ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the most relevant concepts and forms of identification, as they have (re)appeared in the course of Yugoslav history. Yugoslavia was a European state with a highly diverse and complex mix of ethnicities and cultures. The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was a federation of six republics and two autonomous provinces. The fact that socialist Yugoslavia, proclaimed already during the war in 1943, was born out of the antifascist struggle of "all Yugoslav peoples" became over time one of the main pillars of legitimization of the new state, subsumed under the motto of "brotherhood and unity." The breakup of Yugoslavia led the newly created states to establish new social and political mythologies based on old forms of identity—language, ethnic/"national origin," "religion/confession," and the alleged common past. Since the political changes in 2000, which are regarded as an important break in the most recent history of the post-Yugoslav area, there have been further transformations of the political context.
