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THE STANCE OF THE CITIZENRY IN THE TOWNS TOWARDS FOLK COSTUME AND PEASANT TEXTILE SKILLS
Aleksandra Muraj
; Institut za etnologiju i folkloristiku, Zagreb, Hrvatska
Sažetak
Croatian ethnographic inventory was particularly distinguished by the diversity of its folk costume, expressed in an unusual richness of types, varieties and sub-varieties. Its replacement by town dress as a consequence of overall civilisational processes took place gradually in Croatia at an uneven pace. In certain areas it started to occur as early as at the mid-19th century. It intensified in other places during the 20th century, particularly after the end of World War I, and in some not until after World War II. Parallely with the process of abandoning village attire, largely of home production origin, the citizenry’s interest in it grew. That interest sprang from a spiritural aura, created at the end of the 19th century, in which the attainments of peasant origin were accepted and evaluated as a cultural asset, so that peasant dress was recognised as having the characteristics of national, Croatian culture. It was along the line of such ideas that folk costume was experienced as one of the obvious means for expressing national belonging, particularly under the circumstances of that time - joint life in the multi-cultural Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. Therefore, efforts were made to prevent its disappearance. Peasants were advised to keep their costumes and to wear them on Church holidays, while town-dwellers were encouraged to dress in folk costume at festive occasions. These efforts were not merely politically and culturally, but also economically motivated, since it was believed that a continuace in home-production of costumes and other textiles would bring a halt to the already evident pauperisation of the villages.
However, all these efforts did not bring any notable results. Particularly after the disintegration of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, there was not much success in encouraging townspeople to appear in "national attire" on festive occasions. So activity was focused on that part of the peasantry that joined the Croatian Peasant Enlightenment Society "Peasant Harmony", formed under the auspices of the Croatian Peasant Party, the leading political force during the 1930s. Performances at Croatian peasant culture festivals prompted the revitalisation of costume, particularly its holidays' modality. Thus, costume survived, certainly not as everyday wear but rather with a completely altered function – as a representative costume to be worn on stage.
While folk costume was endowed with the charactertic of an indicator of national belongng, some recognised economic possibilities in traditional peasant textile handicrafts, which were expected to grow into production for export. Consequently, numerous collectors of folk handicrafts, having achieved notable success with them at international exhibitions, tried to interest businessmen in them and to obtain State support for more extensive production. Along with Felix Lay, Milko Cepelić, Danijel Hermann, Iso Kršnjavi and others, the most significant achievements in this field were those of Salomon Berger, who exhibited and sold all over the world fashionable attire and soft furnishings with the implementation of Crotian folk motifs, but even he lacked support on the State level. Women’s groups engaged in stimulating textile production and organising sales in the period between the two world wars, suffered a similar fate. It was only at the end of the 1930s, at the ethnographic exhibition held annually at the Zagreb Fair, that businessmen joined tentatively in the efforts being undertaken by enthusiasts, laymen and experts. At the very end of that period projects were being prepared at the Ministry of Trade and Industry that would have ensured permanent income for part of the peasant population through the implementation of handicraft textile production. However, the outbreak of World War II prevented these projects from coming to fruition, so that the Croatian traditional textile art did not succeed in becoming a more significant factor in the economy.
Ključne riječi
folk costume; textile handicrafts; history of Croatian ethnology
Hrčak ID:
23192
URI
Datum izdavanja:
16.12.2006.
Posjeta: 4.516 *