Charles Camp and Timothy Lloyd explain in their 1980 paper “Six Reasons to Not Produce Folklife Festivals” that they want “to encourage folklorists...to think more deeply and more critically about festivals” (67). The goal of the majority of folklife festivals is to promote greater awareness among the general population about several cultures’ traditional practices, beliefs, and material items which in turn provides that culture with validation for those beliefs and practices. The festivals’ main goal is then twofold, conveniently educating the public while also preserving traditional beliefs by offering validation to those who practice them, which encourages them to continue to observe their traditional culture. Camp and Lloyd call this process
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When discussing the set-up for Celebration: A World of Art and Ritual, a festival organized through the Smithsonian Institute in 1982 designed to give the public experiential knowledge of less mainstream cultural groups, Jack Santino describes setting up the exhibit. The set was created by “using photographic backdrops and plywood or styrofoam constructions” (Santino 121). The construction of a space using styrofoam and plywood seems incredibly inauthentic. However, Santino explains the participants who were representing the traditional culture “usually brought these objects from their homes or sometimes made them for the event and set them up themselves so as to ensure accuracy and authenticity” (Santino 121). Part of the problem of authenticity may be related to ideas of primitivism. A traditional culture or ritualistic activities certainly could not use such mundane things as plywood and …show more content…
Folklife festivals would seem to only exacerbate the problem of inauthenticity and in “constituting” a culture because the festival takes cultures and places them outside of context, forcing the rituals depicted, rather than letting them occur in a natural setting. Any attempt to duplicate the natural setting, might be considered artificial.
Santino’s idea of letting the members of the community depicted dictate how their culture is represented does not appear to combat the problem Kirschenblatt-Gimblett presents. Though the people who create the culture are dictating the boundaries of the representation, it is still just that: a representation. However, Santino describes an important dynamic in the Celebration: A World of Art and Ritual. During the presentation, Santino encouraged audience members to participate in the events. Santino
When discussing the set-up for Celebration: A World of Art and Ritual, a festival organized through the Smithsonian Institute in 1982 designed to give the public experiential knowledge of less mainstream cultural groups, Jack Santino describes setting up the exhibit. The set was created by “using photographic backdrops and plywood or styrofoam constructions” (Santino 121). The construction of a space using styrofoam and plywood seems incredibly inauthentic. However, Santino explains the participants who were representing the traditional culture “usually brought these objects from their homes or sometimes made them for the event and set them up themselves so as to ensure accuracy and authenticity” (Santino 121). Part of the problem of authenticity may be related to ideas of primitivism. A traditional culture or ritualistic activities certainly could not use such mundane things as plywood and …show more content…
Folklife festivals would seem to only exacerbate the problem of inauthenticity and in “constituting” a culture because the festival takes cultures and places them outside of context, forcing the rituals depicted, rather than letting them occur in a natural setting. Any attempt to duplicate the natural setting, might be considered artificial.
Santino’s idea of letting the members of the community depicted dictate how their culture is represented does not appear to combat the problem Kirschenblatt-Gimblett presents. Though the people who create the culture are dictating the boundaries of the representation, it is still just that: a representation. However, Santino describes an important dynamic in the Celebration: A World of Art and Ritual. During the presentation, Santino encouraged audience members to participate in the events. Santino