«Montenegrin cap» as a visual chronicle: to the problem of reflection of history in ethnographic artifacts (on materials of the Russian Museum of Ethnography)

Abstract

The article raises the problem of memorizing the history through objectified forms of culture. Special attention is paid to the study of the reflection of political and ethnocultural transformations in ethnographic museum artifacts. The study is focused on several samples of Montenegrin men’s caps from the middle of the XIX – the end of the XX century from the collections of Russian Museum of Ethnography. Mentioned artifacts are associated with the traditional culture of the Montenegrins. Viewed in conjunction with written and illustrative sources, as well as similar artifacts from the collections of other museums, they demonstrate their important role in representing the Montenegrin national identity. The Montenegrin cap as the element of the national costume became popular among the population of Montenegro during the formation of the statehood of the country in the middle of XIX century. In its decoration the cap expresses the political experience of the ethnic community. The cap appears as a dynamic cultural phenomenon which has demonstrated its semantic and functional variability in a last couple of centuries as well as the way of the reflection of the spiritual world in the world of objects. The source study of museum artifacts provides an ample of opportunities for their interpretation. The theoretical reconstruction of the ambient in which those artifacts have been used contributes to the multidimensional vision of the historical picture. Observing the metamorphosis of the decoration of the The article raises the problem of memorizing the history through objectified forms of culture. Special attention is paid to the reflection of political and ethnocultural transformations in ethnographic artifacts. The study is focused on several samples of Montenegrin cap from since middle of XIX to the end of XX century from the collections of Russian Museum of Ethnography. Viewed in conjunction with written, illustrative sources and similar artifacts from the collections of other museums, they demonstrate their important role in representation the Montenegrin national identity. The Montenegrin cap as the element of the national costume became popular among the population of Montenegro during the formation of the statehood of the country in the middle of XIX century. It expresses the political experience of the ethnic community and appears as a dynamic cultural phenomenon which has demonstrated its semantic and functional variability in a last couple of centuries. The theoretical reconstruction of the ambient in which those artifacts have been used contributes to the multidimensional vision of the historical picture. Observing the metamorphosis of the decoration of the Montenegrin cap makes it possible to analyze the ethnic processes in Balkan area. The study shows how artifacts can act as instruments of recording and transmitting the collective memory of ethnic communities.