This paper examines the implicit survival of core concepts from the outdated discipline of ethnopsychology such as national character and mentality in shaping negative prejudices and (auto)stereotypes toward speakers from the Prizren-Timok dialect area. It also explores the emergence of linguicism as a discourse of linguistic power exercised by the speakers of Neo-Štokavian dialects which form the foundation of the Serbian standard language. The authors address intra-linguistic linguicism not only in everyday attitudes but also within academic and institutional settings responsible for shaping Serbian language, education, and scientific policy. They argue that there is insufficient awareness in the Serbian academic community of the complex relationship between language policy, standardization, and the status of both the standard variety and regional dialects. This gap has led to cases of discrimination against Balkanized dialects and their speakers even when individuals have mastered the standard language. Discrimination often arises from identifiable dialectal features or simply from regional origin. The paper calls for greater efforts in Serbia’s educational system to challenge harmful stereotypes and promote the preservation of Prizren-Timok dialects. These dialects are crucial to the ethnic and cultural identity of their speakers and represent a living tradition and valuable resource for linguistic research, especially in dialectology, historical linguistics, and etymology.

In our discussion we will explore how Ksenija Atanasijevic, while writing about the poets and philosophers of ancient Greece, but also about Saint Teresa of Avila and George Sand, expressed her own understanding of the importance of women's scientific and artistic creativity, and also their emancipation. By choice of women she will write about, as well as emphasis on certain qualities of their personalities and their work, and the philosophical concepts she supported, Ksenija Atanasijevic simultaneously created her implicit imaginary philosophical "I" in Portraits of Women. Therefore, the most precise genre definition of Portraits of Women would be fragments of flickering compassion towards the personalities she is describing, and compassion can be defined as a key characteristic of her entire oeuvre and life - empathy was the basis of Ksenija Atanasijevic's ethical philosophy and her social, pacifist and feminist engagement and at the same time it was in her opinion the most important value of human life. With this choice, Ksenija Atanasijevic also anticipated the stance of contemporary feminism on the necessity of creating a female canon for shaping a women's personal and creative identity.

Novel The Sixth Day by Rastko Petrovic, even though for a long time neglected by criticism, has recently been acknowledged as the best Serbian novel about World War I. At the centre of this novel, which has autobiographical elements, is the process of dehumanization, while war is represented as a purple cyclical journey to the very essence of human being as it goes through historical and personal turmoils. War, notwithstanding its traditionally "male" nature, is experienced as part of the cycle of maternal nature, which strives towards renewal and recommencement, substituting on several levels historical factography with suggestive mythical images. Petrovic's vision of the bloodshed becomes "the cycle of the feminine in nature," which expels from herself "the half rotten seed" in order to generate a new one. "War" novel by Rastko Petrovic, interpreted in the key of Neumann's theory of the primordial mysteries of the feminine, represents an anthropological and psychological study of matriarchal consciousness in artistic form. The mysteries of blood (menstruation, defloration, birth giving, transfiguration of milk into blood, and death) are dominant in Petrovic’s novel, highlighting the “transfigurative character of the feminine” and are the effects of the anima, whose function is fundamentally positive since it represents the awakening of consciousness and thus the overcoming of the anonymous and formless subconsciousness related to “matriarchal situation.” Despite some negative aspects, the figure of the Great Woman or the Great Mother in The Sixth Day should not be associated with the existentialist approach characteristic of the patriarchal view of women given that negative aspects ensue from the pre-archetype which contains in itself both both positive and negative aspect. It was through “geological layers of humanity” and human consciousness that Rastko Petrovic aimed to disclose “the primordial mysteries of the feminine”. [Project of the Serbian Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, Grant no. 47016: Interdisciplinarno istraživanje kulturnog i jezičkog nasleđa Srbije]

