Beschreibung
Villages on Stage examines the contribution of folklore and ethnography to
the construction of national identity in post-Soviet Moldova through the
development of a new genre of folkloric performance. By highlighting the
contribution of villages to the creation of national culture and identity,
the standards of authenticity for amateur folkloric ensembles generate an
alternative discourse to the state’s official but contentious promotion of
multiethnic policies. At once inclusive and exclusive of the country’s
multiple ethnic groups, the goals, practices, and ideologies embodied in
folkloric performance portray both the local dilemmas of postsocialist
nation-building and the shared challenge for folklore and ethnography to
participate in public debates about cultural diversity. Jennifer Cash is a
Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Social
Anthropology in Halle, Germany.
