to ask the master of the house first: “Would
you allow your wife to sing in the group, we want her to perform at the
Village Gatherings?” He responded: “No chance, to go there to waste her
time, go away, you do not have more important work than to go around
the village gathering women.” My God, they told me something like that,
like I was a loser.
He started preparations without support, or a proper place for meet-
ing and training. In the beginning the group had rehearsals in a big
room, performed in the old school or built stages out of benches and
carriages. This kind of improvised stage was not convenient for danc-
ing as it was very unstable and precarious for the dancers. However,
after the first difficult years, his village obtained a House of Culture,
which made operating conditions much better. As a result, a few
years later Vukamanovo became one of the best participants in Vil-
lage Gatherings:
We were debutants, you cannot imagine, a man would rise from the
grave to take part in the program, the kids also said: “Uncle Dragan,
when will we perform?” Not to mention the boys and girls who wanted
to prove themselves. That was really euphoria.
This quotation, along with the other stories of my interlocutors, illus-
trates how, as a new cultural activity in the rural environment of Niško
Polje, Village Gatherings became very popular among the villagers after
the first years of adjustment. All members of the village community

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58 chapter two

were delighted by the opportunity to welcome people from other vil-


lages and promote their village to the best advantage. They stated that,
even though in many villages of Niško Polje the halls of Houses of
Culture were still under construction and in some cases lacked win-
dows and heating, during the performances they were always crammed
with people. Vukašin Mitić explained that they sometimes even made
a temporary hall:
Until Trupale got a House of Culture, we did not have a hall. We made
it from planks, made a shack, since it was winter and held the Gatherings
there. We also held them in the open air; we had just the white walls of
the future hall, which was under construction and without a roof.
As Velibor Stanković from Prosek village also noted, everyone was
prepared to help in making the exhibition successful. Someone offered
a room for practicing; others assisted in setting up the stage or clean-
ing up the village:
We prepared everything, there were the tables, we served lunch, and
people ate and drank. Everyone brought what they had. And there peo-
ple do not bring just anything. From food, drinks, roasting. And also
barrels of beer, these big schooners.

Photograph 7: Dance in front of the House of Culture in Trupale village,


Village Gatherings, 1987

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village gatherings: the politics of representation 59

Program participants were also dedicated to preparing for the compe-


tition, and amateur groups from the villages of Niško Polje often won
at the regional Gatherings.

Nostalgia or Subversion?
As has been pointed out, the discourses of my interlocutors regard-
ing Village Gatherings expressed significant ambivalence. Their stories
acknowledged the present post-socialist reality, showing the dynamics
of sentiments regarding the socialist past – denial of the past, on the
one hand, and nostalgia, on the other: “The grey phase of transition,
as a jump between past and future constructed multiple images of
the past, positive and negative, difficult and improving” (Creed 1999:
224). The distinction between ‘bygone times’ and a current moment
defined as ‘new times’ was particularly apparent in their narratives.
The ‘bygone time’ is remembered as a period of suffering because of
the difficult lifestyle (compared to today’s mechanization and technol-
ogy), but also as a time of harmony, cooperation and unity: “Anger,
resignation and selective nostalgia for the socialist era seem more sig-
nificant in defining the new subjectivities” (Hann 2002: 93).
People glorified village life as idyllic, a time marked by friendship,
togetherness and generally good relationships between people. As
Olga Stanković from Donja Studena village recalled, “We lived differ-
ently at that time. Lots of things happened, my son, lots of things, it
was wonderful.” They particularly emphasized good social relation-
ships, seeing the strong relationships between relatives, neighbors and
among the peasant community in general as the most important ben-
efit of bygone days. In their stories, the past was portrayed as a period
marked by joint singing and dancing, which involved all members
of the community in common social activities. As Životka Stanković
from the same village lamented:
We were walking down the road, walking and singing. People sang. Now
there is no love, children, no sorrow, there is nothing now, no help,
nothing. Now there is only spite.
The Gatherings had a significant position in the villagers’ memories of
the past as a joint activity of all community members. It was presented
to me in a highly positive light, as an event that was extremely benefi-
cial to village development. The villagers emphasized that the Gather-
ings were an excellent opportunity for young people to engage in extra
activities, to learn the old songs, dances and customs, and to meet their

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60 chapter two

peers from neighboring villages. For older people, it was a good way
to revive memories of the past and have a great time together. These
occasions thus functioned as new ways of socializing and a specific
‘outlet’ in the villagers’ everyday life. According to their stories, they
especially enjoyed traveling with local amateur groups, and participat-
ing in various exhibitions across the former Yugoslavia.30 For instance,
groups from Donja Studena, Komren and Vukmanovo performed at
the Festival of the Folklore Heritage of Serbia in Topola (Sabor naro-
dnog stvaralaštva Srbije), the Folklore Groups Review (Smotra naro-
dnog stvaralaštva izvornih grupa), the International Folklore Festival
in Zagreb (Međunarodna smotra folklora u Zagrebu) and the Balkan
Festival of Folklore Heritage held in Ohrid (Balkanski festival narod-
nog stvaralaštva u Ohridu).
In remembering the Gatherings, my interlocutors particularly
emphasized that people involved in the organization were enthusiasts
who worked for no pay. They recalled how close contacts and even
intimate relationships and marriages arose from these competitions,
and that it was often through joint amateur activities that people who
did not get along gradually overcame conflicts and became friends
again. They expressed disappointment at the disappearance of Village
Gatherings as important events that had provided a sense of unity and
cohesion.
In their minds, although people today have a much better quality
of life, their social relationships have seriously deteriorated: “Young
people have everything but know nothing” (Ilinka Despotović, Tru-
pale village). In contrast to the ‘bygone times’ when people sang and
danced at local community gatherings (‘dancing every Sunday’ – oro
svaku nedelju), people today spent most of their time watching TV,
‘locked’ in their houses. The people I talked to stated that they did not
visit their neighbors and relatives as often as they had done in earlier
times.
In addition, local organizers stated that young people were not
interested in village cultural life. The female singers expressed disap-

30
Mobility had an educational function in socialist ideology: apart from rural-urban
migration for schooling or work, traveling was seen as important for the emancipation
and widening of the villagers’ horizons. According to Stef Jansen, the sense of mobility
is generally present in the memories of the former Yugoslavia. A longing for the ‘big
country’ and free travel is the result of the post-Yugoslav restriction in mobility caused
by war, difficult economic circumstances and visa policy (Jansen 2005: 224).

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village gatherings: the politics of representation 61

Photograph 8: KUD Vukmanovo from Vukmanovo village at the


International Folklore Festival in Zagreb, 1982

pointment at the fact that no one was interested in performing the


old songs anymore. They regarded the period after Village Gather-
ings stopped being organized as a time when old songs and customs
completely vanished from the everyday lives of villagers. As Verica
Mitić lamented, “Now there is no lazarica, no kraljica, there is noth-
ing.” They said that young people and particularly their grandchildren
seemed to be averse to the old style of singing, which they disparaged
as ‘howling’ (zavijanje). Local cultural workers and organizers added
that nowadays there was no entertainment suitable for young people
in villages, apart from that provided by local clubs and cafes. They
stated that villages were empty, abandoned by young people, and that
only primary school children were interested in the cultural activities
of the villages, but that after they sampled city life for the first time,
they became embarrassed by those kinds of festivities, seeing them as
‘rustic’ (seljački).
In general, villagers expressed serious disappointment at the discon-
tinuation of Village Gatherings after the ‘democratic changes’ had taken
place in Niš. They professed that these events had contributed greatly
to village life, especially during long winter days when there was little

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62 chapter two

to do. In their opinion, the new authorities gave preference to urban


culture, neglecting cultural activities in rural areas. Some of them even
told me that the policy makers aim was to build up an urban-based
society (građansko društvo),31 and thereby distance themselves from
their rural origins. People generally felt abandoned both by the local
administrators in Niš and by the Republic authorities who had let cul-
tural life in their villages die out. As Vukašin Mitić commented, “Vil-
lage Gatherings lasted a long time, until 1996, or maybe 1995. And
then the politics started, the war and it all changed, shut down and
changed.”32 They explained to me that individual ideas and energy
did exist, but without municipal or state support, it was not possible
to realize any project. Observing my interest in the Gatherings and
village cultural life, many of the ex-local organizers asked me to help
them in reviving this event. This reveals the lack of connection and
relative mistrust between the institutions and authorities, on the one
hand, and the rural population in Niško Polje, on the other.33
While working on the organization of Village Gatherings, commu-
nity members shared common duties, interests and goals, which pro-
vided cohesion in the rural community. This was a significant feature
in creating the image of the sociable past, where everyone tried to
help and contribute to community development. To quote the people
I spoke with, the main life qualities of those times were socializing
(druženje), helpfulness (pomaganje) and unity (zajedništvo). At this
point, I find Gerald W. Creed’s study of the erosion of ritual practice
in post-socialist Bulgaria particularly useful in demonstrating the role
of public displays as an important forum for sociability during social-
ist times (Creed 2002: 64). The case of Niško Polje confirms a similar
practice whereby social relations under socialism were strengthened

31
Which in the very etymology of the phrase excludes peasants.
32
It is important to emphasize that the collapse of socialism and the subsequent
breakup of Yugoslavia were not represented by my interlocutors as the major turn-
ing point in their narratives. For them, the most important discursive boundary was
not 1991, the year of the dislocation of the former Yugoslavia, but 1996 (the year of
the first significant political changes at local level since World War II) and 1999 (the
bombing of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia by NATO forces). This attitude is
probably a result of the feeling among many rural people in southeastern Serbia that
the war was happening far away and that they were not personally involved in it, while
the NATO bombing had a completely different meaning for them and was recognized
as the first ‘real war’ since War World II.
33
This phenomenon of misinterpretation and tension between the state and institu-
tions, on the one hand, and citizens and social actions, on the other, is broadly present
in post-socialist societies (Giordano and Kostova 2002: 89).

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village gatherings: the politics of representation 63

not only by informal family festivals and gatherings, but by the state-
supervised spectacles as well. Their accounts contradict the attitude
that all socialist state-sponsored occasions represented artificial forms
of communal activity in rural society, events wholly meaningless to
those who participated in them. In the life stories of my interlocu-
tors, Village Gatherings were recognized instead as a significant part
of their everyday life strategies and were genuinely meaningful, thus
challenging the dominant attitudes about state-sponsored cultural
activities under socialism as imposed and rigid public forms.34

34
Scholarly writing about socialist culture takes the stance that socialist cultural
events were an ‘artificial,’ ‘falsified’ and ‘unnatural’ form of cultural presentation, which
differed very much from ‘real life’ (see Olson 2004: 13; Kaneff 2004: 141; Habeck, 11,
unpublished article). They consider performance in small groups – within informal
settings and among well-known people, and without a strong division between per-
formers and audience – as a ‘natural’ context for traditional musical performance. The
claims that in contrast to the notion of traditional performance as ‘pure,’ ‘spontane-
ous’ and ‘naturally developed,’ the stage performance was considered ‘adapted,’ ‘non-
spontaneous’ and ‘channelized,’ will be particularly discussed in the Conclusion.’

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35-64_HOFMAN_f4.indd 64 9/25/2010 4:37:45 PM
CHAPTER THREE

REPERTOIRE

Official Music and Local Taste

Apart from expressing positive attitudes towards Village Gatherings,


my interlocutors also stated that, as local events, these were not strictly
supervised by party authorities. Organizers said that officials were not
interested in the program content, and that their function was merely
to attend in order to underline the show’s formal nature.1 They told
me that the regional organizers and the leaders from the regional KPZ
in Niš did not insist on socialist or political content for the program
(e.g. revolutionary songs). The village vocal groups sang the traditional
repertoire they had performed previously in annual or life-cycle cel-
ebrations, now with the new purpose of displaying them on stage.2 As
one of the main reasons for this absence of strict state control over the
program, organizers cited the lack of a firmly established institutional
framework for music-making and the representation of traditional
music. Petar Marković, the previously mentioned board member of
the main KPZ in Belgrade, was of the opinion that the Gatherings
were established with a specific purpose, as a free, unsupervised space,
an outlet for subversive activities, allowing people to express their feel-
ings and opinions: “People could talk about everything without repres-
sion and fear of imprisonment.”3

1
The state of the acquired materials on Village Gatherings illustrates that these
kinds of events were perceived as marginal cultural activities. No archive of record-
ings of Village Gatherings exists. As the director of the Archive of Radio-Television
of Serbia, Mileta Kečina, explained to me, these competitions were usually transmitted
live, and the video recordings were temporary.
2
This forms a contrast to other socialist countries such as the Soviet Union, Bul-
garia or Romania, where the rural people were highly involved in the creation of new
folk songs with explicit political content. New texts mainly concerned agricultural
collectivization (see Radulescu 1997: 208; Stere 2003: 85; Olson 2004: 41; Buchanan
2006: 135). In Bulgaria these songs were called ‘songs for the new socialist village’
(Buchanan, ibid. 136).
3
A good illustration of this claim is the song ‘Heroes dance on the ground of
Serbia’ (Igrale se delije na sred zemlje Srbije) written by Milorad Mitrović-Seljančica
during the inter-war period, which was often performed at Village Gatherings even
though it was forbidden by socialist authorities due to its overt national connotations
(Lopušina 1991: 246).

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66 chapter three

Even though strong censorship of the repertoire did not exist,


and officials did not insist on ideological content, a certain degree of
guidance was given: Vukašin Mitić from Trupale village and Velibor
Stanković from Prosek said that some villages (they mentioned Hum)
prepared plays based on the adaptation of important events from the
revolutionary past, which always got the highest assessment grades.
Furthermore, it was not appropriate to adapt old customs with reli-
gious content as, for example, slava. These kinds of performances were
not explicitly forbidden but received extremely low assessments. On
the other hand, certain customs were more appropriate for stage adap-
tation (e.g., the wedding ceremony, sedenjka, lazarice, etc). In this way,
amateur groups were encouraged to perform certain songs, while oth-
ers were considered to lack the proper content to be included in the
repertoire.
The program requirements usually comprised one dance perfor-
mance (so-called folklor), a stage enactment of one custom, a per-
formance of ‘genuine’ songs and a musician playing a traditional
instrument. The repertoire mainly reflected the choice of local cultural
workers in the villages, but they were given formal propositions and
program requirements by the deputies of the regional KPZ: every year
they held a meeting with the regional organizers, who forwarded them
instructions concerning the content of the program. According to
statements from the field, the regional organizers’ demands were based
on a concept of authenticity in repertoire selection and a more ‘origi-
nal’ style of performance. Dragan Todorović and Velibor Stanković
described how they tried to adjust their requirements:
They asked for traditional customs or rituals. Yes all that, but to be
adapted for the stage. And furthermore, they asked for songs, music,
groups, duets or solos. That was a rule for both sides, female and male.
Regarding dances, they asked for old dances and original costumes.
We had original costumes. For example, these yellow scarves. They were, as
folk say, folded, not under the chin, but around the head. Well, we looked
for that. Old traditional peasant footwear, we even made them of pigskin.
According to the stories from the field, regional organizers gener-
ally insisted on the local (village) heritage. The jury’s imperative of
‘positive aesthetic criteria’ allowed only stylistic adaptations, but not
in terms of melody or rhythm. The jury members asserted that new
genres, for example newly-composed folk songs (NCFM) or genres of
popular music, could not be included in the repertoire. They said that

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repertoire 67

Photograph 9: Enactment of the sedenjka, Trupale village, 1990

there had been attempts to introduce these kinds of genres into the
main repertoire, but they would not relent. They added that it was very
interesting that after the official program, at a dinner party, the par-
ticipants indulged themselves by singing the newly composed popular
hits. On the other hand, when I asked the village organizers about
NCFM performances, they confirmed that they sometimes included
singers or instrumentalists who performed this kind of genre:
They asked for a ballet group, for example. They also asked for newly-
composed folk songs, and also for modern instruments such as the accor-
dion, synthesizer and so on. (Dragan Todorović, Vukmanovo village)
Contradictions in the statements of the jury members and local orga-
nizers illustrate differences between the ‘official’ and the ‘unofficial’
discourse: the jury members obviously wanted to present the Village
Gatherings to me (as an expert, an ethnomusicologist) as a event that
was dedicated to the preservation of ‘authentic’ musical forms, where
any kind of ‘kitsch’ was unacceptable.
While conforming to the prescribed criteria, every local organizer of
Village Gatherings had to make a decision about the performance that
could bring them a better chance of winning:

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68 chapter three

As this modern trend came, the program was more and more arranged
in accordance with contemporary requirements to gain the attention of
the audience. (Vukašin Mitić, Trupale village)
Taking into account the competitive nature of the event and the impor-
tant role of the jury, the main aim of local organizers and amateur
group leaders was to create the most striking performance. Amateur
groups practiced for a few months in advance with rehearsals at the
village’s House of Culture or in group members’ houses. They tried to
create a distinctive program for each year. As Jagodinka Mitrović from
Rujnik village confirmed, “We changed the songs anyway, because it
was part of the competition, that you could not sing the same songs
every year.”
Aiming to present an attractive program and get better assessments
at the Gatherings, local organizers employed professional musicians
(instrumentalists, singers), music teachers, choreographers or directors:
We did not have a gusle-player, so we brought in a Montenegrin man
who works here, he is a colleague of mine. Unfortunately, he passed
away. He had a gusle and we brought him to contribute to our program.
But there were people who worked; sometimes we could not do it alone,
if we wanted to produce something of good quality. I am not skilled
enough for that, I can organize a program, but I did not have enough
quality and I am not qualified and knowledgeable enough to do that. But
we engaged people from Niš to do that. Mića Verić was the director of
that program, maybe you have heard of him; he is now the director of
the Puppet Theater. So, for example, we brought choreographers from
Abrašević, Stanka Paunovića and Din. (All city KUDs). (Vukašin Mitić,
Trupale village)
Recently, we began engaging a professor. If I may say it more artificially,
this was not really traditional, but the program demanded such a con-
cept. The professor who prepared recitals came, and for folklore, a man
who teaches dance and who knows about that. Also, a man came for the
plays. (Velibor Stanković, Prosek village)
With this in mind, every village had its ‘stars’ who were widely popu-
lar. Velibor also told me that they had a pumpkin orchestra (orkestar
lejki)4 and an old man, Grandfather Mika, both of whom were real
attractions on stage. The village of Komren and its bagpiper Kostadin
Cvetković, as well as its vocal group Komrenka, were among the most

4
The Lejka is a simple aerophone instrument, made from a pumpkin. This type
of instrument was common all over Serbia, but it is usually not considered a ‘real’
instrument.

