The Sorbs in Germany : Cultural Practices and Cultural Security

Abstract:

Minorities’ cultural practices provide great potential for self-reassurance and reinforcing identity constructs. What is more, members of these groups look for coping strategies to overcome sociopolitical crises. In times of social upheaval, the transformation of cultural practices can thus be observed just as much in their personal lives as in the staging of collective cultural practices, which not uncommonly have an ambivalent character, in that they are equally capable of generating cultural security and creating insecurity. Reflecting on the staging of Sorbian folk dance and the personal stories of the women wearing folk costumes, the following questions are pursued: which strategies were developed by the performers to contend with new sociopolitical environments? How does the reinterpretation of “traditional” practices come about? How do such personal and specific, culturally interpreted markers find legitimation? This chapter shows how coming closer to its own cultural heritage, a minority can foster cultural security.