Funerary Practices in Serbia

Aleksandra Pavićević

• Publisher: Emerald Publishing Limited
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781787691810
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Death in Sociology
• Index: Social Sciences

Funerary Practices in Serbia is the first book to offer a concise yet highly informative study of the historical development and current state of funerary practices in Serbia.
Situated in a constant dynamic struggle between traditional cultural customs and modern legislation, funerary practices in Serbia represent a particularly interesting field of research. In this study, Pavi?evi? combines an investigation of long-term developments and recent changes to place contemporary practices in their wider historical context, emphasizing the complicated geo-political, demographic and cultural factors that have shaped funeral traditions in Serbia over time. In particular, she demonstrates how the country's frequent changing of borders and life under the rule of two great empires - the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman - fostered the emergence of colorful funerary traditions, such as open-casket burial and vigils around the body, that persist to this day in spite of government attempts to modernize funerary practice since the end of the 19th century. The book also provides illuminating insights into the legal framework surrounding current funerary practices in Serbia, the relationship between the state and private sectors, the ownership of cemeteries and gravesites, the role of churches and religious communities, religious and ethnic variations in funerary culture and traditions, and the development of modern cremation practices in Serbia.
This book provides a useful and original resource for policymakers and practitioners interested in the historic, legal, technical and professional aspects of the Serbian funerary industry, and to researchers in cultural anthropology, history, sociology and cultural management.

1

Serbia: An Introduction

The Republic of Serbia is, in a geopolitical sense, one of the countries of the Western Balkans. It occupies the central part of the Balkan Peninsula and the southern part of the Pannonian Plain. It is bordered by Hungary, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Albania, Macedonia, Romania, and Bulgaria, and has a land area of 88,499 km².¹

Source: Republic Geodetic Authority.

Map of Serbia.

According to its constitution, “Serbia is the state of the Serbian people and all of its citizens, founded on the rule of law and social justice, the principles of civic democracy, human and minority rights and freedoms, along with the alignment with European principles and values.” Serbia contains two autonomous regions, Vojvodina, and Kosovo and Metohija. The official language is Serbian and the official script is Serbian Cyrillic. The capital city of Serbia is Belgrade.

The territory of Kosovo and Metohija has been under the administration of the United Nations since 1999. Kosovo unilaterally and unconstitutionally declared independence from Serbia in 2006 and though Serbia does not recognize independence of its Southern Province, data about local contemporary funerary praxes are not available. This is why Kosovo will not be included in the text.

Laws in Serbia are made by the National Assembly by majority vote of representatives, during sessions in which a majority of delegates are present. The procedure by which laws are passed is outlined by the constitution of the Republic of Serbia. Laws can be proposed by any MP, the government, assemblies of autonomous regions, a group of at least 30,000 voters (with a signed petition), the ombudsman, and the National Bank of Serbia in areas within their jurisdiction. By invoking existing laws, local city and municipal assemblies can pass bylaws in order to regulate the organization and function of certain social structures.²

The president of the republic and members of parliament are chosen in direct elections with secret ballots. Presidential and parliamentary candidates are proposed by registered political parties, coalitions, and civic groups. In order for an electoral list to be taken into consideration, it must have the backing of at least 10,000 citizens' signatures. Deputies are elected to four-year terms, while presidential terms last five years. According to the law, one can serve as president for a maximum of two terms. The president of the Republic proposes the candidate for Prime Minister to Parliament. The president may issue decrees as well as submit laws for reevaluation by Parliament insofar as he believes the law is unconstitutional. On the local level, candidates for municipal assemblies are selected in the same manner as candidates to the National Assembly.³

1 https://www.paragraf.rs/propisi/ustav_republike_srbije.html. Acc. 12 November 2019.

2 http://www.parlament.gov.rs/akti/put-zakona.1068.html. Acc. 10 February 2020.

3 http://www.parlament.gov.rs/narodna-skupstina-/uloga-i-nacin-rada/izbori-i-izborni-sistem.906.html. Acc. 10 February 2020.

2

Historical Framework and the Development of Funerary Practices

Throughout history, funerary practices in Serbia were influenced by three main factors: the traditional cultural heritage of the Serbian population, the traditions and laws of the states ruling the territory inhabited by Serbs prior to the formation of the modern Serbian state, and the social–political changes of the end of the nineteenth century and the twentieth century. Death and burial throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries were primarily characterized by religious worldviews. Processes of societal secularization became obvious in the first half of the twentieth century, and accelerated in the socialist and postsocialist periods.

In this chapter we will present the basic characteristics and development of funerary practices from the eighteenth century to the first decade of the twenty-first century. These developments were not always tied to geopolitical processes. As a result, the systematization of these historical periods will primarily follow relevant occurrences pertaining to the (re)organization of funerary practices by the state, church, and local communities and the transformation of traditional modes of behavior (Box 2.1).

Box 2.1

A Short History of Modern Serbia.

The Principality of Serbia gained independence in 1878, and in 1882 was declared a kingdom. In 1918, as a result of pan-Slavic movements and ideas, the state expanded and was renamed the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes. The Kingdom encompassed the territories of Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Montenegro, and a majority of Croatia and Slovenia. It was renamed to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in 1929. After World War II, the Federative People's Republic of Yugoslavia was founded (1945) and was renamed to the Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia in 1963. The latter existed until 1991 when Slovenia gained independence, followed by Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Serbia and Montenegro remained united for the longest, until 2003 under the name of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, followed by Serbia and Montenegro until 2006, at which point these two republics became independent states.

