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.Paschalis Kitromilides has sharply pointed out that humanism did notsimply emerge as a shared cultural outlook in the West but also developed as theconfluence of the intellectual traditions of the two halves of Europe. Serious schol-arship has long recognized the seminal contribution of the Greek East to the mak-ing of Renaissance humanism, but it is usually passed over in suspicious silence in 180 Imagining the Balkansgeneral works, let alone in popular ones.41 Beginning with the Enlightenment, which,together with nationalism, exerted a major formative influence on the Balkans, theregion has actively partaken in every cultural and ideological current in Europe.It isironic that the stubborn assertion of Balkan nationalists that the Ottoman Empirehad fatally and absolutely cut off the Balkans from the mainstream of European de-velopment is backfiring at a moment when they are trying to prove their legitimatebelonging to the continent.At the same time, on the level of popular culture and everyday life, the Ottomanlegacy proved much more persistent.One can look for it in authentic Ottomanelements (architecture and urban structure, food, music, the institution of the coffee-house); follow it up through its influence via direct cultural contact (language, reli-gious syncretism); finally, trace it in the reactive response and adaptation of indig-enous institutions and cultural trends to the Ottoman system.42 The zealous efforts atde-Ottomanization succeeded primarily in the material (visible and public) sphere.The most radical changes occurred in the overall appearance of cities, architecture,clothing.All Balkan countries (although with different degrees of intensity) attemptedto purify their languages and toponomy from Turkisms.As a whole, the existence ofbi- and multilingualism expired with the passing of the generations with immediateknowledge of life in the empire.More important was the socialization of the broadmasses of people as citizens of the nation-states through such state institutions as schoolsand the army, which promoted the standardized literary language and were central inthe process of homogenization of the respective nations.However, when it came to such phenomena as food and diet, as well as music,the Ottoman legacy seemed to be much more tenacious.As regards food, there is aninteresting observation about Bulgaria that can be successfully generalized for thewhole Balkan area.The greater abundance and diversification of food made dishesthat were previously confined only to the Muslim urban elites increasingly accessibleto the whole urban population and large segments of the rural population.Thus, whilethe haute cuisine of the limited Bulgarian urban elites tended to become more Euro-peanized in the last decades of the nineteenth century, the general cuisine of Bulgaria(Christian and Muslim alike) became increasingly Ottomanized, as it were, after theend of Ottoman rule.43In the sphere of mentalité (popular beliefs, customs, attitudes, value system), theefforts to de-Ottomanize proved much more strenuous.De-Ottomanization has beenregarded as a process that was to achieve the coveted ideal of the polar opposite ofbeing Ottoman (or Oriental), namely, steady Europeanization, Westernization, ormodernization of society.It was supposed to bring in a new set of relations both infamily and in society based on individuality and rationality, an entirely differentposition for women, a revised role for children and child rearing, a new work ethic.To take one of the most exploited themes, the position of women, it continues to bealmost exclusively attributed to the influence of Islam.Yet it is impossible to distin-guish between the workings of traditional patriarchal peasant morality, the influenceof Orthodox Christianity, and the role of Ottoman culture per se (in this case the roleof Islam).44 The difficulty or even impossibility of differentiating between Ottomanand traditional local cultures, of which many researchers have been aware, has led tomethodological solutions such as the treatment of de-Ottomanization, de- Realia Qu est-ce qu il y a de hors-texte? 181Orientalization, debalkanization, and depatriarchalization as synonyms.45 Yet,this bypasses an essential methodological challenge: as long as research continues toignore the important examination of the axis Balkan Ottoman, and instead followsexclusively the two bipolar axes, Balkan traditional culture the West, and Ottomanculture the West, this important aspect of social history will be trivialized into theusual dichotomy traditional modern.46 Balkan mentality has been one of the most exploited mythologemes in popu-lar discourse and an operative term in many scholarly studies.In the best analysis ofthe methodological dimensions of the problem, Paschalis Kitromilides concludesthat all anthropological and social psychological arguments in favour of the existenceof a shared Balkan mentality are bound to turn into sociological metaphysics unlessthey provide convincing answers to the question as to what is specifically Balkan aboutit. 47 His analysis of how Jovan Cvijić introduced and utilized the category in Lapeninsule balkanique led him to posit the incompatibility between this category andany ethnic and national constructs.Yet it is precisely on ethnic lines that most re-search on Balkan mentality is done.There has been also an (unconvincing) attemptto postulate the linguistic basis of a specific Balkan mentality and homo balcaninus.48While Kitromilides rightly objects to the overgeneralizations of the mentality ap-proach, he allows for the description of what he calls mental and attitudinal struc-tures in a strictly historically specific context.This is a distinctive and historicallyplausible set of mental characteristics, valid for the eighteenth-century Balkan Chris-tian Orthodox ecumene: Historical specificity is therefore the critical factor in thedescription of such sets of recurrent and pervasive assumptions and norms that definethe outlook of a collectivity.But to insist upon talking about a diachronic uniformitycalled Balkan mentality is no more than an unverifiable historical legend, and it canturn into a perverse mythology as well [ Pobierz caÅ‚ość w formacie PDF ]