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repertoire 69

distinguished in the wider region (Mladenović 2002 and Radaković


1997).
Village Gatherings also facilitated a specific form of communication
and interaction between people from different villages and regions.
The important changes in local repertoire influenced by participation
in this event were visible in the practice of ‘borrowing’ repertoire.
Organizers confirmed that they included songs from neighboring vil-
lages which they had heard from individuals, groups or at informal
village gatherings. Dragan Todorović explained, “I have taken some-
thing from Suvi Do, from Prva Kutina. For example, I have one song
from Matejevac” (All villages around Niško Polje). In this way, apart
from the village repertoire, the program also contained some ‘neigh-
boring songs,’ which resulted in both the mixing of local repertoires
and styles of performance and their unification.

Indirect Intervention in the Repertoire

Local authorities, organizers and amateur group leaders had an impor-


tant role in program selection but also in shaping the personal rep-
ertoire of the female singers. As has been established, the amateur
groups prepared themselves for the stage performance through orga-
nized rehearsals. Since the jury insisted on a ‘pure, traditional style,’
at these meetings women refreshed their memories of the songs they
had performed in their childhood and youth (mainly before World
War II):
Well, we practiced, gathered at one woman’s house. We usually went
to Dina’s house. To put our voices together. We were alone, we needed
no help. With music what is important you have to know by yourself.
(Ilinka Despotović, Trupale village)
Since these women often came from various villages (many of them
moved to a new village after marrying), they combined different mem-
ories about the song repertoire. This resulted in a process of adjusting
their individual repertoires to a common sound. Dobrisavka Janković
from Hum village told me that she learned songs from other women
from amateur groups, since she came from a distant village. Other
women retold the songs’ lyrics to her: “They recited the songs to me –
and then they would tell me to sing this word here, that word there.”
Her village repertoire was performed differently in style and melody,
and she affirmed that now she knows neither which is theirs, nor the

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70 chapter three

songs from her village. For Jagodinka Mitrović, who moved from
the distant village of Kravlje to Rujnik, it was particularly difficult to
sing in a different style, so she had problems when it came to stage
performance:
Here, they have different tunes. Completely different. As if they distort
the tune a little bit. We sing differently. When we went to the Gather-
ings, I could not sing, even if you killed me, I could not.
Mladenka Ristić from Vukamnovo village stressed that older women
taught young ones, but at the same time they learned from each
other. In this way, mixed-generation ensembles, where younger sing-
ers learned old songs from the older ones, enabled the passing down
of the local repertoire. Since practicing customs was no longer a part
of everyday life and there was no possibility of refreshing memory
through practice, performing at Village Gatherings enabled specific
preservation of ‘old’ repertoires. This affected the process of the ‘indi-
vidualization of performance,’ the practice where one woman (usually
a leading singer with the best vocal abilities and the best knowledge of
songs) became the main source for the songs. A particular song was
often considered to be part of the repertoire of that one woman (e.g.
Vera’s song). Almost all the female singers remembered which woman
in the village sang the ‘old songs’ and who continued to sing them after
she had died. This individualization of performance became exemplary
for the ideal performance style, especially to younger performers, and
a pattern to follow when passing the song on. For Zlatković Grozdana
from Vukmanovo village, her cousin Anđa was the main source of the
songs: “Anđa sang these songs. Anđa, and after her Mara, but no one
could sing as Anđa sang them.”
On the other hand, this kind of practice of ‘learning’ the old songs
did not include such a variety of repertoire and left no space for
improvization. Owing to the standardized structure of cultural pre-
sentations at the Gatherings, the musical diversity of local repertoires
was expressed in different tune patterns. Songs were practiced and
performed to fit a required pattern, without the possibility of free
improvization and spontaneity.
Since the songs previously connected to customs were recontextu-
alized by stage performance, women transgressed social taboos con-
nected to certain genres of song, performing them regardless of the
ritual prohibitions that had existed when they were performed within

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repertoire 71

Photograph 10: Folklore group from Prosek village at the


Village Gatherings, 1978

everyday practice. For example, lazarice or Đurđevdan, which were


forbidden to some categories of women (e.g., the performance of the
lazarice custom excluding older girls, married or old women), were
challenged. Therefore boundaries between song genres became blurred.
Female singers presented certain songs that could be performed within
several customs (e.g., kraljica’s song in the harvest celebration or for
sedenjka). The stage performance probably affected these new inter-
genre relations in general. In particular, I found that female singers
in the villages of Donja and Gornja Studena had created their own
terminology in the classification of songs. They divided the songs into
four groups depending on the season – spring, summer, autumn and
winter songs. To them, the main parameter for classification was the
song’s textual content (if the theme dealt with winter, cold weather or
fire, they considered it to be a winter song).
By performing on stage, the female singers also gained more free-
dom in performing different genres without shame or hesitation. They
started to perform ‘newer,’ ‘widespread’ or ‘urban’ musical genres,
songs that they heard from other amateur groups or on the radio:

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72 chapter three

After we got electricity, we had radio, and I bought a gramophone and


gramophone records, and after that the cassette and now a CD player.
I turn this on and they sing. I had lots of songs. My mother gave me
money to buy lunch, but I bought records, and as soon as I came home,
I immediately turned the radio on and went to chop wood. (Mladenka
Ristić, Vukmanovo village)
Consequently, some of the newly-composed folk songs were presented
to me along with the ritual songs as part of the stage performance.
These are diatonic, with a more developed melody compared to the
two-part singing or songs associated with the customs. The tonal
structure is based on a minor or major scale:

Music example 7: Zapevala čobanica mlada, Miroslava Jovanović,


Malča village

Zapevala čobanica mlada, A young shepherdess starts singing,


jasno peva, ovde gora ječi She sings brightly, the mountain echoes
da Jevrope ljute rane leči. To heal Europe’s sore injuries.
Widening their personal repertoires was also a result of coming into con-
tact with performers from other villages. Village Gatherings created a base
for the popularization, distribution and adaptation of songs, particularly
because of the authority this event had gained among the local population.

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repertoire 73

Direct Intervention in the Repertoire

The direct intervention of staging concerned the adjustment of the


local repertoires in accordance with the program’s rules and timetable.
Taking into account a precise schedule, organizers told me that it had
been extremely difficult for them to organize a good quality program
that would not overrun its allotted time:
The program lasted precisely two hours, and if you had a performance of
more than two hours they (the regional KPZ) would cut a part of your
program. Sometimes, I went so far as to bring a stop-watch to reduce
something that was surplus. (Velibor Stanković, Prosek village)
The vocal groups usually performed three songs in accordance with
the jury’s requirements.5 The time limit was three minutes for each
performance, so songs had to be cut and the text pattern was usually
adjusted to two or three stanzas:
They did not allow us to perform the whole songs. The program was not
long. A song can last three minutes, it was not only us who performed,
there were many people there. (Ilinka Despotović, Trupale village)
As a result, one of the most significant characteristics of the two-part style
in this area, the antiphonal style, was abandoned in stage performance.
The singing style, where two groups repeat verses without a break (Jedna
peva, druga raspojuje) was subject to shortening. Because of time limits,
these songs were reduced, and each strophe was performed only once:

A B
A B
B C
C D
becoming
C D
E
D E

Figure 6: Changes in the textual structure

5
Sometimes the jury even chose the songs and dances that would be performed, in
order to avoid repetition and to make the overall program more attractive.

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74 chapter three

As has been said, the jury’s demands left little space for adapting and
reworking the songs,6 but in the manner of singing style there were
some interventions. Two-part singing, which was characteristic of the
female performances in this area, underwent the biggest changes. The
characteristic of this singing style is the drone or syllabic drone sing-
ing based on non-metric or parlando-rubato rhythm. It belongs to
the two-part singing practice which, together with heterophony and a
combination of heterophony and drone singing, represented the dom-
inant singing practice in rural areas of southeastern Serbia. The upper
voice sings the melody while the lower voice accompanies on the tonic,
making the intervals of a major or minor second. The accompanying
voice is passive in text articulation and usually pronounces only vow-
els. The melody scope is very narrow (up to a fourth), in a chromatic
and usually non-tempered tonal structure:

Figure 7: Tonal structure of drone and syllabic drone singing style

The rhythm is predominantly parlando-rubato with defined metrical


pulsation – it is a syllabic style similar to speaking, with simple rhyth-
mic figures. The singing style is loud, with open throat.7 For almost all
songs it is typical to have a refrain i at the end of each verse, some-
times at the caesuras.
During the stage presentation, instead of the usual three singers,
the leaders of amateur groups in some villages introduced two singers
performing, finding it more attractive. Velika Jovanović from Gornji
Komren village remembered this practice, “Well, it was more attractive
if we sang in pairs. Two sing, two sing after. We gained lots of points in
that way, and won a couple of times.” In addition, women emphasized
that the jury paid particular attention to the ‘harmony’ of their voices.
For this reason, they diligently tried to sound ‘like one’ or ‘to sing at
one tone,’ and generally became more sensitive in recognizing what
would be a ‘good’ or a ‘bad’ performance, taking the jury’s standards

6
Unlike in other socialist countries, where the songs were usually arranged for
choir performance (Rice 1994: 176; Olson 2004: 54), the songs performed at Village
Gatherings did not undergo such drastic transformations in performing style.
7
Guttural singing style.

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as an aesthetic norm. Two-part singing was gradually replaced by sing-


ing in unison, one of the main reasons being that the women who usu-
ally sang together were no longer alive. Therefore, the majority of songs
in the field were recorded in a monophonic version, although some of
them were remembered (though not performed) in a two-part style. The
next two examples give a good illustration: the first was recorded in

Music example 8: Sedenjka song, Donja Studena village (track 4)

Music example 9: Sedenjka song, Savka Milanović, Olga Stanković, Donja


Studena village (track 5)

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76 chapter three

978 in Donja Studena village in a two-part version,8 and the second


twenty-seven years later in the same village in a monophonic version:
The singers’ stories and recorded musical material reveal some gen-
erational changes in interpretation, mainly in the style of singing.
As they said, for younger singers it was particularly difficult to learn
the specific (guttural) style and ornaments. Textual changes are also
noticeable, since older singers more often used local dialects, while
younger ones usually mixed dialect with the standardized language.
The modifications at the end of a word typical of the caesura were not
present in younger singers’ performances (for example, instead of the
modification of the last vocal Šta se ono na planini belejo, they used
the grammatically standardized version Šta se ono na planini beleje).
In addition, the usage of extra syllables by adding j or ǽ was more
common among older female singers:

Music example 10: Sedenjka song, Miroslava Jovanović, Malča village

Koliko je slnce ogrejalo, How the Sun shines bright,


još toliko vojska pretisnula. It is even the biggest army on the way.
Konj do konja, junak do junaka, Horse to horse, soldier to soldier,
zarosila sitna letnja rosa. The light summer showers have started.
Barjak Stojko, družbina mu Friends tell the Banner
potijo govori: carrier Stojko:
“Uvij, Stojko, barjak da ne kisne.” “Stojko, wrap up the flag and don’t get
it wet.”
Barjak Stojko barjak ne uvija, The Banner carrier Stojko does not wrap
up the flag,
nego njima odgovara: But tells them:
“Mi smo bili devetina braća, “We were nine brothers,
svi smo devet pod njeg poginuli.” All of us died under this flag.”
Yet the younger ones did not use extra syllables, as visible in the per-
formances of the same song by Jelena Mitrović from the same village:

8
The record was borrowed from the Phonoarchive of the Department for Ethno-
musicology of the Faculty of Music, University of Belgrade. It contains no data about
either the performers or the ethnographer(s).

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Music example 11: Ballad, Jelena Mitrović, Malča village

Koliko je sunce ogrejalo, How the Sun shines bright,


nisko greje visoko se vije. It shines low but can be seen higher.
On the whole, in the process of staging, musical elements such as
tunes, rhythms and timbre did not change, but performance style,
ornaments and genre were transformed. On the other hand, amateur
groups, because of their visibility in the public sphere, modeled suit-
able music styles and aesthetic criteria. The best performances from
villages all around Niško Polje were presented at a joint show orga-
nized at the Military Club in the city of Niš. The winner of the regional
contest usually earned the honor of having a special performance in
their home village. Radio Niš recorded the local competitions every
year and broadcast the chosen pieces on Saturday night shows. In
other words, as described above, the presentation of music practices
was selective, which opened a possibility for cultural policy to influ-
ence music-making in local settings. Even though Village Gatherings
did not have highly politicized settings, they created the acceptable
pattern of ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ in the representation of local culture.
Therefore, Village Gatherings institutionalized and canonized musi-
cal practices in Niško Polje, creating more static and homogeneous
representations of the local music culture, but also keeping a good part
of the repertoire vivid: “Such manifestations and festivals supported
by cultural policy continued transition and enabled preservation of
folk culture” (Czekanowska 1996: 93). As a result, the stage perfor-
mance largely influenced the selection of songs that would be remem-
bered and reinterpreted as ‘representative’ within the field research:
according to the information obtained, this event now epitomized
the ‘authentic’ and ‘pure traditional style,’ not only in the eyes of the
performers themselves, but also in the eyes of the wider community.

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78 chapter three

The female singers mostly chose to perform songs from the repertoire
of amateur groups which were prepared for the Gatherings as ‘the old-
est’ and ‘the most authentic’ musical heritage. Through these events,
the canonized repertoire itself was created, but the local repertoire was
also updated, which enabled certain songs to stay fresh in the memo-
ries of the female singers.

Transgressing Gender Roles?

The most significant changes at the level of repertoire were visible in


joint performances by women and men.9 Women started performing
alongside their husbands and other male relatives, especially in situ-
ations where the women with whom they had previously sung were
no longer alive or when, for the purpose of a stage performance, they
needed a substitute:
This practice emerged at the beginning of the 1980s. I do not know if it
was some kind of fashion, or what. Something like – we are married so
why not start singing together. (Dragan Todorović, Vukmanovo village)
Kosanka Krstić from Hum village started to sing with Branko when
her best friend Javorka died: “This Branko, he sang ‘in a female way.’ I
sang in Belgrade with him, when we went to compete.” Sava Radonjić
explained to me how he began to sing with his wife Ljiljana. Since
she wanted to take part in Village Gatherings, when local organiz-
ers asked her with whom she would sing, she suggested her husband,
which was very unusual. Although the organizers were surprised by
this idea, they allowed the two to sing as a duo.

