Records of oral traditions on plague in Bosnia and Herzegovina from the end of the 19th century

Abstract

The effort to gather and publish ethnographic material was among the many activities in different fields of social and natural sciences that the National Museum conducted right after its founding. In 1897, the Museum’s executive office sent out the questionnaire entitled “Questions for gathering of historical-topographic material” to all parts of Bosnia-Herzegovina. The goal of this activity, which included people of different backgrounds, was to gather a field material that was important for both ethnology and folklore studies. The 21 questions that were in the questionnaire also included special requests for field recorders to record details about epidemics of plague in Bosnia-Herzegovina, ranging from the time of their occurrence to recommended folk remedies. These records of oral tradition make it possible to get a more clear picture about the ways in which this contagious disease lived in oral memory of the population in Bosnia-Herzegovina at the very end of the 19th Century.