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Urban Culture in the Works of Juraj Habdelić
Zrinka Nikolić
Sažetak
In the last few decades the topics and methods of history and ethnology (that is, social or cultural anthropology) have started to inform each other. Historians used to be sceptical about the possibility of studying popular culture, which is mostly oral, through the means of written sources, which are written by the members of an elite culture. However, the new generations (exemplified by Burke, Chartier, and Ginzburg) have been more optimistic. It is now emphasised that popular culture is not static, but, rather, changes over time. Popular culture is nowadays considered as being of a complex nature: in studying it, divisions according to region, social status, age, and gender should all be considered. The “great and small traditions” (elite and popular culture) show constant interaction.
In this paper the source for popular culture is the work of one of the most important writers of seventeenth-century continental Croatia – the Jesuit Juraj Habdelić (1609-1678). The main source is his moral-didactic prose Pervi otcza nassega Adama greh (The First Sin of our Father Adam) from 1674, in which Habdelić criticises the sins of his contemporaries. Although Habdelić does not specify his audience, it is presumably mainly the townsmen of north-west Croatia, where Habdelić lived and worked. Since Pervi otcza nassega Adama greh does not contain a great deal of the data which would be necessary for forming a more complete picture, to be used in studying the popular culture of the time and the place, it is worth using additional sources, such as accounts of guilds, town books, legislature, letters, etc. Taken in conjunction with, and as a complement to, these data, Habdelić appears a vivid and reliable witness, as his data can be confirmed and expanded with the help of other sources.
In Habdelić's work, accommodation, fashion, cuisine, entertainment and some popular beliefs can be observed. He describes the interior in town houses, of which some were painted, criticises the new habit of displaying nude pictures in rich houses, and the habit of sleeping together, and the indecent bathing of family members. Habdelić describes (and criticises as vain) female fashion and the habit of make-up, as well as excessive and extravagant cuisine. He lists various types of food and wine (which can be expanded from data in his Croatian-Latin dictionary, Dictionar, from 1670), and describes “indecent” fun, dances, and songs. He recommends spiritual songs as a replacement for the latter. The writer does not mention town customs for Carnival or Midsummer Eve, but information on these can be reconstructed from other sources. Habdelić believes in witches, but is suspicious of individuals claiming possession by the devil or having holy visions.
The urban culture of Habdelić's time can be observed as being dynamic and interactive. All the town strata are involved in it. For example, women from the lower strata (even maids) take their cues in fashion from ladies, gentlemen and apprentices enjoy the same rough jokes, and there is a wide-spread cult of excessive wine-drinking, involving drinking-games and songs. Habdelić, who had access to both the upper and the lower strata, often does not make any differences when criticising their behaviour. It is obvious that popular culture cannot be considered as something totally different from and opposed to elite culture. The upper strata is involved in popular culture as its “other” culture, but the lower strata are also involved or want to be involved in the culture of the upper strata (fashion being the most obvious example). It appears that a new opposition was beginning, one between the peasantry and the townsfolk. The process of separation between these two groups begins at this point, a division which was ultimately to bring the first ethnologists to study popular culture as something entirely peasant.
Ključne riječi
Juraj Habdelić; urban culture; ethnology; cultural anthropology; Early Modern Age
Hrčak ID:
11184
URI
Datum izdavanja:
1.3.2002.
Posjeta: 3.190 *