Music example 12: Duet by Ljiljana and Sava Radonjić, Prosek village (track 6)

9
In contrast, in the Soviet Union, the stage folklore affected gender segregation
in musical performance. As Julia Olson reveals, owing to changes in village practice,
public singing has been associated with women, since their repertoire was considered
authentic and more ‘representative’ in comparison with the men’s repertoire, which
was recognized as ‘national’ (Olson 2004: 51).

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Photograph 11: Duet by Srbijanka Stojanović and Miodrag Tasić,


Jelašnica village, 1992

This practice further destabilized the boundaries between gender-


segregated performances. Even though categories of male and female
songs still existed, the boundaries between them became less restric-
tive.10 This practice of appropriating the ‘other’s’ genres influenced
negotiation at the level of repertoire.11 In a few villages I heard stories
of male singers who performed ‘women’s songs’ at the Gatherings:
One man sang them, but he moved to Aleksinac. Milan is his name.
The same sedenjka song, something like that, he sang as a woman. Not
in a man’s way, but slowly, as women do. (Sevlija Stanković, Trupale
village)

10
It is interesting to note that Dragan Todorović avoided performing the refrain i
at the end of the verse (da rucne). He claimed that he was ashamed to perform it, since
this refrain was considered female. His act illustrates that even though the boundar-
ies between the two categories were transgressed, some musical attributes were still
strongly gendered.
11
Women’s appropriation of repertoire which previously belonged to men and vice
versa is noticeable in various societies in the second half of the twentieth century, such
as Kosovo (Pettan 2003), Corsica (Bithell 2003), and Greece (Holst-Warhaft 2003).

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80 chapter three

In this way men, like women, had the opportunity to expand their
musical activities and perform genres which were usually reserved for
women:
No woman can sing that song, because it is very difficult and specific. It
is a very old song. It was sung by my grandmother to my mother, and
she taught me that song. I have learned it perfectly. I sang that song
at Bemus. (Belgrade Musical Festival). (Dragan Todorović, Vukmanovo
village)
On the other hand, despite contributing to the higher visibility of rural
women in public, the representation of women at Village Gatherings
maintained the construction of gender relations that were based on
a traditional matrix. First, there were no drastic changes in the field
of musical activities: women remained in the field of vocal practice,
performing the ‘women’s songs’. For them, the predominantly male
domains such as playing instruments still remained a non-legitimate
sphere of activity. Data from the mid-1980s on female instrumentalists
does exist, but with reference to school children who learned to play
in music classes or went to music school. They usually performed as
part of school orchestras in the segment of the program reserved for
‘children’s folklore.’
In Jelašnica village, I found one instance of female instrumentalists
being included in a male orchestra. Miodrag Tasić, a local musician
who played several instruments such as different types of flute ( frula,
duduk), the accordion (harmonika) and the lejka, made an ensemble
of eleven lejkas, whose performances represented a special attraction.12
The repertoire mainly consisted of folk dances (kola) but also included
some original compositions (such as the Jelašnički merak dance).
Another attraction of this orchestra was two female lejka players –
Miodrag’s neighbors, who were included not as performers, but as an
entertainment, since they did not actually play, but simply pretended to
do so. He told me that the audience was thrilled by their appearance.
Moreover, despite the official narratives of women’s active partici-
pation in village cultural life, both the leaders of amateur groups and
the main organizers of Village Gatherings were men. Women did
not decide about the songs they performed because the final decision
about the repertoire was usually made by the local organizers. A few
days before their performance at Village Gatherings, women would go

12
Miodrag made lejkas in different sizes, shapes, and tonal structure himself.

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Photograph 12: The performance of two schoolgirl instrumentalists, Trupale


village, 1983

Photograph 13: The lejka’s orchestra, Jelašnica village, 1992

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82 chapter three

to the House of Culture, the local KPZ or another local administra-


tive office to give a presentation of the prepared repertoire and get the
opinion of the organizers:
We went down to the Center and started. They told us to get on stage,
but without microphones; they just listened to us. And we started to sing
one song, and after that another song, and then the third. After that they
said: you will sing this song. (Sevlija Stanković, Trupale village)
This could be why some women, influenced by my presence, endeav-
ored to perform in a way they thought appropriate to a ‘researcher’s
ear.’ Since they did not get the opportunity to take responsibility for
creating their own performances at the Village Gatherings, they were
not sure of the ‘proper’ way to perform and tried to justify it according
to my expectations: “Do you want me to sing i at the end of the song?”
(Mirka Jovanović, Malča village).
That said, women were still dismissed and marginalized as ‘just’
performers, rather than amateur group leaders or show organizers. It
was not possible for them to enter into the world of ‘real’ instrumen-
talists, and they were presented as ‘fake’ players.13 Thus although they
were displayed in the public sphere in the new role, women’s musical
activity essentially did not transgress existing norms and remained in
the traditional domain of music-making. In such a way, the socially
constructed matrix was transmitted on stage, and the representation
of women still retained the same framework. This kind of dualism,
the dynamics between an official identity politics and its performance,
illustrates the general presumption that their increased public and
cultural visibility did not essentially impact on dominant discourses
of rural women’s cultural roles. Donna Buchanan’s illustration of the
stance of the leader of the most famous professional ensemble ‘Kutev’
in Bulgaria, who told her that displaying female instrumentalists on
stage meant violating the traditional style, since women did not play
in traditional settings (Buchanan 2006: 147), supports that claim. Julia

13
Naila Ceribašić points to the same practice among Croatian female instrumental-
ists, who were not considered ‘serious’ performers until the middle of the twentieth
century. They were included in orchestras just as a ‘funny’ replacement for the absent
male musician, or played children’s and other ‘non-real’ instruments (Ceribašić 2004:
159). Veronica Doubleday writes about a similar phenomenon in Afghanistan, where
the frame drum, as an instrument played exclusively by women, was considered a
‘non-instrument’ (Doubleday 1999: 125). Sean Williams, in his research into gamelan
degung performances, points out that for the Sudanese, the quality of the music is
diminished when women are included in ensembles (Williams 1998: 79).

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Olson also points to the staged representation of traditional gender


segregation in Stalin’s Soviet Union: “Women sang in the chorus,
while men largely played in the accompanying orchestra” (Olson 2004:
54). Staged representation of gender at Village Gatherings was based
on the traditional matrix, due to the jury’s demands for authenticity,
which also illustrates the contradictions in the construction of social-
ist femininity in the public realm. As Occhipinti argues, despite the
ideology of gender equality, rural women were still presented in the
public sphere as protectors and bearers of the family and household,
the preservers of values and virtues (Occhipinti 1996: 15).

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65-84_HOFMAN_F5.indd 84 9/28/2010 10:52:04 PM
CHAPTER FOUR

SINGING EXCLUSION

State Feminism

The gender politics of equality in Yugoslavia was introduced as an


integral part of the socialist modernization project: the creators of
the new ideology claimed that economic changes would eventually
improve women’s social position. At the Anti-Fascist Congress of
the National Liberation of Serbia (Antifašistička skupština narodnog
oslobođenja Srbije – ASNOS) held from 22nd to 24th February 1944,
the ‘new woman’ was proclaimed equal to men, not only in battle
and the socialist revolution, but also in the construction of the new
society (Božinović 1996: 151). The Constitution of 1946 guaranteed
women political, economic and social equality with men for the first
time in history. Women were granted the formal right to vote, and to
be educated and employed without discrimination (Woodward 1985:
240). By 1946, civil marriage had become obligatory in the whole of
Yugoslavia. Customs regarded as discriminatory toward women, such
as dowries or the ‘selling of the bride,’ were forbidden (Božinović
1996: 151). Women were permitted to choose between keeping their
surname or adding the name of their marital partner’s family after
marriage. State law safeguarded the reproductive rights of women and
various aspects of social protection (such as maternity leave or caring
for the elderly) (ibid.).
The legal emancipation of women was realized through employ-
ment, since economic independence was represented as a crucial fac-
tor in women’s emancipation. Employed women were recognized in
public discourse as the main driving force behind the modernization
of Yugoslav society. Activities of the newly founded women’s and
feminist organizations (the most important state organization was the
Anti-Fascist Women’s Front of Yugoslavia, Antifašistički front žena –
AFŽ) particularly tried to reach women in rural areas:
The first and basic interest is that women, through modernization in
agriculture and participation in the communal movement, improve their
cultural level and get involved in the socialistic transformation of the
village. (ibid. 171)

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86 chapter four

The association called the Union of Women’s Societies of Serbia


(Savez ženskih društava Srbije) established branches in villages with
the purpose of supporting women’s emancipation1 (AJ-142, The status
of women in villages, materials from 1959–1962, F-616), while rural
women were also encouraged to take part in particular committees.2
The crucial acts the feminist activists singled out were the ban on the
wearing of veils and scarves (which was directly related to the visibil-
ity of the female body in public, as discussed in the first chapter) and
the rooting out of illiteracy among the female population in villages3
(Božinović 1996: 171). A crucial long-term objective of agrarian policy
in Yugoslavia was asserted to be improvement of the socio-economic,
self-management, and political position of rural and farm women, so
that they could achieve equality with their male farming and female
non-farming fellow citizens (First-Dilić 1986: 342).
These changes provided new possibilities for rural women, but
the state strategy for gender equality in Yugoslavia found numerous
obstacles in putting the ideas into practice. First, the essentialist ‘we’ of
socialist feminism considered women as a homogeneous social group,
propagating their equality regardless of all regional, ethnic, religious
or other differences (Kligman 1998: 26). The ‘gender question’ was
reduced to a ‘class question,’ represented as part of the system of ‘higher
priorities,’ and thus the emancipation was only seen in terms of class
struggle (Funk 1993: 5; Duhaček 1993: 133; Ramet 1999a: 103, 104).
In contrast to the individually-oriented Western feminism, socialist
gender politics was holistic and collectivist, with no emphasis on indi-
vidual rights (Funk 1993: 5). Therefore, the rapid economic transfor-
mation in Yugoslavia after World War II and women’s equality did
not keep pace – while economic reforms were rapidly carried out, cus-
toms and patriarchal relationships changed very slowly. Even though
the emancipation of women was realized through employment, paid
work was still considered less important for a woman’s social iden-
tity than the performance of domestic duties. Despite the ideology of
equal employment opportunities and equal pay, women’s actual work

1
SKJ founded around two thousand societies at the Federal, Republican, provin-
cial, district, and communal levels in Yugoslavia. In 1961 this organization merged
with the SSRNJ women’s committees, forming the Conference for the Social Activity
of Women (Ramet 1999b: 94).
2
The Committees of Women’s Co-operatives (Komiteti žena zadrugarki) and the
Committees of Rural Women (Komiteti seoskih žena).
3
In 1961, the proportion of illiterate women in Yugoslavia was reduced to 28.8
percent over the age of 10, and 75 percent of those over the age of 35 (Đurić and
Dragičević 1965: 10).

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singing exclusion 87

was either clerical or manufacturing (particularly in the textile indus-


try, but also as nurses or primary school teachers).4 Official records
also confirm that, despite the formal commitment to gender equality,
women remained unrepresented in leadership positions. For instance,
in 1957 women represented just 17.2 percent of all members of SKJ
(Ramet 1999b: 100). Data from the beginning of the 1960s show that,
although women were formally members of SSRNJ and other organi-
zations, they did not participate in elections, celebrations, workplace
actions and so on. Instead, their husbands, considered to be the ‘heads
of the family,’ participated in Alliance meetings and other activities, in
accordance with the prevalent opinion that women were not capable
of taking part in political and social life.

Total Women Total Women Functionaries Women


number number of
of board superior
members council
members
Municipality 1071 146 131 21 5 –
Regional 167 32 20 6 6 –
Republic 255 37 20 1 16 –
Main board 78 7 5 – 3 –

Figure 8: Female board members and female leaders of Syndicates of agricul-


tural, food and tobacco workers – statistics from 1964

These data show the scarcity of women in executive positions. The


records confirm that even wives and female relatives of active Com-
munist Party members very rarely took part in political meetings and
cultural events (AJ-142, The status of women in villages, materials
from 1959–1962, F-616):
Party leaders frequently opposed giving governmental or economic lead-
ership positions to women. The household of party members frequently
included women still illiterate, still wearing the veil5 and still forbidden
from taking up jobs outside of the home. (Woodward 1985: 242)

4
In 1988 a very low percentage of women pursued engineering careers – electri-
cal engineering numbered 13.4 percent female professionals, mechanical engineering
10.2 percent as well as physical and biological engineering. 90 percent of women were
students of secondary textile schools, while 84.1 percent were studying to be teachers
and nurses (Massey, Hahn, Sekulić 1995: 363).
5
This refers to Muslim women.

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88 chapter four

Consequently, the post-war admission of women into the labor force


did not seriously revise power relations and long-standing gendered
cultural roles. The new ways of socialization outside the narrow circle
of household activities enabled women’s self-recognition on two levels:
as mother/daughter/wife and as productive individual. The discourse
of ‘woman – mother’ was transformed into ‘mother – worker’ (Brunn-
bauer and Taylor 2004: 299), for which women paid the price of a
‘double burden,’ by taking on responsibilities at both work and home.
Rural society, far from the centers of power, was particularly ignored:
“Opportunities reached only a very small number of women: the
urban middle class predominantly in the northern regions” (Wood-
ward 1985: 240). An increasing fragmentation of the extended family
after World War II resulted in the division of land and the establish-
ment of the nuclear family. The above-mentioned way of life in the
zadruga was abandoned. The introduction of electricity and mecha-
nization into the working process not only made agricultural work
much easier and improved the position of women in many respects
but also brought about big changes in people’s lives and their value
systems (First-Dilić 1986: 345). As a consequence of the rapid pro-
cess of industrialization, men who obtained employment in factories
moved away to town, which altered the existing distribution of labor.6
Much of the agricultural work fell on women’s shoulders: in addition
to household and childcare duties, they were obliged to do the farm
chores formerly done by men. This phenomenon of the increase in
the number of women directly engaged in farm production was called
the ‘feminization of agriculture’ (ibid. 341; Puljiz 1989: 20). Women
became the main agricultural labor force, but this ‘job’ was masked
by kinship, inseparable from the kin’s joint work or kin obligation
in general; it was simply considered a part of rural women’s lives.7
Their activities in production did not include the rights to education
or vocational training, taking part in decision-making in Farm Co-
operatives or political participation and representation:8

6
Unlike their husbands, women rarely obtained employment in local factories.
Official narratives highlighted that men and women in villages were equal, but it
was also emphasized that female work was still not valued in industry (Stamenković
1975: 6).
7
According to Maria Todorova, rural women’s double burden was deeply embed-
ded in rural life and culture, due to the long tradition of their active participation in
the labor process (Todorova 1993: 33).
8
In 1972, of the total number of 865 Farm Co-operatives, only 0.8 percent were
directed by women and just 5.3 percent of them were members of the co-operative
management councils (First-Dilić 1986: 356).

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singing exclusion 89

But the man’s influence on the family farm does not weaken with his
departure: although physically absent, temporarily or long term, the man
remains the head-of-the-family and the head-of-the-farm. (First-Dilić
1986: 353)
Official reports concerning women’s position in rural society also illus-
trate a tension between official narratives and the situation in the field,
where women still existed in an almost slavish subordinate position.9
Results reported in the book Family in Transition: A Study of 300 Yugo-
slav Villages (Erlich 1971) illustrate how rural women remained in a
very difficult position within families, particularly in relation to their
husbands and mothers-in-law. The author highlighted that such women
did not complain about their problems; moreover, they did not express
any demands to change that inferior position (ibid. 227). According to
Somerville, many women, despite having been offered the opportunity
to be equal to men, for a long time expressed negative attitudes toward
their own potential (Somerville 1965: 352). Even though young women
were strongly against ‘old patriarchal norms,’ such as arranged marriage,
they were rarely supported by the wider community or local institutions
(AJ-142, The status of women in villages, materials from 1959–1962,
F-616). To summarize what has been said so far, as less mobile social
subjects, rural women began to receive fresh opportunities (in education
and employment). On the other hand, the improvement of their posi-
tion was by and large symbolic, reflecting an operative quota system for
their participation in leadership roles (Slapšak 2002: 149).

