Niechciana kultura
Unwanted Culture

Rebuilding and Instrumentalization of Cultural Heritage in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Author(s): Maciej Falski
Subject(s): History, Anthropology, Social Sciences, Cultural history, Cultural Anthropology / Ethnology, Pre-WW I & WW I (1900 -1919), Interwar Period (1920 - 1939), WW II and following years (1940 - 1949), Post-War period (1950 - 1989), Transformation Period (1990 - 2010)
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: Bosnia and Herzegovina; cultural heritage; semiotics of culture; restoration of monuments; nationalism
Summary/Abstract: Following the end of civil war in 1995, Bosnia and Herzegovina became a federal state, divided into two autonomous parts, in which elites of three nations compete. Crucial for the cohesiveness of the state is its legitimacy, in other words: universal support among its citizens for its existence. The research presented in this book stems from the assumption that the basic means used by the elites as well as state institutions is culture, or the symbolic realm. The chapters focus on a number of architectural objects considered elements of cultural heritage, as the disputes that surround their restoration reveal deep divisions within the symbolic realm and the public discourse. The conflicts arising in the symbolic realm result in weak support for the state and a predominance of centrifugal ethnonational ideologies of the Serbs, Bosniaks and Croatians.

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