Migracijske i etničke teme (Dec 2009)

Šokac Croatians in Vojvodina at the Turn of the Century – Basic Characteristics of Their Social Position

  • Tomislav Žigmanov

Journal volume & issue
Vol. 25, no. 4
pp. 387 – 409

Abstract

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The paper sets out by contextually situating in its basic characteristics the share of the Šokac Croatians among the Vojvodina Croatians as a whole at the turn of the century, primarily in their demographic, spatial and territorial, and historical segment. This is followed by an outline of the individual social processes to which the Šokac Croatians in Vojvodina have been exposed, on the one hand, and those that they themselves have produced on the other. Analysis of the social position of the Šokac Croatians in Vojvodina is orientated to two major issues. One is related to the consequences upon them of the war that the Milošević regime waged against the Republic of Croatia, and the fate of steps undertaken towards the creation of a separate “Šokac nation”, which was also conceived and generated by the Milošević regime. The second group of issues that the author deals with includes the contemporary history of the political organising of the Šokac Croatians, that of the area of culture and, finally, of the domain of information and education. Along with those segments of the contemporary history of the Šokac Croatians in the Vojvodinian part of the Danube River Basin, comparisons are drawn with the same or similar processes among other sub-ethnic groups of Vojvodina Croatians, particularly the Bunjevci Croatians, and those from other regions in Vojvodina in which ethnic Croatians live.

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