Gender and Body Politics in Niško Polje

How did the changes in the official gender politics affect the lives of
women in Niško Polje? As has been stated, urbanization and indus-
trialization influenced changes in the structure and functioning of the
family. On the other hand, the practical non-existence of welfare ser-
vices in villages meant that women’s life in rural settings fell further
behind city standards. In Niško Polje, just a few of my interlocutors
started working after World War II, but quit because of the minimal
social support for employed women in rural environments:

9
For example, in 1965, husbands and fathers obstructed the enrolment of rural
girls in high schools, since they did not want them to take any female social role other
than that of housewife (Đurić and Dragičević 1965: 14).

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90 chapter four

I worked in the company ‘The 22nd December’ for four years and six
months. We sewed in the sewing-factory. I have also worked as a school-
girl. I quit the job a long time ago; I did not have anyone to take care of
my children. (Mladenka Ristić, Vukmanovo village)
Some of them were also active in the Working Co-operatives (Radničke
zadruge) established in villages, within special sections of Women Co-
operatives. However, for a long time after World War II, employment
outside home activities was still considered inappropriate for women.
The women I spoke with remained housewives, but this situation
changed over the generations, and most of their daughters started to
work outside the home. Nonetheless, even some of these had prob-
lems because of ambition in their professional lives: Ljiljana Radonjić
from the village of Prosek told me that her daughter could not get
married in the village because she was working in a company situ-
ated in the city of Niš. The main problem was finding a husband who
would accept her night shift working hours.10 Ljiljana added that her
daughter eventually married a man from Niš, and that they were very
satisfied with their son-in-law.
As established in Chapter One, the female body in rural society
was considered to be a ‘ritual body,’ which had to be under constant
supervision by the authorities (supernatural forces or patriarchal social
norms). It was qualified, unqualified and analyzed as a body suffused
with sexuality, a social body that had to provide the expected fertil-
ity (Foucault 1990: 104). The authority of male ‘disembodiment’ over
female ‘embodiment’ was realized through different sanctions, taboos
and proscriptions, which were part of the cultural practices in rural
environments. The body in socialism was conceptualized in a differ-
ent way, as a classless body, a worker’s body that could erase any
differences between social layers. As many authors point out, cloth-
ing is one of the most extraordinary indicators of social and cultural
change, a communicative device through which the relations of power
are constituted, articulated or negotiated (McCracken 1988: 61). The
politics of dress in socialism played an important part in the gender
politics agenda and in the creation of the ‘new men’ and ‘new women.’
Representation of the body in public discourse was based on unifica-
tion – the sameness of dress codes at schools, factories and other state
institutions, with the intention of bringing rural and urban areas into

10
Interestingly enough, a special meeting dedicated to women’s night-shift work
was organized by the SSRNJ in 1979 (AJ-142, List of the Archive Material of the
SSRNJ).

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singing exclusion 91

Photograph 14: Women from the Mitić family,


Kamenica village, 194411

line (Kligman 1998: 33). A new image of socialist women was cre-
ated through a more urbanized and less differentiated regional dress
style (Somerville 1965: 359). Women’s dress became the epitome of
the modernization of society and their ‘liberation’ and ‘emancipation.’12
In the reports of the SSRNJ, changes in female clothing were presented
as an important indicator of rural development. Changes in the cloth-
ing of younger generations of women who started wearing new tex-
tiles such as buckskin, silk and cotton instead of home-made (woven
materials) were identified as a positive tendency (AJ-142, The status of
women in villages, materials from 1959–1962, F-616). In the socialist
discourse on femininity, a village woman in traditional dress with a
scarf was the epitome of backwardness, a social subject incapable of
making use of the newly established rights and obligations.

Thanks to Jeremija and Čedomir Mitić who lent me this photograph.


11

The new femininity was created as an amalgam of worker, peasant and soldier
12

(Neuburger 2000: 174).

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92 chapter four

Socialist body politics caused changes in rural areas, changes which


depended on the age and social status of a woman. In the first years
after World War II, older women in Niško Polje still maintained their
dress style with the mandatory scarf. As a result of the new body poli-
tics, post-World War II generations of women started to change their
style of dress in great numbers. First they stopped putting flowers on
their scarves and decorating their hair (kititi se): “They wear them;
women wore scarves in our village. But they quit putting flowers as
they were ashamed. Girls also quit putting flowers” (Sevlija Stanković,
Trupale village). As a next step, women gradually abandoned the prac-
tice of wearing a scarf, cut their hair and replaced traditional clothing
with ‘urban’ i.e., ‘fashionable’ clothes.13 Dobrisavka Janković from the
village of Hum told me of her problem of becoming socially integrated
after she got married. Since she did not have the same traditional
clothing as other women in her new village, but wore a new, fashion-
able skirt instead, they made fun of her and refused to communicate
with her. Even though this caused her great pain, she continued wear-
ing the same ‘modern’ clothes until community members adopted the
same style.
These transformations were also visible in the representation of the
female body on stage. Bearing in mind that musical performance is
manifested bodily: “to hear a voice, a musical sound, is to ‘have knowl-
edge’ of the corporal and somatic state which produce it” (Sheperd
and Wicke 1997: 180), the visual element of the stage performance
appears to be extremely important, as a special kind of ‘visual narra-
tive’ or ‘bodily discourse.’ The female singers were specially dressed for
the show and usually wore folk costumes (nošnja). By the late 1970s,
younger women were gradually becoming embarrassed by the ‘old’
style of dress in everyday settings and started wearing such apparel
only for the purpose of cultural events, but the older ones still retained
the traditional style with a scarf. Some of the leaders of the female
singers’ groups, wanting to make performances more attractive for
the jury and audience, persuaded the older women to take off their
scarves:

13
However, it is important to bear in mind that individual and family differences
caused by a family’s financial status were closely connected to in the level of liberal-
ization.

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singing exclusion 93

Photograph 15: Enactment of the custom of Đurđevdan, Trupale village, 1990

It was at the regional competition in Kamenica. In Kamenica Vule


Vukašin Vojinović, the secretary of the Cultural-Artistic Association was
also present and he saw our women wearing ručnici (special hats). He
did not know what that was. Yet, they wore yellow scarves (šamije) over
them, because I had to behave in accordance with the women’s wishes.
They did not want to reveal their hair, as they were ashamed, and they
always wore scarves over the ručnik (hat). First, they wore the ručnik
and on top a scarf and underneath an additional scarf (vrzoglavka). They
came to Kamenica fully dressed in the old way, as Turks, really. I said to
them that this way of dressing reminded one of the Ottoman influences,
the 17th century period. And then, I told them, “Women, take off the
scarves!” “Which scarves? Go to hell, you rascal” – they told me. And
I said, “If you do not do this, you will not dance and sing and we are
going home.” They told me, “Maybe you want us to take off our skirts as
well. If we have bare heads, why not go undressed too?” And I told them,
“Please, if you want us to develop, let’s make a sensation.” And then, I
took the scarf off my aunt first. She said, “Velibor (her husband) will be
mad at me.” I said, “Let him be mad. He will not be mad at me, he is
my uncle.” When I took off the scarf, I asked the women: “Is it pretty?”
And they answered: “Yes, it is. If Grozdana can do it, why can’t we?”
And all of them took off the scarves and I put them in my bag. When we
appeared on the stage with red hats, that was a sensation. Immediately,
the jury, the team which evaluated, started to ask: “Who are they? What
is this?” (Dragan Todorović, Vukmanovo)

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94 chapter four

At the same time, this act contributed to the challenging of the stage
representations of gender and signified a change in the body discourses
and visibility of women as social subjects in rural society.
The socialist body politics thus introduced a new representation of
the female body in the public sphere, at the same time challenging the
cultural meaning of women and the existing gender relations in Niško
Polje: “Relations are often mediated through body, as one of the pri-
mary media in which sociopolitical relations of power are inculcated
and reproduced” (Foucault 1977: 25).

Overstepping the Boundaries

As part of the proclaimed gender equality and socialist modernization


agenda, state authorities tried to foster women’s active participation
in village cultural life, decrying women’s under-representation in vari-
ous types of state-supported cultural activities. The official records of
women’s contribution to cultural and educational activities in Serbian
villages from the beginning of the 1960s highlight the low number of
female participants in local cultural-artistic events and cultural life in
general.14 As the main goal, the policy makers emphasized the estab-
lishment of cultural and entertainment forms suitable for women, since
their cultural activity was “still strongly connected with the old and
primitive types of entertainment such as religious customs, weddings,
and internal informal gatherings (prela, slave)” (AJ-142, Materials of
committee for ideological-educational work, 1956, 47–164). The active
participation of women in all aspects of social life was emphasized as
an important aspect of their emancipation and a reflection of a newly
established ‘freedom’ (oslobođenje žena):
A girl’s participation in a theater or folklore group represents her
entrance into social life, liberation from conservative family restraints,
and significant widening of her personal horizons. (ibid.)
On the other hand, regarding the resistance toward official attempts
to institutionalize village cultural life (described in Chapter Two), the
statements of the local organizers and amateur group leaders in Niško

14
It is asserted that only 20 percent of young rural women in Serbia were mem-
bers of KUDs (AJ-142, The status of women in villages, materials from 1959–1962,
F-616).

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singing exclusion 95

Polje prove that it was very difficult to find women willing to perform
on stage when these cultural activities were first introduced to their
villages. Dragan Todorović revealed that when he visited each house
in his village of Vukmanovo to ask husbands if they would allow their
wives to sing, he found that husbands were very often resistant to let-
ting their wives perform in public, saying, “Why go there and waste
her time? I did not bring her to my house so that she would doll up for
everyone else. She has to be beautiful only for me.” Women had to ask
for their husbands’ permission for every performance. Generally, they
agreed to let their wives perform when accompanied by male supervi-
sors, but in some cases they insisted on being there too. Therefore, the
female participants at Village Gatherings also had a male chaperone,
who was accountable to their husbands for their safety and proper
behavior. Dragan mentioned that his godmother, who performed on
various occasions over the years, still had to ask her husband for per-
mission to perform, even though she was under his patronage. For
this reason, it was easier for the organizers to persuade their family
members, sisters, cousins or wives, to perform.
What are the possible reasons for considering the stage performance
inappropriate and dangerous? Apart from the above-mentioned gen-
eral resistance to institutionalized cultural activities, it seems that
the local understanding of the public/private distinction was crucial.
Michael Zimbalist Rosaldo developed a theory based on the work of
Meyer Fortes, in which women are always and everywhere identified
within the private sphere, while men are related to the public sphere of
social activities (Zimbalist Rosaldo 1974: 24, Ivanović 2003: 422). This
approach was strongly criticized as unhistorical and feminist theorists
have successfully shown the mistake of assuming that the boundaries
between public and private are stable. Despite the presumption of ‘sep-
arate spheres,’ most social practices and relations are not limited to the
principles associated with one or the other sphere. Scholars emphasize
that historical changes in the ‘content’ of what is officially or conven-
tionally meant by public and private largely affected this discursive
distinction in social theory: “The use of the conceptual vocabulary of
‘public’ and ‘private’ often generates as much confusion as illumina-
tion, not least because different sets of people who employ these con-
cepts mean very different things by them – and sometimes, without
quite realizing it, mean several things at once” (Weintraub and Kumar
1997: 1). Drawing from Susan Gal’s definition of the public/private
distinction as a communicative phenomenon that is a product of a

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96 chapter four

semiotic process (Gal 1997: 261), I have explored how these categories
were employed in personal discourses of my interlocutors who used
them to demarcate other important ‘official/unofficial’ and ‘visibility/
invisibility’ interrelationships. The notion of the stage/non-stage per-
formance remained closely connected to a public/private distinction
in the light of socialist cultural policy, and the creation of the new
state-supervised village cultural life.15 According to the stories of my
interlocutors, community celebrations and parties associated with the
annual and life cycle, as well as informal festivities were associated
with a different type of publicity and the stage performance was seen
as public activity par excellence, entirely different from other perfor-
mance situations.16 Stage performance at state-organized events, which
occurred in different cultural contexts and where performers were dis-
played outside the local community, was perceived by the villagers in
Niško Polje as a completely new way of practicing culture and seen as
real musical shows.17 Although the performers and audience at such
events mainly belonged to the same social milieu, stage performance
included a strong division between performers and spectators. In ad-
dition, the formal nature of the exhibition embodied in the presence
of a jury and officials added new elements to the performance. The
notion of ‘public’ actually refers to an extension of state control to
activities, spaces and relations considered ‘private.’ Where this is con-
cerned, the idea of performing music restricted to local customs and
internal gatherings in front of a wider public within an institutional
framework was entirely new, and not appropriate, for rural women
social public activities, as presented in Chapter One, were limited.

15
Marc Garcelon suggests that the division official/unofficial is more appropriate
for understanding everyday life under socialism than public/private (Garcelon 1997:
317).
16
For example, singing to accompany dances at local gatherings such as sabori was
not understood as a musical performance. Dancing and singing at these occasions
was not regarded by the community as real music-making, but primarily as a way of
establishing social ties. These occasions served as meeting places for young people,
providing an opportunity for them to talk and dance together, as a specific way of
initiation of boys and girls into the status of marriageable persons, as discussed in the
first section of Chapter One.
17
In both official discourse and everyday narratives the stage performance was
called ‘public performance’ ( javni nastup), which highlights the specific visibility and
the institutional arrangements associated with it.

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singing exclusion 97

Dangerous Profession

Apart from local perceptions of ‘public performance,’ the relationship


between professional music-making and stage performance seems to
be very important in understanding why the women’s activities within
amateur groups were not accepted with approval. As presented in
Chapter One, in the eyes of the community, women’s musical activ-
ity within custom practices and informal gatherings was not seen as
‘real musical performance.’ These performances were not discursively
framed as ‘songs’ or ‘music’ but were contextualized mainly through
ritual practice: “It is not a song. It is lazarica (or dodola)” (Golemović
1997: 123). Women who sang within celebratory practices were not
considered ‘real’ performers and consequently were not seen as musi-
cians. These discourses of recognition of female performances were
strongly linked to the professional/unprofessional distinction in which
women’s musical activities belonged to the private, unpaid (domestic)
sphere, while the paid performing in public (away from home) was
done by men.18 This kind of distinction in the field of musical perfor-
mance in the rural environment was particularly emphasized. There-
fore, for women in rural society, singing within a close community
was seen as a desirable gift:
Accomplished dancers, and especially singers, are more successful at
attracting the attention of young men, and find marriage partners more
easily than those lacking the necessary artistic talents. (Petrović A. 1990: 76)
Yet performance beyond the domestic environment was not regarded
with approval.. It was absolutely inconceivable for a woman to exhibit
her musical talents in public. Miodrag Vasiljević, in his book Folk
Tunes of the Leskovac Area (1960), quotes the statement of the female
singer Nasta Denić from the village of Babičko, who explains that sing-
ing beyond private, household settings was not ‘proper’ in the rural
environments:
When I was young, women did not sing men’s songs. A girl in the house,
in front of her parents or elder persons, could not ever sing any other
song except a ritual one from that season. Young singers could find love

18
The distinction between professional and unprofessional performance turned out
to be a common cross-cultural characteristic of women’s performances. The prac-
tice was well-known to many cultures where women’s performances were considered
‘non-musical’ and female-associated genres not ‘real music’ at all (see Susan Auerbach,
Patricia K. Shehan, Hiromi Lorraine Sakata and Karen E. Petersen in Koskoff 1987).

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98 chapter four

excitement only in the ritual songs they performed for young people.
Only these songs contained love inspiration and that was it. Even these
songs we sang alone in the mountains, when nobody could hear us, with
stock and in the fields. (Vasiljević 1960: x)
I received similar testimony from Milunka Đorđević from the village
of Jelašnica: “At that time we did not sing, that was very shameful”19
(Milunka Đorđević, Jelašnica village). Dragan Todorović from the vil-
lage of Vukmanovo also emphasized that women “sang exclusively
in the field during agrarian work in the ritual practice without their
husbands’ permission.” In some villages of Niško Polje I heard stories
about extremely talented female singers who could not embark on a
professional singing career. They told me that it was not possible for
them to start singing professionally, since their husbands and family
would not approve of this. When I asked why they decided not to try,
given the fact they were gifted, Dragan Todorović answered:
I do not know. People were afraid of that, as they say here, not to go
astray, not to get into trouble. We were introverted people; we were not
in the habit of being outspoken with others. We were placed here and
there was no chance of moving, that was strong patriarchy.
For a long time professional music-making was perceived as a voca-
tion that was inappropriate for women.20 Being musicians was a
hobby, not an occupation, and making a living in that way was not
something a self-respecting villager would do (Buchanan 2006: 147).
The musical vocation in general was strongly identified with the Roma
population who were the main musical performers in Serbia.21 After
the end of World War II, the women who performed in public were
mainly Roma women who usually danced or sang in urban environ-
ments. They were much freer in expressing their musical activities,

19
The concept of female musical shame has been examined by numerous authors
including Susan Auerbach (Auerbach 1987) and Jane Sugarman (Sugarman 1997 and
2003).
20
Women who performed publicly were recognized in many cultures as ‘immoral’
or ‘lustful women,’ equivalent to prostitutes or concubines. Some of them achieved
some level of social dignity as independent women and won social freedom denied
to other women, but in general, they remained on the margins of society (Kapchan
1994: 88).
21
Historical records on the Balkan Roma confirm that as early as Ottoman
times they were registered within the ‘city garrisons’ as ironmongers and musicians
(mehter). Scholars asserted that Roma in Serbia differed by their trade – they were pre-
dominantly ironmongers, potters, horse dealers, bear tamers, and musicians (Zirojević
1976: 73; Gojković 1994: 87).

