"How do the physical environment and ancient human history relate to cultural interactions in the former Yugoslavia?” -ASK Balkans Crew '14
As I mentioned in my last post, the Illyrians were one of the first groups known to inhabit the Balkans region. Although the Slavs that now make up the majority of the population have different ethnic origins, references to ancient Illyria have been made in recent times in connection with Balkan nationalist movements.
Ancient history
The origins of the Illyrians are unclear, but they may have been an Indo-European (perhaps from Italy) people group that settled in the Balkan region during the Bronze Age. Other scholars suggest they may have come from more north-central Europe. Whatever their beginnings, references to them began in the 4th century BC from Greek authors. Interestingly, the Illyrians were not as much a single people group as they were a variety of disparate tribes that, at most, may have been characterized by a common language. Early authors who referred to this wide variety of groups in the general region of the former Yugoslavia presumably took the name from a single prominent tribe in the area known as Illyrians. Over the years, despite their heterogeneity, the Illyrians formed kingdoms that were often at war with their neighbors, including Macedonia, Greece and Rome. In the 200s BC, the Illyrians were conquered by Rome, forming the province of Illyricum, which continued through Byzantine rule.
Slavicization
In the 6th and 7th centuries AD, Slavs entered the region, for the most part integrating with and "slavicizing" the ancient Illyrian culture. Throughout the Middle Ages and into the Renaissance, however, the term "Illyrian" was still used on occasion to refer to the people living in that region, despite the reality that most of the people living there had more Slavic than Illyrian origins. In part because the land was historically called Illyria, the name stuck with them to some extent over the years and was never truly lost as part of their identity.
Nationalism
There are several prominent instances in recent history in which Balkan nations have drawn on their Illyrian roots to support nationalist sentiment. In the mid-1800s, Croatian intellectuals started a movement called "Illyrianism" intended to unite all south Slavic peoples under the banner of shared Illyrian heritage. Their overarching goals were a unified language and culture, but in the end, the Austro-Hungarian empire suppressed the movement.
I found this movement interesting because it rests on premises that, from the information previously discussed, really don't hold water. For one, the Illyrians were in reality just one of many distinct groups that inhabited the Balkan region in antiquity. For another, Slavic people are ethnically distinct from the older Illyrians. To claim that all South Slavs share a common Illyrian heritage is at best misguided. Furthermore, I found the push for unification interesting, given the quite explosive (and thoroughly discussed on this blog) ethnic tensions among different Balkan people groups. Perhaps in those days it seemed a not too distant prospect that they could still come together as one. Certainly, Yugoslavia was able to manage it for a while. Still, when "balkanization" is a modern-day term used to describe the fragmentation of a geopolitical region, it is hard to imagine why, a century and a half ago, people would have pushed for unification.
The other significant modern-day reference is Kosovar use of the term "Dardania," the province roughly covering that area in Illyrian times. Curiously, Albanians may have more of a right to call themselves Illyrians, as they are believed to descend from the original people groups of the Balkans, rather than Slavic immigrants from the middle of the 1st millenium AD.
Tracing the history of the Illyrian name in the Balkans yields fascinating insight into their culture. In some ways, the entire region has adopted the name, despite little true connection to the original culture. In other ways, they have spurned the sense of unified identity offered by the idea of Illyria and made very clear distinctions among themselves along racial lines. The relationship of Kosovo to Illyria is a particularly striking example; nationalists claim a connection to the people of that time period and use it as a slogan in their separatist movement, despite the more recently developed undertones of pan-Slavic unity. This historical motif reveals a fascinating interplay between the occasional attempts at regional coherence and the regular tendency to stay as separate entities.
-Trey
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