Conference paper
Professor Branimir Bratanić and the European Ethnological Atlas
Đurđica Petrović
Abstract
Three time periods can be distinguished in Prof. Bratanić's work on the organization of the Ethnological Atlas of Europe and Neighboring Countries: 1953,1966 and the present. In 1953, the International Commission for Folk Creation and Tradition was founded in Namur. Prof. Bratanić was one of the founding members who was actively engaged in the preparation of the Atlas in the years to follow. He worked on the first international questionnaire on certain aspects of traditional culture (plowing devices, ceremonial fifes etc), on the basic chart of the general European atlas, and on the formulation of the theoretical assumptions of the Ethnological Atlas of Europe. The second period is marked by a successful meeting in Zagreb in 1966, organized by the Commission for the Ethnological Atlas of Yugoslavia and the Permanent International Commission for Atlases. The goal was to promote the coordination of work on regional ethnological atlases, thus facilitating the future realization of the single ethnological atlas of Europe and the neighboring countries. Directions for future tasks were established at that meeting: the European ethnological atlas was to encompass the pre-industrial age and the subjects which are of general significance, Including plowing devices, threshing and bonfires. In the third period of his activities on the atlas, in the early 1970's, Professor Bratanić was engaged in clarifying some problems: Firstly, it was explained that the name: the Ethnological Atlas of Europe and Neighboring Countries, is meaningful in view of the fact that culture does not follow political, geographic or even linguistic borders, and that cultural phenomena cannot be understood if considered only within one state, people or ethnical community. Secondly, the problem of the comparability of pre-industrial ages in various European, Near Eastern and North African countries - since their duration differ - was solved by acceptance of the so called „ethnological present"; it is based on the idea of descriptive integration or conceptual integration. Lastly, the question of the selection of themes for the European ethnological atlas was solved by referring to the previously selected subjects because they are of universal nature and thus comparable. Also, it was definitely accepted that the grid of squares should be used in ethnological cartography. Thus, within last several years the theoretical and methodological concept of the Ethnological Atlas of Europe and Neighboring Countries was established. The role of Professor Bratanić in the process was of primary importance.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
80118
URI
Publication date:
1.12.1980.
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