The Peasant in Socialist Romania. An Ethnological Perspective

This paper aims to analyze the construction of the peasant’s image in Romania, during the socialist period, focussing on “Cântarea României” [“The Glorification of Romania”] National Festival, which took place between 1976 and 1989. The paper is structured in two parts. The first is a theoretical approach, based on main concepts of ethnology, such as tradition, folklore, folklorism. This theoretical perspective is reported to a subjective one, which belongs to some insiders, performers at the festival. The study case proposed is based on a field research conducted in Hăşdate, a village from Cluj County, Romania.