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Anthropological Perspective on Religious and Social Network Development: The Islamic Community in Croatia

By following anthropological and sociological theoretical account primarily based on Barth’s, Brubaker’s and Wimmer’s approach to social group identities and boundaries, in this presentation the main research goal is to describe and to analyze new religious and social networks within and between Islamic communities in Croatia. In a contemporary and changeable context Islamic communities as the minority religious communities are faced with different social and cultural challenges. Diverse consequences of post-transitions reveal the experiences of drastic changes by a variety of actors mirrored in the internal social and cultural heterogeneity. Outcomes are evident in different group and individual acculturation orientations and strategies along with changes in dominant social values, as well as in new social roles and tasks (e.g. Geiger, Punovski, Zrinščak 2009). In the theory religious networks provide specific culturally and socially conditioned services and they are related to the attendance of religious activities. However, the structural aspects of religious networks remain largely unknown (McCaffree and Saide 2017). This study is based on ethnographic methodology and in-depth interviews along with the research of historical archive aimed to investigate the relationship between religious network and social support through individual experiences and perspectives of community everyday life. The study describes various forms of social networks and cultural practices among three Islamic communities in two cities of Zagreb and Sisak and in the Kordun region. We hypothesized that the insufficient social support and lack of social security influence different types of religious networks development among members of the Islamic community. Religious networks in Islamic communities are based on ambivalent ties among different social actors, factors and institutions, primarily with ethnopolitical profile, decisively supporting monumental and one-dimensional group and individual identification strategy.

Anthropology, Religious Network, Social Network, Islamic Community, Croatia

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