Documentació dels oficis tradicionals representats en fires i mercats de l’Empordà.
Documentació dels oficis tradicionals representats en fires i mercats de l’Empordà.
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Documentation of the Traditional Crafts Present in Fairs and Markets of the Empordà County

Processes of patrimonialization and uses of patrimonyCOMPETITIVE PROJECTS

Documentation of traditional crafts represented in fairs and markets of the Empordà

Period

01/09/2009-01/09/2010

Budget

€9.000

Researchers: Dr. Gabriel Alcalde (ICRPC/UdG), Dr. Eliseu Carbonell (ICRPC), Antoni Rojas (ICRPC)

Description

Research focused on the social and economic use of traditional crafts present in thematic fairs and markets of crafts that are currently held in the regions of Baix Empordà and Alt Empordà. The objective of this research is to ethnographically document the different crafts by analyzing, on the one hand, the relationship of each of the crafts represented with pre-industrial artisanal forms of production and, secondly, to calibrate the importance of these theatrical representations of artisanal production in the general activity of the craftsmen who currently attend these fairs and markets.

In this way, we want to document the patrimonialization of an artisanal activity based on both cultural and economic reference, that is, to see how a heritage activity that, on the one hand, fulfills a social and cultural function of preserving and transmitting ethnological heritage, also serves as an economic strategy of production and distribution for a certain group of artisans, as well as the entities that organize these events.

Objectives

To carry out ethnographic documentation of a commercial activity, fairs and markets, based on the recovery of the ethnological heritage represented in traditional trades.

To assess the historical and ethnological criteria that follow the staging or theatricalization of traditional trades in these fairs and markets.

To calibrate the importance of these representations of traditional trades in the general productive activity of the professionals who currently attend these fairs and markets.

To observe the dynamics that are generated inside these fairs in order to better understand how the transmission of ethnological heritage, in this case traditional trades, to the public is carried out.

Methodology and work plan

Documentary research: documentary screening of all the fairs, markets and exhibitions where the theme line is one or more traditional crafts.


Ethnographical fieldwork on the traditional crafts fairs and markets: observation and recording of the activities and interactions between the public and the craftspeople within the frame of the crafts fairs and markets. The aim is to make an on-site study of how the heritage value of the traditional crafts is transmitted.


Semi-structured interviews with craftspeople and organisers of the fairs as sources of information, to study the meaning that is attributed to the “traditional craft” concept, and to appraise the specific weight of the fairs within the activity of the professionals involved.