Paper short abstract:

The paper discusses the history of Croatian ethnology in the period from 1945 to 1970. The emphasis is placed on the intellectual circle of ethnologist Milovan Gavazzi and the linking of the developments within the profession with historical events in that period.

Paper long abstract:

The events that happened after the Second World War brought a series of changes in the political, social and cultural life of Croatia within the newly created socialist Yugoslavia. Following the Soviet model, the new regime sought to introduce a number of changes in education and science through legislation and through ideologization and politicization. That led to introducing the Marxist paradigm into the scientific discourse, but also to the opportunity to open up new research areas. Despite the pressures, there were no significant qualitative changes in the theoretical and methodological sense in Croatian ethnology until the early 1970s. The reason for that should certainly be sought in the political events within socialist Yugoslavia shortly after the end of the war, but also in the influence of ethnologist Milovan Gavazzi and his intellectual circle on the trends within the profession. Based on the current research data, in this paper we will focus on three research questions: 1) why were there no significant changes within the existing institutions related to ethnology after the Second World War ?, 2) what was the role of Milovan Gavazzi and his circle in the development of the profession and maintaining the status quo ?, and 3) to what extent did the scientific contacts of Croatian ethnologists with their foreign colleagues influence the emergence of new research directions within the profession in the 1970s? The answers to the posed questions will be given from the perspective of Bourdieu's field theory.