A lie is a cultural and semiotic fact – as it exists only in the society where truthfulness is mandatory. Although lying has been negatively judged in various ethical and religious systems, under the certain circumstances, it has always been perceived even as ethical or at least permitted. In the contemporary society, together with various variants of truth, lying too has been relativised. We are witnesses, at present, of the change in the communication protocol; where lying has been permitted only in the sphere of arts and play, it begun to be permitted in the sphere of social reality. In fact, with the loss of concrete conceptions of reality and truth, blatant lies have become, according to reticent convention, permitted or have been mildly judged in the public or political discourse. The concepts of lying and the stance towards it in the Serbian language and culture have been changing with cultural and social changes. The original concept of lying in the Serbian language, as it has been the case in the majority of IE languages, was closely related to the concept of error and shortcoming as well as with a joke and shenanigans. In the conscience of general public, as it has been recorded in Serbian epic poetry and folk tales, lying has been labeled as something fantastic, a fiction, or jolly exuberance as well as witticism with positive connotations. The research has shown that in the Serbian culture lying has a negative attribute, usually given to an archenemy or representatives of other nations, or a representative of the ruling class, or even a woman that symbolically represents a potential danger in a society with patriarchal worldview. A harmless joking lie that is told in entertainment purposes is peculiar for the members of the ‘own’ community. This concept of a liar as ’someone else’ could have roots in the Christian culture, where God is the guarantor of the truth while the archenemy (Devil) from within is the liar and the father of lies (Diablous mendax est et pater ejus.) The concept of lying in the contemporary era has been labeled as “powerful Other” and is most commonly related with the media pictures that create a parallel and deceitful reality because of the various interests of the powerful lobby or groups (politicians, corporations, banks etc.) that are the archenemy of the populous or a helpless individual. The omnipresence of lying, and weakening of the definition of truth, in the contemporary society, leads to a paradoxical situation where the concept of lying may not exist in the future because the necessary presumption of its existence is in fact the social and communicational obligation of telling the truth.

У раду се разматра лаж као комуникациони модел, да би се потом фокус пренео на анализу концепата лажи у српском језику и култури. Показује се да је лаж у српском народном стваралаштву била често концeптуализована као шаљива измишљотина, намењена забави. Поред тога, забележен је концепт лажи као штетног изрицања неистине, мотивисаног коришћу и стицањем моћи. Штетна лаж је у српским народним представама углавном повезана са моћним „Другим“, док се припадницима сопствене заједнице обично приписују невина, шаљива лаж или лаж као надмудривање. У савременој српској култури лаж је најчешће повезана са политичарима и медијима као носиоцима друштвене моћи.

The paper deals with the genesis of the image and the symbolism of one of the most striking figures in the imagined medieval bestiary - basilisk, and its related mythical animals - cockatrice, serpent's king, abraxas, both in the general and South Slavic context. An analysis of written sources, from antiquity to medieval and early modern epoch, the folk tradition, as well as artistic representations, show that basilisk and its related forms, emerged through joining the elements of the snake / dragon and the cock / bird. Although essentially ambivalent, they had essentially positive symbolism by representing the driving force and activity, the overcoming of opposites, the establishment of integrity, and the complexity of human nature and cosmic synthesis. [Project of the Serbian Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, Grant no. 47016: Interdisciplinarno istraživanje kulturnog i jezičkog nasleđa Srbije. Izrada multimedijalnog portala Pojmovnik srpske kulture and Grant no. 177029: Srednjovekovne srpske zemlje (13-15. vek): politički, privredni, društveni i pravni procesi]

The aim of this paper was to examine the approach to languages in the Croatian education system (language teaching in primary and secondary schools) in order to find out to what extent Croatian language policies described in national documents comply with objectives and standards of the European Union presented in many official documents by the Council of Europe, such as Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), The Framework of Reference for Pluralistic Approaches to Languages and Cultures (FREPA) or Guide for the Development and Implementation of Curricula for Plurilingual and Intercultural Education, and how far we are from creating a society of plurilingual and pluricultural individuals, which multilingual and multicultural European Union aspires to. We were also interested in tracing the evidence of positive attitudes and skills which should aid the development of plurilingual and pluricultural competence in the chapter Language and communication area in the National curriculum (Ministarstvo znanosti, obrazovanja i športa, 2010, pp. 30-79). It was discovered that not many skills and resources in the National curriculum comply with those in the FREPA, and a bigger number of those that do is not connected with language (plurlingualism), but with culture (pluriculturalism). It was also discovered that the number of languages taught in Croatian primary and secondary schools as a part of obligatory programme does not correspond with the objectives of the European Union that every citizen should be able to use at least two foreign languages in addition to their mother tongue, i.e. every student in Croatia is not given a chance to learn at least two foreign languages in the course of their obligatory education, so they would be able to use them as adults.

