Historical Methods

I thought my presentation yesterday about Sports in Yugoslavia went alright. I started off by explaining what was the motive to my topic, which was about the 1992 Olympic when the US Dream Team played the Croatian team in the Final. Since that experience of watching the entire tournament occurred when I was young, it had a lasting effect on me that became part of the inspiration to my paper. I thought I did a decent job of explaining my motive then transition it into the intention of my research paper. From that point on, I relaxed a little and was able to explain each step of my research paper.

I then begin to explain how important it was to understand the history to the break up of Yugoslavia, which helps people understand why there is such an intense rivalry among each other in the Balkan. After briefly informing about the background to Yugoslavia, I then explain the sociology to sports in Communists view. I thought it was also important that people understand why the communists government put such a heavy emphasis on sports. From that point on though, I thought I got a little sloppy with my presentation. I Started off strong initially but I felt like I tailed off towards the end. Part of I felt like was because I ran out of steam… which was a disappointment because I thought I had the audience’s attention from the beginning. I don’t know if I made a strong argument that sports played a role in the Balkan politic, even though it did played a factor to the tensions between the Serbs and the Croats. I finished my presentation by discussing the sources I used for my research, which was mainly newspaper articles for interviews, books about history of Yugoslavia and the sociology behind communist sports, and a video clip I found of a soccer riot in Zagreb. Overall, I did not feel too bad about my presentation, I just wished I finished strong like the way I started in the beginning. Hopefully my presentation made sense and was informative for the class, but I felt I could have definitely improve in some area.

I came in late and missed the first 10 minutes or so of the movie, but I saw the rest of the movie for the most part… I came away pretty amazed by the lifestyle these sworn virgins lives in. They basically sacrificed a important aspect of life (family, love, and sexual relationships) and traded it all for equality in the Albania society. Although I was amazed by the value of “being treated as equal,” I can’t help wondering if these women would do the same if they can do it over again. I know the director said that these women stopped wondering “what if’s” a long time ago, and caution us that we lived in a different generation/society than these sworn virgins; but I think it is a worthy question to ask if they regret on missing a huge aspect of life.

I was also curious what was Communists role in all this? What was their view on this practice? It’s hard to believe the government not interfere with this practice at all, even though it only affected a small amount of population. It was unique though to see the respect these women commands in their society… they were treated equally as men and carried themselves no differently than their male counterpart. You can tell by the way they talk to other men and the way their body posture express their mentality. I thought it was a true phenomenal to see such a circumstance in the world we live in today.

I really enjoy the film and felt compassion for some of the women in the film. I wonder what will happen to the 49yrs old who is planning on coming to America. From the conversation she had with the director in the film, it was clear that she lamented following the Sworn Virgin path. She made a complete sacrifice for her family and I wonder if she will receive what she deserves.

Our group compared the map of Croatia based on Population Density and geography. From looking at the population density of the Croatia Map, we noticed that the density tends to be strong on the Northern Part and the Southern Sea Coast part of the country. There also seem to be a lack of population density on the Northern Sea Coast of Croatia. It was strange to me that a large portion of the sea-coast had lack of population, since coast usually is the most populated area in a country. 

Originally, I thought the strong density indiciates where the capital and large cities of Croatia is located. I even thought that the strong population density area might due to industrial locations, similar to the Czechoslovakia Map we studied in class Tuesday. However, after comparing the map with the geography portiton of Croatia, I was not sure if that was the case in Croatia. For example, I was not aware that the Northern Sea Coast part were mostly occupied by mountains. I was surprise to see that the population density of Croatia has such a strong relationship with the geography of the country.