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INTERACTION BETWEEN TRADITIONAL RELIGIOUS VIEWS
AND THE VLACHS’ EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM IN THE REGION OF HOMOLJE, SERBIA1
J. Milenovic
A significant number of ethnic communities lives within the territory of the Republic of Serbia. Their principal feature is the existence of traditional norms and ties within the framework of their ethnic communities. The communities have explicit cultural elements: archaic folk customs, folklore, and ethnic languages. Implicit cultural elements, such as knowledge, cultural values, behavioral norms, legends, myths, and humor hold a special place. At the present stage of social development, the traditional lifestyle pattern influences ethnic groups negatively, contributing to their marginalization in all spheres of social life.
The Vlachs ethnic community residing in the territory of the Homolje region is a particularly segregated social group. Its characteristic features include strongly pronounced religious traditions and belief in black magic and sorcery, the existence of sorcerers, wizards, and the afterlife. These beliefs were always integral parts of their history, culture, lifestyle and occupations (garniture and animal breeding). Only a small number of community members is engaged in business and the service industry. The natural and geographic features and resources of the Homolje region do not afford its population an opportunity to develop profitable agriculture.
The only primary school in the territory of the Homolje region where this study was undertaken, Miladin Buchanovic, is located in the town of Vlaola. A preschool group and a reception class are organized at the school. Its branch classes, from the first to fourth, are located in the closest villages. Their personnel from northeastern Serbia are fully competent and qualified for the profession of primary school teacher. All subject teachers and class supervisors have high (two years) and complete higher education. There is no secondary school in the territory of the Homolje region. They are located in the nearby towns of Majdanpek, Bor, and the municipality of Zagubica.
This situation is one of the causes for the unsatisfactory state of education in the region of Homolje. As a rule, the Vlachs complete their elementary education (eight years of schooling) at the basic school. The number of Vlachs who have
1 This work is the result of a study performed within the framework of the project "Material and Spiritual Culture of Kosovo and Metohija" (registration number 178028) implemented with the financial support of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technical Development of the Republic of Serbia. The principal facilitator of project implementation is the Pristina Institute of Serbian Culture.
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finished secondary school is insignificant, and highly qualified persons (those who have obtained a full-fledged higher education degree) are rather scant. Thus, the ethnic community of Vlachs in the region of Homolje is the most vulnerable ethnic group in Serbia.
The purpose of this study is to determine and describe the factors indicating the actual influence of the Vlachs' traditional religious beliefs on their educational system. The analysis of answers from poll respondents with different levels of education has shown significant differences in the influence of religious beliefs on education. The measurement scale used in the process of analysis was created on the basis of 247 respondent answers (the residents of the Vlach region of Homolje) assessing the influence of religious beliefs on education. The study results are assessed with the help of a five-position sequential Likert scale. The scale is based on 15 statements. A scale for measuring the degree of agreement was posited after each statement: a) I agree, b) I am not sure, c) I disagree. The scale was constructed for this study. With the help of this sequential scale, we performed analysis, processed the data obtained, and made necessary adjustments. The study was performed during the period from November to December 2009. The poll was the experimental basis of the study. Respondents were selected with the help of the continuous selection method. The total number of respondents is 247. They resided in Vlaole, Jasikovo, and Debeli Lug of the Homolje region. The models used in the process of the study were the descriptive and the transversal (probabilistic) models, and the methodological tools were developed by the author.
The data obtained in the process of the studies was processed by means of the analysis of principal components (statistical procedure), factor analysis, and the Varimax rotation method with a t-test (see Table 1). The CMO indicator value (CMO=0.867) exceeds the recommended value of 0.60. The veracity check of the data obtained utilizing the Bartlett sphericity coefficient has shown that the statistical error between the variables being compared is at the level of p<0,001 (p=0,000). This is evidence of correlation matrix calculation reliability. According to the data presented in Table 1, the adequacy of the selective test was confirmed. Analysis of the principal components detected three principal factors whose characteristic values exceeded one: 1) black magic (28.4236%), 2) sorcery (24.3278%), and 3) afterlife (22.1468%). This three-component solution explains 74.8982% of the total variation (see: Table 1).