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singing exclusion 99

but were “often seen as dangerous because of their imputed sexuality


and freedom” (Silverman 2003: 120). The female Roma professional
musicians were regarded as women of lower moral character – ‘loose’
women, sometimes even as prostitutes. This attitude was associated
with the public display of female sexuality and its connection with the
market: the tips female singers received when performing in pubs or
taverns were seen as a ‘selling of the body’ and as a form of prosti-
tution (ibid. 132). Another element that appeared important was the
place of performance, since in public discourse the pub (kafana)22 was
considered an exclusively male space and a center of men’s entertain-
ment. Women had no right to visit such haunts, and those who did so
were considered improper. Professional Roma singers, by displaying
their body in this predominantly male space, were seen as having low
morals and being socially incapable.
Such a practice of stigmatizing professional female musicians is also
visible in the attitudes toward the first professional female singers who
appeared in Serbia after World War II. These women were identified
with Roma and characterized as immoral and shameless. A good illus-
tration of this attitude is a statement given by Lepa Lukić,23 a famous
female singing star, who performs newly-composed folk songs, on her
singing origins:
I participated in local village competitions and almost always won
the first prize. I remember the manager of Hotel ‘Jugoslavija’ person-
ally approaching my mother and asking her to let me sing at the Hotel
Lounge. At that time, it was considered shameful to sing in restaurants.
The female singers’ image was shaped by public opinion, as they were
compared with homeless and immoral persons. (from her interview in
the Sabor magazine, no. 2, 16.1.1984)
The only way for a woman to start a professional career was to have
a strong male figure as support. For this reason, professional singers
usually married musicians or managers who made public exposure
‘legitimate.’24

22
The kafana (a pub, tavern, café) has been a central spot for informal socialization,
networking and entertainment in rural, semi-urban and urban environments. Offering
a specific form of sociability, the kafana is the place where people can eat, listen to
music, dance and generally have a good time in the company of their friends.
23
Lepa Lukić started her career at the beginning of the 1960s.
24
The same was the case with female instrumentalists. Radojka Živković, one of
the first and most highly regarded female accordion players, performed together with
her husband Tihomir.

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100 chapter four

Given the above discussion, the female singers’ stage performances


at Village Gatherings were obviously comparable to a professional
musician’s activity, since the women were exposed to an audience and
often traveled to various places to perform, going away from home
and domestic duties.25 By performing on stage, rural women chal-
lenged the existing norms in the same way as the professional singers.
They transgressed the social boundaries, becoming active in a domain
predominantly reserved for men, and for this reason their behavior
was considered shameful and ‘inappropriate.’

Stage Performance as Performative Negotiation

The female singers’ stories also revealed that villagers viewed their
stage performance as frivolous and shameful, making them targets for
gossip and labeling them as shameless and immoral:
They told us: where are you going, they will make fun of you. Oh, we
suffered her and me. They were gossiping and saying all kinds of things.
Our neighbors did not understand that. (Ilinka Despotović and Sevlija
Stanković, Trupale village)
The story I heard from Ilinka’s husband Milorad precisely illustrates
that attitude toward stage performance. Ilinka was invited to perform
at an event in Macedonia together with her vocal group, and the local
cultural worker asked them to prepare a suitable program. How-
ever, influenced by the neighbors’ comments about the immorality of
women active in amateur groups, her husband did not allow her to
perform. Telling this story, Milorad admitted that he had made a big
mistake and that today he regretted paying too much attention to other
people’s opinion. He told me that he had ruined the opportunity for
his wife to push her career further and perhaps go abroad to perform.
Since women in rural societies usually shared a collective social
identity with their family and kin (Abu-Lughod 1986: 156), the female
singers’ activities were particularly supervised by family members,
whose reactions to their performances varied. In some families they

25
Carol Silverman’s research on female singers’ state ensembles in Bulgaria shows
the same practice of women who sang professionally being considered morally defi-
cient and not respected. Her work reveals that many families did not allow their
daughters to join the state ensembles in the 1950s (Silverman 2004: 220).

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singing exclusion 101

Photograph 16: Vocal group from Trupale village, Village Gatherings, 1990
(Ilinka Despotović and Sevlija Stanković are third and fourth from the right)

were well accepted, but many women experienced problems, not only
with their husbands but also with their sons and sons-in-law:
He [my son] did not allow me to sing, he was ashamed, he said: “What
will you do there, you just open your mouths like fools.” He threat-
ened me: “Just show up on stage, you’ll see what will happen!” (Sevlija
Stanković, Trupale village)
It was particularly important not to disgrace a family by performing
in public. As Sevlija said, “They were afraid I would shame myself.”
As a result, many female singers did not feel comfortable enough to
accept the organizers’ invitation to participate. As Mirka Jovanović
from Malča recalled:
Yes, I was young and we were ashamed to go. Four out of five of the
officials from the local authorities came to ask my husband to allow me
to sing. I wanted to participate, but the household was big and it was
different from now.

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102 chapter four

On the other hand, their stories confirm that they were very proud
when the representatives of the local authorities came to their houses
to insist on their participation in organized cultural activities. Mirka
also precisely describes this ambiguous attitude concerning stage per-
formance: when a local organizer from the House of Culture in her
village of Malča sent her a note to come to the local office, Milka was
very concerned: “I was thinking, why me, why is he asking me?” The
local organizer wanted to know from whom she had learned the old
songs, and then he asked her to participate in the Village Gatherings.
When she returned home, her husband was curious about why the
local authority was interested in his wife, and Milka told me that she
was worried. She had a big house and many obligations, and to her it
was not a good idea to agree to participate in the competition. After
much persuasion, she finally agreed to take part, but they still had to
ask her every succeeding year. She told me very proudly that some-
times even four or five men came to ask her to sing. At some point
Milka wanted to quit, but they were insistent, and she kept on per-
forming. At the end of the story, she told me that singing at Village
Gatherings was a very pleasant experience for her. Now she remem-
bered great times spent in travel, and often talked to her grandchildren
about them: “Well, it was OK for me, too, I had a good time. Traveling
and having fun, we went to Đerdap; I was there for three days.”
After the first years of adjusting, community members became more
tolerant toward the female singers’ stage performance. Women told
me that in time, their husbands grew accustomed to watching them
perform in public:
When they saw that it was all right, all became well. This is not anything
special, they just ask: will they pay you for this? (Ilinka Despotović, Tru-
pale village)
Gradually, as organizers confirmed, women who were ashamed to sing
started joining in by themselves:
I went to the village fountain and a woman asked me: “Dragane, can I
sing? I see that it is very beautiful.” And I said: “Yes, but would your
husband allow it?” And she answered: “I will ask him to let me, but
if he doesn’t, you come and ask him.” There were women whose hus-
bands agreed when they talked to them and everything was OK. (Dragan
Todorović, Vukmanovo village)
Through stage performance, by importing new elements to the usual
social behavior, the female singers challenged the patterns of ‘propri-

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singing exclusion 103

ety’ and ‘impropriety’ in the rural area of Niško Polje. The stage, as a
center of public activities, provided an opportunity for them to relo-
cate their activity from the periphery to the center of social events
and to gain power in an officially recognized way. In her performative
theory,26 Butler claims that regulatory practices not only represent gen-
der relations, but constitute it, having two functions – representative
and productive. Through the constant repetition of discursive practices
(sets of meaning already socially established), the gender roles are con-
stituted over again through their performance (Butler 1990: 24). The
female singers’ stage performance represented performative acts of
negotiating the existing gender hierarchies in Niško Polje. The social
aspects of stage performance and particularly its transformational
potential appear crucial in understanding the female singers’ activities
as litmus paper for the new gender politics and political changes. As
‘social actions,’ they opened a possibility for transformation of domi-
nant discourses through the re-enactment and re-experiencing of the
existent gender performance.
Within the framework of Village Gatherings as a display of official
discourse, stage performance became one of the important elements
in the construction of socialist femininity in the rural cultural envi-
ronment. This influenced a shift in the representational discourse of
gender, while at the same time subverting the existing concepts and
producing new discourses on women’s cultural role. Did the female
singers import this ‘new role’ into their personal lives? Did the reality
that they staged become legitimate in their communities? Was the imag-
inary line drawn between performance and the everyday overcome?

New Concepts of Identity, Subjectivity and Self-Representation

The female singers’ narratives about performing carried an implicit


dichotomy in their attitudes. Although they were recognized as
important bearers and representers of local culture, they often did not

26
The notion of the term performative was primarily related to theatrical perfor-
mance. John L. Austin conceptualized this term quite differently and defined it as the
nature and potential of a language, where “to say something is to do something” (Bial
2004: 145). Judith Butler combined these two meanings and established the theory of
performativity, by which gender is not a condition which one has, but a social role
which one performs (Bulter 1990: xxv).

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104 chapter four

perceive themselves as appropriate interlocutors. The phenomenon


that especially attracted my attention during the fieldwork was the
female singers’ hesitation to talk to me, as music and performing were
not ‘appropriate’ subjects of conversation. They were not always open
to talking about their public appearance at Village Gatherings, view-
ing their performances as frivolous and retrograde. Jevica Bogdanović
from Prosek village refused to talk, saying, “That was a joke, we were
just having fun and I went to all that, but . . . only Jela, she is still wast-
ing her time.” Being afraid of gossip, women also drew the curtains
and closed all the doors and windows to make sure no one could hear
them sing: “Not me, I cannot. I am in mourning for my brother-in-
law’s son who died in Sweden, so they could see me and say: Nuna
sang”27 (Rusanda Arsić, Donja Vrežina village). However, after a certain
amount of hesitation, women started talking more openly about their
performances.
This kind of ‘double-voiced’ talk indicates that their experiences
conflicted with dominant understanding of amateur activities which
were seen by the mainstream social narrative as inappropriate and
dangerous. As Kenneth and Mary Gerghen point out, an “active nego-
tiation over narrative is especially invited when the individual is asked
to justify his or her behavior, that is, when one has acted disagreeably
with respect to common frames of understanding” (Gergen and Ger-
gen 1997: 177). On the other hand, the female singers’ ‘double-voiced’
accounts indicate that they started to transform their view of the ama-
teur cultural activities previously imposed by social expectations and
norms of rural society. Their understanding became mediated by the
dominant socialist discourse of gender equality that they experienced
as empowering. In their narratives women recalled their experiences of
participating in official cultural events in a positive way. Their involve-
ment in amateur musical activities was an extremely important factor
in their personal identification. Bearing in mind the specific kinds of
limitations on women’s activities typical of a rural society, the possibil-
ity for the female singers to be presented as individuals in the public
sphere, engaged as important protagonists in the exhibition program,

27
As a principal reason for their reluctance to sing, women stated mourning. Many
older women in Niško Polje mourned their close or distant relatives and were very
apprehensive about being overheard singing by their neighbors. In accordance with
traditional norms and beliefs, mourning does not allow expression of any kind of
positive emotion in public, particularly singing and dancing which are considered as
expressions of joy.

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singing exclusion 105

provided a challenge to their current social position. Moreover, as a


counter to the restrictions on women’s mobility, traveling and per-
forming with the amateur groups helped facilitate a certain level of
independence. Their stories confirm that they were personally very
proud of the stage performances and travel. They were undoubtedly
delighted by the geographical and social mobility they achieved, and
the important parts of their stories involved travel and contact with
people who were delighted by their singing. As Jagodinka Mitrović
from Rujnik and Grozdana Đokić from Leskovik stated:
I do not want to brag with you here, but I can sing every song. When
I went to Zagreb and started to recite some songs, both love ones and
tragic ones, one man gave me 50 dinars to write it down for him and
send to him.
I have pictures from the Village Gatherings, when I went to Bubanj and
three days in Aleksandrovac. There was a banquet, the wine . . . you just
pour it and drink. I have pictures, I will show you later. I have traveled,
I have seen things, and so, if I die now, I would not be sorry.
Women generally talked about the most memorable and better-re-
ceived performances, describing the reaction of both the audiences and
juries. All of them pointed out that solo performance was a difficult,
but at the same time an extraordinary experience. As mentioned in
the examination of the repertoire in Chapter Three, solo performance
was atypical, since the women’s songs were usually performed by two
or three singers. Similarly, performing without accompaniment was a
big change for the female singers. Full attention was directed toward
the person on stage, which was a completely new situation for women
who usually did not express their own individualities in public. Solo
performing was thus a very stressful experience, but in this way women
gained self-confidence both as performers and as individuals:
When I remember my performance at the Village Gatherings in Pasjača,
I went without friends, they could not come, so I went on my own. Now,
I remember that I behaved very freely. When I started to sing, the whole
auditorium was open-eyed. After my performance one man said: “This is
the woman who sang.” (Miroslava Jovanović, Malča village)
Given that Village Gatherings were structured as a form of competi-
tion, rivalry between amateur groups was often a topic of the female
singers’ stories. Rada Zlatanović and Petrija Vučković from Gornja
Studena village proudly said, “We in Gornja Studena sang best and
our songs were the best.” At the beginning of our conversation, Velika

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106 chapter four

Photograph 17: Trupale village vocal group before the trip to Macedonia

Jovanović from Gornji Komren told me that she had won first prize
in three villages. She stressed that she had only one worthy opponent
and that was her neighbor, Vera. Ilinka Despotović from Trupale also
talked about her most serious rival, Marijonka:
There were lots of people, me and Miltana and Nastasija, Marijonka and
Radmila and some woman also, six of us. But she, she was unique, no
one could match her. She sang articulately, every word clear. But as she
sang, every word was understandable.
The competitive nature of the occasion was very important in the cre-
ation of the women’s so-called ‘discourse of competency.’ Even though
their goal certainly was not to come close to official circles,28 as a result
of their extraordinary knowledge of folk songs, the female singers began
to be appreciated by cultural workers and authorities as the embodi-
ment of local culture. Their stage performance altered their social sta-
tus and power, giving them a specific position of musical authority:
“Performing at cultural events, particularly at big ones, the members

28
Competition specific to socialism, according to Verdery, was directed toward
achieving a position closer to the privileged circles (Verdery 1991: 424).

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singing exclusion 107

of the group became important persons, and the first known experts,
artists and tourists from their environments” (Ceribašić 2003: 20).
The media also played an important role in the construction of the
new self-identification of the female singers. Their performances were
shown on local and national television, broadcast on radio, or pre-
sented in newspapers. All of them showed me the newspaper clippings,
particularly the ones with their pictures. TV shows were a particularly
significant experience as a source of personal gratification. This public
acknowledgment of their talents at the highest level made them feel
like professionals. Ilinka proudly talked about their performances at
Radio-Television of Belgrade:
In Belgrade we barely danced one kolo. You had to turn over to the audi-
ence and cameras, so we hardly persisted. They pursued us very much;
we danced according to the clock, because they had already prepared
the program. First came the News (Dnevnik), and then the rest. But we
performed first.
As indicated in the Introduction, I have not only examined the ways
in which socialist regulatory practices shaped the new notions of fem-
ininity, but also how the female singers themselves mobilized these
practices in their being and doing. I have drawn on Butler’s theory of
performativity, by which politics and power pre-exist at the level on
which the subject and its activities are constructed.29 She suggests that
the subject is not a base or a product but a category constantly open
to being challenged and re-thought, a place of continuous political
impeachment (Butler 1990: 182). Even though the emerging approaches
criticize Butler’s stance of ‘interiority’ as politically regulated, seeing it
as a very deterministic interpretation of processes of individuation and
socialization,30 for both approaches, subjectivity is an achievement that

29
For Butler, ‘right on subject’ or ‘stable subject’ is a fake concept, as every posi-
tion of the subject is produced by politics itself. She sees gender not as a ‘natural’ or
‘essential’ category, but as cultural performance (Butler 1990: 182).
30
Following Seyla Benhabib’s argument, the theory of performativity does not offer
a convincing and profound explanation about the capacity of human factors for self-
determination (Benhabib 1995: 108). Criticizing Butler’s politically regulated ‘interior-
ity,’ scholars claim the existence of an ontological subject who is based on ontological
diversity and not ontological unity. For them, being is radically diverse; difference is
the fundamental principle and differing is the ontological assumption. They give cre-
ative potential to interiority to react to impulses from the environment, where every
situation is potentially unique (Bell 2007: 99). Given the limitations of scope in this
chapter, I cannot even attempt to give a review of all the debates on these questions.

