Vol.2, No 6, 1999 pp. 113 - 133
UDC:316.347
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CONFESSIONAL BELONGING, RELIGIOUS SELF-IDENTIFICATION
AND INTER-ETHNIC DISTANCE IN FORMER YUGOSLAVIA AT THE END OF THE EIGHTIES
Vera Vratuša-Žunjić
Faculty of philosophy, Belgrade
Abstract. The paper examines the existence, intensity and the direction of the relationship between the confessional belonging, the degree of subjective religiosity and inter-ethnic distance two years before the violent breakup of the former Yugoslavia. Empirical foundation of the research is the data base of the Consortium of Yugoslav social sciences' institutes from 1989-1990.
The main finding of the paper is that the ethnic distance between the members of three most numerous confessions in the Balkans, Orthodox, Catholic and Islamic, that is between the members of respective nationalities, Serbs, Croats and Muslims, was notable two years before the outbreak of the war. Even when the Catholic and Orthodox respondents verbally denied the significance of the spouse's national belonging in two fifths of the cases, and the respondents belonging to all confessions negated the importance of the work colleague's national belonging in somewhat lesser percentage, they themselves were rarely in mixed marriages and have only scarcely preferred the members of some other nationality for the work place colleague.
Respondents Yugoslavs, who in the three fifths of the cases asserted not having an confession, proved to be the most open toward all other nationalities and were the most popular as spouses and work colleagues, immediately after the members of locally majority nation and confession. Albanians, who identified themselves as members of Islamic confession in more than 90% of the cases, were the most closed toward members of other nationalities and confessions and were the least preferred among others.
Two additional facts testify to the significant degree of uncertainty and mistrust among the members of three confessions two years before the war. First, members of all three confessions have in more than two fifths of the cases partially and completely agreed that safety was possible only in the milieu in which live the majority of the members of one's own nation. Second, alongside with almost three fifths of the three main confessions' members, more than two fifths of those without confession accepted the statement that cooperation can exist between nations, but never the full trust, as well.
The rule is noticed, along with several significant and indicative deviations, that respondents reporting that they were convinced believers or that they believed but not in everything that their faith taught, belonging mostly to working layers, attached greater significance to national belonging of the spouse and of the work colleague in one fifth of the cases more often than the respondents that reported that they were indifferent toward religion, that they were not religious or that they were against religion, preponderantly members of middle and upper social layers. The difference in the attitudes of respondents that reported opposite degrees of their religiosity, however, proved to be much smaller (only around ten percentages) when it was the question of the safety and trust between members of different nationalities. The social sources of widely diffused lack of confidence, violent breakup of the former Yugoslavia and the formation of mutually unfriendly independent national states, should therefore be searched for not only in religious contents, but also in the real living situation of believers and not believers alike.
In the paper is examined in detail the noticed phenomenon of significant differences existing in the degree of subjective religiosity and the attitudes of the members of the same confession, depending on their status of local majority or minority in respective republic or province.
ODNOS VERSKE PRIPADNOSTI, RELIGOZNE SAMOIDENTIFIKACIJE I MEĐUETNIČKE DISTANCE
U BIVŠOJ JUGOSLAVIJI KRAJEM OSAMDESETIH
U prilogu se ispituje postojanje, intenzitet i smer povezanosti između verske pripadnosti, stepena subjektivne religioznosti i međuetničke distance dve godine pred nasilno razbijanje bivše Jugoslavije.
Empirijsku osnovu istraživanja čini baza podataka Konzorcijuma jugoslovenskih instituta društvenih nauka iz 1989-1990.
Glavni nalaz rada je da je socijalna distanca između pripadnika tri najbrojnije veroispovesti na Balkanu, pravoslavne, katoličke i islamske, odnosno pripadnika odgovarajućih nacionalnosti, Srba, Hrvata i Muslimana, bila vrlo izražena dve godine pred izbijanje rata. Čak i kada su ispitanici katoličke i pravoslavne veroispovesti u dve petine slučajeva verbalno poricali značaj nacionalne pripadnosti supružnika, odnosno ispitanici svih konfesija u nešto nižem procentu negirali važnost nacionalne pripadnosti kolege s posla, oni sami su retko bili u mešovitom braku i retko su odabirali pripadnika neke druge nacionalnosti kao saradnika na radnom mestu.
Ispitanici Jugosloveni koji su u tri petine slučajeva izjavili da nemaju veroispovest, pokazali su se kao najotvoreniji prema pripadnicima svih nacionalnosti i najpopularniji kao supružnici i kolege, odmah posle pripadnika lokalno većinske nacije i konfesije. Albanci koji su se u više nego devet desetina slučajeva izjašnjavali kao pripadnici muslimanske veroispovesti, bili su najzatvoreniji prema drugim nacionalnostima i konfesijama i najmanje popularni kod njihovih pripadnika.
O visokom stepenu nesigurnosti i nepoverenja među pripadnicima glavne tri konfesije dve godine pred rat govore i sledeće činjenice. Prvo, pripadnici sve tri konfesije su se u preko dve petine slučajeva delimično ili potpuno slagali da je sigurnost moguća samo u sredini u kojoj živi većina pripadnika vlastite nacionalnosti. Drugo, pored skoro tri petine pripadnika tri galvne konfesije, takođe je preko dve petine onih bez konfesije delimično i potpuno usvajalo stav da među nacijama može biti dobre saradnje ali ne i potpunog poverenja.
Uočena je pravilnost da ispitanici koji su izjavili da su uvereni vernici ili da veruju ali ne u sve što vera uči, većinom pripadnici radnih slojeva, pridavali za jednu petinu veći značaj nacionalnoj pripadnosti supružnika i kolege s posla nego ispitanici koji su izjavljivali da su ravnodušni prema religiji, nereligiozni ili protivnici religije, većinom pripadnici srednjih i viših društvenih slojeva. Daleko je manja (samo desetak procenata), međutim, razlika u stavovima ispitanika koji su saopštili suprotne stepene svoje religioznosti, kada se radilo o sigurnosti i poverenju između pripadnika raznih nacija. Stoga društvene izvore rasprostranjenog nepoverenja, nasilnog raspada bivše Jugoslavije i formiranja međusobno neprijateljskih nezavisnih nacionalnih država, treba tražiti ne samo u religioznim sadržajima nego i u realnoj životnoj situaciji kako vernika tako i nevernika.
U radu je detaljno ispitan uočeni fenomen postojanja značajnih razlika u stepenu subjektivne religioznosti i stavovima pripadnika iste konfesije zavisno od toga da li imaju status lokalne većine ili manjine u odgovarajućoj republici ili pokrajini.