Anthropogeographical concept of Jovan Cvijić and contemporary scientific propositions in the study of rural settlements

Abstract

At the beginning of the 20th century, along with the scientific foundation of anthropogeography, Jovan Cvijić developed an authentic anthropogeographical concept in the study of the settlements. The synthesis of anthropogeographic knowledge of rural settlements and the setting of complex theoretical and methodological tasks in this field gave innovative results that represent a significant heritage of Serbian anthropogeography. In this paper, the authors consider some questions that many scientists did, analyzing scientific actuality of Cvijić's concept in the research of rural settlements - the importance of the traditional anthropogeographical concept in the contemporary studies of rural settlements and applicability of a wide spectrum of methodological principles of the Serbian anthropogeographical school (the method of direct observation in the field, genetic, geographic-comparative, typological method, the method of ethno-psychical profiles etc.). The analysis of the authenticity and integrity of Cvijić's theoretical and methodological principles in the anthropogeographical studies of rural settlements in the Balkan Peninsula confirms the validity of concept, methodology and indicators that were used, as well as the scientific actuality and quality of the traditional anthropogeographical concept. By introducing modern qualitative and quantitative methods, while some of the new ones are not fundamentally different from traditional ones (for example methods of factor and cluster analysis, on the one hand, and the typological and space analysis method, on the other), the traditional anthropogeographical concept has not lost its scientific importance, and great attention from different positions should be dedicated to modern research of rural settlements and rural areas.