45

Classification and Strategy of Modern Collection of CostumeItems in the Ethnographic Museum of Serbia

Vesna Marjanović, Beograd/ Serbien und Montenegro

When speaking of the museum collection there is an immedi-ate association with things that are" old". Today, the question is whatis our strategy for collecting in ethnological collections. Ethnologicalcollections are particular items gathered to document material andspiritual culture of nations, ethnic minorities, group, region or set-tlement in a certain period of time. Ethnographic items are objectsthat provide explanation and presentation of traditional culture of anation or ethnic community( Škorić Z. 1979,143). But they are itemsof material and spiritual culture that belong to a nation, community,group, and region regardless of time. In structure and studies of cul-ture, it is necessary to accept items of modern times also as markersof cultural tendencies because they are modern representatives of oneway of thinking and acting both on micro and macro plans in acommunity.

In Ethnographic Museum of Serbia, beside collections thatrepresent material culture of Serbian nation and ethnic minorities,collections representing traditional spiritual culture of populationfrom this region are also preserved. These include collection of cus-tom items and collection of cults items.

Both collections were created when the Museum was estab-lished. Their main features are diversity of material, production andapplication. The items belong to Serbian population and OrthodoxChristian customs. There are also those that refer to ritual practice ofethnic minorities and groups settled on the territory of Serbia, as wellas of the population from the South Slavic territory. They could bedated into the second half of the 19th and into 20th centuries. They arecharacteristic for rural, and in part, urban culture.

The presentation of collection of custom items from Ethno-graphic Museum of Serbia provides the following: historical refer-ences on origin of collection of spiritual culture among Serbian peo-ple and its minorities; classification that has been done so far ac-