Original scientific paper

Ethnological Research and Canonization of Autochtonous Folk Costumes in Croatia During the 1930s

Vjera Bonifačić ; Sveučilište u Zagrebu, Tekstilno-tehnološki fakultet, Zavod za dizajn tekstila i odjeće, Zagreb, Hrvatska

Abstract

Utilizing the Polysystem Theory, the author examines the dynamics of ethnological research in Croatia within the broader (poly)system of folk arts during the first half of the 20th century, with a focus on the domain of clothing and textiles. The author shows that the early multidisciplinary approach to the study of folk culture, as proposed by Antun Radić in 1897, was gradually replaced during the 1920’s by the cultural-historical approach introduced by Milovan Gavazzi. The canonization of cultural-historical methodology in ethnological research in the late 1920s led to further canonization of selected older or “traditional” festive peasant clothing as “autochthonous” folk costumes. At the same time, textiles with elements of peasant decorations that were made in home industries for city consumption were classified as “applied” folk textile arts, while peasant and popular clothing and textiles that continued to change during the 20th century were classified as “inauthentic” and therefore not worthy of research or museum preservation. From that time onwards, it was mostly the “autochthonous” folk costumes that were displayed in ethnographic museums, utilized by political parties as symbols of national identity on organized folk festivals, and they continue to be used to this day in cultural and tourist industry. The author suggests that perhaps the best way for Croatian ethnographic museums to overcome the cultural-historical interpretation of “autochthonous” folk costumes in their permanent exhibitions would be to deconstruct its history, classifications, canonization processes, and past political and economic instrumentalizations. In this way, ethnographic museums would be able to openly communicate to the public the reasons for moving away from such a static “celebratory history” of folk culture, towards the history of folk or popular culture as an open process that includes complex processes of modernization during the 20th century.

Keywords

“autochthonous” folk costumes; “applied” folk textile arts; ethnological research; Polysystem theory; canonization processes; institutional dynamics; museology

Hrčak ID:

36968

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/36968

Publication date:

5.1.2008.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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