Difference between revisions of "Budženje (Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Croatia)"

As a verb, budžiti is often used with prefixes. Thus zbudžiti, and an even more powerful skarabudžiti have a stronger connotation of cobbling something together quickly – in order that it might hold for a minimum period of time. Nabudžiti, on the other hand, emphasises the quality of augmentation, or making something bigger and stronger, but in a rough manner. Prebudžiti has an additional sense of transforming something into something else by rough rigging. The noun, budževina (the product of budženje) is sometimes modified with the prefix kara- as in karabudževina. In this instance it serves to augment words it precedes in a particularly rough manner. Karabudževina could therefore, but only imperfectly, be rendered as ‘mega-cobbling together’.

As a verb, budžiti is often used with prefixes. Thus zbudžiti, and an even more powerful skarabudžiti have a stronger connotation of cobbling something together quickly – in order that it might hold for a minimum period of time. Nabudžiti, on the other hand, emphasises the quality of augmentation, or making something bigger and stronger, but in a rough manner. Prebudžiti has an additional sense of transforming something into something else by rough rigging. The noun, budževina (the product of budženje) is sometimes modified with the prefix kara- as in karabudževina. In this instance it serves to augment words it precedes in a particularly rough manner. Karabudževina could therefore, but only imperfectly, be rendered as ‘mega-cobbling together’.

The word budženje has a Turkish feel for Serbian speakers, possibly due to the sound dzh that occurs mainly in words of Turkish origin. However, rather than having a Turkish origin, the word may have come from an etymologically obscure Romani word ‘budzho’, meaning ‘bundle’, ‘pack’ or ‘rag’ but also ‘scam’ (Victor Friedman, personal communication). This etymology resonates interestingly with the local acknowledgement of Roma as renowned masters of budženje, as illustrated by the 2003 documentary Pretty Dyana: A Gypsy Recycling Saga. The film gives an insight into rigging as a way of life, showing how Roma refugees from Kosovo living in Belgrade lovingly rebuild Dyanas – the successor to the legendary Citroen CV2s – equipping them with radios, cigarette lighters and even miniature TVs, and attaching them to their carts (Mitić 2003)<ref>Mitić, B. 2003. Pretty Dyana: A Gypsy recycling saga. Serbia: Dribbling Pictures, 45 min.  http://kosovoroma.wordpress.com/2008/01/10/pretty-diana-a-gypsy-recycling-saga/ or at: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2181669920911563723 </ref>.  

The word budženje has a Turkish feel for Serbian speakers, possibly due to the sound dzh that occurs mainly in words of Turkish origin. However, rather than having a Turkish origin, the word may have come from an etymologically obscure Romani word ‘budzho’, meaning ‘bundle’, ‘pack’ or ‘rag’ but also ‘scam’ (Victor Friedman, personal communication). This etymology resonates interestingly with the local acknowledgement of Roma as renowned masters of budženje, as illustrated by the 2003 documentary Pretty Dyana: A Gypsy Recycling Saga. The film gives an insight into rigging as a way of life, showing how Roma refugees from Kosovo living in Belgrade lovingly rebuild Dyanas – the successor to the legendary Citroen CV2s – equipping them with radios, cigarette lighters and even miniature TVs, and attaching them to their carts (Mitić 2003)<ref>Mitić, B. 2003. Pretty Dyana: A Gypsy recycling saga. Serbia: Dribbling Pictures, 45 min.  http://kosovoroma.wordpress.com/2008/01/10/pretty-diana-a-gypsy-recycling-saga/ or at: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2181669920911563723 </ref>.  

As with other informal practices of ‘making do’ found in socialist societies such as ''[[economies of favours]]'' (see entry in this volume), budženje can be seen as both ‘normal’ and ‘abnormal’. As a practice and metaphor, budženje tends to hover between seeming opposites – not only between ‘normality’ and ‘abnormality’, but also between bricolage and engineering, sometimes emphasising one, sometimes the other, and sometimes suspended between the two. That budženje could be considered as a feat of engineering is attested to by a comment that a Belgrade taxi driver made in response to the author’s mention of ingenious solutions used to convert Fića to propane – ‘man, that’s mathematics!’  While ‘mathematics’ should normally be the exact opposite to budženje, there is a sense in which even budženje can be undertaken with ‘mathematical’ precision.

As with other informal practices of ‘making do’ found in socialist societies such as ''[[economies of favours]]'' (see entry in this volume), budženje can be seen as both ‘normal’ and ‘abnormal’. As a practice and metaphor, budženje tends to hover between seeming opposites – not only between ‘normality’ and ‘abnormality’, but also between bricolage and engineering, sometimes emphasising one, sometimes the other, and sometimes suspended between the two. That budženje could be considered as a feat of engineering is attested to by a comment that a Belgrade taxi driver made in response to the author’s mention of ingenious solutions used to convert Fića to propane – ‘man, that’s mathematics!’  While ‘mathematics’ should normally be the exact opposite to budženje, there is a sense in which even budženje can be undertaken with ‘mathematical’ precision.