Jovan Žujović

Who was Jovan Žujović?

Jovan M. Žujović was an anthropologist, known as a pioneer in geological and paleontological science in Serbia.

Žujović was named among the first four members of the Academy of Natural Sciences of the Serbian Royal Academy, named by King Milan I of Serbia on 5 April 1887. From 1915 to 1921, Žujović was the president of Serbian Royal Academy.

He is known, among other things, for his work in anthropology. In his book, Stone Age, published in 1893, relying mostly on French scientists, he reviewed the contemporary state of knowledge in paleoanthropology.

Later, between 1927, and 1929, in the book Genesis of the Earth and Our Country, he wrote about the biological past of the Earth starting from the beginning of mankind. The work takes particular interest in the history of the Balkan peninsula.

In Serbian politics, he was a devouted democrat, Senator in 1901 and the member of the People's Radical Party of Nikola Pašić. After 1905, Žujović joined the Independent Radical Party of Ljubomir Stojanović. In the government of Independent Radicals, Žujović was a Minister of Foreign Affairs from 12 August to 15 December 1905. Minister of Education and Religious Affairs Žujović was on two occasions, from 16 маја to 30 July 1905, and from 11 October 1909 to 12 September 1910.