Josef Obrebski's Anthropological Research on Macedonia

Abstract

It seems that through history, Macedonia, as an anthropological topic, was treated as a peripheral destination, and was not especially attractive for anthropologists. However, at the beginning of the 20th century, Macedonia and the Balkans in general, became interesting for ethnographers and researchers from other social disciplines. Josef Obrebski, who was primarily educated as an ethnographer and Slavist, was one of the first researchers that conducted anthropological research in a Macedonian village of Volche, in Poreche in 1932-33. Josef Obrebski followed the idea that a detailed anthropological research of European cultural and social heritage should be done, thus discovering the most archaic forms of social life of the patriarchal communities in one’s own European environment, aiming to better understand the contemporary social events at the Continent.