Pig labeling
PIG-LABELING IN MODERN BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA
Darko Karačić, Department of Medieval Studies, Central European University
The recent appearance of a pig in a popular TV sitcom in Bosnia and Herzegovina provoked passionate discussions in local and regional media. In the story, a Muslim man, looking for a meat animal, by mistake receives a pig from a provider. He accepts it; however, the pig dies while being transported in the car trunk. The scene when the two men bury the pig follows. One of the characters mentions, as a joke, that this business was a mistake and that all it brought was a dženaza for a pig.1 This scene almost brought the production of the sitcom to an end. The appearance of a pig in this context aroused negative reactions from Bosniaks (mainly Muslims) and the Islamic Community of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The association “Mothers of Srebrenica and Podrinje” claimed that the pig burial scene in the sitcom was “the greatest attack of civilization on Islamic values that had ever happened to Muslims in this area after the genocide.”2 These reactions brought about public discussions on the image of the pig in public discourse in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Bosnian Croats (mainly Catholics), Bosnian Serbs (mainly Orthodox), as well as secular Bosniaks (including the maker of the above-mentioned sitcom), perceived these reactions as a sign of a developing religious extremism of Bosnia and Herzegovina society. This example illustrates what a sensitive issue the representation of a pig can be to members of different nations and religions in Bosnian-Herzegovinian society.3 It is not only Muslim perception of forbidden pork meat, that is connected to the negative image of pig; pig is also used in negative labeling among all self-identified ‘ethnic’ groups in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Thus, some of the wide spread stereotypic similes used by all three groups include:
“as fat as a pig;
as drunk as a pig;
as smelly as a pig;
somebody smokes like a pig;
somebody lies like a pig”, etc.4
Pig labeling is a part of a complex problem connected with the mutual perceptions of in-groups and out-groups in Bosnia-Herzegovina. The representations of the “other” go hand in hand with the creation of the negative stereotypes. The concept that there is an image in our minds which influences our imagination and finally leads to the creation of strongly established stereotypes, was formulated in 1922 by Walter Lippmann in his work on media and democracy, Public Opinion.5 Originally, the study of stereotypes focused mainly on the description of the contents of stereotypes about particular nations.6 After WWII, the aim of the study of stereotypes was to detect prejudiced and hostile opinions people had about other groups of people. Such opinions were supposed to be formed consistently through education. As further research has shown, stereotypes are created and spread through families, schools, but also through mass media and through contacts with members of other groups.7
The topic of stereotypes was very popular in western historiography during the Cold War. For a certain time, the mirror-image hypothesis by Urie Bronfennbrener8 dominated in the field of stereotype research. According to this theory, members of both superpowers, although belonging to two fundamentally different ideological backgrounds, tended to perceive themselves in a similarly positive way and to perceive the members of the other group in a similarly negative way.9 This theory proves applicable to the creation stereotypes and consequently negative labeling in Bosnia and Herzegovina. During the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1992 to 1995 and later on in the post-conflict context, pig-labeling has been common among the three main groups. ‘Pig’ as a concept has been frequently used by Bosniaks, Croats and Serbs to denote the “other” in a negative manner. Stricter grouping of people based on religion and nationality, which occurred after the war, resulted in greater isolation, stronger stereotypes about the ‘other’ and brought about a language of hatred, as is shown in the following examples. All the following citations are comments taken from recent (2010) web pages and represent individual usages of pig-labeling.
A comment on the Bosnian Croatian web-page on the news that a covered girl was not allowed wearing a veil at a university in England:
“I think that under that veil they smell like pigs. It is amazing that somebody like that walks the streets in the 21st century.”10
A comment on people who eat pork, on the Bosnian Muslim inter-net forum about pork mentioned in the Bible:
“As a rule, people who eat pork are fat, red as pigs, without a soul, and the fat grows on their bodies at the same places as fat grows on the bodies of pigs. Their noses look like power sockets and they resemble pigs in their sexual behavior.” 11
A response to the comments posted on the ‘YouTube’ web page video called Serbs, swine and pigs:
“Selam to all. If Serbs are pigs, and if Bosniaks are Islamized Serbs, then who are Bosniaks: pigs in mosques; pigs who hate pigs; slaughtered pigs…” 12
These citations were the examples of how members of different groups use the same negative image to denote the members of the other group. Pig-labeling in the region was traditionally connected with relatively negative connotations, however, after the war in Bosnia, it has been transformed into a language connected with extreme hatred, war and humiliation.
References:
1) Dženaza is a Muslim funeral ceremony followed by a prayer.
2) Available: http://www.dnevniavaz.ba/dogadjaji/teme/izbih-serija-lud-zbunjen-normalan-podvaljuje-svinjsku-sunku-kao-purece-meso/komentari, 7 Feb 2010.
3)http://www.dnevniavaz.ba/dogadjaji/iz-minute-u-minutu/prekida-se-snimanje-serije-lud-zbunjen-normalan, 7 Feb 2010; http://www.rosko-polje.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=696:krmad-varci-i-bh-parlamentarci-&catid=79:ostale&Itemid=422, 14 Feb 2010; http://www.e-novine.com/stav/34625-Svi-slaemo-laemo.html, 7 Feb 2010.
4) „debeo ko svinja; pijan kao svinja; smrdi ko svinja; pushi kao svinja; laže kao svinja“, from: http://trstenik.forume.biz/forumske-igre-f13/kao-svinja-t51.htm, 30 Jan 2010.
5) LIPPMANN, Walter. Public Opinion. Washington : Free Press, 1965, pp. 92 – 156.
6) KATZ, Daniel - BRALY, Kenneth. Racial Stereotypes of one hundred college students. In Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 28, 1933, pp. 280-290.
7) SULEIMAN, Michael. National Stereotypes as Weapons in the Arab-Israeli Conflict. In Journal of Palestine Studies, 3, 1974, pp. 109-121.
8) BRONFENBRENNER, Urie. The mirror image in Soviet-American relations: A social psychologist’s report. In Journal of Social Sciences, 17, 1961, pp. 45-46.
9) SALAZAR, Jose Miguel, MARIN, Gerardo. National stereotypes as a function of conflict and territorial proximity: A test of the mirror image hypothesis. In The Journal of Social Psychology, 101, 1977, pp. 13-19.
10) “Ja mislim da ispod burke smrde kao svinje, užas da u 21. vijeku ovako neko izlazi na ulicu“, from: http://209.85.135.132/search?q=cache:fj1rzQXFaZkJ:www.livno-online.com/arhiva/14165-studentica-izbaena-sa-fakulteta-zato-to-nije-eljela-skinuti-burku+kao+svinje&cd=216&hl=bs&ct=clnk&gl=ba, 30 Jan 2010.
11) “…U pravilu ljudi koji jedu svinjetinu su debeli,crveni kao svinje ,bezdusni i salo im se pojavljuje i gomila na istim mjestima kao kod svinje.Nos im lici na suko uticnicu i po pitanju sexualnog morala su slicni svinjama...” from: http://www.islambosna.ba/forum/dijalog-sa-nemuslimanima/krmetina-u-bibliji/msg13106/, 7 Jan 2010.
12) “Selam svima.Ako su Srbi svinje,a Bosnjaci poturceni Srbi,sta su onda Bosnjaci?1. Uskopljene svinje 2. Srpska prasad 3. Krmad u dzamiji 4. Svinje koje mrze svinje 5. Svinje koje zive u kantonima 6. Svinje u dijaspori 7. Poklane svinje...”, from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebfVSmOyc9w, 30 Jan 2010.
