SICANJE

This is a proposal for the SICANJE 2019 project. The purpose of the project is to create a bank of primary sources on the Croatian tradition of Sicanje and Bocanje in the region of Central Bosnia and Herzegovina. There is currently a lack of credible primary sources on this tradition, and since primary sources provide first-hand insights into a subject, a lack of availability of them greatly hinders further research in the field. This project proposes to fill the gap of the lack of these sources.

The practice of Croatian Catholic tattooing in central Bosnia is referred to as Sicanje, Bocanje, or Saranje. Sicanje and Bocanje both mean “to prick”. Terms which are fitting because these tattoos were and still are created through a process that involves the pricking of the skin with a needle. Saranje, the other term, means “coloring”, and this term is used because of the coloring matter used to produce the ink of the tattoo. Although this mixture does have variations from location to location, and throughout history, it is generally made with a gunpowder (or soot mixture) stirred with saliva, honey and water.

The tradition of Sicanje in the Balkans has evolved out of a long existing tradition of tattooing in the area that was then re-attributed to Christianity as religious conversions began taking place. The practice itself can be traced as far back as to the Illyrians or Thracians. We have found Greek depictions of Illyrians on vases, showing their tattoos, and this was then further confirmed by archeological findings in the necropolises of Glasnica where some short and very pointed bronze needles fixed to a handle were discovered, which were used for tattooing.

Two of the most influential scholars on this subject have been Dr. Ciro Truhelka and Edith Durham. Dr. Truhelka is a Croatian archeologist, historian and art historian who devoted much of his professional life to the study of the history of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Edith Durham, a British writer, became famous for her anthropological accounts of the Balkans in the 1920’s. These two scholars produced much of the credible research on this topic during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Since then, there have not been many academic publications on the subject, especially in a universal English language. It should be noted that there has been a recent resurgence of interest in the topic of Sicanje, which has surface through a myriad of online sources including a multitude of images, all of which lack proper citations and credibility. It is precisely this lack of citation that causes these sources to become invalid when it comes to their functionality or use in academia.

The SICANJE Project, at its immediate and core function, will create a bank of primary sources that will be available to future scholars for continued academic research of these people and this tradition. The project will be executed in two phases. Phase 1 will document this tradition through the use of photography and recorded voice interviews. Phase 2 will entail a transcribing of each interview, both in its original language and an English translation. These images and interviews will then be published on a platform that will make this information readily available to both scholars and the public for further academic research and learning. The SICANJE 2019 project looks to help preserve the culture and heritage of this tradition for future generations of scholarship, but also for future generations of Croatians to come.

 

About the Author:

Marija Maracic received her Masters in History specializing in Art History from Cleveland State University in 2016, where she studied the history of traditional Croatian Catholic Sicanje. During her studies she became aware of the lack of credible primary sources on the topic available to academia. This project, and the cultural preservation of the Croatian heritage is something that is particularly close to her heart. Ms. Maracic was born in Central Bosnia and her grandmothers, great grandmothers, and great great grandmothers carried this traditions of Sicanje. She is also a proud and active member of “Kraljica Katarina, KD Hrvata BiH", a nonprofit organization whose focus is the promotion of the heritage, customs and culture of the Croatian peoples of Bosnia and Herzegovina.