COMPETING INSTITUTIONS IN NATIONAL IDENTITY CONSTRUCTION: THE CROATIAN CASE

National identity traits are not “fixed,” and an ethnic group may emphasize distinct traits at different stages of national identity construction. This study examines the case of Croatia, where religion was stressed in an earlier phase of identity construction while language has become the principal group-distinguishing feature in the most recent period. It is argued that language was chosen primarily by secular elites with a goal not only of distinguishing between “us” and “them,” but also in order to secure a privileged status within their own group.

Acknowledgments

The author expresses her thanks to Amílcar Barreto, Eileen McDonagh, Laurel A. Deck Baker, Ignacio Sanchez-Cuenca, Ignacio Urquizu and Miguel Vazquez-Larruscain for their constructive insights, advice and critiques.

Notes

1. Terms ethnicity and national identity will be used interchangeably in this study.

2. Thomas Eriksen, Ethnicity and Nationalism: Anthropological Perspective (London: Pluto, 1993), p. 12.

3. Ibid., p. 38.

4. The western variant of the standard was used in Croatia, while the eastern was used in Serbia. A combination of the western and the eastern variants was used in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro.

5. Frederik Barth, Ethnic Groups and Boundaries: The Social Organization of Culture Difference (Boston: Little Brown, 1969), p. 15.

6. Eriksen, p. 34.

7. Ibid., p. 11.

8. Croats are Catholic and use Latin script, while Serbs are Orthodox and use Cyrillic script.

9. “Serbs claimed that the Croats were fascists, and Croats claimed that the Serbs were imperialists.” Eriksen, p. 39.

10. Eric Hobsbawm, “Introduction: Inventing Traditions,” in Hobsbawm and Ranger (eds.), The Invention of Tradition (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983), p. 1.

11. Ibid., p. 4.

12. Ibid.

13. Ibid., p. 2.

14. Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflection on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (London: Verso, 2003), p. 42.

15. Robert D. Greenberg, “In the Aftermath of Yugoslavia's Collapse: The Politics of Language Death and Language Birth,” International Politics, Vol. 36 (June 1999), p. 148.

16. Richard Handler, “On Sociocultural Discontinuity: Nationalism and Cultural Objectification in Quebec,” Current Anthropology, Vol. 25 (February 1984), pp. 60–61.

17. Jeremy Bentham, A Fragment on Government and an Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1948), pp. 125–31.

18. Anthony Downs, An Economic Theory of Democracy (New York: Harper, 1957), pp. 115–41.

19. Seyyed Vali Reza Nasr, Islamic Leviathan: Islam and the Making of State Power (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001).

20. Ibid., p. 25.

21. Ibid., p. 15.

22. Amílcar Barreto, “Constructing Identities: Ethnic Boundaries and Elite Preferences in Puerto Rico,” Nationalism and Ethnic Politics, Vol. 7 (Spring 2001), pp. 31–2.

23. Joshua Fishman, Language and Nationalism: Two Integrative Essays (Rowley, MA: Newbury House, 1973), p. 43.

24. Ibid., p. 42.

25. Ibid., p. 46.

26. Johann Gottlieb Fichte, “Thirteenth Address,” George A. Kelly (ed.), Addresses to the German Nation (New York: Harper Torch Books, 1968), pp. 190–91.

27. John Edwards, Language, Society and Identity (Oxford: B. Blackwell and A. Deutsch, 1985), pp. 26–7.

28. Ibid., p. 27.

29. Ivo Banac, The National Question in Yugoslavia: Origins, History, Politics (Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1984), p. 75.

30. Anderson, p. 84.

31. Gojko Vučković, Ethnic Cleavages and Conflict: The Sources of National Cohesion and Disintegration (Vermont: Ashgate, 1997), p. 61.

32. Ibid.

33. It was named Illyrian after the oldest tribe settled on the Balkan Peninsula dating back to the ancient Greek period.

34. Tomasz D.I. Kamusella, “Language as an instrument of nationalism in Central Europe,” Nations and Nationalism, Vol. 7, No. 2 (2001), p. 239.

35. Robert D. Greenberg, “The Politics of Dialects Among Serbs, Croats, and Muslims in the Former Yugoslavia,” East European Politics and Societies, Vol. 10, No. 3 (1996), p. 396.

36. Ibid.

37. Ibid., p. 397.

38. Banac, p. 78; Modified or Neo-Štokavian will be referred to as Štokavian throughout the article for simplicity.

39. Greenberg 1996, p. 397 [Emphasis in original].

40. Yugo means South.

41. Mirjana Gross, “The Union of Dalmatia with Northern Croatia: a Crucial Question of the Croatian National Integration in the Nineteenth Century,” in Mikuláš Teich and Roy Porter (eds.), The National Question in Europe in Historical Context (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), p. 280.

