ANTHROPOGEOGRAPHIC SCHOOL AND ETHNOLOGICAL SCIENCE IN SERBIA

The paper intends to chronologically present the development path of ethnology as an educational and scientific discipline from the anthropogeographical school of Jovan Cvijić to the present day. There is a long list of all those who, from Dositej’s enlightenment, through Vuk’s romanticism and Cvijić’s school of anthropogeography, contributed to the development of ethnology in Serbia. It is undeniable, however, that with the appearance of Jovan Cvijić, ethnology became independent and gained its place in the scientific and educational system. The Cvijić’s anthropogeography school was shut down without the subsequent generations having produced an original approach: contemporary anthropology in Serbia is based on taking over the current world scientific models of anthropological schools from the West. Cvijić’s key role in branding ethnology as an educational and scientific discipline in Serbia—from the “science of the people“ to current anthropological directions is unquestionable. The term science of the people is a concise description of all the directions in which the researches of our early ethnologists, educated under the influence of Cvijić’s anthropogeographical school, as well as those of later researchers, whose traces of activity go back to after the Second World War. Cvijić’s school became known beyond the then borders of Yugoslavia. Naturally, understandings about the subject and goals of ethnology have changed, and the methods of scientific work have been improved. Today, anthropology is dominant, and the state of ethnological and anthropological science in Serbia can be monitored at least on three levels: education and institutions; scientific production—realization and presentation of scientific work; scientific configuration—diversity and directions of scientific approaches.