{"title":"The Return of the Far-Off Past: Voicing Authenticity in Late Socialist Mongolia","authors":"Andrew Colwell","doi":"10.2979/JFOLKRESE.56.1.02","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:This article combines conceptual history and musical ethnography to tell the story of yazguur (meaning \"authenticity\" or \"originality\"), a pivotal concept in late socialist Mongolia that continues to inform cultural heritage discourse and policy today. The seminal music researcher Badraa first proposed this notion in the 1970s as a translation for folkloristic and primordial \"authenticity\" in a bid to assert the cultural sovereignty of Mongolia under Soviet hegemony. However, his cohorts, such as the xöömeich (throat singers) with whom I have consulted, also resignified the term through their own discursive and performative practices that hinge upon pastoral custom and aesthetic propriety with baigal' (nature, existence). So, what does authenticity really mean when it departs from its Eurocentric sources, when actors begin holding its meanings accountable to the poetics and politics of indigeneity? One possible answer to this question lies in attending to what resemble sustained modes of global \"entanglement\" (more so than dichotomous \"appropriations\" and \"encounters\") through which circulating concepts become local sounds and sentiments.","PeriodicalId":44620,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF FOLKLORE RESEARCH","volume":"56 1","pages":"37 - 69"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4000,"publicationDate":"2019-03-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"JOURNAL OF FOLKLORE RESEARCH","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.2979/JFOLKRESE.56.1.02","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"FOLKLORE","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Abstract:This article combines conceptual history and musical ethnography to tell the story of yazguur (meaning "authenticity" or "originality"), a pivotal concept in late socialist Mongolia that continues to inform cultural heritage discourse and policy today. The seminal music researcher Badraa first proposed this notion in the 1970s as a translation for folkloristic and primordial "authenticity" in a bid to assert the cultural sovereignty of Mongolia under Soviet hegemony. However, his cohorts, such as the xöömeich (throat singers) with whom I have consulted, also resignified the term through their own discursive and performative practices that hinge upon pastoral custom and aesthetic propriety with baigal' (nature, existence). So, what does authenticity really mean when it departs from its Eurocentric sources, when actors begin holding its meanings accountable to the poetics and politics of indigeneity? One possible answer to this question lies in attending to what resemble sustained modes of global "entanglement" (more so than dichotomous "appropriations" and "encounters") through which circulating concepts become local sounds and sentiments.
期刊介绍:
The Journal of Folklore Research has provided an international forum for current theory and research among scholars of traditional culture since 1964. Each issue includes topical, incisive articles of current theoretical interest to folklore and ethnomusicology as international disciplines, as well as essays that address the fieldwork experience and the intellectual history of folklore and ethnomusicology studies. Contributors include scholars and professionals in additional fields, including anthropology, area studies, communication, cultural studies, history, linguistics, literature, performance studies, religion, and semiotics.