Sardinian crafts at the crossroads of modernity: practices, narratives, and museums, 1909-1964

Resumo

Craft in Sardinia has been part of the cultural debate since its emergence in the late 19^th century as “the industry’s opposite number, or other” (Adamson 2013: xiii). Filed under multiple labels such as arte paesana, piccolo industria, arte popolare, arte rustica, artigianato tradizionale, artigianato artistico,¹ it encompassed a wide range of practices within the broader field of material culture, serving different cultural, social, and political needs. During the 20^th century, different ideological constructions appear intertwined and informed craft’s production, collection, and musealization: the binary opposition between handmade and industrial object; the theme of the vanishing culture and the corruption of cultural authenticity; the gendering of craft aimed at pushing it in or out the race for the economic development of the island.