Contextul politic şi cultural al înfiinţării Muzeului Satului
The Political and Cultural Context of Foundation of the Village Museum

Summary/Abstract: In this study I show the political and cultural context of the Village Museum’s establishment, and I will not tackle the – so often discussed throughout the decades – scientific reasons of this institution’s foundation. Dimitrie Gusti and his sociological monographic team emphasized, as early as 1928, since the monographic campaign undertaken at Fundul Moldovei, the scientific and pedagogical value of exhibitions and museums. After 1934, under the aegis of the Royal Cultural Foundation „Prince Carol”, the voluntary royal student teams used to annually organize exhibitions illustrating their accomplishments and objects gathered in the field. All these activities constituted the antecedents of the Village Museum.I will stress the main contextual aspects that facilitated and legitimated the rapid establishment of the institution. I will outline the propagandistic function of the museum in the context of the interwar institutionalization of the national cultural construction of Greater Romania. I will present the meaning of the specific cultural politics (related to the museum) promoted by Carol II in the context of political contest in the 30s. I will also show the epoch’s micro-history that preceded the museum’s inauguration, illustrating it with fragments of oral history recorded in the 80s. Finally, I will explore the reasons of the ambivalent political discourse employed by the museum’s founder.

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