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.Paschalis Kitromilides has sharply pointed out that humanism did notsimply emerge as a shared cultural outlook in the West but also developed as theconfluence of the intellectual traditions of the two halves of Europe. Serious schol-arship has long recognized the seminal contribution of the Greek East to the mak-ing of Renaissance humanism, but it is usually passed over in suspicious silence in 180 Imagining the Balkansgeneral works, let alone in popular ones.41 Beginning with the Enlightenment, which,together with nationalism, exerted a major formative influence on the Balkans, theregion has actively partaken in every cultural and ideological current in Europe.It isironic that the stubborn assertion of Balkan nationalists that the Ottoman Empirehad fatally and absolutely cut off the Balkans from the mainstream of European de-velopment is backfiring at a moment when they are trying to prove their legitimatebelonging to the continent.At the same time, on the level of popular culture and everyday life, the Ottomanlegacy proved much more persistent.One can look for it in authentic Ottomanelements (architecture and urban structure, food, music, the institution of the coffee-house); follow it up through its influence via direct cultural contact (language, reli-gious syncretism); finally, trace it in the reactive response and adaptation of indig-enous institutions and cultural trends to the Ottoman system.42 The zealous efforts atde-Ottomanization succeeded primarily in the material (visible and public) sphere.The most radical changes occurred in the overall appearance of cities, architecture,clothing.All Balkan countries (although with different degrees of intensity) attemptedto purify their languages and toponomy from Turkisms.As a whole, the existence ofbi- and multilingualism expired with the passing of the generations with immediateknowledge of life in the empire.More important was the socialization of the broadmasses of people as citizens of the nation-states through such state institutions as schoolsand the army, which promoted the standardized literary language and were central inthe process of homogenization of the respective nations.However, when it came to such phenomena as food and diet, as well as music,the Ottoman legacy seemed to be much more tenacious.As regards food, there is aninteresting observation about Bulgaria that can be successfully generalized for thewhole Balkan area.The greater abundance and diversification of food made dishesthat were previously confined only to the Muslim urban elites increasingly accessibleto the whole urban population and large segments of the rural population.Thus, whilethe haute cuisine of the limited Bulgarian urban elites tended to become more Euro-peanized in the last decades of the nineteenth century, the general cuisine of Bulgaria(Christian and Muslim alike) became increasingly Ottomanized, as it were, after theend of Ottoman rule.43In the sphere of mentalité (popular beliefs, customs, attitudes, value system), theefforts to de-Ottomanize proved much more strenuous.De-Ottomanization has beenregarded as a process that was to achieve the coveted ideal of the polar opposite ofbeing Ottoman (or Oriental), namely, steady Europeanization, Westernization, ormodernization of society.It was supposed to bring in a new set of relations both infamily and in society based on individuality and rationality, an entirely differentposition for women, a revised role for children and child rearing, a new work ethic.To take one of the most exploited themes, the position of women, it continues to bealmost exclusively attributed to the influence of Islam.Yet it is impossible to distin-guish between the workings of traditional patriarchal peasant morality, the influenceof Orthodox Christianity, and the role of Ottoman culture per se (in this case the roleof Islam).44 The difficulty or even impossibility of differentiating between Ottomanand traditional local cultures, of which many researchers have been aware, has led tomethodological solutions such as the treatment of de-Ottomanization, de- Realia Qu est-ce qu il y a de hors-texte? 181Orientalization, debalkanization, and depatriarchalization as synonyms.45 Yet,this bypasses an essential methodological challenge: as long as research continues toignore the important examination of the axis Balkan Ottoman, and instead followsexclusively the two bipolar axes, Balkan traditional culture the West, and Ottomanculture the West, this important aspect of social history will be trivialized into theusual dichotomy traditional modern.46 Balkan mentality has been one of the most exploited mythologemes in popu-lar discourse and an operative term in many scholarly studies.In the best analysis ofthe methodological dimensions of the problem, Paschalis Kitromilides concludesthat all anthropological and social psychological arguments in favour of the existenceof a shared Balkan mentality are bound to turn into sociological metaphysics unlessthey provide convincing answers to the question as to what is specifically Balkan aboutit. 47 His analysis of how Jovan Cvijić introduced and utilized the category in Lapeninsule balkanique led him to posit the incompatibility between this category andany ethnic and national constructs.Yet it is precisely on ethnic lines that most re-search on Balkan mentality is done.There has been also an (unconvincing) attemptto postulate the linguistic basis of a specific Balkan mentality and homo balcaninus.48While Kitromilides rightly objects to the overgeneralizations of the mentality ap-proach, he allows for the description of what he calls mental and attitudinal struc-tures in a strictly historically specific context.This is a distinctive and historicallyplausible set of mental characteristics, valid for the eighteenth-century Balkan Chris-tian Orthodox ecumene: Historical specificity is therefore the critical factor in thedescription of such sets of recurrent and pervasive assumptions and norms that definethe outlook of a collectivity.But to insist upon talking about a diachronic uniformitycalled Balkan mentality is no more than an unverifiable historical legend, and it canturn into a perverse mythology as well [ Pobierz caÅ‚ość w formacie PDF ]