“Traditional—with Contemporary Form”: Craft and Discourses of Modernity in Slovakia Today

Abstract

Based on anthropological fieldwork conducted among lace makers in contemporary Central Slovakia, this paper compares and contrasts the lived experience of women engaged in craft production with scholarly discourses on the impact of postwar modernization on craft. Two existing interpretative frameworks are examined using this method: Deema Kaneff's (2004) concept of the “re-contextualization” of peasant traditions into reified folklore by socialist institutions; and the ethnological approach to modernization as the cause of fragmentation of local traditions and practices. While craft is generally described as modernity's traditional “other,” this study seeks to understand the manner in which lace makers have incorporated their understanding and experience of modernity and modernization into their practice, products and (professional) identity. Thus, it seeks to critique and develop scholarly approaches to contemporary crafts using ethnographic material gained from the world they are meant to describe.