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Accepted Paper
The dead as agents of (changing) morality in the context of changing spatial and social practices in Bosnian Muslim rural communities
Mirjam Mencej
(Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana)
This paper compares ghost narratives in rural Bosnia before and after the war, arguing that since the war new categories of the dead and new sites for their agentive power have emerged, reflecting changing spatial and social practices, with the dead participating as agents of (changing) morality.
Paper long abstract
Based on ethnographic research in central Bosnia, this presentation examines the narratives of the dead in the context of changing spatial and social practices in rural communities, affected by the general post-war economic and social changes in Bosnia and Herzegovina. By comparing first- and second-hand personal accounts of encounters with the dead as spirits / ghosts (emic: 'apparitions') before and after the 1992-1995 war, I will demonstrate that these changes have produced new dominant categories of the dead and sites for their agentive power, reflecting the diminishing importance of the neighbourhood as a social institution on the one hand, and the increasing importance of individuals’ private lives and families on the other. Furthermore, I will argue that the dead have been actively involved in these processes and participated in them as agents of (changing) morality.
[Funded by the ERC Adv. grant project â„– 101095729 (DEAGENCY)]