85-110_HOFMAN_F6.indd 107 9/27/2010 10:04:03 AM


108 chapter four

Photograph 18: KUD Vukmanovo in Zagreb, after the performance at the


International Folklore Festival, 1982

is placed within the contingency and interconnection of the dynamic


environment. I have investigated stage performance as a representa-
tional practice that articulated a new socialist femininity, at the same
time producing changes in the construction of the female singer’s
subjectivity and self-representation. I have focused not only on the
phenomenon itself, but also on the complex process of subjectivity
construction through stage performance, shifting the emphasis from
representation toward experience.
The female singers’ stage performance, as a way of expressing their
individualities, appeared to be a very important feature of their self-
presentation. The extraordinary experience they shared also seemed to
be a significant feature in their sense of self. This implies that they used
the musical activities in their self-constitution and self-structuring, as
a mode of attention and their engagement with the world (DeNora
2000: 61). Amateur activities became an important resource of their
subject actualizations, implicated in the creation of a new sense of
social agency. By finding themselves in a new environment during
stage performance, the women developed new ways of understanding
the world and new perceptions of themselves. Their narratives show
the interplay of intersubjective and social discourses, mediating the

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singing exclusion 109

relations between the female singers’ individuality and their social


environments, as a strategy for the negotiation and performance of
their subjectivities. The female singers started changing their under-
standing of the cultural and social environment, opening a space for
transformation of their subjectivities.
Given the above discussion, by performing socialist femininity in
public, my interlocutors experienced emancipation and transgressed
the patriarchal norms on an individual level. They asserted that, for
the first time in their lives, they had evaded the control of their hus-
bands and patriarchal kin relations, and in so doing, obtained a sense
of what it was like to participate actively in social life. Thus, they chal-
lenged their traditional position and their invisibility, by legitimating
themselves as social subjects within the community through achiev-
ing a level of autonomy. Even though the socialist ideology of gen-
der equality was politically proclaimed and conceptualized as holistic
and collectivist, on the level of female singers’ individual experience
and everyday lives, it proved empowering. For them, socialism was
not simply beneficial, it was emancipating. Their accounts qualify
the assertion that the ‘emancipation’ of women was realized only on
the surface of gender relations, without penetrating into the private
sphere and inter-family relations, and that therefore “gender equality
was not understood, or lived, in cultural terms” (Kligman 1998: 28).
Their stories demonstrate how these women were able to transgress
patriarchal norms and achieve an enhanced social position, by using
the dominant, socialist policy to subvert the gender hierarchies within
their social environments.
This is not to say that the old female cultural role disappeared.
Rather, new roles were allowed to challenge the old ones, opening pos-
sibilities for future (or further) political reconsideration. Even though
official gender politics proved to be ineffective in fully establishing new
gender relations and overcoming exclusion, it created opportunities
for improving of the position of new generations of women in rural
environments. The female singers’ stage performance in Niško Polje
represented a milestone in the process of putting these new possibili-
ties into practice. In this respect, as Funk indicates, “the totality created
the possibility for a transformation by the particular” (Funk 1993: 1).

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85-110_HOFMAN_F6.indd 110 9/27/2010 10:04:04 AM
CONCLUDING REMARKS

By examining the personal narratives of women who were involved


in amateur activities in their villages from the beginning of the 1970s
to the middle of the 1990s, the previous chapters have highlighted
the ways in which the socialist ideology of gender equality influenced
gender performance in southeastern Serbia. Drawing on the phenom-
enological feminist approach and that of narrative musical ethnog-
raphy, this study has shown that personal experience and individual
discourse can be used as insightful tools when researching public
practices and gender politics under socialism. It has illuminated how
the female singers experienced, through their stage performance, the
socialist policy of gender equality and proves that complex relationships
existed between the personal, interpersonal and political levels. The
book further points to the complex, contradictory and even paradoxical
nature of Yugoslav cultural policy. It explores how the female singers’
accounts transgressed the binaries usually present in the thinking of
socialist culture, such as public/private, ideology/practice, official/
unofficial or state/local, and challenged monolithic interpretations of
socialist cultural norms.
Much of the understanding of socialist culture is based on the dis-
tinction between its official and unofficial spheres. The official culture
is seen as an artificial form of cultural production, and the unofficial
domain as dominated by spontaneous undertakings which resisted the
state-orchestrated actions. As regards musical life, the emphasis is on
state institutionalization, professionalization and formalization of per-
formances. What was called ‘arranged folklore’ (staged representation
of local musical practices) is interpreted as an ideological reproduction
of the socialist state for hegemonic purposes (Kaneff 2004: 7) and as a
set of practices which contributed to the demise of old cultural patterns
and traditional music practices in socialist societies (Rice 1996: 170).
The experiences of my interlocutors reflect an elaborate reciproc-
ity between the official and unofficial spheres of cultural activity. The
‘folklorization’ of village music and dance through the staging of the
local repertoire was not recognized as ‘static,’ ‘rigid,’ and ‘homoge-
nous,’ as it is usually presented in scholarly narratives. For the villag-
ers of Niško Polje, stage performance was not just a state-controlled

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112 concluding remarks

artistic form, but an activity not separate from other forms of com-
munal activity and everyday practices. Despite the institutionalization
of musical activities, the amateur ensembles from the region never
aspired to become professionals, nor were members forced to seek a
professional training or to obtain musical education.1 They did not see
stage performance as orchestrated work, but as a form of leisure activ-
ity, involving creativity, entertainment and socialization. Therefore,
these ‘state-controlled’ or ‘folklorized’ activities became part of villag-
ers’ everyday life, transgressing the firm boundaries between official
‘imposed actions,’ on the one hand, and unofficial personal affinities
and individual participation in the cultural activities, on the other.
Another common interpretation is that socialist folk culture was an
ideological category used by the authorities to showcase moderniza-
tion, or “a deceptive façade of a happy and prosperous rural life, which
helped to disguise the poor reality of peasant life” (Kaneff 2004: 141).
Furthermore, it is seen as a prime tool employed in the nation-build-
ing process in socialist societies (particularly in neighboring Romania
and Bulgaria). In Yugoslav multicultural policy, on the other hand,
folk music was not given such a central place. The country’s opening
to the West and the establishment of popular culture production in
the 1950s resulted in a liberalization of the music market in Yugoslavia
in the late 1950s (Vuletić 2008: 862). The presence of popular Western
genres (particularly Anglo-American and Western-European popular
music) and the growth of the Yugoslav record industry made folk
culture much less important for state ideology than in other socialist
countries. Rather than on folklore, which remained marginalized in
the public arena, the multinational Yugoslav identity was built on the
genres of ‘entertainment music’2 and later on Yugoslav rock. Conse-
quently, village shows such as the Village Gatherings were generally
considered marginal in the public arena, which resulted in a lack of

1
For instance, in Bulgaria, rural musicians acquired the status of specialized state
employees, receiving significant state benefits (such as a state salary, housing and
the right to live in a city, along with opportunities for travel), which significantly
improved their economic and social status (Rice 1996: 170).
2
‘Entertainment music’ is a literary translation of the term zabavna muzika, used
for the genre that can be defined as equivalent to pop or pop-rock music.

111-114_HOFMAN_F7.indd 112 9/27/2010 10:04:22 AM


concluding remarks 113

strict state supervision of the repertoire, centralized monitoring and


evaluation of performances.3
As stated, the organization of the events was in the hands of local
enthusiasts who worked quite independently, without regional or
national committees to supervise them. Unlike in Bulgaria, where
professional composers, conductors and choreographers retuned
village music (Rice 1996: 170), the Niško Polje groups did not have
trained leaders (or directors) to exert greater control over the reper-
toire. The village groups were focused on local practices and singers’
personal repertoires and were not forced to learn new songs or write
‘new, politically conscious folklore.’4 Through stage representation, the
local repertoire was relocated, but not significantly reshaped and rear-
ranged. The general idea of representing new Yugoslav folk culture as
a ‘natural continuation’ and ‘development of the existing traditional
genres’ was visible in the preservation of local music stage representa-
tions in forms close to customary performing practices, without major
changes to the tunes or content of the local repertoire. Yugoslav offi-
cials’ ambivalent attitude toward the concept of tradition as a category
to be modernized but not banned, since it was deeply associated with
peoples’ entertainment, was reflected in the performances of the Niško
Polje groups as “expressive practices which negotiate between old and
new patterns of representations” (Olson 2004: 43).
Taking into account that this book explores Yugoslav experiences,
which are already recognized as “exceptional” and “famous for their
contradictions” (Ramet 1999: 90), it is possible that the boundaries
between the above-mentioned binaries (ideology/practice, official/
unofficial etc.) appear less stable. However, even though Yugoslav
socialism can be seen as a certain exception, owing to its ‘liberal’
nature, the personal experiences presented here dispute the univocal
interpretation of socialism in general. The stories argue for the com-
plexity of its social performance, which can be simultaneously formal
and informal, central and local, bureaucratic and individual, high-
lighting dynamic relationships between ideology, representational and
social practices in socialist societies. They urge us to think about many

3
However, it is important to emphasize that this event started during the 1970s,
when cultural policy in Yugoslavia significantly changed, as elaborated in Chapter
Two.
4
As was the case in Romania, Bulgaria, and Stalin’s Soviet Union (see Radulescu
1997: 208; Stere 2003: 85; Olson 2004: 41; Buchanan 2006: 135).

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114 concluding remarks

socialisms and their diverse, often dissonant faces, which are neglected
in the one-dimensional interpretations of the socialist state as rigid
and centralized. By showing the intricate interplay of the personal, the
interpersonal and the political in the realm of musical performance, I
hope that this book has achieved that goal and provided a multifaceted
picture of socialism as experienced by my interlocutors.

111-114_HOFMAN_F7.indd 114 9/27/2010 10:04:22 AM


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APPENDIX ONE

LIST OF VILLAGES AND INTERLOCUTORS

Brenica: Ruža Gocić, 1929, Kamenica


Vera Đorđević, 1937
Milica Cvetanović, 1941
Brzi Brod: Životka Stanković, 1926
Zorica Stanković, 1938
Čukljenik: Ilinka Mladenović, 1934
Rada Stanković, 1938
Donja Vrežina: Rusanda Arsić, 1914
Vukosava Gocić, 1923
Kostadin Gocić, 1923
Javorka Radovanović, 1934, Jasenovik
Donja Studena: Živadinka Tasić, 1926
Vidosava Stojanović, 1927
Olga Marković, 1934
Savka Milenović, 1938
Olga Stanković, 1939
Dragiša Stojanović, 1953
Donji Komren: Radivoje Petrović, 1913
Jelica Jovanović, 1936, Čamurlija
Gornja Studena: Petrija Vučković, 1937
Radica Zlatanović, 1946
Gornja Vrežina: Desanka Petrović, 1924, Donja Vrežina
Mladenka Živković, 1927
Gornji Komren: Velinka Jovanović, 1943
Gornji Matejevac: Zagorka Igić, 1926
Ljiljana Cvetković, 1938
Hum: Dobrisavka Janković, 1935, Tamjanica
Jelašnica: Milunka Đorđević, 1930, Rautovo
Miodrag Tasić, 1946
Svetlana Makarić, 1950
Kamenica: Verica Mitić, 1920
Emilija Gocić, 1932
Leskovik: Grozdana Đokić, 1945

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124 appendix one

Malča: Miroslava Jovanović, 1933


Jelena Mitrović, 1948, Knez Selo
Niška Banja: Bata Belević, 1943, Bijelo Polje (Montenegro)
Novo Selo: Stojan Stošić, 1921
Ljubica Anđelković, 1939
Nikodije Anđelković, 1941
Prosek: Božidar Bogdanović, 1923
Jevica Bogdanović, 1924
Verica Miljković, 1933, Ostrvica
Sava Radonjić, 1939, Kamenica
Velibor Stanković, 1939
Ljiljana Radonjić, 1944, Manastir
Rujnik: Slavka Petković, 1922
Ruža Zdravković, 1924, Hum
Jagodinka Mitrović, 1930, Kravlje
Trupale: Ilinka Despotović, 1939, Jabukovik (Crna Trava)
Sevlija Stanković, 1936, Darkovce (Crna Trava)
Vukašin Mitić, 1952
Vukmanovo: Grozdana Zlatković, 1934
Mladenka Ristić, 1945
Dragan Todorović, 1956

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APPENDIX TWO

THE CONSTITUTION OF THE COMPETITION OF


SERBIAN VILLAGES

The Constitution contains a general determination of the main goal,


mission and vision of the Competition of Serbian villages. It is made up
of two separate documents: the Constitution of the Competition of Ser-
bian villages and the Constitution of the assessment panels’ work. The
first document includes general regulations of realization of the Com-
petition, defining all required fields of competitions such as agricul-
tural production, village landscape organization, cultural-educational
work, and the protection and development of the environment in vil-
lages. A special part of the document is dedicated to the organization
of finale parades, prizes and admissions, and the financial support and
propagation of the Competition. The second document regulates the
work of assessment panels (the jury) and defines assessment criteria for
all competition fields: agricultural production and achieved results –
300 points; education – 200 points; building and organization of set-
tlement – 200 points; cultural activities – 200 points; protection and
development of the environment – 200 points.

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123-144_Hofman_f9.indd 126 9/27/2010 10:04:57 AM
PRAVILNIK
TAKMIČENJA SELA SRBIJE

I Opšte Odredbe

Član 1
Takmičenje sela Srbije organizuje se sa ciljem da se oceni stanje i
omogući brži razvoj poljoprivrede na selu, stvore bolji životni uslovi,
obogati kulturni život, proizvodnja u nepoljoprivrednim delatnostima,
zdravstvena, komunalna i druga aktivnost poljoprivrednog i seoskog
stanovništva.

Član 2
U Takmičenju sela mogu da učestvuju sva seoska naselja sa teritorije
Republike Srbije.
Akciji doprinose i sve organizacije čija je delatnost usmerena
na razvoj sela (poljoprivredni kombinati, zemljoradničke zadruge,
privatno preduzetništvo, zadružni savezi, privredne komore, proiz-
vodna preduzeća poljoprivrednih mašina i poljoprivrednih proizvoda;
naučne, kulturne, obrazovne, zdravstvene ustanove; sredstva javnog
informisanja).

