Becoming Yugoslavs: Ethnogenesis of the South Slavs as Archaeological Construction?

Abstract

This paper aims to reassess the conceptual burden of ethnogenesis inherited from the official narratives about the South Slavic past created in the 1920s and 1930s and established as standards within Yugoslav archaeology in the 1950s. Yugoslav archaeology gave tangibility to the narrative about deep prehistoric origin of the Yugoslav people in the form of material remains. The theoretical legacy of the pre-WW2 period consisted of the racial anthropology developed by Niko Županić and Vladimir Dvorniković. In the second half of 20th century, these ideas were implicitly present, redone and adapted to a new political context. The importance of archaeology lies foremost in the ways the idea were transferred. The concepts of continuity, ethnicity, race and territory endured even though the formal mentioning of the race was completely abolished. Together with the material culture of archaeological research, this gives an illusion of the absolute truth regarding the statements about the past. Consequently, the ideas about Yugoslav ethnogenesis by Niko Županić and Vladimir Dvorniković were conveyed through archaeology.