Gender, Heritage and Changing Traditions: Russian Old Believers in Romania

Cristina Elena Clopot, Máiréad Nic Craith

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter

Abstract

This chapter analyses the fluidity of gender roles in the community of Russian Old Believers in Romania with regard to their religious heritage. To analyse heritage as embodied in persons, it looks at how bodies, living carriers of gendered heritage processes, can be conceptualized. The role of gender in the closed community extends beyond the personal body to issues of access to religious places and sacred places can highlight the problematic relationship of Orthodox religious sites between their universal nature and their particularism. As the official language of the Russian Old Belief Orthodox church, knowledge of Slavonic is essential for religious practice and transmission. The community's life is embedded in Romania's social, economic, cultural and political life, and thus subjected to wider influences. The tenacity that has kept Old Believers' heritage alive, along with its patriarchal structures, offers interesting insights on the tensions between heritage, gender and a traditional sense of place in a postmodern world.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationGender and Heritage: Performance, Place and Politics
EditorsWera Grahn, Ross J. Wilson
PublisherRoutledge
Pages30-43
Number of pages14
Edition1st
ISBN (Electronic)9781315460093
ISBN (Print)9781138208162, 9781138208148
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2 Feb 2018

Keywords

  • Old Believers
  • Romania
  • heritage
  • iconography
  • crafts
  • gender

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