Bunjevci
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Bunjevci | |
|---|---|
| Total population | 80,000 approx. (many declare as Croats, Yugoslavs, and even as Hungarians) |
| Regions with significant populations | Serbia: 20,000 (2002 census) Hungary: |
| Language | Bunjevac language - Ikavian Shtokavian (Note: In 2002 census in Serbia, some of them declared to speak Bunjevac, while others declared to speak Serbian or Croatian) [1] |
| Religion | Roman Catholic Christian. |
| Related ethnic groups | other Slavic peoples, especially South Slavs |
Bunjevci (Bunjevac, Serbian and Croatian: Bunjevci/Буњевци, singular Bunjevac/Буњевац, pronounced as Bunye'vtzi and Bunye'vatz, also in Hungarian: bunyevácok) are a South Slavic ethnic group originally from the Dinaric Alps region, now mostly living in the Bačka region situated in northern Serbia (Vojvodina province) and southern Hungary (Bács-Kiskun county, particularly in the Baja region). They are Roman Catholic by faith although not all practicing. Ethnically, they register themselves either as a separate Bunjevci ethnic group or as Croats and Yugoslavs, while some also register as Serbs or Magyars.
Contents |
[edit] Etymology
There are several explanations for their name, although none of them is certain.
The most common explanation is that the name comes from the river Buna in central Herzegovina, their supposed original homeland before their migrations. This etymology was first proposed by fr. Marijan Lanosović and supported by Vuk Karadžić, Rudolf Horvat, Ivan Ivanić, Ivan Antonović, Istvan Ivanyi, and Mijo Mandić.
The most credible explanation is based on the common notion of name being given by a population living side by side with them. This would be consistent with the other sub-ethnonyms like Šijaci, Šokci, etc. Another characteristic of such a name is that it was meant as a slur. This etymology was supported by Ivan Kukuljević, fr. Antun Zorica, Đuro Popović, Vaso Glušac, Ivo Milić and Jovan Erdeljanović. In his classical study "On the Origins of Bunjevci" (O poreklu Bunjevaca, Belgrade, 1930), the ethnographer Jovan Erdeljanović proposed that the name was given by the population of Orthodox Serbs who use the verb "bunjati" for speaking indistinguishably (compare with common verb "buncati" with the same meaning). The verb refers not to the population of Bunjevci but to their Catholic priests who served services in Latin unlike the Orthodox priests that used Serbian. It should be noted that the name lost any negative connotation over time, and is no longer used offensively.
Another explanation is that it comes from the word "bunja", a type of a round house. This was proposed by Bogoslav Kosović. However, this type of house is very rare and is not widely known in inland of Dalmatia or Herzegovina; most of the Bunjevci in these regions never lived in these houses.
[edit] History
According to one theory, Bunjevci settled in the city of Subotica and its surroundings in 1526. [1] According to another theory, they migrated into Bačka from their previous location in several groups in 1682, 1686 (when they are noted as the majority of the local Roman Catholic population), and 1687. Bunjevci also live in present-day Lika, western Herzegovina as well as the Dalmatian hinterland (in the region of the mountains of Dinara and Svilaja), but there they do not register as an ethnic group and rather foster a devout sense of Croatdom.
Historic documents refer to Bunjevci with various names, some less accurate than others: Catholic Rascians or Rác Catholics, Dalmatians, Bosnians, Catholic Serbs, Vallachs-Catholics, etc.
In 1788 the first Austrian population census was conducted - it called Bunjevci Illyrians and their language the Illyrian langage. It listed 17,043 Illyrians in Subotica. In 1850 the Austrian census listed them under Dalmatians and counted 13,894 Dalmatians in the city. Despite this, they traditionally called themselves Bunjevci. The Austro-Hungarian censuses from 1869 onward to 1910 numbered the Bunjevci distinctly. They were referred to as "bunyevácok", "dalmátok" or "Serbs" (in the 1890 census). In 1880 the Austro-Hungarian authorities listed in Subotica a total of 26,637 Bunjevci and Serbs and 31,824 in 1892. In 1910 in the Subotica municipality were registered 33,390 "others" (mainly Bunjevci) a. k. a. 35.29% of the Subotica population. In 1921 Bunjevci were registered by the Royal Serbo-Croat-Slovene authorities as "Serbo-Croats". Subotica municipality had 60,699 Serbo-Croats or 66.73% of the total Subotica population. Allegedly, 44,999 or 49.47% were Bunjevci. In the 1931 population census of the Royal Yugoslav authorities, 43,832 or 44.29% of the total Subotica population were Bunjevci.
