ABSTRACT
The 19th century discovery of folk culture, along with the invention of numerous national traditions, was a part of that historical process that introduced to the European scene some new nations. A work of Vuk KaradZiC's, Mala prostonarodna slaveno-serbska pjesnarica, has been included among the fifty works which, according to British historian Peter Burke, betoken the discovery of the people in Europe between 1760 and 1846. This chapter demonstrates that the relevant issues related to Karadzic include not only the discovery of the people and of popular culture but also the establishment of ethnic boundaries, values and patterns of the Serbian nation. KaradZiC's ethnographic and folklore endeavour, more than anything else, is always essentially national and political in nature. Both language and popular culture were often intensively exploited in the processes of national integration. Their actual and symbolic significance permeated equally Serbian and Croatian national ideology, and to an even greater extent the real politics in these regions.
