Political folklore can be regarded through processes of construction of paradigms, and the production of festivals. There is no doubt that folklore, as a national concept and a commercial product, has become a means in the creation of various strategies of power on its path to becoming the national identifier as well as the commercial product in the everlasting confrontation between cultural forms and the ideological formations. The folklore construction in the conventional zones, along with its regulation role in the intangible heritage, as well as during the performing of the folklore performances, establish one complex system of controls, interests and commodities. The most exclusive examples of the folklore tradition’s production are, in effect, various events – festive events that become a significant domestic and tourist phenomena based on their ritual and seasonal journeys. A case study of a Dragacevski sabor trubaca (The Trumpet Festival of Dragacevo) is analysed through the zone of national and commercial supervision and representation, leaving behind a deep trace of folklore’s politicising.
Diverse traditions and heritage practices are the legacies of contemporary processes, and as such they are safeguarded and retained. The elements of intangible cultural meaning are presented as dynamic, often ambivalent processes that form specific cultural politics on a local, regional and global level. Intangible cultural heritage is projected in Serbia as a strategy of state politics, accumulated scientific knowledge and a network of various interactions and perceptions. Bearing in mind all the specific social-political circumstances of a country during the crisis and transitional period, practices, constructions and statuses of intangible cultural heritage are manifested through ambivalent processes of global networking and positioning on a national level. More and more traditions, heritage practices, social communities and groups are heading towards decentralization and pluralization, thus making it harder to register them and have a systematic overview. Safeguarding of the intangible cultural heritage in Serbia relies on people and their practices not just inside one country and its national borders but, as well, through self-identification and diffusion where unique maps of cultural diversities and perceptive empathies between people are created.
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