42. Ante Cuvalo, The Croatian National Movement 1966-1972 (New York: East European Monographs, 1990), p. 110.

43. Especially influences from the Serbian language.

44. In addition to the standard and two official dialects, the situation was further complicated by a vast number of regional dialects and subdialects within the Serbo-Croatian speech territory itself.

45. Cuvalo, p. 60.

46. p. 117.

47. Cuvalo, p. 112.

48. Ibid., p. 62; At that time, Tudjman was expelled from both the Party and the Political Faculty of the Croatian University in Zagreb.

49. Roger Petersen, Understanding Ethnic Violence: Fear, Hatred, and Resentment in the Twentieth-Century Eastern Europe (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), pp. 217–18.

50. Ibid.

51. Pavle Ivić, O jeziku nekadašnjem i sadašnjem [About the Past and Present Language] (Beograd and Priština: Beogradski Izdavački Grafički Zavod (BIGZ), 1990), pp. 321–9.

52. Ibid., pp. 221–2.

53. Keith Langston, “Linguistic Cleansing: Language Purism in Croatia after the Yugoslav Break-up,” International Politics, Vol. 36 (June 1999), pp. 184–5.

54. Ibid.

55. Ibid.

56. Robert D. Greenberg, “Dialects and Ethnicity in the Former Yugoslavia: The Case of Southern Baranja (Croatia),” Slavic and East European Journal, Vol. 42, No. 4 (1998), p. 719.

57. Ibid.

58. Greenberg, 1999, p. 145.

59. Hobsbawm, 1983, pp. 1–3.

60. Kamusella, pp. 244–5.

61. Banac, p. 62; Vučković, p. 56

62. Bogdan Denitch, Ethnic Nationalism: The Tragic Death of Yugoslavia (Minneapolis and London: University of Minnesota Press, 1994), pp. 132–3.

63. Cuvalo, pp. 155–6.

64. Ibid.

65. Carlo Falconi, The Silence of Pius XII (Boston and Toronto: Little Brown, 1970), p. 313.

66. From a letter received by the Vatican: “The worst atrocities are being committed in the environs of the Archbishop of Zagreb (Stepinac). The blood of brothers is flowing in streams… The Orthodox are being forcibly converted to Catholicism and we do not hear the Archbishop's voice preaching revolt. Instead it is reported that he is taking part in Nazi and Fascist parades” (Falconi, 1970, pp. 293–304).

67. Ibid., pp. 319–43.

68. “Killings, fires, acts of banditry and looting are the order of the day in those parts. I don't know whether all this is true, but I know for a fact that it is the Franciscans themselves, as for example Father Simić of Knin, who have taken part in attacks against the Orthodox populations so as to destroy the Orthodox Church… I know for sure that the Franciscans in Bosnia and Herzegovina have acted abominably, and this pains me. Such acts cannot be committed by educated, cultured, civilized people, let alone by priests.” Ibid., p. 382.

69. Antun Škvorčević, “Mirotvorna i ekumenska nastojanja crkvenih poglavara tijekom domovinskoga rata,” [Peaceful and Ecumenical Efforts of the Church Leaders During the Civil War], Hrvatska Biskupska Konferencija, [Croatian Conference of Bishops] (1995) [accessed 25 November 2003 at www.hbk.hr/ekumen/skvor/skvor.html], p. 9.

70. Ibid.

71. Hrvatska Biskupska Konferencija—HBK. [Croatian Conference of Bishops], Pismo Hrvatske Biskupske Konferencije o pedesetoj obljetnici završetka drugog svjetskog rata [Letter of the Croatian Conference of Bishops on the 50th Anniversary of the end of the WWII], (1995) [accessed November 25, 2003 at http://www.hbk.hr/novi/hbk/sadrzaj_vijesti.php?ID = 31&tbl = tblvijestihbkdokumenti]

72. Darko Duretak and Mladenka Saric, “Dr. Franjo Tudjman's speech: We Must Not Allow Sheep and Geese to Lead Us into Fog!,” Večernji List (8 December 1998) [accessed 23 January 2004 at http://www.geocities. com/i_canjar/history/tudjmanspeech.htm].

73. In one account, following Stepinac's visit to Vatican on behalf of the NDH, a representative of the government to Vatican conveys: “So when we met, he said, “You see, I have not disobeyed you.” He was in a very good mood, and really belligerent about all the potential enemies of our country. He has presented a report, of nine type-written pages, to the Holy Father. He informed me of its essential contents and so I can assure you that it is absolutely positive in all that concerns us. In his attack on the Serbs, the ČvCetniks, and the Communists as the cause of all evil that has befallen Croatia, he has produced arguments that not even I knew…,” Falconi, pp. 313-4.

