Documentation of the Traditional Crafts Present in Fairs and Markets of the Empordà County

The purpose of this research project is to obtain a preliminary knowledge of the social and economic use of the traditional crafts found at the craft theme fairs and markets now held in the Baix Empordà and Alt Empordà counties. The aim is to provide an ethnographic documentation of the various crafts based, on the one hand, on a study of the relationship of the represented activities with the pre-industrial artisanal forms of production and, on the other, on the measurement of the importance of these dramatised portrayals of artisanal production within the framework of the general activity of the craftspeople who now attend these fairs and markets.
 

In this way we seek to document the heritagisation of an artisanal activity taking into account both cultural and economic aspects, that is to say, we wish to determine how a heritage activity that carries out a social and cultural function of preservation and transmission of the ethnological heritage also serves as an economic strategy of production and distribution for a specific collective of craftspeople and for the bodies that organise these events.

Ethnographical documenting of a commercial activity –fairs and markets–, based on the recovery of the ethnological heritage represented by the traditional crafts.

Appraisal of the historic and ethnological criteria that apply for the stagings or re-enactments of the traditional crafts at these fairs and markets.

Measurement of the importance of these portrayals of traditional crafts in the general productive activity of the professionals who now attend these fairs and markets.

Observation of the dynamics that are generated inside these fairs in order to acquire a better knowledge of how the ethnological heritage, in this case involving the traditional crafts, is transmitted to the public.

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.