Serbs

Serbs

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Regions with significant populations
Serbia and Montenegro:   6,674,470 Bosnia and Herzegovina:   1,479,930 Croatia:   202,365 (2004) (581,663 in 1991) Slovenia:    38,964 (2002) Republic of Macedonia:    35,939 (2002) Albania:    37,000 (1990 w/ Montenegrins)    40,000 (2005 est. Montenegrins) Romania:    22,518 (2002) Hungary:    3,816 Germany    Lower est. 125,000-250,000    Higher est. 700,000 Austria:    120,000 - 177,320 (2001 speakers) Switzerland:    50,000 (2000) USA:    Census est. 174,562 (2002) Canada:    55,540 (2001 lower est.)    80,000 (1987 est.) Australia:    97,315 (2001) New Zealand:    753 United Kingdom:    70,000 (2005 est.) Sweden:    35,000 (1992 est.) Denmark:    12,000 Norway:    6,000 France:    60,000-80,000 Italy:    25,000 Netherlands:    6,000 Luxembourg:    4,000 South Africa:    7,000 Botswana:    1,000 Zimbabwe:    800 Greece:    5,500 Russia:    4,156 (2002) Brazil:    2,000 Chile:    2,000 Czech Republic:    1,801 (2001) Slovakia:    434 (2001)
Languages
Serbian
Religion
Dominantly Serbian Orthodox
Related ethnic groups
Indo-Europeans   Slavs     South Slavs

Serbs (in the Serbian language Срби, Srbi) are a south Slavic people living chiefly in Serbia and Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Population

Most Serbs live in the traditional Serbian heartland of Serbia and Montenegro. Large Serb populations also live in Croatia (where they were a constitutional nation up to 1990; largely on the territory that during the 1990s constituted the internationally unrecognized Republic of Serbian Krajina) and Bosnia and Herzegovina (where they are a constituent nation), principally in the Republika Srpska, one of the country's two entities. Much smaller Serb minorities also exist in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Slovenia, Romania, Albania and Hungary. A lot of Serbs also live in the diaspora, notably in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, USA, Canada and Australia.

The largest urban populations of Serbs in the former Yugoslavia are to be found in Belgrade (over 1,500,000), Novi Sad about (250,000), Niš (200,000) and Banja Luka in Bosnia (200,000). Abroad, Vienna is said to be home to the largest Serb population followed by Chicago, Illinois (and its surrounding area) with Toronto and Southern Ontario coming in third. Serbs constitute about 70% of the population of Serbia and Montenegro, 6.6 million. Another 1.6 million live in neighbouring countries of the Balkans, totalling 8.2 million Serbs in former Yugoslavia. The number of Serbs in the diaspora is not known but is estimated to be between 1 and 1.5 million, including people of Serbian descent. The maximum number of Serbs thus ranges anywhere around 9 to 10 million, depending on the estimation used for the diaspora.

Culture

Main article: Serbian culture

Contribution to humanity

Serbs have played a significant role in the development of the arts and sciences. Prominent individuals include the scientists Nikola Tesla, Mihajlo Pupin, Jovan Cvijić, Milutin Milanković and Mileva Marić; the renowned mathematicians Jovan Karamata, Mihailo Petrović, and Đuro Kurepa; the famous composers Stevan Mokranjac and Josif Runjanin; the celebrated authors Dositej Obradović,and [[Miloš Crnjanski; the prolific inventor Ogneslav Kostović Stepanović; the polymath Đura Jakšić; the famous sports stars Vlade Divac and Peja Stojaković; actor Karl Malden (Mladen Sekulovich) and the actress Mila Jovović (half Serbian). The Serb ruler during the middle ages (see List of Serbian rulers) Stephen Nemanja and his son, Saint Sava founded the monastery of Hilandar for the Serbian Orthodox Church, one of the greatest and oldest Orthodox Christian monuments on Earth.

The mother of the last (Eastern) Roman Emperor Constantine XI Paleologos Dragases was Serbian princess Helena Dragash (Jelena Dragaš), and he liked to be known by her Serbian surname of Dragash.

According to the National Enquirer, author Ian Fleming patterned James Bond after Dusko Popov, a Serbian double agent nicknamed Tricycle.

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky composed Slavonic March (Marche Slavée) in 1876 known at first as the “Serbo-Russian March” based on Serbian folk melody “Come, my Dearest, why So Sad this Morning?”.

For more famous Serbs, see List of Serbs.

Language

Most Serbs speak the Serbian language, a member of the South Slavic group of languages. While the Serbian identity is to some extent linguistic, apart from the Cyrillic alphabet which they use along with Latin alphabet, the language is very similar to the standard Croatian (see Differences in standard Serbian, Croatian and Bosnian) and some linguists still consider it part of the common Serbo-Croatian language.

