The enduring agency of Fikret the smiling bodybuilder in Suada's journey

Hamer, Petra (author)

This article examines the agency of a deceased husband as it continues to affect his former wife’s life. Over thirty years have passed since he became one of the countless vic-tims of violence during the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina in the 1990s. Today, his wife keeps a memorial room in their hometown, preserving his memory as the first and most celebrated Bosnian bodybuilder, and ensuring that his legacy endures. These continuing bonds serve as both a mourning process and a celebration of his life. Two forms of agency of the dead are presented in the article: material and spiritual. The material agency is expressed through physical markers of remembrance such as the tombstone, the memorial room, and the commemorative plaque. The spiritual agency manifests in the dreams his wife experiences, which provide her with a sense of connection and guidance. This analysis examines the agency of the dead through the individual act of maintaining bonds with the deceased, while situating the narrative within the broader context of Verdery’s concept of the politicization of dead bodies. This approach high-lights how personal mourning intertwines with collective memory and cultural significance.

• Language: English
• Keywords: ethnology, cultural anthropology, agency of the dead, continuing bonds, memorialization, politicization, Prijedor, Bosnia and Herzegovina
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FF - Faculty of Arts
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Publication date: 01.01.2025
• Year: 2025
• Number of pages: Str. 74-99
• Numbering: Vol. 31, no. 2
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-175784
• UDC: 33:3(497.6)
• ISSN on article: 2232-3716
• DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17473016
• COBISS.SI-ID: 256334339
• Publication date in RUL: 07.11.2025

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Anthropological notebooks
• Publisher: Društvo antropologov Slovenije, = Slovene Anthropological Society
• ISSN: 2232-3716
• COBISS.SI-ID: 256898816

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian

Abstract

Članek obravnava odnos med ženo in njenim pokojnim možem, ki je bil ena izmed neštetih žrtev nasilja med vojno v Bosni in Hercegovini v devetdesetih letih prejšnjega stoletja. Od takrat je minilo več kot trideset let. V njunem rojstnem kraju žena Suada vodi spominsko sobo, kjer neguje spomin ne samo na svojega moža, temveč tudi na prvega in najbolj cenjenega bosanskega bodibilderja, ter skrbi, da njegova zapuščina ne bo pozabljena. Te trajne vezi služijo hkrati kot proces žalovanja in praznovanje njegove-ga življenja. V članku sta predstavljeni dve obliki delovanja mrtvih: materialna in duhovna. Materialna se izraža s fizičnimi oblikami spomina, kot so nagrobnik, spominska soba in spominska plošča. Duhovna pa se kaže v sanjah, ki jih ima njegova žena, in ki ji dajejo občutek povezanosti ter vodstva. Analiza preučuje delovanje mrtvih z individualnim dejanjem ohranjanja vezi s pokojnim, hkrati pa njuno zgodbo umešča v širši kontekst pojma politizacije mrtvih teles (Verdery 1999). Takšen pristop poudarja, da se os-ebno žalovanje prepleta s kolektivnim spominom in kulturnim pomenom.

• Keywords: etnologija, kulturna antropologija, vloga mrtvih, trajne vezi, ohranjanje spomina, politizacija, Prijedor, Bosna in Hercegovina

Projects

• Funder: EC - European Commission
• Project number: 101095729
• Name: The roles of the agency of the dead in the lives of individuals in contemporary society
• Acronym: DEAGENCY