Are there major and well-defined differences between the cultures of each region of the former Yugoslavia?
Posted by Hopeful_Addition7834@reddit | AskBalkans | View on Reddit | 16 comments
I mean like the coast vs mountain cultural divide or anything.
(Coastal cultures tend to be more entrepreneurial, mountain cultures tend to be more conservative etc)
Or like how Northern Italy is more organized, and South is more chaotic and impulsive.
So, considering that there was an unequel influence by Venezia, Ottomans, Byzantine, Hungary, Russia etc, are there any well-defined cultural divides in terms of mentality/communication style/political leaning ?
tipoftheiceberg1234@reddit
Northwestern Yugoslavia (Slovenia and half of Croatia) are in the same cultural group as Austria, Slovakia and Hungary.
Coastal Croatia and Montenegro have Mediterranean influence.
Macedonia, Kosovo, southern Serbia and parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina have notable ottoman influence.
And then central Serbia is usually what people think of when they hear “Culture of Yugoslavia”. Coincidental, isn’t it.
Embarrassed_Egg9542@reddit
True. The north is more germanised. Montenegrins are made fun of because of their mountain origin, Croats are Italianised and Macedonia-Kossovo are albano-turkish
tipoftheiceberg1234@reddit
Well, I didn’t say that.
Embarrassed_Egg9542@reddit
Well, you did
tipoftheiceberg1234@reddit
If you think I said that then you’re as illiterate as you are annoying.
Embarrassed_Egg9542@reddit
At least I am not rude like you:
"Northwestern Yugoslavia (Slovenia and half of Croatia) are in the same cultural group as Austria, Slovakia and Hungary." Germanized, Austrians are Germans
"Coastal Croatia and Montenegro have Mediterranean influence." Thats Venetian influence=Italianized
"Macedonia, Kosovo, southern Serbia and parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina have notable ottoman influence" there are ethnic Albanians there and turkish culture is wide spread
tipoftheiceberg1234@reddit
You can add dumb to the list
Young_Owl99@reddit
Isn’t Serbia what Russia is to Soviet Union ?
tipoftheiceberg1234@reddit
Pre much
_BREVC_@reddit
The cultural, aesthetic and “mentality” divide is huge between specific Croatian regions. An extreme example would be comparing something such as Istria (full-blown Slavic Italy, relatively fancy and polite but more reserved people, generally more liberal and affluent) with Banovina (just more of Bosnia, but in Croatia).
But two very interesting spots are the Primorje-Gorski Kotar County and the Lika-Senj County. The first is a nice stretch of coast pretty similar to Istria (in all of the above aspects), but with a whole bunch of rural, mountainous hinterland. The people that live there though - even though they are drunk lumberjacks that wrestle bears - are pretty timid, hardworking and pretty chill in terms of politics as well. Lika-Senj County is the opposite - it is a huge rural outback populated by exactly the kind of people you think, but its thin stripe of the Adriatic is also the same.
Rider_167@reddit
In Lika-Senj the biggest coastal town is Senj itself right? With a population just under 6,000, almost a big village, so it seems like the overall population of the county is much more interior-dominated than coastal.
_BREVC_@reddit
Yeah, but pretty much the entire county is very sparsely populated, so Senj is almost the same size as its administrative capital, Gospić. Overall, about a quarter of the county’s population is coastal.
Happy-Hour88@reddit
Thanks for this! What would you say about the Dubrovnik area, what differentiates them?
_BREVC_@reddit
Nothing from the rest of coastal Dalmatia, really. Well-off (in comparison to many other regions), hospitable and friendly but sometimes also sleazy and stingy, and politically leaning towards Croatian nationalism and conservativism. But this is most of Dalmatia on the coast, and all of these characteristics stereotypically go into further extremes the more inland you go in that region.
Culturally, Dalmatia is… really Croatian? As in, I don’t think there’s quite anything like it. Some foreigners that haven’t seen much or any of it compare it to Italy, but I think the closest comparison would be “what if Greece was Catholic”.
Beautiful-Dish-6275@reddit
As a Dalmatian id say Dubrovnik is little more fancy, kind of like Istria, compared to tge rest of Dalmatia.
Also the difference between coastal Dalmatia and inland Dalmatia is pretty big despite being close to each other.
HarrowingOfTheNorth@reddit
Dad would say "behind the mountains" is that still true?