Folk Art Reassessed

Abstract

Abstract This chapter critically reassesses Romanian collections of “folk art” or “folklore” through the the lens of material culture studies. While it is conventional to think about rural artifacts as indicators of regional ethnographic zones, scholars of rural objects in Romania rarely reflect on the social role of these collections. Against this background, the chapter recognizes that such objects are constantly produced, acquired, displayed, and deployed to mark a range of complex practices of representation and identity formation in heritage and vernacular contexts. Based on anthropological research in the settings identified as sources for folk art objects, it demonstrates that a material culture approach offers a unique perspective on the variety of normative categories and meanings of the artifacts depending on their historical context and changing social and political uses. It is proposed that ethnographic studies of rural objects can open novel research possibilities and reveal the situated, social, historical, and political relations in which the things are entangled.