Narratives of Former Bosnian Detainees : Concentration Camp Rituals

• This article analyzes the experiences retold by former concentration camp detainees who were placed in concentration camps like civilians at the beginning of the Bosnian war in the 1990s. The article aims to describe the recounted social interaction rituals after time spent in a concentration camp as well as identifying how these interactions are symbolically dramatized. In their stories of crime and abuse in the concentration camps, the detainees reject the guards’ actions and the designation of ‘concentration camp detainee’. The retold stories of violation and power rituals in the camps show that there was little space for individuality. Nevertheless, resistance and status rituals along with adapting to the conditions in the camps seem to have generated some room for increased individualization. To have possessed some control and been able to resist seems to have granted the detainees a sense of honor and self-esteem, not least after the war. Their narratives today represent a form of continued resistance.

Subject headings

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Sociologi -- Sociologi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Sociology -- Sociology (hsv//eng)

Keyword

sacred symbols

stigma

humiliated self

emotions

de-ritualization

sociology

sociologi

sociologija

Samhällsvetenskap

Social Sciences

Freds- och utvecklingsstudier

Peace and Development Studies

Kriminologi

Criminology

Socialpsykologi

Social Psychology

Socialt arbete

Social Work

Sociology

Sociologi

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

kon (subject category)