The 19th century brought on a period of nationalism, including Magyarization and the Croatian romantic nationalism. Some Bunjevci developed a Croat national identity in the 20th century. Magyarization seems to have more effective than Croatization since the census of 1910 recorded many citizens of Hungarian mother tongue in parts of Bačka-Bodrog inhabited by the Bunjevci. It is estimated that a few tens of thousands of Bunjevci were Magyarized. However, Croatian identity remained strong among segments of the clergy, notable, the bishop of Subotica Ivan Antunović (1815–1888) supported the notion of calling Bunjevci and Šokci with the name Croats.
1880 saw the founding of the Bunjevačka stranka ("the Bunjevac party"), an indigenous political party. During this time, opinions varied on whether the Bunjevci should try to assert themselves as an independent ethnic group, or side with either the Serbs or the Croats.
In October 1918, Bunjevci held a national convention in Subotica and decided to secede Vojvodina from Hungary and join Serbia. This was confirmed at the Great National Assembly of Serbs, Bunjevci and other Slavs in Novi Sad, which proclaimed unification with the Kingdom of Serbia in November of 1918. In 1918 the Bunjevci identified themselves as being the distinctive people. There were also other opinions, for example, on 10 November 1918 at the Great Bunjevci-Serbian national council Blaško Rajić declared that Serbs and Bunjevci are one nation. The subsequent creation of the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (renamed Yugoslavia in 1929) brought most of the Bačka Bunjevci in the same country with the Croats (with some remaining in Hungary).
During the late World War II, Partisan General Božidar Maslarić spoke on the national councils in Sombor and Subotica on 6 November 1944 and General Ivan Rukavina on Christmas in Tavankut in the name of the Communist Party about the Croatdom of the Bunjevci. After 1945, in Communist Yugoslavia the census of 1948 did not officially recognize the Bunjevci (nor Šokci), and instead merged their data with the Croats. The Communist Yugoslav regime and the Catholic Clergy decided to incorporate Bunjevci (and Šokci) into the Croatian national corpus. On 8 May 1945 Tito said: Uzimamo naprimjer Vojvodinu. Mi gradimo jedinstvo i bratstvo, ali srpski šovinisti u Vojvodini neće da priznaju Hrvatu da je Hrvat, već ga zovu Bunjevac ("We should see example in Vojvodina. We want to build brotherhood and unity, but the Serb shovinists in Vojvodina do not want to recognize that Croat is a Croat. Instead of this, they call him Bunjevac.").
Nevertheless, the Bunjevac schools in Vojvodina taught the Serbian version of the unified language (rather than the Croatian version). Proponents of a distinct Bunjevac ethnicity regard this time as another dark period of encroachment on their identity, while others feel that this naming assimilation did not help in the preservation of their language. The censuses of 1953 and 1961 also listed all declared Bunjevci as Croats. The 1971 population census listed the Bunjevci separately under the municipal census in Subotica upon the personal request of the organization of Bunjevci in Subotica. It listed 14,892 Bunjevci or 10.15% of the population of Subotica. Despite this, the Province and Federal authorities listed the Bunjevci as Croats, together with the Šokci and considered them that way officially at all occasions. In 1981 the Bunjevci made a similar request - it showed 8,895 Bunjevci, or 5.7% of the total population of Subotica.
Following the breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990s, the renewed Bunjevac national movement was officially recognized as a minority group in Serbia in 1990. The community, however, has been divided around the issue of the name: in the 1991 census, in terms of ethnicity, around 21,434 inhabitants of Vojvodina declared themselves Bunjevci (17,527 in Subotica alone - or 11.7%) whereas some 74,808 declared themselves Croats; in 2002, there were 19,766 Bunjevci (16,254 in Subotica - or 10.95%) and around 56,546 Croats in Vojvodina. Note that not all of the Croats in Vojvodina necessarily have Bunjevac roots. Many Bunjevci also declared themselves as Yugoslavs.
In the Subotica region, there were 17,439 Bunjevci and 16,369 Croats in 1991. The historically Bunjevac village of Donji Tavankut had 989 Bunjevci, 877 Croats, and 600 Yugoslavs, the latter probably being a reaction to national ambiguity and pressures at the time. A 1996 survey by the local government in Subotica found that in the community, there are many people who declare as Croats and consider themselves Bunjevci, but also some people who declare as Bunjevci but consider themselves part of the wider Croatian nation. The same survey found that the delineation between the pro-Croat and pro-Bunjevac positions correlated with the delineation between the people who were more supportive towards the then ruling regime in Serbia that did not favor special rights for national minorities, and conversely those who were against the then government and more interested in minority rights and connections with their second homeland.
Today, both major parts of the community (the pro-independent Bunjevac one and the pro-Croatian one) continue to consider themselves ethnologically as Bunjevci, although each subscribing to its interpretation of the term.
