The function of the 'concrete God'

Abstract

I am inspired by many reasons to make a somewhat different contribution to marking the anniversary of the passing of Dusan Bandic. Although today, Dusan Bandic is primarily considered as the leader in the research of so-called popular religion or even in narrower terms - Serbian Orthodox Christianity for me his work has a more far reaching and less localized dimension. It is dominated by the concept of functionality, and of the value of research, of 'everything in existence'. He was an interpreter in the true sense of the word, a translator between 'two languages', worlds or, if you will 'empires', which he considered equal in terms of curiosity, attention and analytical doubt he applied when examining the academic, as well as the popular discourse. We could say that he was also, in addition to all other things he is recognized for, a master of (re)naming, discoursive legitimation and 'branding' of the traditional significatory content, starting from his main preoccupation and a true emblem of his overall work - taboos….

Keywords

• Dusan Bandic
• religion
• functionalism
• tradition