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Ethnology in Republika Srpska

Slobodanka Lalić, Banja Luka/ Republik Srpska

Speaking of ethnology in Republika Srpska during the past 10years, as far as museums are concerned, is almost impossible. Duringthat period our country was struck by a war that had consequencesfor all spheres of life. Those 10 years can be divided into 2 periods,the first of which lasted from the middle of 1992 to the end of 1995and was marked by the war itself, while the second, lasting from theend of 1995 until the present day, was marked by the recovery fromthe war, as well as numerous social and economic problems. For usto speak of ethnology here, it is necessary to peer into the more dis-tant past and review its very beginnings in these lands.

The first museum in today's Republika Srpska was founded in1930 in Banja Luka, as the second- founded museum in the formerBosnia and Herzegovina. It was founded as a museum of ethnogra-phy for the region of Bosanska Krajina. The museum's role was thepropagation of and advertisement for tourism. During that same time,an agricultural exhibition was held in Banja Luka, at which domesticpopular handicrafts were greatly represented, both those that were incurrent active use and those from earlier times. A large part of theethnological items currently found in the Museum were bought atthat very exhibit. Shortly after, the museum started to collect itemsfrom other fields and became the general museum.

More organized work in the Museum began after the SecondWorld War, when an expert cadre was hired. To date, some ten thou-sand ethnological items from all domains of national popular life andcreativity have been collected. The collected items were systema-tized according to the type of material and grouped into five collec-tions: textile items collection; metal items collection; wooden itemscollection; leather items collection; ceramic items collection;

In Republika Srpska, in addition to the Museum of RepublikaSrpska there are also: The Museum of Kozara in Prijedor; The Mu-seum in Doboj; The Museum of Semberija in Bijeljina; The Museum