In early 2005, the Bunjevac issue was again popularized when the Vojvodina government decided to allow the official use of "bunjevački language with elements of national culture" in schools in the following school year — the štokavian-ikavian dialect. This was protested by the Croatian Bunjevac community as an attempt of the government to widen the rift between the two Bunjevac communities. They favour integration, regardless of whether some people declared themselves distinct, because minority rights (such as the right to use a minority language) are applied based on the number of members of the minority. Subsequently, it may happen that schools would teach the same dialect but in two separate classes, one named bunjevački jezik, one hrvatski jezik, based solely on the preference of the parents.
In Hungary, Bunjevci are not officially recognized as a minority, government simply consider them Croats. In April 2006 a Bunjevci group began collecting subscriptions to register Bunjevci as a distinct minority group. The legal process was going on in August 2006. In Hungary, 1,000 valid subscriptions are needed to register an ethnic minority with historical presence. By the end of the given 60 days period the initiative gained over 2000 subscriptions of wich ca. 1700 were declared valid by national vote office and Budapest parliament has a deadline of January 9th 2007 to solve the sitation by approving or refusing the proposal. No other such initiative has reached that level ever since minority bill passed in 1992. [2]
[edit] Bunjevac settlements
[edit] Serbia
The villages in Serbia with Bunjevac majority are:
All villages are located in the Subotica municipality. According to the 2002 census, Bunjevac population in all of these villages was divided about their ethnic identification, since part of the Bunjevac population declared themselves as Bunjevci, and another part as Croats. However, only in the village of Ljutovo, the number of Bunjevci who declared themselves as such is larger than the number of those who declared themselves as Croats.
Bunjevci also live in other settlements in northern and western Bačka, in which they do not form the majority of population. These settlements are mostly concentrated in the municipalities of Subotica and Sombor. The largest concentration of Bunjevci in Serbia (10,870) is in the ethnically mixed city of Subotica, which is their cultural and political centre. Other settlements with large Bunjevac concentration include Sombor (2,222) and Bajmok (1,266).
[edit] Hungary
Towns and villages in Hungary with a significant Bunjevac population are:
Villages partially populated by Bunjevci in the past (today fewer than 70 people):
- Čavolj/Csávoly
- Gornji Sentivan/Felsőszentiván
- Aljmaš/Bácsalmás
- Čikerija/Csikéria
- Bikić/Bácsbokod
- Matević/Mátételke
- Baškut/Vaskút
[edit] Culture
Traditionally, Bunjevci are associated with land and farming. Large, usually isolated farms in Northern Bačka are called salaši, and historically most of Bunjevci people are associated with them. Most of their customs celebrate the land, and their most important feasts (other than Christmas and weddings) are:
- Dužijanca — celebration of harvest end, and the most famous festival as well as a tourist attraction. It consists of several events held in Bunjevci-populated places (Bajmok, Tavankut), with the central celebration held in Subotica. Dužijanca includes religious celebrations devoted to harvest, street procession and performing of Bunjevci folklore and music.
- Krsno ime — a celebration of a patron saint of the family. Because this custom is specific to the Serbs, who call it slava, it is assumed that Bunjevci who practice it were once Orthodox Serbs who converted to Catholicism.
- Kraljice — ceremonial processions held on Pentecost.
- Divan — a meeting of young boys and girls for singing and dancing in a place afar from their parents. The custom has been forbidden by church authorities already in mid-19th century.
Bunjevačke novine (Bunjevac newspaper) are the main newspaper in Bunjevac language/dialect, published in Subotica.
[edit] Distinguished Bunjevci
Musician Zvonko Bogdan is the best known Bunjevac, and his songs (composed or traditional) have popularized Bunjevac culture and tradition across Serbia and the rest of former Yugoslavia.
Blaško Rajić was a Serbian patriot in the late 19th century; leader of the movement to unite Serbia in the early 20th century and president of the Great Serbo-Bunjevci assembly and vice-president of the Great National Assembly of Serbs, Bunjevci and other Slavs of Vojvodina in 1918.
Footballer Goran Bunjevčević is possibly the best known Bunjevac internationally, and has represented Serbia and Montenegro. He currently plays for the English Premiership club Tottenham Hotspur.
Other known Bunjevci have included ban Josip Jelačić, Antun Gustav Matoš, Josip Pančić, Ivan Sarić, etc.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Szabadka varos története, II. Rész. 1892. of Iványi István
- ^ http://forum.index.hu/Article/showArticle?na_start=0&na_step=30&t=9130749&na_order=
[edit] External links
- Bunjevci
- Why Bunjevci did not Become a Nation - A Case Study (in PDF)
- Bunjevci Region House in a museum in Bács-Kiskun county
- Dužijanca (in Croatian)
- About the Croatian Bunjevci
- Bunjevci granted status of autochthonous people in Serbia (1996)
- "Miroljub", a Bunjevci society from Sombor, written in the Bunjevac ikavian dialect
