Lesson Two, Culture

Regions, major centers, Ethnic and religious affiliation

As noted in Lesson One, Serbo-Croatian is spoken by Serbs, Croats, Montenegrins and Bosnian Muslims (also called Bosniacs). Owing to the seventy-year existence of the former Yugoslavia (1918-1992), there are numerous Macedonians, Slovenes, Hungarians, and Albanians, all former subjects of Yugoslavia, with near-native proficiency in Serbo-Croatian. The variants of Serbo-Croatian are official languages in the following four countries:

1. Serbia
2. Montenegro
3. Croatia
4. Bosnia-Herzegovina

All Four countries are highly diversified both in terms of their geographical features and their populations. Their regional differentiation will be discussed in turn.

Serbia (original name: Srbija)

Montenegro (original name: Crna Gora = black mountain)

Republic of Croatia (original name: Republika Hrvatska)

Bosnia and Herzegovina (original name: Bosna i Hercegovina)

Insignia of Republic of Srpska (original spelling: Republika Srpska).

Insignia of Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (original spelling: Federacija Bosne i Hercegovine)

Religious affiliation

The religious affiliations of Serbs, Croats, and Bosnian Muslims are almost perfectly correlated with ethnicity. Serbs are affiliated with the Serbian Orthodox Church, Croats belong to the Croatian Catholic Church, and Bosnian Muslims adhere to the Islamic Community of Bosnia and Herzegovina (English not yet available for the Islamic Community page, look at the pictures now and read it upon completion of the course). A considerable number of people in each of the three confessional communities do not engage in religious practices. Each of the communities features elaborate rituals, some of which will be mentioned throughout this course.

Differences in attitudinal and behavioral patterns

An astute observer will undoubtedly notice numerous differences in the patterns of daily life between the American and Serbo-Croatian cultures. The major differentiating features of the region can be summarized as follows:

1. Lesser social stratification than in the USA
2. Stronger community and kinship ties than in the USA
3. Lesser presence of the law in public life than in the USA
4. Lesser prominence of work ethics than in the USA
5. Broader workers' rights and security networks than in the USA
6. Higher general educational level than in the USA
7. Less open and less friendly tone of public encounters
8. Lesser customer friendliness
9. Less optimistic general attitude
10. Lesser health awareness
11. Lower general living standard

1) As is the case in many European countries, the countries of the former Yugoslavia are much less socially stratified than the United States. This is reflected in the fact that, in general, there are no good or bad neighborhoods, and much fewer people are enormously rich or poor, etc. Moreover, some common US social markers are not present in the region. For example, living in an apartment rather than a house is not a marker of one's lower socio-economic status. On the contrary, living in a house will be often associated with rural population.

2) Family ties are much stronger in the former Yugoslavia than in the US. This means that parents are expected to take care of their children well into their adulthood and children to live with their weary parents. Young women normally rely on their mothers for babysitting. As a rule, parents participate in the major purchases of their children (apartment, car, furniture) even when the children have their own families, etc. Furthermore, disputes are predominantly solved in interpersonal communication rather than in an institutional setting.

3) Owing to both the fact that the legal system in the target countries is not well developed and to the fact that the population prefers alternative manners of conduct, law has far lesser prominence in all spheres of public life. The consequences of this state of the affairs are that one cannot expect to solve civil and other disputes in a court of law and that public officials are far more susceptible to bribery than their US counterparts. Various patters of corruption and nepotism are ubiquitous. Finally, public property is less respected, hence littering, vandalism, etc. remains more widespread than in the USA.

4-5) Average Serbs, Croats, and Bosnian Muslims work less hours per week, and enjoy more vacation time then Americans. In addition, their attitude toward work is "I work to live" rather than "I live to work". Although workers' rights and social support networks have somewhat deteriorated in the 1990s, it is still a matter of course to expect free-of-charge health care and education, unemployment support, etc.

6) Owing to a superior elementary and secondary school system, an average Serb, Croat, and Bosnian Muslim will vastly surpass an average American in the quantity of information about geography, history, literature, music, arts, etc. It is not uncommon that a person from the target region turns out to be more knowledgeable about American literature or history than their US interlocutors.

7-8) General tone of public encounters in the region is less friendly. People smile less and greet unknown persons less cordially than in the US. In particular, employees of stores and public offices may strike Americans as unfriendly. This is coupled with lesser consumer friendliness, in a sense that one cannot return products to the store, complaining about the service normally does not have much effect, etc.

9) People of the target countries are, as a rule, less optimistic than Americans. It is very common to see daily conversation dominated by complaints about one's bad faith. As a matter of fact, Americans, who almost always claim to do fine, stand on the opposite end of the optimism scale. Therefore, one should always take any complaints in the region to be at least slightly exaggerated.

10) Health awareness is far lower in the target countries than in the US. There are much more smokers there, and much fewer people engage in working out, jogging, etc. than in the US. Furthermore, people are normally not concerned with caloric values and structure of their food - red meat and various saturated fats dominate nutritional patterns of the region.

11) Finally, the general standard of living is considerably lower than in the US. This means that numerous elements of life that are taken for granted here, remain unavailable in the region. For example, air-conditioners are very rare even in areas such as southern Croatia, where temperatures in the summer reach 100F or more; roads are narrow and driving is dangerous, etc.

One should note that these are somewhat over generalized statements. The region is diversified internally, particularly between the more developed north and less developed south. Similarly, differences exist between rural (less educated, more conservative) and urban areas. It is true, however, that any American visitor to the region is likely to encounter many of the previously listed phenomena.