Knocking on my neighbour's door: On metamorphoses of sociality in rural Bosnia

Henig, David (2012) Knocking on my neighbour's door: On metamorphoses of sociality in rural Bosnia. Critique of Anthropology, 32 (1). pp. 3-19. ISSN 0308-275X. (doi:10.1177/0308275X11430871) (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided)

Abstract

The idea of neighbourhood (koms?iluk) has been widely discussed in the anthropology of Bosnia. In the hegemonic academic discourse metaphorical usage prevailed over ethnographic examination. The dominant perspective portrays koms?iluk as a social mechanism producing long-lasting differences between ethnoreligious groups that might at times result in inter-group hatred. However, intimate ethnographic encounters reveal that such ethnicization of neighbourliness seems to be problematic, and even mixes different scales of social complexity. It is argued here that the Bosnian idiom of neighbourliness is a vigorous social process that embraces localized, face-to-face sociality, morality and lifeworlds, and thus a very different scale of relations. In contemporary Bosnia, wedged between post-war as well as post-socialist trajectories of societal change, the intimacy of koms?iluk has changed profoundly. This article critically reassesses the academic discourse and questions how far anthropological imagination and metaphorization can travel without impairing experience-near insights.

Item Type:	Article
DOI/Identification number:	10.1177/0308275X11430871
Uncontrolled keywords:	Bosnia-Herzegovina, ethnography, intersubjectivity, mutualism, neighbourhood, nonnationalism, social change
Subjects:	G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GN Anthropology
Divisions:	Faculties > Social Sciences > School of Anthropology and Conservation Faculties > Social Sciences > School of Anthropology and Conservation > Social and Cultural Anthropology
Depositing User:	Shelley Malekia
Date Deposited:	18 Sep 2012 14:03 UTC
Last Modified:	29 May 2019 09:16 UTC
Resource URI:	https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/30516 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)