There are several variants of Serbian language. The older forms of Serbian are Old Serbian and Russo-Serbian, a version of the Church Slavonic language).

Some members of the Serbian diaspora do not speak the language (mostly in the US, Canada and UK) but are still considered Serbs by ethnic origin or descent.

Non-Serbs who studied the Serbian language include such prominent individuals as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and J. R. R. Tolkien; see list of Serbian language speakers, learners, etc.

Surnames

Most Serbian surnames have the surname suffix -ić (IPA: /it^j/, Cyrillic: -ић). This is often transcribed as -ic. In history, Serbian names have often been transcribed with a phonetic ending, -ich or -itch. This form is often associated with Serbs from before the early 20th century: hence Milutin Milanković is usually referred to, for historical reasons, as Milutin Milankovitch.

The -ić suffix is a Slavic diminutive, originally functioning to create patronymics. Thus the surname Petrić signifies little Petar, as does, for example, a common prefix Mac ("son of") in Scottish and Fitz in Irish names. It is estimated that some two thirds of all Serbian surnames end in -ić but that some 80% of Serbs carry such a surname with many common names being spread out among tens and even hundreds of non-related extended families.

Other common surname suffixes are -ov or -in which is the Slavic possessive case suffix, thus Nikola's son becomes Nikolin, Petar's son Petrov, and Jovan's son Jovanov. The two suffixes are often combined.

The most common surnames are Nikolić, Petrović, Jovanović.

Religion

Orthodox Christianity and the Serbian Orthodox Church have played a significant role in formation of Serbian identity. Conversion of south Slavs from paganism to Christianity took place before the Great Schism, the split between the Byzantine East and the Roman Catholic West. After the Schism, those who lived under the Orthodox sphere of influence became Orthodox and those who lived under the Catholic sphere of influence became Catholic. Later, with the arrival of the Ottoman Empire, many Slavs, especially in Bosnia converted to Islam. Some ethnologists consider that the distinct Serb, Croatian and Bosniak) identities are drawn from religion rather than ethnicity. Others (among with many nationalists) disagree, stating that the three nations have distinct ethnic roots and that the religion was a result rather than the cause of distinct ethnic identities.

Symbols

Serbian flag Serbian flag Serbian coat of arms Serbian coat of arms

The Serbian flag is a red-blue-white tricolour. It is often combined with one or both of the other Serb symbols.

• The white two-headed eagle was the coat of arms of the House of Nemanjić.
• The Serbian cross. If displayed on a field, traditionally it is on red field, but could be used with no field at all.

Both the eagle and the cross, besides being the basis for various Serbian coats of arms through history, are bases for the symbols of various Serbian organisations, political parties, institutions and companies. The cross, being easy to draw, is often spraypainted, carrying an obvious political signature.

Serbian folk attire varies, mostly because of the very diverse geography and climate of the territory inhabited by the Serbs. Some parts of it are, however, common:

• A traditional shoe that is called the opanak. It is recognisable by its distinctive tips that spiral backward. Each region of Serbia has a different kind of tips.
• A traditional hat that is called the šajkača. It is easily recognisable by its top part that looks like the letter V or like the bottom of a boat (viewed from above), after which it got its name. It gained wide popularity in the early 20th century as it was the hat of the Serbian army in the First World War. It is still worn everyday by some villagers today, and it was a common item of headgear among Bosnian Serb military commanders during the Bosnian War in the 1990s.

Customs

Serbian bagpiper in traditional attire wearing opanci and šajkača.

The Serbs are a highly family-oriented society. A peek into a Serbian dictionary and the richness of their terminology related to kinship speaks volumes.

Of all Slavs and Orthodox Christians, only Serbs have the custom of slava. The custom could also be found among some Russians and Albanians of Serbian origin although it has often been lost in the last century. Slava is celebration of a saint; unlike most customs that are common for the whole people, each family separately celebrates its own saint (of course, there is a lot of overlap) who is considered its protector. A slava is inherited from father to son and each household may only have one celebration which means that the occasion brings all of the family together.

Though a lot of old customs are now no longer practised, many of the customs that surround Serbian wedding still are.

The traditional Serbian dance is a circle dance called kolo. It is a collective dance, where a group of people (usually several dozen, at the very least three) hold each other by the hands or around the waist dancing, forming a circle (hence the name), semicircle or spiral. The same dance, with the same name, is also traditional among the Croats. Similar circle dances also exist in other cultures of the region.

