ABSTRACT
During the First World War, ethnographers and folklorists played a critical role in facilitating the process of primitive accumulation in the Balkans. In the words of the ethnographers themselves, research expeditions in Habsburg-occupied territories were seen as directly contributing to the war effort. One critical research expedition occurred in 1916, led by Austrian folklorist Arthur Haberlandt, with the support of the Austro-Hungarian imperial government. This expedition went through Montenegro, Albania, Kosovo, and Serbia. Through his research, Haberlandt produced an evolutionist narrative that linked the Balkans’ level of agricultural development with its level of civilization. Haberlandt created a closed feedback loop in which the poor fertility and under-cultivation of the soil are both the cause and result of Balkan primitivity. Ultimately, Haberlandt’s research participates in the process of so-called primitive accumulation, by cataloguing the economic potential of the Balkans. This research is disseminated both through texts and photographs. Through his photographs, we are able to witness the process of intra-European racialization in action as his photographs link physical characteristics with their capacity for different types of work. This process was not without resistance, however. Some of Haberlandt’s photographed subjects resist capture by practicing a form of ethnographic refusal, as has been theorized within Indigenous studies. This chapter contextualizes the practice of ethnography as primitive accumulation in the context of global colonialism, racial capitalism, and the Habsburg Balkans’ position as proximate colonies.
