Emergency Ethnology

Emergency Ethnology, In the ever-increasing whirl of the contemporary world, defined by modernisation, technology, migration, mechanisation, etc., the rural world is also changing radically, with its specific oral culture, in which traditions are perpetuated through the generations. Thus, through this line of research, the MNȚR aims to document cultural phenomena and practices threatened by extinction or irreversible transformation. 

 

One such practice is the phenomenon of storytelling, which, because television, radio and the internet have penetrated everywhere, is increasingly less used in communities. That’s why the museum’s researchers record storytellers from the village world, and then put the legends and tales they tell into a child-friendly form. So far a storyteller from Teleorman and an old storyteller from Suceava have been discovered, each with a rich repertoire of fantastic tales, animal tales, anecdotes and riddles, an extremely rare phenomenon today. In 2012, a book was published with AFCN funding, “Moșul-cu-Trupul-de-Flori-și-Barbă-de-Milase”, a book that exploits the wonderful stories of Alexandru Ovedenie for children, and another book is currently being prepared, dedicated to the stories of Valeria Olenici.

 

Peasant music is recorded and researched, and then made available to the public through the Ethnophonie collection of traditional music recordings, initiated in 1992 by ethnomusicologist Speranța Rădulescu and Horia Bernea, and continued by Florin Iordan and Costin Moisil. The project maintains its role as a genuine alternative to official folk music, but also assumes a new function as an alternative to globalising music, insisting on the preservation of regional identity expressed through music.

 

Another example is the project History of the Aromanians through Songs, which is about researching how ethnic identity is constructed among the Aromanians through the repertoire of community songs.