A Lithuanian “Ethnographic Village”: Heritage, Private Property, Entitlement Cover Image

A Lithuanian “Ethnographic Village”: Heritage, Private Property, Entitlement
A Lithuanian “Ethnographic Village”: Heritage, Private Property, Entitlement

Author(s): Kristina Jonutyte
Subject(s): Social Sciences
Published by: Institutul de Antropologie ,,Francisc I. Rainer” al Academiei Române
Keywords: heritage site; private property; Lithuania.

Summary/Abstract: In this article, various aspects of engagement with the past and with heritage are explored in the context of Grybija village in southern Lithuania. The village in question is a heritage site within an "ethnographic villages" programme, which was initiated by the Soviet state and continued by Independent Lithuania after 1990. The article thus looks at the ideological aspects of heritage as well as its practical implications to Grybija's inhabitants. Moreover, local ideas about private property, righteous ownership and entitlement are explored in their complexity and in relation to the heritage project. Since much of the preserved heritage in the village is private property, various restrictions and prohibitions are imposed on local residents, which are deemed as neither righteous nor effective by many locals. In the meantime, the discourse of the "ethnographic villages" project exotifies and distances the village and its inhabitants, constructing an "Other" that is both admired and alienated.

  • Issue Year: 2014
  • Issue No: 4
  • Page Range: 3-12
  • Page Count: 10
  • Language: English