Abstract
This paper explores the dynamics of agency, media andauthority in the maintenance and construction of the folk cultural sphere– that is, asociety’s generalized perception and understanding of traditional culture. Thephenomenon is explored through a series of cases, organized chronologically, on:medieval manuscript technologies and Snorri Sturluson’s Edda; seventeenth- and eighteenth-century written representationsof Sámi; a nineteenth-century living ethnographic exhibition of Sámi; currentfieldwork documenting Rotenese and Tetun traditions in Indonesia; acommunity-driven living ethnographic exhibition on the island of Java. The finaldiscussion takes an overview of the perspectives gained from the individualcases to consider their broader implications.
Highlights
Barbro Klein was sensitive to gaps where an assumption or intuition of coherence and cohesion conceals a disjunction
An important aspect of this concept is that it is not restricted to images of culture seen as the heritage of one group as opposed to others. It includes the diversity of images identified with traditional culture relative to a particular society or group, even if the images may be linked to different ethnic identities
In developing the concept as a tool, Klein was centrally interested in the processes of selection and representation that filter practices and transform them into symbolic capital and anchors for identity. She explored questions of whose traditions become included and excluded in the Swedish folk cultural sphere, and the construction of, for instance, Sámi traditional culture within that sphere and stance-taking connected to it (Klein 2000). Her focus is at the national level in the case of Sweden, where national identity emerged from the Romantic ideology of “one language, one culture, one nation”
Summary
Barbro Klein was sensitive to gaps where an assumption or intuition of coherence and cohesion conceals a disjunction. In developing the concept as a tool, Klein was centrally interested in the processes of selection and representation that filter practices and transform them into symbolic capital and anchors for identity She explored questions of whose traditions become included and excluded in the Swedish folk cultural sphere, and the construction of, for instance, Sámi traditional culture within that sphere and stance-taking connected to it (Klein 2000). The present article sets out to develop more nuanced perspectives on Klein’s concept by exploring the dynamics of agency, media and authority in the construction and negotiation of folk cultural spheres These dynamics are investigated and illustrated through a series of case studies from different societies and historical periods, organized chronologically and following two complementary strands.
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