Informatorul. Biografia unui concept etnologic

Abstract

Indicating the person who provides a researcher with information about the reality of a rural/traditional community, the word informator (informant) lost its “innocent” character when it started to be used for the collaborators of the secret services, especially of the Romanian political police during the communist period, the Securitate. The authors follow the “biography” of this word in Romanian language and of this concept in Romanian ethnology. They also explore the evolution of the term according to political contexts (especially in communist Romania and the post-socialist years). The paper focuses on two aspects: (a) the evolution of the meaning of the word informator, as it can be found in the main dictionaries; the influence of the political context on the transformation of the term is also studied; (b) who and in which contexts has defined, conceptualized or mentioned the informator (informant) as an essential part of the process of knowledge of folkloric realities, within the Romanian ethnology.