Reprezentativitatea etnografică şi simbolismul tematic al artizanatului ţărănesc din România
Ethnographic representativity and thematic symbolism of peasant artisanship in Romania

Summary/Abstract: The article seeks to describe and interpret the ethnographic representativeness and the craft symbolism that are associated with the folk artisanship in the 2000s Romania. Two major research questions are approached, dealing with the arguments, ideas, and meanings according to which 1) the peasant artisans' work and artifacts are claimed to be referential for local or regional communities, ethnic groups, and a national value system, and 2) the same craftsmen's decorative themes and motifs come to be conceived, displayed, and "negotiated" as a cultural continuum between local traditions and exogenous criteria about what the "folk culture" is. Methodology of my research basically relies on an ethnographic research, which, in terms of oral-history interviews and participant observation, I conducted in 2005 in the framework of several artisanship fairs in Bucharest, Timişoara, Sibiu, and Suceava. The most important conclusions the current paper outlines are concerned with the permanent reinterpretation of folk crafts and artifacts among peasant groups and remote clienteles and academic specialists, and the synthesis operating between customary, personal, and public contributions to the contemporary folk arts.

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