Плави хоризонти Радојка Николића: од микроисторије до социјалне антропологије

English title: Blue Horizons of Radojko Nikolić: From Microhistory to Social Anthropology

The preface “Blue Horizons of Radojko Nikolić: From Microhistory to Social Anthropology” analyzes the research significance of Radojko Nikolić and his book Stone Book of Ancestors: On Inscriptions from Tombstones in Western Serbia. The text shows that Nikolić’s work is not merely a collection of epitaphs, but a complex reading of local culture, social relations, language, symbols, death, memory, and identity.

Tombstones and roadside memorials are interpreted as sources that provide insight into the life of rural western Serbia, especially into layers of the past that are weakly represented in conventional archival documents. Epitaphs record family relations, occupations, migrations, wars, accidents, illness, moral values, religious ideas, and the ways in which communities shape the memory of the dead.

Starting from Nikolić’s fieldwork, the preface situates his research within microhistory, cultural history, the history of mentalities, memory studies, and social anthropology. His contribution lies in the ability to use small, local, and seemingly marginal traces of the past to open broad questions about society, culture, death, heritage, and identity.