Power of Classifications: Classification Schemes and the Construction of Ethnic Structure in Civil Croatia and Slavonia (1785–1860)

The paper discusses the influence of ideological and scholarly-ethnographic classification schemes, as well as those pertaining to population censuses, on the formation of ethnic identities and ethnic structure in Civil Croatia and Slavonia from 1785 to 1860. Proceeding from the theory of social systems and institutions, the author examines the power of classification schemes and their influence on the construction of ethnic identities. It has been shown that changes in social orders also lead to changes in the principles of constructing classification schemes. Thus, in the modern social order, the combination of commonsensical, ideological, scholarly and official statistic classification schemes led to the creation of a specific ethno-nationalist discourse, which strongly influenced the formation of ethnic identities, overcoming traditional ethnic particularities and formation of modern ethnic communities on the territories of Civil Croatia and Slavonia in the early modern period