Voyvodovo identities at the crossroads of interpretative paradigms. Symbolic interpretation of Voyvodovo religiosity

Abstract

The article is focused on Voyvodovo, a village in the Danube region of northwestern Bulgaria. The authors discuss collective identities of Voyvodovans, before theirresettlement to Czechoslovakia after WWII. Founded by the Protestant Czech speaking families from Romanian Banat, Voyvodovo has traditionally been labelled as ethnoconfessional community. The authors analyze this assumption and show - using mainly the written memoirs of Petr Klepáček, a Voyvodovan by descent, - that, although the faith was the main factor shaping villagers' collective identity, it was possible to be a nonbeliever in Voyvodovo. They argue that religious "vocabulary" was used to communicate relationships of different types and served as symbolic tool. Faith provided a platform for resolving disputes of non religious nature, so even people who were not religious (did not believe) respected the priority of faith on a symbolic level.