Villages on Stage

Villages on Stage examines the contribution of folklore and ethnography to the construction of national identity in post-Soviet Moldova through the development of a new genre of folkloric performance. By highlighting the contribution of villages to the creation of national culture and identity, the standards of authenticity for amateur folkloric ensembles generate an alternative discourse to the state's official but contentious promotion of multiethnic policies. At once inclusive and exclusive of the country's multiple ethnic groups, the goals, practices, and ideologies embodied in folkloric performance portray both the local dilemmas of postsocialist nation-building and the shared challenge for folklore and ethnography to participate in public debates about cultural diversity. Jennifer Cash is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in Halle, Germany.