T'ga Za Jug - Waiting for Macedonia
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T'Ga za Jug - Waiting for Macedonia The Changing World of Young Female Engineers in the Republic of Macedonia Ilka Thiessen PhD Thesis in Social Anthropology London School of Economics University of London UMI Number: U146519 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Dissertation Publishing UMI U146519 Published by ProQuest LLC 2014. Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 7673 7 ABSTRACT My thesis is concerned with the social changes a group of young female engineers experience in The Republic of Macedonia during the break-up of Yugoslavia. From my studies, I infer that this group of informants is representative of those most affected by their country's changes: they represent the young, urban educated elite that is influenced most directly by the political changes of independent Macedonia. The work has two major aims. First, it provides a detailed ethnography of the search by my informants to understand and define the new circumstances of The Republic of Macedonia. I conclude that the Fall of Yugoslavia and Macedonia's 'forced' independence created a vacuum of meaning for its population. The second objective of this work is to examine critically a group of young female engineers and to contrast other works written about Macedonia and the Balkan region which primarily emphasised continuity and tradition. With their aim of recognition by Europe, Macedonia tries to establish itself as a European country. Consumerism and body culture emphasise this. However, some Macedonians seek to retain aspects of the recent socialist past. Macedonia, during my 2 research, was still governed by a democratically elected socialist party that adhered to socialist values. In their search for what Macedonia could be, the past, the world of the grandparents' generation and the village and the differences between the Albanian and Slavic populations gain new importance. This search is introducing some previous members of the elite, female engineers of Yugoslavia, to a new idea of what Macedonia could be, while incorporating elements of a modem, global society with Macedonia's socialist and pre-socialist peasant past. This group of informants shows that Macedonia is in the midst of creating a new, and rather different, identity for itself which incorporates socialist ideology, a peasant past and a modem European dream. 3 I dedicate this thesis to the memory of Nikola (Koki) Smilevski who was brutally murdered in June 1997. From your loss I will not recover. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My first debt of gratitude is to the many people in Macedonia who helped me to carry out this research. Words of gratitude should be repaid with open thanks, yet confidentiality requires anonymity. It is impossible to express adequately my debt to 'my family1 and friends in Macedonia. I shall however name some people who have not been directly part of my research but have been more than generous to me with their help and friendship: foremost Simon (Sime) Bojadzievski and Nikola (Koki) Smilevski, who have always been there for me in times of joy and pain; Shaip, Mimi and David Jashari who I would like to thank for their extraordinary generosity and friendship; and, Eric Palmquist who had his own engagement with Macedonia. I would also like to acknowledge my appreciation to the staff of the German embassy who have been helpful throughout my time in Macedonia. My supervisors, Peter Loizos and Fenella Cannell, at the London School of Economics, I have to thank, not only for their encouragement, advice, challenge and trenchant criticism but also, for their great tolerance and patience. Bernhard Streck from the University of Mainz and Leipzig has shared his expertise and given me encouragement to start this research, and I am greatly indebted to him. Francis Pine 5 from Cambridge University looked in on my writing at various times and gave some very helpful comments particularly for Chapter 2 and introduced me to some valuable literature. I have also benefited from discussions of my material with Keith Brown and David Rheubottom. First versions of Chapter 10 were presented at the 'Anthropological Understandings of the Politics of Identity' Seminar, Queen's University, Belfast, in December 1995, in May 1996 (at the London School of Economics 'Greece and the Balkans Seminar') and in July 1996 at the EASA conference in Barcelona (in the "Town and Country in North Africa and South Europe' workshop organised by John Davis and Maria Angels Roque and funded by the London School of Economics and Political Science Graduate Research Fund). I wish to thank all the participants at all conferences and seminars who shared their comments with me. Chapter 5 in a slightly different form has already been published in [eds.] Loizos, P. and Heady P., 'Conceiving Persons: Ethnographies of Procreation'. Research for this chapter was carried out under the direction of Peter Loizos, with funds from the LSE Geography and Anthropology Research Division, for whose support I am grateful. My field research in Macedonia from 1994 to 1995 was made possible by the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst e.V., (DAAD). I was further fully funded by the Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes from 1995 to 1998. I especially would like to express my great gratitude to the Studienstiftung, who have not only financed my studies at LSE, but who have given me extraordinary, challenging and enthusiastic support since 1986. I would like to thank Alison Renouf for her friendship and her valuable help in correcting my first manuscript. At LSE, my thanks to Todd Sanders and Bwire Kaare for their friendship and support that helped me tremendously in overcoming the 'post research trauma' and for their ongoing encouragement. I would like to thank Sini Cedercreutz who has been a constant confidante. My last words of gratitude go to my parents, Gislinde and Joem Thiessen, and to my husband, Clinton Jay Kuzio, who have shared the most painful times of this thesis and who have always stood by my side. 7 CONTENTS ABSTRACT------------------------------------------ 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS_______________________________________________________________5 CONTENTS___________________________________________________________________________8 INTRODUCTION______________________________________________________________________10 CHAPTER 1: MACEDONIAN CONTEXT-------------------------------------------------------------------------- 27 CHAPTER 2: GETTING ALONG________________________________________________________57 CHAPTER 3: SILHOUETTE- THE SCULPTURED BODY __________________________________109 CHAPTER 4: SHOPPING FOR THE 'NEW' PERSON _______________ 172 CHAPTER 5: THE ESSENCE OF BEING:________________________________________________231 CHAPTER 6: GETTING MARRIED-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 267 CHAPTER 7: GALICHNIK WEDDING-----------------------------------------------------------------------------279 CHAPTER 8: MARRIAGE AS EXCHANGE---------------------------------------------------------------------- 298 CHAPTER 9: MARRIAGE AND SOCIAL CHANGE________________________________________317 8 CHAPTER 10: MAPPING OF URBAN IDENTITY_________________________________________358 CONCLUSION_______________________________________________________________________384 APPENDIX A________________________________________________________________________398 APPENDIX B _________________________________________________________________________401 APPENDIX C_________________________________________________________________________403 APPENDIX D_________________________________________________________________________404 APPENDIX E _________________________________________________________________________409 ENDNOTES__________________________________________________________________________418 BIBLIOGRAPHY.......................................................................................................................... 433 9 INTRODUCTION TGa Za Jug Longing for die South If I had an eagle's wings No, I cannot stay here, no; I would rise and fly on them I cannot look upon these frosts. To our shores, to our own parts, Give me wings and I will don them; To see Stamboul, to see Kukush; I will fly to our own shores, And to watch the sunrise: is it Go once more to our own places, Dim there too as it is here? Go to Ohrid and to Struga. If the sun still rises dimly, There the sunrise warms the soul, If it meets me there as here, The sun sets bright in mountain woods: I'll prepare for further travels, Yonder gifts in great profusion I shall flee to other shores Richly spread by nature's power. Where the sunrise greets me brightly, See the clear lake stretching white- And the sky is sewn with stars. Or blue darkened by the wind, Look at the plains or mountains: It is dark here; dark surrounds me, Beauty everywhere divine. Dark for covers all the earth, Here are frosts and snows and ashes, To play the flute there to my heart's content! Blizzards and harsh winds abound. Ah! Let die sun shine, let me die. Fogs all around, the earth