Ethnology Department

The Ethnology Department collects, maintains, exhibits, and studies all items of material, spiritual, and social culture of the peoples of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It has a rich collection of material which is stored or arranged into thematic exhibitions. It has two permanent exhibition and organises several thematic shows every year.

The gathering of ethnological material started when the National Museum was founded in 1888, with the purchase of valuable ethnological items (for instance, national costumes). Just after the founding, the department was integrated into the Archaeology Department, but broke off again four years later. As of 1913, the department has been housed in the museum's Ethnology Pavilion, whose interior imitates that of a traditional Bosnian urban house.

Exhibitions

Traditional children's games

The Folklore Archive of the National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina contains over 3,300 entries on group games, most of them children's games.

etnologija duhovna kultura slavska pjesma

Slava song "I Shall Sing unto My Goblet"

The Slava (celebration of a patron saint) is a custom observed in several Balkan ethnic and religious groups, but it is most widespread among Orthodox Serbs and it survives in this part of the world to this day.

Lullaby "Sleep, Child, Sleep, if Your Lids Are Heavy"

Lullabies are songs sung to children to lull them to sleep while rocking the cradle or soothing the baby in some other way, as by rocking it in one’s arms or on one’s legs. They often contain motifs which, it is believed, have the power to ward off spells or protect the child from the evil eye.

Ballad "Atlagići seju udavaše" (A variant of "the frozen bride" ballad)

The plight of "the ill-fated bride" is one of the most common motifs in Bosniac oral ballads. Variants featuring "the frozen bride" are found in the very first collections of oral poetry of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

etnologija duhovna kultura rukopisna zbirka

Manuscript of Smajil O. Bradarić's collection of folk ballads Folk Art and Wisdom (from Derventa and the Surrounding Villages Mostly)

This handwritten collection of oral poetry contains almost one thousand lyric ballads and a number of lyric narrative songs. They were all gathered and written down in five books by Smajil O.

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