SARAJEVO

Resumé

Anthropological urban studies tend to

explore how the specific social structures

of cities affect the life of their inhabitants.

In contrast, this article analyses local

actors’ own cultural constructions of the

city and urbanity. It is based on ethnographic

fieldwork in Sarajevo, the capital

of Bosnia and Herzegovina, a city that

suffered heavy destruction during the war

in the 1990s. According to native Sarajevans,

however, the greatest threat to the

unique urban culture of Sarajevo emanated

from the radical transformation of the

demographic structure that took place

during the war, as many people fled Sarajevo

while large groups of displaced people

from other parts of the country sought

refuge in the city. It was a popular perception

among the local population that what

used to be a modern and cosmopolitan

European city in the course of war had

deteriorated into “one big village”,

plagued by cultural primitivism, ethnic

nationalism and intolerance imported by

newcomers from the rural backwaters of

the country. The article shows how the

roots of the powerful cultural dichotomies

between city and countryside as well as

between cultured and uncultured are to be

located in the region’s historical position

at the margins of Europe. The article

argues that Sarajevans employed displaced

persons as politically convenient scapegoats

for experiences of social transformation

and decay that stemmed more from

war and crisis than from the inferior cultural

habits of the newcomers.