| Abstrakt: |
Taking the example of Tyrol, the article traces the new semantic attributions, ideological weightings and sociopolitical instrumentalizations undergone by manifestations of popular culture in the first half of the twentieth century in particular. The author investigates the motivations and social actors behind these processes by focusing the analysis on the role of traditional costume (Volkstracht). Traditional costumes are embedded in processes of constructing identities and communities; they are functionalised for the disclosure and propagation of group values and norms. Following German national and racial ascriptions, traditional costumes manifested an ethno-political sense of group belonging in the first half of the twentieth century and they came to be a badge of identification for a national socialist ideological orientation. By way of conclusion, the contribution explores the continuities and shifts associated with these signifiers after the Second World War, as well as the more or less seamless continuing involvement of particular social actors in this process. Only recently have the problematic aspects surrounding traditional costumes become the subject of scholarly and public debate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
