Aesthetics and politics of folklore

Abstract

Understood in the strict and derived sense of figuration of popular songs and dances, folklore is a non-professional activity very spread in Portugal. This article examines the field of Portuguese folklore, focusing on discourses about folkloric representation that circulate within the field in different times and in different zones. Those discourses are classified in two broad paradigms. They are analysed as means of producing difference inside the field, as modes of seeing folklore linked to different representations folklorists make of their activity and of themselves, and also as theories with consequences in the praxis of folkloric groups. The article ends with some reflections on the relationship between folklore and anthropology in Portugal.