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Table 1
Evaluation of the Influence of Vlachs' Religious Beliefs on Their Education
COMPONENTS
Black magic
a5 Human life is wholly predetermined by destiny.
a14 A human being cannot be the master of his or her life.
a12 Back in my early childhood my elders told me that my fate was predetermined by someone from above.
a9 I do not want to agree with the idea that black magic exists but I keep thinking about it.
a2 Black magic is in existence throughout Serbia, and this is indisputable.
Sorcery (healing)
CMO=0.86
p=0.000
28,4236%
■,862
,837
,832
,824
,817
24,3278%
a1 Healers often cure diseases that are considered to be incurable by official
,848
medicine.
a15 I do not see any grounds to disbelieve sorcerers and healers because doctors
themselves visit them.
a7 Treatment with the blood of wild animals is the most efficient cure. ,835
a10 Sorcerer's herbs and rites release children from fear, possession, the evil eye,
K y ,826
and evil spirits.
a4 Visiting a doctor is a Satanic rite performed against the word of God. ,814
Afterlife 22,1468%
a3 Humans are guests (cosmic dust) on planet Earth. ,842
a13 Worldly life passes by and the spiritual (real) one takes place in the afterlife. ,839
a6 I do not fear death because I shall enter the Kingdom of Heaven, Paradise. ,828
a11 Our dead are always with us. ,812
a8 I believe in the existence of spirits. ,806
The Varimax method provided a simple structure solution with the help of an orthogonal transformation, whereupon each variable bears 5 loads for all factors but the maximum factor load pertains to a specific single component. The load reflects connection between a variable and a factor, being a semblance of the correlation coefficient. It is evident that adherence to black magic, sorcery, and the afterlife is characteristic of the Vlach ethnic community in the region of Homolje. This determined the culture of the Vlachs' everyday and labor activities throughout the history of the community and encompassed the overwhelming majority of the population of the region up to the present day. All of this affected the quality of public life, and particularly the education process as an important factor in the revitalization of the rural community and emancipation of the population (see Table 2).
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Table 2
The Educational Level of Vlachs and their Assessment of the Impact of Beliefs on their Education (ANOVA)
Quadratic Deviation df Average Deviation F p
Within-group variance 3736,121 4 1242,701 298,127 ,000
Between-group variance 1283,841 236 3,5471
Total 5019,962 240
It can be seen from Table 2 that the rated F-test value (F=298,127), with four degrees of freedom for each of the compared variances (df=4), is statistically significant at the level of p<0,001 (p-0,000).
The data shows (see Table 3), that the group of Vlachs with higher education has the highest level of significance (М=55,3748, SD=2,06357, and a=0,22489). The Vlachs that were educated in grammar schools and colleges come in second (M=51,5441, SD=1,05214, and a=0,14136). They are followed by the Vlachs with secondary special education (vocational and technical schools).
Table 3
The Level of Education of Vlachs and their Assessment of the Impact of Beliefs on their Education (Descriptives)
95% Average Significance
No. M SD a Lower Limit Upper Limit
Unschooled 72 39,5467 5.63204 2.68791 36,2354 51,2145
Secondary general school 107 44,6612 5,64103 2,30451 38,7432 50,5947
Vocational school Technical school Grammar school 56 47,8108 1,84432 ,12557 47,5635 48,0572
College, lyceum 8 51,5441 1,05214 ,14136 51,2617 51,8271
Higher education 4 55,3748 2,06357 ,22489 54,9222 55,8147
Total: 247 47,7875 3,24662 1,09685 45,7452 51,5016
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The lowest average level of significance corresponds to the rated criteria for the Vlachs who have an elementary school education (М=44,6612, SD=5,64103 and a=2,30451) or no education at all (М=39,5467, SD=5,63204 и 0=2,68791). Variance analysis has demonstrated that the general value of diversities is equal to 0,000. The results of calculations have demonstrated that the Vlachs' understanding of the importance of education increases in proportion to their level of education, fostering understanding of the negative impact of beliefs, black magic, and sorcery on education.
