PRISTUPI PROUČAVANJU IDENTITETA U PROŠLOSTI
THE APPROACHES TO THE STUDY OF IDENTITIES IN THE PAST

Summary/Abstract: This article discusses the issue of identities from a theoretical perspective, and from a historian’s point of view. The author presents a brief overwiev of some of the approaches to the exploration of historical identities and identity groups. The issue of the concepts of “subjective“ and “objective“ that historians sometimes deal with in regards to identities is also addressed. The author also discusses the concepts of “autoperception“ and “heteroperception”, and the question of their importance in our attempt to better understand historical identities or presumed identities. One of the objectives of any scientific inquiry in this subject should be a detailed and comprehensive introduction to the phenomenon with which the historian is faced, of course keeping in mind the problem of the historical sources that are available to the researcher. Therefore, this paper discusses some possible perspectives of looking at identities, different levels from which the historical identity groups could be researched, as well as the multi-dimensionality of identity/ identities which historians should always be aware of. Addressing these issues is quite challenging due to the complex nature of the phenomenon we call “identity”, but in the case of historical research of this topic it is even more so because of the often scant historical sources from the more distant periods of the past. For this reason, the author emphasizes the need for a greater caution in the study of historical identities, particularly when making (far reaching) conclusions about them.

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