Jovan Cvijić and ethnographic research in the Balkans
Jovan Cvijić was a Serbian scientist who combined science, patriotism and humanity. He was born on October 11, 1865 in Loznica. His name stands in the foundation of Serbian geography and in the names of many schools in Serbia, but also in the wider framework of European science. He was an explorer who did not observe the world from a cabinet, but got to know it by walking on its hills, villages and rivers. He dedicated his whole life to the study of the Balkan Peninsula and its peoples, convinced that science has the task of serving man. In times of wars, social upheavals and changes, he remained faithful to the idea that life must be spent usefully for the good of the community and the future of future generations.
"Life is meant to be spent usefully"
Jovan Cvijić lived his thought, "Life is meant to be spent usefully". He believed that science has meaning only if it serves man and society. His body of work includes over 150 scientific studies and articles. He traveled all over the Balkans, remote and abandoned places, he recorded the customs, speech, habits and way of life of the people. As a professor, researcher and president of the Serbian Royal Academy, Cvijić combined science and social responsibility. He worked with enormous energy and faith in progress. As an exceptional organizer of numerous expeditions, which took him to the most inaccessible parts of the Balkans, Cvijić developed a penchant for thorough, empirical study. He later shaped these experiences into the broad-based scientific approach that characterized his work.
Rich opus
He began his scientific research career with works on karst formations in Eastern Serbia, among which are "Toward a Knowledge of the Karst of Eastern Serbia" (1889), "Caves and Underground Hydrography in Eastern Serbia" (1893) and "Karst" (1895). In his mature age, he published important studies such as "Đerdap Terrace" (1922) and "Karst and Man" (1925). During more than three decades of work, he left behind several hundred scientific works, and as the crown of his research he wrote the capital work "Balkan Peninsula and South Slavic Countries".
Ethnographic research of the Balkan Peninsula and politics
The life of people on the Balkan Peninsula is a combination of peoples, civilizations, religions, shared but also exclusive identities. Cvijić's anthropo-ethnographic studies of the population were of great importance for the understanding of the people of the Balkans. His book "Balkan Peninsula and South Slavic Countries" became the basis for the study of ethnic and cultural processes in the region. He researched national types, migrations and mutual influences of peoples.
During his research trips, Jovan Cvijić went through difficult social and political circumstances, often exposing himself to danger, especially in areas that were under the rule of Turkey and Austria-Hungary until the First World War. It was on those trips, while he got to know the life and customs of the people of the Balkan Peninsula, that his interest in ethnographic, political-ethnographic and later psychosocial issues was born. He himself emphasized that from the beginning he was not interested in national politics, folklore and ethnology.
He told the students that school and politics do not go together
Ethnography was never only a science, but also politically important. Cvijić's research also served as an argument in state negotiations and territorial disputes in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. He told his students to stay away from politics and that school and politics do not go together. Nevertheless, his works also had a political resonance - his knowledge of the terrain and the people was valuable for arguments about state interests.
Academic work and establishment of the University of Belgrade
After the abolishment of the Great School, the predecessor of the University of Belgrade founded on October 12, 1905, Jovan Cvijić became one of its first eight full professors. Alongside him were Jovan Žujović, Sima Lozanić, Mihailo Petrović Alas, Andra Stevanović, Dragoljub Pavlović, Milić Radovanović, and Ljubomir Jovanović. These eight men laid the foundations of the university system in Serbia and selected the first colleagues to hold the title of full professors.
Cvijić taught geography, but his lectures went far beyond the boundaries of a single discipline.
He served twice as the rector of the University of Belgrade and encouraged the establishment of other universities across Serbia. As rector, he advocated for academic freedom and the modernization of teaching methods at universities and high schools. He believed that secondary education should last seven years so that students could enter independent life and work as early as possible. Today, his statement about the importance of secondary education remains one of his most frequently quoted:
“The high school shapes intelligence and character—perhaps more strongly, powerfully, and in some respects more deeply than the university; it has a great influence on the spirit and moral value of future intellectual generations. Along with the university, it is the most decisive factor in determining what kind of moral and spiritual atmosphere will develop in the country, what tone its civilization will have, and ultimately whether the development of great personalities—those in whom the qualities of a nation are expressed to the highest degree—will be slowed down or hindered.”
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