ABSTRACT
During my fieldwork in Sarajevo in 1994 and 1995 I found that people often used
the concept of ‘normality’ in order to describe some situation, person, or their way
of living. The concept was charged with a sense of morality, of what was good,
right or desirable. A ‘normal life’ was a description of how people wanted to live,
and a ‘normal person’ was a person who thought and did things people found
acceptable. Thus, ‘normality’, in its locally understood meaning, communicated
social norms according to the person using it, and as such also often indicated her
ideological position.
