THE THRACIANS: CONTEMPORARY IDENTIFICATIONS AND USES
THE THRACIANS: CONTEMPORARY IDENTIFICATIONS AND USES

Summary/Abstract: The ancient origin of the Bulgarians as a nation is related to the Thracians who receive a special place in the ethnic genealogy. The paper is examining the contemporary uses of and identifications with the Thracian past. The presented uses are, on the one hand, indicative of the policies of shaping identities in regions populated by people with varied religions and / or ethnicity by placing an emphasis on certain segments of history. On the other hand, they provide evidence of the activities of numerous NGOs, who foresee the ample opportunities offered by archaeological sites and nature’s beauty for developing cultural tourism. Without exhausting all the uses of antiquity in modern times, the representations and interpretations discussed in the paper give an idea of the way modern Bulgarian culture incorporates the idea of the “Thracian past”. The leading idea is that of continuity, viewed spatially by organizing festivals at archaeological sites, presented through re-enactments of historical events or rituals, reminded of by monuments and names from Thracian times in the modern landscape, used for the development of tourism, and last but not least, experienced in the categories of ancestors and descendants.

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