74. “Ugovor između Svete Stolice i Republike Hrvatske o gospodarskim pitanjima,” [Treaty between the Holy See and the Republic of Croatia about Economic Issues], signed by Msgr. Giulio Einaudi and Dr. Jure Radić (9 November 1998) [accessed 23 January 2004] at www.hbk.hr/novi/hbk/contracts/gospodarska.html]

75. Only one year into its mandate, some clerics publicly incited civil disobedience against the government through their sermons, calling the new government “anti-Croatian, traitorous and communist,” while others even expressed “sympathies with Croatia's pro-Nazi wartime government under Ante Pavelić” (Dragutin Hedl, “Croatia: Clerics Attack Government,” Institute for War and Peace Reporting (2 November 2001a) [accessed 23 January 2004 at http://www.iwpr.net/index.pl?archive/bcr2/bcr2_20011102_3_eng.txt]

76. Ibid.

77. Glas Koncila, “Croatia Needs Help from Friends and Partners,” Glas Koncila: Katolicki Tjednik Online (January 2004a) [accessed 23 January 2004 at http://www.gkonline.info/rubrike_izdvojeno.html?news_ID = 419& PHPSESSID = blae88097].

78. Handler, pp. 60–61.

79. Fishman, p. 43.

80. Barreto, pp. 35.

81. Anderson, pp. 83–111.

82. Fishman, p. 42.

83. Ibid., pp. 43–4.

84. Colin Woodard, “Slips of the Tongue Can Incite Lashing by Locals in Former Yugoslavia,” The Christian Science Monitor (13 August 1996), p. 1.

85. Ibid., p. 18.

86. Ibid., p. 18.

87. Greenberg, 1996, p. 28.

88. Robert Greenberg, Language and Identity in the Balkans: Serbo-Croat and its Disintegration (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), p. 119.

89. Ibid., p. 119.

90. Ibid., pp. 113–32.

91. Ibid., pp. 122-3; Greenberg gives the following examples of “phonological compatibility”: word kompajler “compiler” should be replaced by the “native-looking foreign word” kompilator, and it would be even better to replace it by the Croatian neologism prevodnik (pp. 122–3).

92. Ibid., p. 126.

93. Ibid., p. 127. Another example is the writing of the negative particle ne—instead of the previous neću “I won't” the form is split into two words ne ću (p. 127).

94. Langston, p. 189.

95. Yasir Suleiman, A War of Words: Language and Conflict in the Middle East (Cambridge, UK/New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004), pp. 74–7.

96. Ibid., p. 76.

97. Ibid., pp. 190–91.

98. Serbian uses conjunction da with a present tense form of a verb to express the future, while Croatian uses the infinitive. Nonetheless, although this is a definite distinction between the two languages, in situations when the subjects of two verbs are different, Croatian also uses the construction with da, e.g. želim raditi “I want to work” vs. želim da radiš “I want you to work,” Ibid., pp. 190–91.

99. These publications represent different political perspectives in Croatia. State-controlled Vjesnik, HINA and HRT represent the nationalist party (the HDZ). Novi list is an independent daily paper, and Tjednik was an independent news magazine supported by the Soros Open Society Foundation. Vijenac is an independent publication of the Matica hrvatska (cultural society) and Hrvatsko slovo is a nationalist counterpart to Vijenac; ibid., 1999, p. 188.

100. After the issues of Vjesnik from 1985 and 1996/97 were compared show that in 1985, loan words made up 10.3 percent of the total (4,167 words out of a sample of 40,489), while in the 1996/97 they represent 8.0 percent (3,199 words out of 39,944); ibid., 1999, pp. 188–9.

101. Ibid., pp. 188–9.

102. Some differences were also found in the usage of terms in the nationalistic media and the independent press. While the independent press was slower to adopt new terms and to consistently eliminate loan words from usage, the nationalistic media was much more proactive in replacing the loan words. For example, the moderate and independent publications Novi list, Tjednik, and Vijenac sometimes use ambasada and other times the new word veleposlanstvo. Nonetheless, the trend to replace the words of foreign origin by the “authentic Croatian” words is gradually becoming more prominent in moderate and independent media, although more slowly than in nationalist-oriented publications; ibid., 1999, pp. 188–9.

103. Greenberg, 1999, p. 148.

104. Robert D. Greenberg, "Language, Nationalism, and the Yugoslav Successor States," In Language, Ethnicity, and the State, Volume 2: Minority Languages in Eastern Europe post-1989, Camille C. O'Reilly (ed.) (Hampshire/New York: Palgrave, 2001), p. 28.

105. Woodard, p. 18.

106. This publication also included some words that date back to the World War II period. For example, krilnik replaces the military rank general, and slikopis, slikokaz, brzoglas replace film, kino, telefon, respectively; Langston, p. 186.

107. Hobsbawm, p. 4.

108. Handler, p. 61.