II Sadržina Takmičenja

Član 3
U okviru aktivnosti na razvijanju poljoprivredne proizvodnje, u
unapređivanju društvenog i životnog standarda na selu u kulturno-
obrazovnoj aktivnosti i zaštiti i unapređivanju čovekove sredine.
Takmičenje sela Srbije organizuje se u opštini, regiji, odnosno okrugu,
pokrajini i Republici.
Sela se takmiče prvenstveno u delatnostima:

1. Organizovanje poljoprivredne proizvodnje i ostvareni rezultati


2. Razvoj obrazovanja i vaspitanja
3. Izgradnja i uređivanje sela
4. Kulturne delatnosti
5. Zaštita i unapređenje čovekove sredine

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128 pravilnik

Član 4
1. U oblasti poljoprivredne proizvodnje sela će se takmičiti u sledećem:

a. Korišćenje zemljišta

– obrada zemljišta (procenat obrađenog u odnosu na oranične


i obradive površine)
– uređenost zemljišne teritorije subjekata (procenat komasira-
nog zemljišta u odnosu na oranične i obradive površine)
– navodnjavanje i odvodnjavanje zemljišta (procenat navo-
dnjavanih, odnosno, odvodnjavanih površina u odnosu na
ukupne obradive površine)

b. Rezultati ostvarene proizvodnje

– stepen robnosti-tržišnosti najvažnijih linija proizvodnje u


području
– prinosi po jedinici kapaciteta
pšenica t/x
kukuruz t/x
šećerna repa t/x
šljiva kg/po stablu
jabuka kg/po stablu
grožđe kg/po čokotu
prirast mesa po grlu goveda kg
prirast mesa po krmači kg
proizvodna mleka po kravi litara
(i druge proizvodnje karakteristične za selo)
– broj takmičara za visoke prinose u poljoprivredi
(procenat u odnosu na ukupan broj gazdinstava zemljoradnika)
– ostvarivanje dve žetve na području sela

c. Organizovanje zemljoradnika

– postoji seoska zadruga ili u sastavu druge zadruge


– broj udruženih zemljoradnika (procenat udruženih
u odnosu na ukupan broj gazdinstava zemljoradnika)
– organizovanost štedno-kreditne službe kao delatnost zadruge
ili samostalno

123-144_Hofman_f9.indd 128 9/27/2010 10:04:57 AM


pravilnik 129

Član 5
2. U oblasti obrazovanja i vaspitanja, sela će se takmičiti:

– rezultatima u elementarnom obrazovanju poljoprivrednih pro-


izvođača
– rezultatima u obuhvatu dece pohađanjem i završavanjem osnovne
škole
– u zdravstvenom obrazovanju i vaspitanju (broj kurseva i
polaznika)
– rezultatima tehničkog i saobraćajnog obrazovanja i vaspitanja
(broj kurseva i polaznika)
– u primanju i korišćenju stručnih i drugih odgovarajućih listova,
knjiga i sličnih publikacija
– rezultatima rada na vaspitanju predškolske dece
– rezultatima rada učeničkih zadruga i drugih oblika društveno-
korisnog rada

Član 6
3. U izgrdanji i uređivanju naselja, sela će se takmičiti:

– u planiranju i ostvarivanju planova uređivanja prostora


(urbanistički plan, odluka koja ga zamenjuje, odluka o uređivanju
građevinskog regiona ili drugi dokument o razvoju i uređivanju
prostora);
– u planiranju petogodišnjeg i godišnjeg razvoja u skladu sa propi-
sima o planiranju i rezultatima ostvarivanja tih planova;
– u izgradnji savremenih stambenih i ekonomskih zgrada u selu;
– u izgradnju puteva, vodovoda i električnih vodova i osvetljenja;
– u izgradnji i uređivanju škola, školskih kuhinja i drugih školskih
objekata;
– u izgradnji i uređivanju domova kulture, zadružnih domova ili
domova mesnih zajednica;
– u izgradnji i uređivanju centra sela ili seoskih trgova;
– u izgradnji i uređivanju seoskih dvorišta;
– u izgradnji, uređivanju i održavanju sportskih objekata;
– u pošumljavanju, sadnji i nezi zelenila;
– u izgradnji, uređivanju i održavanju spomenika;
– u izgradnji i održavanju zdravstvenih objekata;

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130 pravilnik

– u mogućnosti korišćenja javnog saobraćaja;


– u uslužnim delatnostima i snabdevanju;
– u prisutnosti i korišćenju tehničkih uređaja u domaćinstvima;
– u funkcionalnom i estetskom uređenju stanova.

Član 7
4. U kulturnim aktivnostima sela će se takmičiti:

– u korišćenju i širenju knjige;


– u mogućnostima korišćenja štampe, radija i televizije;
– u uslovima i organizovanosti amaterskog kulturnog stvaralaštva
i masovnosti učestvovanja dece, omladine i odraslih u radu
sekcija (dramskih, muzičkih, folklornih, literarnih, recitatorskih,
likovnih, foto-kino i dr.)
– u prikupljanju, obradi i zaštiti pokretnih kulturnih dobara;
– u upoznavanju zavičaajne istorije;
– u sakupljanju narodnih umotvorina i podataka za hronike sela;
– u dostupnosti kulturnih dobara i kulturnih vrednosti (književni
i muzički susreti, dramske predstave, izložbe slika, fotografija,
knjiga, narodne radinosti, bioskopske predstave);
– u sportskih aktivnostima.

Član 8
5. U okviru zaštite i unapređenja čovekove sredine sela će se takmičiti:

– u proizvodnji zdrave hrane (površine na kojima se proizvodi


zdrava hrana – bez primene hemijskih agenasa – u odnosu na
ukupne obradive površine);
– u stepenu zaštite zemljišta, vode, stanovništva od otpadnih
materija u postojećim proizvodnim objektima (farme, fabriike
za preradu hrane i drugi proizvodni pogoni), kao i određivanje
mesta za pravilno odlaganje štetnih otpada;
– u stepenu obučenosti i informisanosti poljoprivrednih proizvođača
za pravilnu upotrebu hemijskih sredstava u ishrani i raznovrsnost
ishrane tokom cele godine;
– u organizovanosti i realizaciji praktičnih akcija vezanih za
unapređenje higijenskih prilika, posebno kroz akcije higijeniza-
cije u selima i unapređenja školske sredine;
– u ozelenjavanju površina oko komunalnih objekata i goleti;

123-144_Hofman_f9.indd 130 9/27/2010 10:04:57 AM


pravilnik 131

– u omasovljenju dobrovoljnog davalaštva krvi (organizacija,


zdravstveno-vaspitni rad, evidencija davalaca), kao i briga o deci
i starim i iznemoglim licima;
– u razvoju turizma na selu;

III Završne Smotre

Član 9
Završne smotre su organizovani oblici iskazivanja i saopštavanja rezu-
ltata postignutih u svim oblastima u jednoj takmičarskoj godini.
U okviru smotri mogu se organizovati razgovori i savetovanja po
pojedinim temama, razne vrste izložbi, dramski programi, literarne
večeri, muzičke i folklorne priredbe, sportske aktivnosti.
Završne smotre organizuju se u opštini, regiji odnosno okrugu,
Pokrajini i Republici.
Program završne smotre utvrđuju odbori Takmičenja sela.
Vreme i mesto održavanja završne smotre Takmičenja sela Srbije
utvrđuje Koordinacioni odbor Takmičenja sela Srbije na osnovu pre-
dloga i uslova koje ponude regioni.
O programu, mestu i vremenu održavanja završnih smotri obave-
štavanju se sredstva javnog informisanja.

IV Priznanja I Nagrade

Član 10
Sela koja su osvojila I, II i III mesto u Republici dobijaju zlatnu, sre-
brnu i bronzanu plaketu sa likom Vuka Stefanovića Karadžića, rad
vajara Nebojše Mitrića.
Pobednik Takmičenja sela Srbije stiče pravo da se kandiduje za
Vukovu nagradu.
Opštinski, odnosno regionalni odbori Takmičenja sela i druge
organizacije dodeljuju određene vrste priznanja selima pobednicima
opština i regija.

Član 11
Prvoplasirana sela na svim nivoima Takmičenja dobijaju nagrade.
Nagrade prvoplasiranim selima u opštini dodeljuju opštinski odbori
Takmičenja sela i druge zainteresovane ogranizacije.

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132 pravilnik

Na nivou Takmičenja sela Srbije dodeljuje se prva, druga i treća


nagrada selima za ukupne rezultate postignute u jednoj takmičarskoj
godini. Nagrade se, takođe mogu dodeliti i za rezultate postignute u
pojedinim takmičarskim oblastima. Nagrade se dodeljuju u kulturnim
dobrima.

Član 12
Odluka o broju i vrstama nagrada i priznanja za rezultate postignute
u pojedinim oblastima donosi Koordinacioni odbor Takmičenja sela
Srbije na predlog zainteresovanih organizacija.
O vrsti nagrada i priznanja kao i o uslovima sticanja obaveštavaju
se, blagovremeno, regionalni i opštinski odbori.
Pojedinačna priznanja i nagrade dodeljuju se na osnovu odluke
Ocenjivačke komisije.

V Organizacija Takmičenja

Član 13
Opštinsko takmičenje sela je obaveza i uslov za učestvovanje u
Takmičenju sela Srbije.

Član 14
Neposredni nosilac akcije u opštini je Odbor opštinskog takmičenja
sela.

Član 15
Mandat članova Odbora traje četiri godine.

Član 16
Odbor opštinskog takmičenja sela imenuje Ocenjivačku komisiju koja
prati i vrednuje rezultate u jednoj takmičarskoj godini na osnovu
pravilnika o radu ocenjivačke komisije.

Član 17
Ocenjivačka komisija sastavljena od istaknutih kulturnih, prosvetnih
radnika, lekara, agronoma, arhitekata, etnologa, profesora muzike i
javnih radnika broji 5 do 7 članova.

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pravilnik 133

Član 18
Neposredni nosilac akcije Takmičenje sela u opštini je opštinska
kulturno-prosvetna zajednica ili odgovarajuća kulturna organizacija.

Član 19
Selo koje postigne najbolje rezultate, za sveukupnu aktivnost, na
opštinskom takmičenju sela stiče pravo učestvovanja na regionalnom
takmičenju sela.

Član 20
Regionalno takmičenje organizuje Odbor regionalnog takmičenja sela.

Član 21
Ocenjivačka komisija regionalnog takmičenja sela, obilazi sela pobe-
dnike opštinskih takmičenja, upoznaje se sa rezultatima i donosi odluku
o selu pobedniku regiona i pobednicima u pojedinačnim oblastima.

Član 22
Prvoplasirana sela u regionalnim takmičenjima stiču pravo učestvovanja
u Takmičenju sela Srbije.

Član 23
Na završnoj smotri Takmičenja sela Srbije učestvuju sela koja su osvojila
prvo mesto za sveukupnu aktivnost na regionalnom takmičenju sela.

Član 24
Sela koja su stekla pravo učestvovanja na Takmičenju sela Srbije obilazi
Ocenjivačka komisija Takmičenja sela Srbije, upoznaje se sa rezulta-
tima i donosi odluku o pobedniku Takmičenju sela Srbije, kao i odluke
o nagradama za pojedine oblasti.

Član 25
Ocenjivačka komisija radi na osnovu Pravilnika o radu ocenjivačkih
komisija i ovog Pravilnika.

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134 pravilnik

Član 26
Ocenjivačka komisija Takmičenja sela Srbije saopštava odluke i
proglašava pobednika na završnoj smotri.

VI Finansiranje i Propaganda Takmičenja

Član 27
Materijalna sredstva za organizovanje Takmičenja obezbeđuju se
posebnim ugovorima o finansiranju Takmičenja sela koji potpisuju
zainteresovana preduzeća u privredi, ustanove u oblasti kulture, obra-
zovanja, zdravstva i fondovi.

Član 28
Ukupne rezultate akcija i završne smotre u selu, opštini, regionu i
Republici prate i popularišu sredstva javnog informisanja (TV, radio,
štampa).

Član 29
Takmičenje vodi i uputstva za primenu odredaba ovog Pravilnika i
Pravilnika o radu Ocenjivačke komisije daje Koordinacioni odbor
Takmičena sela Srbije.

Član 30
Izmene i dopune ovog Pravilnika donosi Koordinacioni odobor
Takmičenja sela Srbije.

Član 31
Ovaj Pravilnik stupa na snagu narednog dana od donošenja na sednici
Koordinacionog odbora Takmičenja sela Srbije, a primenjivaće se od
15. IV 1991. Godine.

KOORDINACIONI ODBOR
TAKMIČENJA SELA SRBIJE

123-144_Hofman_f9.indd 134 9/27/2010 10:04:57 AM


PRAVILNIK
O RADU OCENJIVAČKIH KOMISIJA
TAKMIČENJA SELA SRBIJE

I Opšte Odredbe

Član 1
Rezultat ukupne aktivnosti sela u jednoj takmičarskoj godini vrednuje
ocenjivačka komisije Takmičenja sela Srbije, odnosno regionalnog i
opštinskog Takmičenja

Član 2
Ocenjivačku komisiju Takmičenja sela Srbije imenuje Koordinacioni
odbor Takmičenja sela Srbije. Ocenjivačku komisiju regionalnog
Takmičenja sela imenuje odbor regionalnog Takmičenja, ocenjivačku
komisiju opštinskog Takmičenja sela imenuje odbor opštinskog
Takmičenja sela.

Član 3
Članovi komisije (republičkog, regionalnog i opštinskog Takmičenja
sela) treba da budu imenovani iz redova kulturnih i javnih radnika,
umetnika, istaknutih radnika iz oblasti obrazovanja, poljoprivrede,
zdravstva, komunalnih delatnosti i sl. Ocenjivačka komisija broji od
5–7 članova. Komisija iz svojih redova bira predsednika komisije.

Član 4
Ocenjivačka komisija vrednuje rezultate određenim brojem bodova.
Komisija donosi jedinstvenu ocenu, a saopštava je predsednik komisije
ili za to ovlašćeno lice na završnoj smotri.

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136 pravilnik

II Elementi i Broj Bodova Za Pojedine Sadržaje

Član 5
Ocenjivačka komisija vrednuje rezultate koje je selo postiglo, sledećim
brojem bodova:

1. Organizovanje poljoprivredne proizvodnje i ostvareni rezultati

a. Korišćenje zemljišta

– obrada zemljišta (procenat obrađenog u odnosu na oranične


i obradive površine)
– uređenost zemljišne teritorije subjekata (procenat komasira-
nog zemljišta u odnosu na oranične i obradive površine)
– navodnjavanje i odvodnjavanje zemljišta (procenat navodnja-
vanih, odnosno, odvodnjavanih površina u odnosu na ukupne
obradive površine)

b. Rezultati ostvarene proizvodnje

– stepen robnosti-tržišnmosti najvažnijih linija proizvodnje u


području
– prinosi po jedinici kapaciteta
pšenica t/x
kukuruz t/x
šećerna repa t/x
šljiva kg/po stablu
jabuka kg/po stablu
grožđe kg/po čokotu
prirast mesa po grlu goveda kg
prirast mesa po krmači kg
proizvodna mleka po kravi litara
(i druge proizvodnje karakteristične za selo)
– broj takmičara za visoke prinose u poljoprivredi
(procenat u odnosu na ukupan broj gazdinstava zemljoradnika)
– ostvarivanje dve žetve na području sela

123-144_Hofman_f9.indd 136 9/27/2010 10:04:57 AM


pravilnik 137

c. Organizovanje zemljoradnika

– postoji seoska zadruga ili u sastavu druge zadruge


– broj udruženih zemljoradnika (procenat udruženih
u odnosu na ukupan broj gazdinstava zemljoradnika)
– organizovanost štedno-kreditne službe kao delatnost zadruge
ili samostalno

DO 300 BODOVA

Član 6
2. U oblasti obrazovanja i vaspitanja, sela će se takmičiti:

– rezultatima u elementarnom obrazovanju poljoprivrednih proi–


zvođača
– rezultatima u obuhvatu dece pohađanjem i završavanjem osnovne
škole
– u zdravstvenom obrazovanju i vaspitanju (broj kurseva i
polaznika)
– rezultatima tehničkog i saobraćajnog obrazovanja i vaspitanja
(broj kurseva i polaznika)
– u primanju i korišćenju stručnih i drugih odgovarajućih listova,
knjiga i sličnih publikacija
– rezultatima rada na vaspitanju predškolske dece
– rezultatima rada učeničkih zadruga i drugih oblika društveno-
korisnog rada

DO 200 BODOVA

Član 7
3. U izgrdanji i uređivanju naselja, sela će se takmičiti:

– u planiranju i ostvarivanju planova uređivanja prostora


(urbanistički plan, odluka koja ga zamenjuje, odluka o uređivanju
građevinskog regiona ili drugi dokument o razvoju i uređivanju
prostora);
– u planiranju petogodišnjeg i godišnjeg razvoja u skladu sa propi-
sima o planiranju i rezultatima ostvarivanja tih planova;

123-144_Hofman_f9.indd 137 9/27/2010 10:04:57 AM


138 pravilnik

– u izgradnji savremenih stambenih i ekonomskih zgrada u selu;


– u izgradnju puteva, vodovoda i električnih vodova i osvetljenja;
– u izgradnji i uređivanju škola, školskih kuhinja i drugih školskih
objekata;
– u izgradnji i uređivanju domova kulture, zadružnih domova ili
domova mesnih zajednica;
– u izgradnji i uređivanju centra sela ili seoskih trgova;
– u izgradnji i uređivanju seoskih dvorišta;
– u izgradnji, uređivanju i održavanju sportskih objekata;
– u pošumljavanju, sadnji i nezi zelenila;
– u izgradnji, uređivanju i održavanju spomenika;
– u izgradnji i održavanju zdravstvenih objekata;
– u mogućnosti korišćenja javnog saobraćaja;
– u uslužnim delatnostima i snabdevanju;
– u prisutnosti i korišćenju tehničkih uređaja u domaćinstvima;
– u funkcionalnom i estetskom uređenju stanova.