У раду се разматра концепт ружног у српском језику посредством анализе лексема ружно, грдно и гадно. Долази се до закључка да је концепт ружног у вези са имагинацијом земаљске материје, те да je формиран и у вези са опозицијама божанско–људско–животињско. Лексема ружно (<*ṷreng„савијати”, који се налази и у режати), која је преузела и семантичке компоненте лексеме грдно, одређена је опозицијом људско–нељудско, а њена иконичност садржи представу животињског, изопаченог понашања, недостојног човека. Појам грдног (<*gъrdъ <*gher„трти”, односно, *ghreu „оштар”) одређен је пак сликом неправилне, грубе, за обликовање неподесне материје. Естетске и етичке категорије у првобитном, али и у доцнијем, појмовном мишљењу мећусобно су повезане – зло и ружно стоје насупрот лепом и добром, али су и одређене њима.

This paper gives insight on Christiphor Crnilovich's multilayered and valuable painting art, lectures and ethnographic work, along with his biography. Within context of psycho-social environment in which Crnilovich has lived and created, as well as within context of this environment's relation towards an artist and a researcher, motivation of his local nickname "Kica Pustood" is being analysed.

The paper analyzes the painting Doll by Milena Pavlović Barili in the context of anthropology, fine arts and feminist studies. Phantasmic figures in the painting are discussed as symbols of transformation, gender and sexual identity tittuping, and their scenic “masking” as a platform for finding comprehensive creative personality, ironizing biological “specialization of females”. The name Doll suggests pondering about gender roles, because a doll is a must toy for girls, thus preparing them for motherhood and housework; in addition, it also carries a status of (beautiful) an object manipulated in men's world. Attaching a male head onto the ”Doll’s” body can be seen as a form of revolt and struggle to overcome inferior position. On one hand, the male head, with its size and audacity pushes into the background body /object doll-girl, while on the other hand, the head as a symbol of "men’s intelligence" provides subjectivity to the "doll" and the desired superiority in the world of male dominance. The Doll, with the characteristics of male power, simultaneously conceals and highlights the vulnerability and social marginalization of femininity. At the same time, in the desire for self-realization, the doll can fall into the trap of imitating men-- the struggle to gain power, but also could mean a recognition of one’s own/ female inadequacy and inferior position. However, the male’s naked body, deprived of the face and hands - and hence subjectivity and activity -is turned into a (beautiful) object and pushed into the background, emphasizing the ambiguity of the relationship of "male" and "female" position and hence opening up the possibility of various interpretations of the painting within the theory of gender, sexuality and creativity. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. 47016: Interdisciplinarno istraživanje kulturnog i jezičkog nasleđa Srbije. Izrada multimedijalnog internet-portala Pojmovnik srpske kulture]

?Beauty? - the crucial aesthetic category is conceived in the Serbian language by two lexemes: ?lepo? and ?krasno?. Iconicity of lexeme ?lepo? (Old Church Slavonic - l?p'' ?something that is bonded with something; mud, mortar or most often mud mixed up with chuff to ?glue with? or ?spread over with?) is linked with the imagination of soil, while the concept of beautiful is conceived by lexeme ?krasno? (I.E.*(s)qer-, ?beacon fire?) and is defined by heavenly and divine splendour. The difference in iconicity of the two lexemes, in essence, is the difference between terrestrial and heavenly beauties. The terrestrial beauty is defined by the creative innate impulse in humans to guide them towards amorphous but ?binding? matter that can be sculptured into ?beautiful? things with a function that is not necessarily utilitarian - but perhaps it had a sacramental character. On contrary, the heavenly beauty exemplifies manifestation of heavenly splendour - beacon of divinity, beacon of creativeness and effervescence which presents the terrestrial world in its glorious beauty. The picture of heavenly ?fire?, quite independently form the benefit it may bring us, especially from the benefit that may be gained from the terrestrial fire, as well as the pure aesthetical satisfaction, have defined the original concept of beauty as splendour in the Serbian language.