The foregoing means that the Vlachs' beliefs in black magic, sorcery, and the afterlife are important components of their everyday life, tradition, and culture, influencing the quality of life of the ethnic community in the Homolje region in a substantial way. On the one hand, understanding the importance of tradition and culture is indispensable to preservation of the Vlach ethnicity under the most arduous existential conditions, while on the other hand, at the present stage of globalization, the traditional lifestyle influences the ethnic groups of Vlachs in a negative way, constituting the main cause of their uneven development and sociopolitical and economic backwardness (Milenovic, 2011).
Millennial folk customs and traditions are native elements of the Vlachs' culture; they will never reject them or reject them only partially (Durlic, 1996, 2002, 2003). Those social mindsets are contradictory to the requirements of modern civilization, where education and training are considered the principal components of social and economic prosperity. The results of the study have shown that the Vlachs' beliefs in black magic, sorcery, and the afterlife are the main obstacles on the path to education and modernization of the Homolje region.
This study confirms the hypothesis that magic holds a prominent place in the culture and life of the Vlach ethnic community in the Homolje region ^иЬ, Павловски, 2009). The analysis of the experiment results permitted us to elicit the key factor: belief in black magic. Thus, in the totality of respondents' assessments it gained the majority of votes; thereby, beliefs in sorcery, black magic, and the afterlife are characteristic of all the Vlachs (Milenovic, 2013; Durlic, 2010; ДурлиЬ и Боjковиh, 2005). With regard to the gender roles, we can state with confidence that the Vlach women believe in the existence of black magic implicitly (Milenovic, 2012). They are obsessed with magic: They are confident in its actual existence and unlimited power, and link all stress-producing events with black magic, thinking that the events occurring are under the control of its supreme will.
The following results were obtained in the process of theoretical and experimental studies of Vlachs' religious beliefs in black magic, sorcery, and the afterlife:
1. The Vlachs are a marginal ethnic group residing in the territory of the northeastern Serbian region. In some circles they are considered a forgotten Balkan ethno-religious minority. The Vlachs have no official language or alphabet; they use the language of the country of their residence. Wishing to improve their children's mastery of the official language in the country of their residence, the Vlachs encounter new problems en route. Many secondary schools in the region are still segregated with respect to mastery of language: The language of tuition is not the native Vlach language, but the language of their country of residence -Serbian. Therefore, some pupils cannot digest the educational material. Later on,
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this impacts the process of average special education. As a result, Vlach youth cannot obtain quality higher education because they have a low level of elementary and secondary education;
2. The influence of traditions, customs, and beliefs in black magic, sorcery, and the afterlife is of paramount importance in Vlach society even today. Those beliefs have always been an integral part of their history, culture, lifestyle and occupations, impacting the quality of education in a substantial way;
3. The experimental study has established the existence of three factors: black magic, sorcery, and the afterlife. The analysis of answers from respondents with different levels of education has demonstrated significant differences in the assessment of the impact of religious beliefs on education. It should also be also noted that those Vlachs who have a full higher education understand all of its advantages and are aware of the negative impact of beliefs on the ethnic community members' education. Those Vlachs with a low level of education doubt the usefulness of the knowledge obtained at various educational institutions;
4. It is necessary to make education (at least at the secondary school level) open and accessible to the Vlach ethnic community in the Homolje region in order to overcome the identified problem efficiently. For representatives of ethnic minorities, the problem of preserving their own cultural identity is one of the most serious ones. The Ministry of Education of Serbia expresses its concern about the deterioration of the cultural and educational situation of this ethnic minority, one of the most ancient on the Balkan Peninsula. Should the Vlachs disappear, their rich national culture and unique ethnic language will be buried in oblivion; therefore, it is necessary to apply our best efforts to prevent this.
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Translated from Russian by Znanije Central Translations Bureau
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