The second coming of Van Gennep among the Serbs

Abstract

­Emer­gen­ce of the Ser­bian tran­sla­tion of Van Gen­nep’s ma­jor work "The Ri­tes of Pas­sa­ge" ini­ti­a­tes re­ca­pi­ta­li­za­tion of the in­flu­en­ce the­ory of ri­tes of pas­sa­ge had on stu­di­es of cu­stoms in Ser­bian scho­lar­ship. It is ne­ces­sary to ma­ke such a re­vi­ew sin­ce the Ser­bian re­a­der of Van Gen­nep’s bo­ok is una­wa­re of that fact. Bi­bli­o­graphy of works in­spi­red by Van Gen­nep in Ser­bian ethn­ology/anth­ro­po­log­y i­n the past ­th­ree de­ca­de­s t­ot­al­s at over ­25 bo­ok­s. In­flu­en­ce of Van Gen­nep’s the­ory of ri­tes on Ser­bian et­hno­logy/anthro­po­logy is in­ter­me­di­ary; it ca­me thro­ugh Bri­tish struc­tu­ral anthro­po­logy, espe­ci­ally the works of Ed­mund Lеаch. The in­ter­pre­ta­tion of Ser­bian et­hno­grap­hi­cal ma­te­ri­als be­gan in the la­te 1970s and bla­zed up in the fol­lo­wing de­ca­de. From then on and un­til the emer­gen­ce of Ser­bian tran­sla­tion in 2005, along with a bit less nu­me­ro­us works of in­ter­pre­ta­ti­ve na­tu­re, the­o­re­ti­cal vo­lu­mes al­so ap­pe­ar tran­sfor­ming and cor­rec­ting Van Gen­nep’s the­ory ma­king it an advan­ced in­ter­pre­ta­ti­ve me­ans. Ap­pli­ca­tion of Van Gen­nep’s the­ory of ri­tes of pas­sa­ge to Ser­bian scho­lar­ship was a way of fa­mi­li­a­ri­zing with the struc­tu­ral anthro­po­logy that was one of the ma­jor chan­nels of mo­der­ni­za­tion in the set­ting of cen­ten­nial the­o­re­ti­cal\­met­ho­do­lo­gi­cal bac­kward­ness. This mo­der­ni­za­tion was two­fold sa­lu­tary – it pre­ven­ted the con­struc­tion of mytho­logy of na­ti­o­na­lism at the end of the last cen­tury and cre­a­ted an im­mu­nity to post­mo­dern mind swamp.

Keywords

• Van Gennep
• rites of passage
• Serbian ethnology and anthropology
• interpretation of rituals
• British structuralism