Шаљиве ерске приче из Ариљског краја
Humorous “Era” Stories from the Arilje Region

Summary/Abstract: This paper discusses humorous stories collected in the village of Brekovo, near Arilje; the stories were created in the first half of the 20th century and noted down by Momcilo Jovanović, a villager from Brekovo. Later on, in the 1980’s, the stories were passed down to the author of this paper. These narrations are mostly short stories and anecdotes; in a very realistic fashion, the stories depict life and culture of the Dinaric race from old Vlax — Zlatibor cultural area, namely, the type of person also known as “Era”, well-known for its wittiness, smartness and wisdom. Based on the analysis of seven Era-stories, the author identified the social and cultural values highlighted in the stories (such as attitudes toward authorities, intergenerational relationship, status of women, power relations between townsmen and peasants, propensity toward justice and truth). In summary, the stories document the mutual influence between traditional culture and the Era personality in this particular rural region; therefore, they could contribute to studies on character traits of the inhabitants in a given area of western Serbia.

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