Bestiary of Croatian Ethnoculture. Interdisciplinary Foundations (BESTIA)

Through systematic processing and valorization of existing animalistic data found in seminal works of Croatian ethnography and folklore from the 19th and 20th centuries, such as the “Zbornik za narodni život i običaje Južnih Slavena” (Collection on the Folk Life and Customs of South Slavs – ZNŽO), the collected field materials stored in the Documentation of the Institute of Ethnology and Folklore (IEF) and new field research, the BESTIA project will dedicate effort to researching the key animal subjects of Croatian ethno-tradition and unify them in an expanded version of the lexicon Bestiary of Croatian Ethnoculture, initiated within the framework of the project “Cultural Animalistics: Interdisciplinary Foundations and Traditional Practices” (ANIMAL), HRZZ, 2020-2024.

By introducing an astroethnological research direction, the BESTIA project expands the previous animalistic interdisciplinary approaches of IEF projects, and the interpretive demonstration of the intersections of anthrozoological and zooarchaeological research of the animals encompassed by the project contributes to the bioethical/zooethical and posthumanistic paradigm. This primarily concerns the consideration of interspecies communication in contemporary artistic practice (in comparison with materials related to traditional practices), the coexistence of humans and animals in contemporary and prehistoric communities, as well as eco-critical themes (addressing the impact of local policies on natural and cultural heritage, climate change, and interspecies ethnography on the performance scene) and ecofeminist themes (actions focused on climate justice, with an emphasis on the impact of dairy and meat industries on global warming).