This work analyses the concept of the soul in the Slavic and the Serbian cultures in the context of general views on soul and concludes that the dual conception body-soul did not exist in the pagan Slavic world picture. It was developed in Slavic and Serbian culture along with the acceptance of Christianity, while the earlier, pagan culture held in a higher esteem the notion of the vegetative and emotive soul, closely related to the body and the idea of free soul - man’s double, who, nevertheless, implies a certain, although immaterial and not always apparent embodiment (“spiritual body” - ‘telo duhovno’). The iconicity of the lexeme ‘duša’ rests upon the opposition visible-invisible, which is reserved for the vegetative or organic soul, while the free soul depends on the opposition material-immaterial. The difference in the iconicity of the lexemes ‘duša’ (“soul”) and ‘duh’ (“spirit”) - although both stand in an etymological relation to ‘dah’ (“breath”), ‘disati’ (“to breath”), ‘duvati’ (“to blow”) - lies in the fact that ‘duh’ is conceptualized as a divine breath, ‘sila duhovna’ (“a divine force”), which can be individuated in part, but which maintains the characteristics of its divine or demonic origin and is related to the intellect and the will, elements of air and fire, while the ‘duša’ is individuated and linked to “lower” levels of human being - bodily functions and sensitivity related to the element of water.

The treatment of female body in the paintings of Zora Petrovic anticipate the feminist theories that originated during the 70’s and 80’s of the 20th century, which suggested androcentrism and absence of the female perspective and the necessity of re-evaluation on the concept of body. Through the expression of female body, in the traditional painter’s act, Zora Petrovic flirts with the social constructions of body and gender, intuitively pushing the boundaries towards the spiritual realm while treating body not only as an physical object but also as the bearer of the subjectivism and the point where personal and sexual identity, cultural and social stereotypes and relations between power and domination interconnect. The Act (1956/1957) represents an artistic deliberation on the social position of female body in the patriarchal capitalism with the elements of her own fictitious projections in search of the artist’s personal female and artistic identity, including her own intuitive artistic indication and conjecture on the feminist theories that had followed. The painting of this act depicts an act of self-identification, while the object of observation becomes the perspective of beholder who detaches the perspective of an observer while rendering his (male) absolute power ineffective. The naked body brings disarray by an indication of an erotic promise while dismissing an illusion of the absolute capitulation. The developed artistic form of ambiguous sexualised body that is revealed to the male voyeuristic observation transitions into the sensual dreaming of the model about own erotic and exhibitionistic body seductiveness which is, in fact, a provocation to the observer by its revealing eroticised position while encouraging a voyeuristic enjoyment that becomes an outcome of creation and observation of self-admired body, and in the process transposing the artist and the model into the voyeuristic roles. The innate understanding of eroticism, in the process of development of a new form of female act, in Zora Petrovic’s paintings, faces us with an array of ideological presumptions and stereotypes that are conceptualised around the perception of body as an object and as a bearer of subjectivism while allowing an opportunity to question own interpretations and boundaries of personal and social discourse on the subjects of body, gender and sensuality. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. br. 46017: Interdisciplinarno istraživanje kulturnog i jezičkog nasleđa Srbije. Izrada multimedijalnog internet portala "Pojmovnik srpske kulture"]

Analysis of the lexemes telo and put arrives to the conclusion that the original iconicity of the lexeme telo “body” (

In the Slavic folklore, a cat and similar other small animals with soft fur and numerous litters/offspring, represent symbols of a young female, bride woman, female genitals, home and hearth, appearing thus in fertility rituals, connected with food, knitting, weaving, and magic, but they are also associated with female demons, such as 'devour-eaters', 'child and harvest stealers'. All these are the cha­racteristics of the Great Mother Goddess, in her terrifying, chthonic appearance. The origin of the saying 'the first kittens should go down the drain' (should drawn in water) hence should be explained by the existence of the fertility rites, where the first litter of the cult animals was sacrificed to the Goddess in order to ensure future fertility; that is, the litter was thus 'returned' to the fertile water, as a symbol of mother's death. However, a more complete explanation requires ascertaining to an iconic meaning of the lexeme cat and litter which is the subject of the second part of this paper.