EXPERTISE – THE ISSUE OF OCCUPATIONAL FOLKLORE IN SERBIAN CULTURAL INSTITUTIONS

Text topic: Studies

Text author: Маша Вукановић

Understanding folklore in the light of Dundes’ definition and Jones’ observations regarding occupational folklore gave an impetus for analysing professional folklore in the domain of culture in Serbia. According to a leading paradigm in cultural policy theory, development of culture in its widest sense (as suggested in Tylor’s definition) depends on the development of culture in its narrow sense (institutions, organizations, differently connected individuals). This case study was based upon researches conducted in 2009 and 2013 in Serbian institutes for protection of cultural heritage. These researches provided data on human resources of these institutes. Expertise exams, as obligation for new employees, are analysed as a step in up-building of occupational folklore and idioculture. From the corpus of professional folklore two „myths“ are extracted and analysed as mirrors of the past and present situation in the field of protection of tangible cultural heritage: the „myth“ of (old) experts and the „myth“ of „bad“ institutes. These myths are seen as reflection of current position of the domain of culture in contemporary Serbia.