Photographs:
Bosnia 1954-1996

Introductory Statement
by
Joel Halpern

To the photos

The images which appear here are, unless otherwise indicated, are copyright Joel M. Halpern and taken from the catalog of an exhibition entitled The Thin Veneer; the Peoples of Bosnia and their Disappearing Cultural Heritage (Copyright 1997, University of Massachusetts Amherst and used by permission). Copies of the catalog are available for $ 6.00 including postage, from: Betsy Siersma, Director, University Art Gallery, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01002.

The exhibit, which is of a larger magnitude than these web pages, is available and arrangments may be made for hosting it by contacting Betsy Siersma at the above address.

For further information about the background of the exhibit and the accompanying video by Barbara Kerewsky Halpern please contact:

Professor Joel M Halpern
jmhalpern@anthro.umass.edu
Department of Anthropology
University of Massachusetts
Amherst, MA 01002


Web site conception and design by Tony Galt

We first visited Bosnia in 1953-54, only eight years after World War II. The country was still in the process of healing the wounds of war, the German invasion and especially the bitter results of civil war. A new socialist government was about to embark on an ambitious program of modernization that would transform the countryside and the cities. By the 1980s Yugoslavia had a status which had begun to approach that of Western Europe. But in 1954 the dominant image in much of Bosnia was that of a traditional peasant society.

Traveling in the Bosnian countryside in 1986 I was impressed that many of the markers separating rural and urban in housing, architecture, dress and hand-crafted technology had almost disappeared. In the 1950s the anthropologist noted these markers of status and ethnicity as dominant. The people themselves, however, were then most concerned about escaping from poverty. Questions of national identification, apart from the obvious matter of religious observance, were not discussed. The authoritarian socialist government decreed a policy of "brotherhood and unity" and those who dissented attracted the attention of the police. While the foreigner might have found the society picturesque, villagers were universally anxious to "climb out of the mud." This meant education for their children and salaried work.

The struggle over ethnic cleansing has meant not only reciprocal destruction of cultural monuments, but also the partial obliteration of a half century of "socialist construction" including factories, communal facilities, and the large amount of private home construction in both countryside and city. This private enterprise was financed by the wages of the new industrial workers and by those who remitted earnings from employment in Western Europe. These large, multi-storied, homes were built by extended families and meant to last for generations.

These photos show the sociocultural context from which the process of modernization was launched.

-J.H.