Etnografijo, gdje si?
Ethnography, where are you?

Summary/Abstract: The author draws attention to an exceptionally small and insufficient number of employed ethnologists in the museum institutions of Croatia, where there are 351 museum specialists and only 21 ethnologists who take care of 96 museum institutions with ethnographic material. Along with this problem there is another one and that is the insufficient number of collected items for ethnographic exhibitions. In Croatia there are exhibitions with only 88 exhibited samples and such an exhibition can not explain cultural tradition of any region. Ethnographic items can be supplied at far more lower prices and expenses than can be done with works of art or with items supplied through archaeological or hydroarcheological research so this can not be the reason that there are so few ethnographic samples in museums. During the last twenty years the tourism in Croatia has developed intensively and along with it the unlawful sale of original ethnographic items which tourists buy as souvenirs. The author is very familiar with Istrian market and assumes that 10.000 ethnographic items are sold in such a way in Croatia annually. As a result the museums are impoverished and still no restrictions are put on such sales, although if an art or archaeological object was sold there would be immediate reactions, and in museums there are more amphora than some other ethnographic items which show folk creativity and culture. The same problem arises in the treatment of ethnological material and while in Croatia there are 26 different collections of scientific papers published, there is not a single one treating scientifically the ethnological material. Finally even the protection service does not treat the ethnological monuments and material correctly. Too little documentation has been collected and when they are evaluated they are not given the importance they deserve. But all of this is the consequence of insufficient number of the ethnologists employed in the preservation service where among 105 specialists employed in this work there are only 7 ethnologists. Because of all these problems the author pleads for paying more attention to the ethnological material and thus assuring that it will get the place it deserves.

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