Organised by the Municipality of Janjina, last week the book Customs and Folk Beliefs on Pelješac last week. According to the records of Nikola Zvonimir Bjelovučić, authored by Assistant Professor Jasenka Maslek, PhD, teacher at the study of History of the Adriatic and the Mediterranean at the University of Dubrovnik, was publicly presented. Besides the authors, the book was also presented by Zrinka Režić Tolj, PhD who is also teacher at the University of Dubrovnik, and by archive counsellor Tonko Barčot from the subsidiary of the Dubrovnik State Archive on Korčula.

Numerous people from Pelješac and Janjina attended the presentation, which shows that they had recognised the book’s valuable contribution to the local ethnology, folklore research, history and cultural anthropology. 85 copies of the book that were available were immediately sold out. This is how the valuable source material, collected by N.Z. Bjelovučić in Janjina, has come to live among the people who inhabit this region generations after his death.

‘This book presents an extremely valuable contribution to the local ethnology, folklore research, cultural anthropology and culture in general. It sheds new light and fills in the voids in our knowledge about the everyday life in Pelješac from the end of the 19th century. It brings the voices of long perished people back to life, it awakens the memories of olden times which are deeply rooted in this area, and which the generations of today can now experience. It can certainly serve as an inspiration for new research. Its rich fine art tells an accompanying story and it is making integral part of the book’s text. This book paints the picture of the history of the Pelješac area and allows new generations to get familiar with it. It does so via folk tales, by presenting the traditional culture of the people of Pelješac who have been interpreting the local history throughout the centuries, always discovering some new dimensions, as reflected in the words of the inhabitants of Pelješac.’