Multidimensional Identity and National Tradition under the Conditions of Pan-European Mobility: Is Ethnology of a United Europe Possible?

Abstract

The beginning of the new millennium posed new challenges for ethnologists from the Balkans. The fall of the Iron Curtain and the enlargement of the EU, the dissolution of multinational states such as Yugoslavia and the USSR, the candidature of Turkey which dragged on in time and the setting of new EU borders in the Balkans drastically transformed the map of this corner of Europe. The subject of ethnological studies has changed and the construction of multidimensional identities in European countries has become a rule rather than an exception. Under the conditions of pan-European mobility, the nature of national identity as well as the attitude towards cultural and historical heritage (understood as “national tradition”) as its main basis is changing. The questions that ethnological studies in Europe, particularly in the Balkans, face become more and more numerous and the search for answers — ​more and more responsible. The author shares some observations in this respect.