ABSTRACT
The Croatian state-forming myth is undergoing critical research by Ivo Zanic. This myth first trace a documented or invented past, formed by the Croatian historiography of the 19th century, and establishes or revives the historical memory of the mediaeval Croatian kingdom. The political myth of the Croatian folk culture, with a certain dose of radicalization, achieved its infamous zenith in the Independent State of Croatia 1941-1945, and, partly for that very reason, was after 1945 steadfastly and forcefully erased from national memory. Ethnology in Croatia, by canonizing folk culture, merely followed its Central European standards. Croatian ethnology has been researching customs and rituals not only as Brauch but also in most cases as Sitte. Ethnology itself and other 'national sciences' as well, owe their first stimuli to this very search for signs of national identity in the history and in 'folk life and customs'.
