My idea of Cultural Identity
My idea of what cultural identity is, is knowing, understanding, and loving your various cultures/ethnicities.
The Ethnicity I identify most with
The main ethnicity I claim and identify with the most is my African American culture but I chose to do my presentation on my Yugoslavian decent in order to learn more about it.
Where my people are from
The country my people are from is Yugoslavia. To look deeper into it my family come from the state of Croatia which had seceded from Yugoslavia during WWII along with other states. After Nazi's began to occupy the country of Yugoslavia Croatia sided with the Nazi party and broke from the Yugoslavian rule. After leaving they became the Nazi-allied Independent Croat State. They later rejoined Yugoslavia after the war.
Languages
The spoken languages of Yugoslavia, which have always been used and are still used are Serbo-Croation, Slovenian, and Macedonian with them using the Vuk's Cyrillic alphabet for their written language. Children in school had to study one of these three languages. It was this way until 1990. 1990 the government opened the first Gypsy-language primary school.
Physical appearance
Slavic peoples have either fair skin color and fair hair colored hair or are a darker tan color with darker hair just depending on the region you're from. For example my family members from Yugoslavia are Dinaric Types because they re from Croatia so they have blonde hair with white skin.
Food
Some examples of traditional Yugoslavian food are Sarma, Moussaka, and Balkan.
Art
Very important Yugoslavian artworks are "Make Up" by Sanja Ivekovic, "March for a Partisan Woman" by Katalin Ladik and "Kino Beleske" by Lutz Becker. My favorite out of the three is "Make Up" because of how it was unappreciated when it was created. The work came form Sanja Ivekovic's video "Make Up-Make Down" from 1978. The film was about make up and cosmetic surgery and wasn't appreciated by Yugoslavia till later in her life.
Music
Music tied to my Yugoslavian ethnicity is folk music
Fun Fact
Yugoslavia was originally named the Kingdom of Serbs,Croats, and Slovenes when formed 1918 after WWI but was renamed Yugoslavia 1929
Works Cited
- http://www.folkways.si.edu/folk-music-of-yugoslavia/world/album/smithsonian
- http://www.croatianhistory.net/etf/art.html
- http://www.dubrovnik-excursion.com/restourants/cabbage-rolls---sarma/31
- https://history.state.gov/milestones/1989-1992/breakup-yugoslavia
- https://hyperallergic.com/278574/the-vibrant-art-that-emerged-from-socialist-yugoslavia/
- http://www.dazeddigital.com/artsandculture/article/29433/1/10-art-radicals-who-challenged-yugoslavia