page_title: Jovan Cvijić
section_title: Human geography
hierarchical_section_title: Jovan Cvijić / Research / Human geography
caption_attribution_description: English: Jovan Cvijić. Photography by Milan Jovanović. 1911. Српски / srpski: Јован Цвијић, географ (1865-1927). Аутор или издавач: Милан Јовановић. фотографија. 1911.
context_page_description: Jovan Cvijić was a Serbian geographer and ethnologist, president of the Serbian Royal Academy of Sciences and rector of the University of Belgrade. Cvijić is considered the founder of geography in Serbia. He began his scientific career as a geographer and geologist, and continued his activity as a human geographer and sociologist.
context_section_description: In his human-geographical research, Cvijić studied migrations, village and town habitat, types of housing and the culture of populations in regions influenced by a variety of civilizations, psychological types, folklore and dress. He traveled during difficult social and political times, exposing himself to unpleasant and life-threatening situations (especially in countries under Ottoman and Austrian rule before World War I). During these trips Cvijić became acquainted with the living conditions of the Balkan population, leading to his interest in ethnographic and psycho-social issues; he noted how little he had known about the difficulty of life in Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Macedonia until 1896–1898. Until then, he later said, he had little of the interest in folklore, ethnology and national politics he later developed. Cvijić organized a number of research expeditions to dangerous, unexplored regions.
  In 1896 Cvijić published "Instructions for studying villages in Serbia and other Serbian lands", which was later revised to apply to other Balkan regions. In Serbia, interest developed in folkloric research; this encouraged the first systematically-gathered data in ethnology. The research was conducted by Cvijić's students and colleagues and interested laypeople (primarily village teachers and priests), constituting a large, unified scientific effort.
  Cvijić's thesis on the effects of climate and geography on human life is the basis of his approach to human geography, where he emphasizes that humankind is ecologically sensitive. When classifying anthropological types Cvijić considered social structure (work, endogamy, exogamy and migration) the primary factor, stressing the effects of the physical environment on a population's psyche. His basic concepts are presented in the 1902 Balkan-peninsula paper, "Human-geography problems". Influenced by Cvijić's paper, Milorad Dragić (a former student) elaborated on psychological anthropological research in his 1911 paper "Instructions for studying settlements and psychological characteristics" (after which Cvijić expanded his thesis on "The Balkan peninsula and South Slavic lands" in Serbian).
  Cvijić introduced the term 'metanastasic movements', which referred to slow, gradual, a place-to-place human movement. He and his students took wide exploration of this phenomenon, eventually establishing the Serbian ethnological-historic school which gathered ethnological material from all around the Balkan peninsula and encompassed exploration of written sources.
  The sparking of interest in human-geographical and ethnographical research was one of the greatest achievements of Cvijić's scientific career. His efforts and research helped him gather crucial data, which he used during negotiations on the state borders of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia after World War I.
caption: Photograph by Milan Jovanović (1911)
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