Bárkányi Ildikó szerk.: A Móra Ferenc Múzeum Évkönyve: Studia Ethnographica 7. (Szeged, 2011)

Klamár Zoltán: Jelek és emlékezet - a térfoglalás topolyai (SRB) példái. A nemzeti identitás térbeli megjelenítésének hatása az emikai csoportok otthonosság érzetére

Symbols and Memory - Space Usage in Topolya Effect of National Identity Representations in Space on the Community Feeling of Ethnic Groups by ZOLTÁN KLAMAR Topolya (today Backa Topola, in Serbia) once a county seat in the Hungarian Kingdom today is situated in the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, in Serbia. In 1971, out if its 15979 inhabitants 13132 were of Hungarian nationality. By 2002 the number of the members of different ethnic communities had considerably changed, due to the migrations generated by the Yugoslav wars between 1991 and 1995. In 2002 out of the 16171 inhabitants 4699 were Serbian, 426 were Montenegrin, 376 were Yugoslavian, 40 were Albanian, 4 were Bosnian, 1 was Bulgarian, 4 were Gorani, 9582 were Hungarian, 33 were Macedonian and 45 were Muslim by nationality. The shifts of regime and the administrative role of the town have restructured the tradition and practice of space symbols. Parallel to the official names traditional geographic names also survived. Topolya has never been a homogenous community. Unlike neighbouring settlements, Topolya's separate town parts continuously competed with each other. Nonetheless, this process had slightly changed by the 1970s. A relative economic growth has gradually eliminated social differences. An officially generated 'feeling of brotherhood' covered latent nationalism within the community. The Southern Slavic community continuously settling in the town managed to get acquainted with the language and culture of the local population in a short time. Due to their living sparsely within the Hungarian community, their children quickly learnt the language of the majority. This process often resulted in conflicts within families, mainly between parents and children. The continuous migration of population has brought about identity conflicts and the alienation of different ethnic communities from each other. In the 1990s the ethnic migration in the Balkan region brought new Serbian population into the town. They instead of adapting to the majority community wanted to restructure local community. Their endeavour was encouraged by the official policy aiming at assimilating the majority of original inhabitants to the minority ethnic community. The unstable ethnic identity of the newcomers resulted in growing distrust and lack of communication between the different ethnic groups. An important factor in occupying space is the practice of giving geographical names. It is visible from our examples that the geographical names of Topolya went under significant change during the 20

th century. Each new regime renamed streets and squares, making town dwellers adapt to a new identity. In contradiction to these political efforts, well-known symbols of national and local identity help the Hungarian community of Topolya to maintain its national identity. Naming and signalling the objects in space plays a significant role in the life of any community, let it be an original ethnic community or a community of new settlers. In the case of Topolya, after a while Serbian geographic names will also be used parallel to Hungarian names. After this can we witness the birth of a new, Serbian local identity in the town, shared by the members of the Serbian ethnic community and independent from the political endeavours of the current regime. 54