O onim drugim knjigama o narodnom životu
Those Other Books on Folk Life

Summary/Abstract: The author presents three important works which deal with the life of the Croatian peasant in the past. By offering realistic data and descriptions, they significantly depart from romantic idealizations which have often marked cultural-historical ethnology. In the second part of the 18th century, A. M. Reljković, an adherent of the enlightenment, condemned Slavonians for bad living habits and instructed them as to how they should live. Thus he gave us an account of the real life at the time, as well as an ideal prescription for it. The Questionnaire of the Croatian-Slavonian Economic Society from the mid 19th century reveals two different concepts, in fact, two political orientations, concerning the life in zadruga: a romantic and economically conservative one which holds that zadruga can be the basis of national economy; and the other one which discloses ills and economic malfunctioning of the family zadruga. Rudolf Bičanić was the editor of the series »How the People Live«, appearing in the 1930’s, as well as the author of a couple of books in the series. Although to some extent adhering to Radio's ideology, in his economic analyses of people's life Bičanić radically departed from it. He was very critical towards idealizations of peasant life, and his works herald the problematique which is later taken up by economic anthropology.

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