User:Zuva-siroce/Jasna Jojic

Jasna Jojic

(Bor, January 27, 1963) is a Serbian journalist, designer, and writer. Her previous work has been marked by research into Vlachs magic and culture. She is the first author who managed to unite the beliefs and practices of magic in eastern and northeastern Serbia.

Education
She studied philosophy at the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade until 1984, under the mentorship of Dr. Branko Pavlović and Dr. Aleksandar Kron. Later, she studied journalism and communication at the Faculty of Media and Communication, "Singidunum" University until 2009 under the mentorship of Dr. Boban Tomić and Dr. Darko Tanasković. She completed her master's studies at the Faculty of Political Sciences, majoring in journalism and communication, under the mentorship of Professor Dr. Cedomir Čupić.

Master thesis - question of matriarchy
Her work problematizes women's place in myth, magic, and early Christian religion. The thesis was based on the possibility of the existence of matriarchy in the Neolithic revolution until early Christianity. She also referred to modern theories about the creation and destruction of the mother cult. In her work, she stated that what distinguished a woman in this world is the power to give new life and her natural instincts can awaken different memories of the opposite sex. Fear arose, according to Freud and Jung, which determined the woman as the bearer of the ritual from which derived motives that can be found in archaeological sites. These sites contain drawings and statues in the form of a female body and uterus. An example of such a myth is the Venus of Willendorf. With the development of agriculture, patriarchy also developed, because all the "power" was in the physical strength of the man, who in the new system was capable of performing heavy physical work. The transition from patriarchy to matriarchy created a social climate that managed to maintain this order in the first millennium BC with the help of axiomatic Roman law, and the philosophical understandings of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. This kind of cultural conflict lasted during the period of Humanism and Renaissance, where dominance continued in the secular and sacred worlds, and the exception to this understanding was the painting of Leonardo Da Vinci and Titian, and in the poetry of Dante and Petrarch.

With the development of archeology in the first half of the nineteenth century, the thesis of Bachofen appeared, who coined the term matriarchy. The paper references James George Fraser's The Golden Bough and further problematizes the relationship between magic and women with the catchphrase "the dreams of magic may one day become the reality of science.

Journalistic career
During high school, he published his articles in the monthly magazine "Kollektiv "Rudardko-topionički basin Bor" in the section on ecological topics. Since 1995, she has been professionally engaged in journalism at the company "Novosti". In the newspaper "Večernje Novosti" she published over 6000 columns, reports, and feuilletons. In 2003, she published in "Revia 92" over 3500 investigative and analytical columns. In her texts, she emphasizes the adoption of democratic values, breaking social taboos, protecting the environment, and suppressing undesirable social phenomena. During her career, she interviewed important Serbian and foreign personalities, including Dobrica Ćosić, Miodrag Zec, Savo Bojović, Vanja Bulić, and others. In the period from 1997 to 2000, she designed and implemented media campaigns for the promotion and assistance of archaeological sites and nature reserves in eastern Serbia. During that period, a series of texts were written in which she emphasized the importance of these localities and appealed to the public to preserve them. Sites that were included:


 * 1) Roman sites of Šarkamen, Clivelj, Romuliana
 * 2) Prehistoric sites: Lepenski Vir, Rudina Glava, Donja Bela Reka, Brestovačka spa, Tilva Roš, Lake Bor

She also led a multi-year campaign for the "Đerdap" National Park with the aim of promoting the nature and anthropological heritage of this locality. She published texts in which she disclosed environmental affairs related to air and water pollution.

Because of those texts, she was sued for disturbing the public, and she was acquitted with relevant evidence. She collaborated with the Museum of Natural History, the National Museum, the Museum of Mining and Metallurgy, from whose cooperation a campaign with archaeological-ethnological and historical sections concerning the protection of the Dunaka and Timok rivers was developed. This cooperation also extended to "Đerdap" Kladovo, Zlotska Pećina, Gamzigradska Banja, Brestovačka Banja, Golubac.

Since 1997, she has been a member of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), and since 2002 she has been a member of the Association of Journalists of Serbia (UNS).

Designer career
From 1984 to 1995, she designed jewelry. In 1992, she represented SFR Yugoslavia at the EHPO exhibition in Sevlja. By 2004, she had seven solo exhibitions of design and jewelry.

Writer career
She is the author of more than 60 essays published in "Matica Srpska", the science and culture magazine "Razvitak" and in scientific journals of anthropology and ethnology, and archaeology. In an essay designed as an online interview called "TEST-AMEN-T- as tolerance" together with Miloj Pavlović, she deals with the relationship between the state and the church, with a special emphasis on the influence of the Orthodox Church on social changes in Serbia. Since 2003, she published articles in the weekly "Svedok". In her books, she brought the religious and philosophical heritage, customs, and knowledge of the cultures of the ancient world closer: Ancient India, China, Babylon, Egypt, Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, as well as the Middle Ages. She is one of the founders of the cultural publishing house "Gordon" in Belgrade, through whose work she tries to promote the protection of cultural, historical, and natural heritage. In the course of her career, she collaborated on the scripts of several RTS documentary shows and series in the field of media presentation of cultural heritage.

She is the author of the book "Miracles of Vlachs Magic - Customs and Beliefs from the Timočka Krajina", which was reviewed by the Ethnographic Institute. The first edition was published in 1999 and caused a public debate, after which Vlachs were allowed to declare themselves as a national minority in the population census. She later publishes "Vlach magic 1" in which she explores and presents the cosmology, mythology, and customs of the Vlachs. She collected confessions from the most famous Vlachs witch doctors who are considered guardians of the Vlachs cultural tradition. In the expanded edition "Vlachs Magic 2" she talks about the cult of the dead, the cult of light and fire, songs, and collective rituals. The book is composed of a series of interviews with people who came for advice and help from the so-called "Vlach witch doctors". The book "Magic of Plants - medicine and Amulet" is a compilation of research from folk medicine and stories about plants (33 species). Through this book, she studies the attitude of the healers of the Babylonian and Pharaonic cultures, the attitude of the monks of the Catholic and Orthodox Church towards flora, as well as the change of attitude towards historical periods. "Magic of Plants 2nd Medicine and Amulet" deals with legends and myths related to Slavic cultural heritage. As a basic starting point, she used quotes from the works of Veselin Čajkanović, Tihomir Đorđević, and Vuk Karadžić. Through the books "Calendar for lucky days - beliefs and Customs of European Peoples" and "Magic Calendar for red letters" she describes the historical course of holidays from prehistoric times to the present day. In this book, she managed to overcome national, ideological, and religious barriers and took the thesis that all religions have the same root, i.e. they come from a single religion. In the book "Dictionary of Superstitions - knock three times and Knock into a Tree" she deals with ancient writings and ethnographies from the Balkans and Serbia. The book focuses on similar beliefs of peoples around the world that have existed for centuries and which, according to the author, indicate the absence of time and geographical boundaries.