Abstract
This texts focuses on social and cultural anthropological fieldwork in the Balkans in 1900 - 1950. It explores the position of fieldwork in the Balkans and Eastern Europe within the wider framework of anthropology of Europe and anthropological interest in complex societies.
Wider social and political context of fieldwork in the Balkans in the first half of the 20th century is analysed. The text also discusses topics, themes and perspectives taken by Anglo-American anthropologists who had carried out their fieldwork in the Balkans.
Attention is paid to forms of cooperation between the local scholarly traditions (ethnology, ethnography, and folkloristics) and social and cultural anthropology, but also to differences between these traditions.