The Search for Identity: An Anthropological Interpretation of Engaged Research in Paštrovići and the Use of the Concept of Intangible Cultural Heritage for Identity Political Purposes

Abstract

Paštrovići is the name of a clan and of an ethnographic area of the Montenegrin coast stretching from Čanj to Bečići and from the Adriatic Sea to Crmnica. I visited this region twice, in 2017 and 2018, as part of the Etno Lab project, directed by the Bauo Society for Cultural Development from the town of Petrovac by the Sea, with funds and other forms of assistance provided by the Municipality of Budva, the Ministry of Culture of Montenegro, and several local families. The purpose of the stay in Petrovac was engaged field research with the aim of exploring the "traditions" and cultural heritage of Paštrovići, with the intention of mapping potential elements for inscription on the list of Montenegrin intangible cultural heritage. In this paper, I start from the hypothesis that the organization of Etno Lab, the directing of research and, finally, the search for identity markers with a view to having them recognized as important and inscribed on relevant lists by the national state, are precisely a form of reflection of the socio-political identity turmoil which is primarily occurring at the political level in the nation state of Montenegro and then spilling over into social reality, where it assumes various forms. Thus, the paper is divided into four sections: a brief overview of socio-political changes in Montenegro; a discussion of the methodological procedures used in our research and their inadequacies; an anthropological interpretation of the concept and a search for elements of intangible cultural heritage in relation to the identity political uses of the given phenomena.