Serbs have their own customs regarding Christmas. The Serbian Orthodox Church uses the Julian calendar, so Christmas currently falls on January 7 of the Gregorian calendar. Early in the morning of Christmas Eve, the head of the family would go to a forest in order to cut badnjak, a young oak, the oaktree would then be brought into the church to be blessed by the priest. Then the oaktree would be stripped of its branches with combined with wheat and other grain products would be burned in the fireplace. The burning of the badnjak is a ritual which is most certainly of pagan origin and it is considered a sacrifice to God (or the old pagan gods) so that the coming year may bring plenty of food, happiness, love, luck and riches. Nowadays, with most Serbs living in towns, most simply go to their church service to be given a small parcel of oak, wheat and other branches tied together to be taken home and set afire. The house floor and church is covered with hay, reminding worshippers of the stable in which Jesus was born.

Christmas Day itself is celebrated with a feast, necessarily featuring roasted piglet as the main meal. Another Christmas meal is a deliciously sweet cake made of wheat, called koljivo whose consumption is more for ritual than nourishment. One crosses oneself first, then takes a spoonful of the cake and savours it. But the most important Christmas meal is česnica, a special kind of bread. The bread contains a coin; during the lunch, the family breaks up the bread and the one who finds the coin is said to be assured of an especially happy year.

Christmas is not associated with presents like in the West, although it is the day of St Nicolas, the protector saint of children, to whom presents are given. However, most Serbian families give presents on New Year's Day. Santa Claus (Deda Mraz) and the Christmas tree (but rather associated with New Year's Day) are also used in Serbia as result of globalization. Serbs also celebrate the Orthodox New Year (currently on January 14th of the Gregorian Calendar).

Religious Serbs also celebrate other religious holidays and even non-religious people often celebrate Easter (on the Orthodox date).

For Serbian meals, see Serbian cuisine.

Name

The etymology of the word "Serb" (root: Srb) is not known. Numerous theories exist, but none can be said to be certain or even probable:

1. Some believe that the name is of Sarmatian/Iranian origin. From which particular word it derives is unclear. However, one theory suggests it derives from the word "Sarv" which means "cypress" tree.
2. Some believe that the name comes from the word sebar, meaning "peasant." However, as peasants did not exist in pre-Medieval times while the name did, this seems unlikely.
3. Others say that the name comes from saborac, meaning "co-fighter." This could make sense but the words are too dissimilar. It is possible that saborac comes from sebar (that sebar sometimes meant "co-fighter"), which would make this theory more interesting, but there is not much basis for this claim either.
4. Some [1] believe that the name comes from srkati, meaning "to suck in," referring to people so closely united as if they share mother's milk.
5. Also, others argue that all Slavs originally called themselves Serbs, and that Serbs (and Sorbs) are simply the last Slavs who retained the name. If this is true, it still fails to explain the origin of the Slavic name (most of the above may apply).
6. One more theory is that the name comes from Latin. Latin authors, who are the first to mention the name, call them "Servi" or "Servoi," which means "slaves" or "serfs." This name probably dates from the time when the Romans conquered Thrace and Illyria.

However, one thing is certain: the name is very old. It is clearly a self-identification and not a given name as its root cannot be found in western European languages.

It is interesting that the etymology of the name of the Croats (root: Hrv) is also unknown. Some suggest that the names actually originate from the same root: indeed, the roots are distinctly similar (Srb/Hrv). However, it is not known whether this is merely coincidental or indicative of a common origin.

Regardless of the origin, the age and rarity of the name allows for certain historical conclusions based partly on it (for example, see Gordoservon below).

History

Main article: History of Serbs

See also: Origin of Serbs, History of Serbia, History of Croatian Serbs

The tribal designation Serboi first appears in the 1st century Geography of Ptolemy (book 5, 9.21) to designate a tribe dwelling in Sarmatia, probably on the Lower Volga River.

The Slavs came to the Balkans from a broad region in central and eastern Europe, which extended from the rivers Elbe in the west to the Dnieper in the east and from a point which touched the Carpathian mountains in the south and the river Niemen in the north. Different tribes settled in different parts of the Balkan peninsula, subsequently developing their distinct identities.

Their settlement in the Balkans appears to have taken place between 610 and 640. The first certain data on the state of the Serboi, Serbia, dates to the 9th century. The Serbs were Christianized in several waves between the 7th and 9th century with the last wave taking place between 867 and 874.

During and after that period, Serbs struggled to gain independence from the Byzantine. The first Serb states were Rascia or Raska and Zeta. Their rulers had a varying degree of autonomy, until virtual independence was achieved under Saint Sava, who became the first head of the Serb Orthodox Church and his brother Stefan Prvovencani, who became the first Serb king. Serbia did not exist as a state of that name but was, rather, the region inhabited by the Serbs; its kings and tsars were called the "King of the Serbs" or "Tsar of the Serbs", not "King of Serbia" or "Tsar of Serbia". The medieval Serbian state is nonetheless often (if anachronistically) referred to as "Serbia".

