Being Muslim the Bosnian Way

Rating:
Summary: An extremely useful and thoughtful book
Review: Bringa provides here a very readable and accessible discussion of identity boundaries in a mixed Muslim/Catholic village during the period directly before the Bosnian War. Her chapter on the history and historiography of Bosnian identity is, I think, the best piece available on the subject. Her treatment of local culture and local boundaries is warmly written and scholarly... in the best tradition of anthropological literature.

I have used this course in an undergraduate seminar I taught to very good effect. The students enjoyed the book and seemed to get a lot out of it.

This book is not a primer on the Bosnian War, nor does it attempt to make a global explanation for why that war occurred. It is however a tremendous resource on Bosnian Muslim culture and a very important contribution to the literature on identity and cultural boundaries. For those interested in such issues, I can give this work a very strong recommendation.

Rating:
Summary: An excellent case study of interethnic relations
Review: Bringa, a lecturer of social anthropology at Bergen University of Norway, conducted extensive fieldwork over a period of six years in a mixed Croat-Muslim village in Central Bosnia. Through careful ethnography she has observed the ways in which such concepts as "ethnos", "nation", and "religion" were understood by, and effected the Bosnians with whom she studied. She demonstrates the complexities of interethnic relations on a micro-level. This study helps question overarching theories of nationalism, which exaggerate the difference between different nations. This study is detailed, well-researched and well-written. Despite its detail, it can be highly recommended for anybody working on or interested in Bosnia, former Yugoslavia and interethnic relations.

Rating:
Summary: A unique book that is well worth reading
Review: Filled with observation of the Muslim and (to a lesser extent) Croat culture of a typical mixed Muslim-Croat village in central Bosnia. The author, a Norwegian anthropologist, had done fieldwork in Bosnia-Hercegovina during the five years preceding the 1992-1995 wars. She wrote the book during those wars and after the village that she had studied had been destroyed. Well worth reading. (I discovered Bringa as I was writing Untangling Bosnia and Hercegovina, a book about post-war Bosnia and Hercegovina. I found her book to be an absolutely unique and valuable resource.)