DO 200 BODOVA

Član 8
4. U kulturnim aktivnostima sela će se takmičiti:

– u korišćenju i širenju knjige;


– u mogućnostima korišćenja štampe, radija i televizije;
– u uslovima i organizovanosti amaterskog kulturnog stvaralašstva
i masovnosti učestvovanja dece, omladine i odraslih u radu
sekcija (dramskih, muzičkih, folklornih, literarnih, recitatorskih,
likovnih, foto-kino i dr.)
– u prikupljanju, obradi i zaštiti pokretnih kulturnih dobara;
– u upoznavanju zavičaajne istorije;
– u sakupljanju narodnih umotvorina i podataka za hronike sela;
– u dostupnosti kulturnih dobara i kulturnih vrednosti (književni
i muzički susreti, dramske predstave, izložbe slika, fotografija,
knjiga, narodne radinosti, bioskopske predstave);
– u sportskih aktivnostima.

DO 200 BODOVA

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pravilnik 139

Član 8
5. U okviru zaštite i unapređenja čovekove sredine sela će se takmičiti:

– u proizvodnji zdrave hrane (površine na kojima se proizvodi


zdrava hrana – bez primene hemijskih agenasa – u odnosu na
ukupne obradive površine);
– u stepenu zaštite zemljišta, vode, stanovništva od otpadnih
materija u postojećim proizvodnim objektima (farme, fabrike
za preradu hrane i drugi proizvodni pogoni), kao i određivanje
mesta za pravilno odlaganje štetnih otpada;
– u stepenu obučenosti i informisanosti poljoprivrednih proizvođača
za pravilnu upotrebu hemijskih sredstava u ishrani i raznovrsnost
ishrane tokom cele godine;
– u organizovanosti i realizaciji praktičnih akcija vezanih za
unapređenje higijenskih prilika, posebno kroz akcije higijeniza-
cije u selima i unapređenja školske sredine;
– u ozelenjavanju površina oko komunalnih objekata i goleti;
– u omasovljenju dobrovoljnog davalaštva krvi (organizacija,
zdravstveno-vaspitni rad, evidencija davalaca), kao i briga o deci
i starim i iznemoglim licima;
– u razvoju turizma na selu;

DO 200 BODOVA

Član 11
Jednogodišnju aktivnost sela komisija vrednuje na osnovu doku-
mentacije koja se dostavlja članovima komisije i konkretnog uvida u
rezultate.
Ocena komisije je konačna

Član 12
Ovaj Pravilnik usvojen je 8. Aprila 1991. godine na sastanku Koordi-
nacionog odbora Takmičenja sela Srbije, a primenjuje se od 15. Aprila
1991. Godine.

KOORDINACIONI ODBOR
TAKMIČENJA SELA SRBIJE

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140 pravilnik

Dopuna Pravilnika Takmičenja Sela Srbije

Član 5. Pravilnika Takmičenja sela Srbije dopunjuje se, posle posle-


dnjeg pasusa, novim pasusom:

– kulturna funkcija škole (škola kao centar kulturnog života u seos-


kim sredinama koje nemaju druge kulturne ustanove);
– sekcije kao aktivnost koja obogaćuje kulturni živor i podstiče stvara-
laštvo dece i mladih (folklorna, horska, dramska, likovna, muzička,
recitatorska i dr.);
– uticaj prosvetnog radnika na kulturni život mladih;
– povezanost škole i roditelja na programima kulturnog razvoja sela.

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APPENDIX THREE

VILLAGES – WINNERS AT REPUBLIC LEVEL

1974. Konjuh village, Kruševac municipality


1975. Vinarce village, Leskovac municipality
1976. Bukovče village, Negotin municipality
1977. Velika Drenova village, Trstenik municipality
1978. Bošnjace village, Lebane municipality
1979. Toponica village, Knić municipality
1980. Žaočane village, Čačak municipality
1981. Valjevska Kamenica village, Valjevo municipality
1982. Badnjevac village, Batočina municipality
1983. Podunavci village, Vrnjačka Banja municipality
1984. Braničevo village, Golubac municipality
1985. Zminjak village, Šabac municipality
1986. Ratina village, Kraljevo municipality
1987. Zlot village, Bor municipality
1988. Medveđa village, Trstenik municipality
1989. Gornja Dobrinja village, Požega municipality
1990. Mihajlovac village, Smederevo municipality
1991. Žiča village, Kraljevo municipality
1992. Iđoš village, Kikinda municipality
1993. Mačvanski Prnjavor village, Šabac municipality
1994. Glogovac village, Jagodin municipality
1995. Vranovo village, Smederevo municipality
1996. Mrčajevci village, Čačak municipality
1997. Sićevo village, Niš municipality
1998. Novo Selo village, Vrnjačka Banja municipality
1999. Veliko Laole village, Petrovac na Mlavi municipality
2000. Badovinci village, Bogatić municipality
2001. Kaonik village, Kruševac municipality
2002. Vraneši village, Vrnjačka Banja municipality
Smoljinac village, Malo Crnuće municipality
2003. Neresnica village, Kučevo municipality

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123-144_Hofman_f9.indd 142 9/27/2010 10:04:58 AM
APPENDIX FOUR

THE PROGRAMME OF DONJA STUDENA AND


GORNJA STUDENA VILLAGES (1994)

1. ‘Entertainment music’ part

– Song Đurđevdan
– Children’s dance
– Guitar players
– ‘Entertainment music’ orchestra
– Dance group

2. Theatre performances part

– ‘Kalča’s trip to Studena village’


– Recitation – Desanka Maksimović
– Song Selo moje
– Choir of KUD Stanko Paunović from Niš
– Part from the stage-play Izbiračica (7th and 8th grade students
from the primary school)

3. ‘Genuine music’ part

– Custom called Premlaz


– Riddle competition
– Toasting song
– Folk dance played on okarina performed by Ivana Mladenović
– Male singing group, song Ej, čija frula
– Female singing group, song Ej, što se ono na planini beleše
– Folklore ensemble, dances – ljubavno and pešačko kolo
– Young Folklore group

4. Folk music part

– Player on okarina
– Children’s folklore group, dances from Šumadija

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144 appendix four

– Folk orchestra of accordions


– Children’s folklore group, dances from Ponišavlje
– Singer Radiša Stamenković
– Children’s folklore group, Vlach dances

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INDEX

Agitprop, 38–39 modern dance, 50


agrarian policy, 44, 86 ritual dance, 21–25
amateur vocal groups, 1, 65 Sunday dancing, 60
amateurism, 37, 39–40, 47 de-agrarianization see industrialization,
authenticity, 66, 77, 83 44
democratic changes in Serbia, 52, 61
ballads, 19 ‘democratic parties’ bloc, 54
Benhabib, Seyla, 107 division of labor in Yugoslavia, 88 see
brotherhood and unity, 37, 39 socialist gender politics: employment
Buchanan, Donna, 35, 45, 48, 98 double-voiced accounts, 104
Bulgaria, 31, 62, 82
Butler, Judith, 103, 107 epic songs, 19
ethnomusicologists, vii, 4, 5
children’s folklore, 80 experience
Collective Houses–Zadružni domovi, concept of, 3–4
37, 39 musical experience, 4, 54
collectivization, 39 personal experience, 2, 6
collectivization songs, 65 women’s experience, 4, 104
Farm Co-operatives, 88
competitiveness, 47, 68, 106, 125 family
cultural policy extended family, 7, 88
and public/private distinction, 96 kindship ties, 8, 11
influence on local settings, 77 patriarchal relations, 7, 11
in rural areas, 41, 44 female instrumentalists, 22, 80
in Yugoslavia, 5, 35–39, 111–112 female singers
and national tensions, 41–43 as embodiment of local culture, 106,
decentralisation of, 43 107, 108
cultural workers, 44, 46, 106 individualization of performance, 70
local, 61 mixed-generation ensembles, 70
Cultural-Artistic Societies– new self-identification and social
Kulturno-umetnička društva, KUDs, agency, 103, 105, 107
37–38 personal repertoire, 69, 114, 72, 119
city KUDs, 80, 112 rivalry, 105, 106
professional, 37 solo performing, 105
Cultural-Educational Association– transgressing social taboos, 70, 71
Kulturno-prosvetna zajednica, KPZ, travels with amateur groups, 60, 100,
40, 52 102, 105
Cultural-Educational Council of the femininity
Parliament of Serbia, 41 discourse of, 91
of Serbia, 47 rural, 11–12, 34 see also female cultural
of Yugoslavia, 40 roles in rural society
socialist, 1, 6, 81–82, 107–108, 109
daily migrants, 45 performing, 17, 21
dance, 36, 40, 97 feminization of agriculture, 88
and girl’s initiation, 10 fieldwork, vii, viii, 3, 104
at Village Gatherings, 66, 68 folk costume, 1, 66, 92
dance ensambles, 37, 40, 57 folklore festivals, 39
dance school, 46, 50 Balkan Festival of Folklore Heritage,
kolo, 14, 27, 30 1, 60

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146 index

Festival of the Folklore Heritage of and program selection, 114


Serbia in Topola, 60 participation in organization in Village
International Folklore Festival in Gatherings, 41, 52
Zagreb, 60 local repertoire transformations, 113
folkloromania, 39 see amateurism adjusting personal repertoires, 69
Foucault, Michael, 90, 94 borrowing, 69
canonization, 76
gender equality, 2, 104 generational changes, 76
discourse of, 83, 109 hiring professional musicians, 68
ideology of, 86–87, 111 improvization, 116
gender performance see also gender roles jury’s requirements, 73
transgression local stars, 69
changing patterns, 111 Lukić, Lepa, 99
in music, 44, 45, 64
in Niško Polje, 7, 17, 34, 103 marriage, 10 see also wedding
gender roles transgression, 6, 32 arranged marriage, 13, 89
in repertoire, 71, 79–80 mass culture, 39, 40
mixed-gender performances, 18, 78 opposition to high culture, 42
‘genuine’ songs, 50, 66 media, 47, 107
radio, 19, 31, 49, 71
high culture, 37, 40, 50 Radio Niš, 77
Houses of Culture–Domovi kulture, 3, Radio-Television of Serbia, 65
37, 53 television, 47, 107
memory, 4, 70 see recollection of socialist
industrialization, 41, 44–45, 88, 89 past
institutionalization of village culture life, men’s songs, 18, 97
112 men’s tune see men’s songs
instruments, 50, 66, 80 Milošević, Slobodan, 52–53
accordion, 20, 67, 99 mobility, 16, 60, 105
bagpipe, 20 modernization, 40, 44, 48, 85, 91, 94 see
dvojnice, 20 also industrialization
frula, duduk, 20, 80 ideology of, 35, 36, 48, 85, 94
gusle, 19, 20, 68 of rural culture, 40, 41, 50, 112
lejka, lejka’s orchestra, 80 musical folklore, 36
synthesizer, 67 musical shame, concept of, 97–98

Jansen, Stef, 52, 60 narrative musical ethnography, 4, 111


joint work, concept of, 42, 88 nationalism, 35, 42, 43, 52
nationalistic songs, 65
kafana, 99 NATO bombing, 62
kitsch, 42, 67 newly-composed folk songs, 66, 67, 72, 99
Niš, city, 3, 45
lascivious songs, 33 Niško Polje, 3
Laušević, Mirjana, 36, 38 cultural life, 46
League of Communists of Yugoslavia–
Savez komunista Jugoslavije, SKJ, 36, official/unofficial
38, 41, 87 discourses of, 67
Tenth Congress, 41 distinction, 95, 111, 113
life-cycle rituals, 8 in socialist culture, 111
childbirth, 9 oral history method, 4
wedding, 8
local authorities parlando-rubato rhythm, 74
and female singers, 102 party officials
and politics, 54 and culture politics, 35–36, 38, 42

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index 147

and traditional customs, 54 morality/immorality, 10, 100


program supervision, 65 sexuality, 9, 16
women, 87 official discourses, 82
performativity, 6 see theory of stage representation, 82–83
performativity rural-urban migrations, 41 see also daily
phenomenological approach, 3, 4 migrants
politics of dress in socialism, 90 see also in Niš vicinity, 45
socialist gender politics: body politics
popular music, 66, 112 sabori, 9
‘entertainment’ music, 112 Scott, Joan, 4
urban genres, 71 Self-Governing Interest Societies–
post-socialism, 52, 54, 62 Samoupravne interesne zajednice,
preservation of local musical practices, SIZs, 42
41, 113 see also authenticity self-management, 39, 43, 86
and Village Gatherings, 70 singing style
professional musicians, 20 antiphonal, 21
professional female musicians, 98–99 drone and syllabic drone singing, 74
professional/unprofessional guttural style, 76
distinction, 97 heterophony, 74
Roma see Roma musicians monophonic, 75
public/private distinction, 2, 95 transformations, 73
gender, 17 two-part singing, 19, 36, 56, 66, 115
in gender performance, 109 slava, 19, 36, 56, 66, 115
in musical performance, 96–97 socialist feminism, see socialist gender
in socialist cultural politics see politics
official/unofficial socialist folk culture, 36 see also cultural
policy in Yugoslavia
Ramet, Sabrina, 2 ‘arranged’ folklore, 111
recollection of socialist past, 4 dances, 39 see also dance
nostalgia, 59 folklorization, 111
refrains, 55 rural/urban dynamics, 35, 40, 51
refrain i, 18, 74, 79 stylized performances, 38
religious holidays, 94 socialist gender politics in Yugoslavia,
Father’s Day, 56 2, 86
Krstonoše, 55 and class question, 86
Mother’s Day, 56 body politics, 92
Orthodox New Year, 56 childcare, 88, 90
proscriptions, 55 double burden, 88
revolutionary romanticism, 39 employment, 85–86
revolutionary songs, 65 regional differences, 88
Rice, Timothy, 4 reproductive rights, 85
ritual songs socialist holidays, 44, 52
classification, 71 1st May, 56
Đurđevdan songs, 29 29th November–Day of the Republic,
kraljice, 24 44, 56
lazarice, 21 post-socialist continuity, 52
on stage, 70 socialist state, 1, 114
Roma, 51 Soviet Union, 37, 65, 78, 83, 113
Roma musicians, 98–99 stage performance and
Romania, 65, 112, 113 and public/private distinction, 96
rural women’s cultural roles, 7 as performative act, 103, 108
body, 8 as representational practice, 108
fertility, 8 as shameful activity, 100, 102
housewife, 7, 9, 27, 33, 89, 90 visual dimension, 92

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148 index

state-supervised cultural activities, 63 see in memories of villagers, 59–61


cultural policy jury, 47, 68
Sugarman, Јane, 11 mass participation, 49–50
sworn virgin, 8 see amateurism
organization, 58
theory of performativity, 103, 107 see also prizes, and honors, 77
Butler, Judith program selection and preparation,
Tito, Josip Broz, 43–44 65–67
Titon, Jeff, 4 recordings, vii, 65
titovke, 55 see traditional customs: kraljice Regulation, 48, 125
Traditional customs 21 see also kraljice repertoire requirements, 73 see also
and lazarice local repertoire transformations
Đurđevdan, 29 Vojvodina, 46–47, 51
Mladenci, 20
sedenjke, 31 Women’s Co-operatives, 86, 90
traditional musical practice women’s emancipation, 85–86, 91, 94, 109
gender segregation, 17 women’s oral history see women’s
instrumental practice, 19 experience
vocal practice, 19 women’s songs, 18, 79, 80, 105
transmission of repertoire, 70 see also womens’ organizations, 85
female singers: mixed-generation AFŽ, 85
ensambles Union of Women’s Societies of Serbia,
86
UDBA, 56 working people, 35–38, 42

vašari see sabori, 000 Yugoslav Republics, 42


Verdery, Katherine, 2 cultural cooperation, 39
Village Gatherings, 47–48 national tensions, 42, 75
acceptance by villagers, 57–58 Yugoslavia, 38
and education, 39, 48, 50, 54, 112 breakup, 43, 52, 62
as marginal events, 44, 51 Constitution 1974, 41
during the 90s, 52–53, 62 Yugoslav identity, 35, 112
finale parades, 125 supra-cultural ideology, 36, 43, 67, 77

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