Serbia reached its golden age under the House of Nemanjic, with the Serbian state reaching its apogee of power in the reign of Tsar Stefan Uros Dusan. Serbia's power subsequently dwindled amid interminable conflict between the nobility, rendering the country unable to resist the steady incursion of the Ottoman Empire into south-eastern Europe. The Battle of Kosovo in 1389 is commonly regarded in Serbian national mythology as the key event in the country's defeat by the Turks, although in fact Ottoman rule was not fully imposed until some time later. After Serbia fell, Tvrtko Kotromanic the king of Bosnia used the title of "King of the Serbs, Bosnia, the West-ends and the Pomorje" from 1389 to 1391.

As Christians, the Serbs were regarded as a "protected people" under Ottoman law but in practice were treated as second-class citizens and often harshly treated. They were subjected to considerable pressure to convert to Islam; some did, while others migrated to the north and west, to seek refuge in Austria-Hungary.

At the beginning of the 19th century, the First Serbian Uprising succeeded in liberating at least some Serbs, for a limited time. The Second Serbian Uprising was much more successful, resulting in Ottoman recognition of Serbia as autonomous principality within the Empire. Serbia acquired international recognition as an independent kingdom on Congress of Berlin in 1878. However, many Serbs remained under foreign rule – that of the Ottomans in the south and of the Austrians in the north and west. The southern Serbs were liberated in the First Balkan War of 1912, while the question of Austrian Serbs' independence was the spark that lit the World War I two years later. During the war, the Serbian army fought fiercely, eventually retreated through Albania to regroup in Greece and launched a counter-offensive through Macedonia. Though they were eventually victorious, the war devastated Serbia and killed a huge proportion of its population – by some estimates, over the half of the male Serbian population died in the conflict, influencing the region's demographics to this day.

After the war, the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later called Yugoslavia) was created. Almost all Serbs now finally lived in one state. The new state had its capital in Belgrade and was ruled by a Serbian king; it was, however, unstable and prone to ethnic tensions.

During Second World War, the Axis Powers occupied Yugoslavia, dismembering the country. Serbia was occupied by the Germans, while in Bosnia and Croatia Serbs were put under the rule of the Italians and the fascist Ustase regime in the Independent State of Croatia. Under Ustase rule in particular, Serbs and other non-Croats were subjected to systematic genocide in which hundreds of thousands were killed.

After the war, the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was formed. As with the pre-war Yugoslavia, the country's capital was at Belgrade. Serbia was the largest republic, however, the Communist regime of Josip Broz Tito diluted its power by establishing two autonomous provinces in Serbia, Kosovo and Vojvodina.

Communist Yugoslavia collapsed in the early 1990s, with four of its six republics becoming independent states. This led to several bloody civil wars as the large Serbian communities in Croatia and Bosnia attempted to remain within Yugoslavia, which now consisted of only Serbia and Montenegro. Another war broke out in Kosovo (see Kosovo War) after years of tensions between Serbs and Albanians. About 200,000 Serbs left Croatia during the "Operation Storm" in 1995, and another 200,000 left Kosovo after the Kosovo War, and settled mostly in Central Serbia and Vojvodina as refugees.

• The territorial placement of Serbs in Yugoslavia according to the 1981 census data
  The territorial placement of Serbs in Yugoslavia according to the 1981 census data
• 
  Serbs in Serbia as per 2002 census data for Central Serbia and Vojvodina, and 1991 census data for Kosovo
• 
  Serbs in Montenegro as per 2003 census data
• 
  Serbs (red) in Bosnia and Herzegovina as per 2005 data

Subgroups

The subgroups of Serbs are commonly based on regional affiliation. Some of the major subgroups of Serbs include: Šumadinci, Vojvođani, Bačvani, Banaćani, Sremci, Crnogorci, Bokelji, Hercegovci, Semberci, Krajišnici, etc.

Some Serbs, mostly living in Montenegro and Herzegovina are organised in clans. See: list of Serbian tribes.

Cognate peoples

These peoples are the closest relatives of Serbs:

• Montenegrins (Montenegro)
• Yugoslavs (Serbia-Montenegro)
• Muslims (Serbia-Montenegro)
• Bosniaks (Bosnia)
• Croats (Croatia)
• Bunjevci (Vojvodina)
• Šokci (Vojvodina)
• Krašovani (Romania)
• Goranci (Kosovo and Metohia, Serbia-Montenegro)
• Janjevci (Kosovo and Metohia, Serbia-Montenegro)

See also

• List of Serbs
• Serbian Genealogical Society
• Serbophobia
• Serbs of Croatia
• History and culture of Serbs in Vojvodina

References

General references

• Gonen, Amiram, ed., The Encyclopedia of the Peoples of the World. New York: Holt. 1993. ISBN 0805022562. p. 525, gives the following statistics for Serb population in the former Yugoslavia

Serbia	6.2 million
Montenegro	0.5 million
Bosnia-Herzegovina	1.5 million
Croatia	0.6 million