2.1 Before 1804 (First Serbian Uprising)

At the time of the birth of European modernity, the Serbian people lived in the territories of two empires, the Habsburg and the Ottoman, to the North and South of the Sava and Danube rivers, respectively. In both empires, Serbs were, due to their Orthodox Christian faith, considered “heterodox,” and thus were subject to special laws.

Ottoman authorities did not encroach too much on the intimate cultural and ethnic characteristics of their vassals' lives. State laws primarily concerned fiscal matters, that is, the amount and manner of collecting taxes from village administrations. Intrafamily life and the organization of communities in large part retained their traditional character. It can even be said that Turkish rule nurtured the conservation of traditional heritage that was and remains a strong cohesive factor and bulwark of identity of a community. This is especially true in relation to ritual life, that is, to the life-cycle rituals.

When speaking about funerary rituals, the primary requirement of the Turkish authorities was that Christian graves remain completely inconspicuous and that religious symbols remain hidden from the eyes of the Muslim public. Thus, funeral processions were not allowed to pass along main streets, near mosques, or other Muslim holy places, nor were they allowed to carry crosses.¹ Sharia law mandated that the graves of nonbelievers be distanced from Muslim ones and be fenced in so that crosses (or other religious symbols) would not be visible.² This period was marked by strict religious separation of graves. This was particularly important in urban centers due to the mixed religious and ethnic composition of the population. In Belgrade, for example, in the middle of the seventeenth century, only limited numbers of Christians and Jews were allowed to be buried in very specific plots.³ In practice there were also less tolerant solutions. One complaint made by a Serbian Orthodox Church diocese in southern Serbia stated that it was forbidden for Orthodox believers to be buried in cemeteries and that the deceased had to be buried in forests and areas away from settlements.⁴

In Kosovo, there were noted examples of the existence of shared, ethnic and religiously mixed cemeteries of Serbs and Albanians. This can be interpreted as a result of the fact that the process of Islamization in the area was particularly intense, and thus a formerly Orthodox family would continue to bury their converted relatives in the same cemeteries.⁵

In any case, all deaths were required to be reported to the authorities. In the event of violent death, the State would exact a certain type of “penalty” from the village on whose territory the body was found.⁶ As a result, it was common practice for a deceased body to “travel” through several different territories until the report finally reached the authorities. Burials could only be conducted after being issued a permit by a state treasurer.

Death, burial, and the entire funerary ritual of Serbian population was under the jurisdiction of the Serbian Orthodox Church, which during Turkish rule served as the only active national institution and acted as a kind of substitute for a national state. Priests also kept records of deaths, although the records preceding the end of the nineteenth century were not quite accurate due to the low number of priests and their limited education.

Metropolitans and Bishops had the right to levy taxes on requiems and memorial services, and from these earnings the Church would pay a yearly tax to the Turkish state treasury.⁷ Even though the price of certain religious services was known, Bishops often asked for more money. Thus, some people who were unable to pay would carry out burials without the presence of a priest.⁸

North of the Sava and Danube rivers, in the territory of the Habsburg monarchy, the influence of state authorities over the everyday life of the Serbian population was far more extensive. It is important to note that the Serbian people in this area were in large part fleeing wars and the yoke of Turkey during the end of the seventeenth and middle of the eighteenth centuries. These migrations were led by Serbian Patriarchs and these territories became the spiritual and national centers of the Serbian people. This is where the Church's holy relics were kept, along with the bones of saints and Serbian rulers. It was within these territories that the Serbian intellectual and ecclesiastical elite were formed, which had defining influence over the formation of the modern Serbian state at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth century.⁹

This area would suffer heavily in the eighteenth century from a severe plague epidemic. The disease primarily arrived from the territory of the Ottoman Empire while poor hygiene, particularly related to burials, contributed heavily to its spread. Vigils and wakes which lasted multiple days, open-casket processions, kissing of the body as part of burial rituals, redistribution of the deceased's possessions, and inadequate burial were all considered serious health risks during the period of the epidemic. This situation led to the adoption of a number of laws, beginning with state laws prohibiting trade with Turkey and establishing quarantine zones along the border. A number of specific laws directly regarding the transformation of traditional funerary practices in the Serbian population followed. These legal reforms were particularly intense during the rule of Karl VI (1711–1740), and then under his successor, Maria Theresa (1740–1780). In 1710 and 1713, the Pestpatent and Pestordnung were passed, along with the Rescriptum Declaratorium Illiricum Nationalis in 1770 and 1777. These laws mandated that burial occur 36–48 hours maximum after death, but also required reporting deaths to municipal health officials who would then determine the cause of death. Later, methods of burial and the appearance of cemeteries were regulated, as well as a ban on open-casket processions. Laws also required cemeteries to be built outside of settlements, walled in by palisades or deep trenches.¹⁰ It was even forbidden to bring bodies into a church for the memorial service.¹¹ The elders of the Serbian Orthodox Church supported these laws, for reasons of public safety, but also because they saw it as an excellent opportunity to combat superstition and pagan traditions. However, these reforms encountered serious resistance among the people. The imperial decree of August 28, 1777 led to a revolt in Novi Sad and Vršac, resulting in the rescinding of some of the restrictions regarding burial.¹² These included restrictions which forbade the last rites and dignified Christian burial to Orthodox prisoners sentenced to death.¹³ It is possible that the laws regarding buri...