Culture » Europe »
Southeastern Europe » Bosnia & Herzegovina
»
Bosnia & Herzegovina
Culture & Identity
Bosnia & Herzegovina's Personality
Bosnia & Herzegovina are like two brothers
who don't quite see eye-to-eye and together they are one delusional character
with severe depression constantly consumed with acts to hurt himself. In the past
he has had up and down relationships with his neighboring countries, but today is
too obsessed with hating himself to fight outside parties.
Bosnia & Herzegovina needs to face reality
and begin talking, but instead believes itself to consist of three different people:
Muslim Bosniaks, Catholic Croats, and Orthodox Serbs. The issue is a question of
in what order the people identify. Ethnically and linguistically the
Serbs, Croatians, and Bosniaks are nearly identical,
although the Bosniaks generally have slight traces of Turkish
blood. Instead of uniting due to their similarities, they divide and prioritize
their differences as more important than their similarities.
Identity
In Bosnia & Herzegovina, the people identify
by their religion, the Croatians are Catholic, the Serbs are Orthodox, and the Bosniaks are Muslim. This
identity is so powerful, each group is willing to kill and die for it, despite the
declining participation in religious ceremonies by each group. Today cities remain
divided between Catholic and Muslim, Muslim and Orthodox, Orthodox, and Catholic
and none are willing to cross that line in fear of physical harm.
This page was last updated: February, 2012