Welshness Performed: Welsh Concepts of Person and Society FROM THE PUBLISHER
Wales is a region of Great Britain compromising about 8,000 square miles of land and two and a half million people - a nation without a state, but one consisting of persons distinctively Welsh. There are many ways of acting and thinking to be found in Wales, but only some of these are considered by Welsh people to be relevant to their ethnic identity. Carol Trosset lived for two years as a Welsh speaker, and she draws on this experience of cultural immersion in her discussion of "what it is to be Welsh." In Welshness Performed, she shows how people acquire a sense of identity - both as individuals and as members of society - and presents a notion of "Welshness" sufficiently widespread to influence thinking about the society and the individual's place in it. Trosset analyzes the interplay of language survival, performance arts, and ethnic politics and relates these sociological factors to more personal values about equality, self-sacrifice, and emotional expression. Culturally prominent events such as eisteddfodau - competitive music and poetry festivals - are discussed in the context of the use of the Welsh language, feelings of separateness from England, and perceptions of status and community. Ultimately, Trosset shows how concepts of social order and personhood interact to produce a distinctive feeling of Welshness. Welshness Performed offers an anthropological perspective on a people not generally studied in that discipline. But more than a study of culture, it seeks to communicate Welsh ideas about what it means to be a person in society.
FROM THE CRITICS
Booknews
Based on two year-long sojourns among Welsh speakers of northern Wales, Trosset (anthropology, Beloit College) explores not so much what the Welsh think about their society and the place of the individual within it, but how they express those values and ideas in their daily lives. The primary concern of the Welsh is to distinguish themselves from the English, and to varying degrees that concern colors language use, performance arts, ethnic and national politics, religion, personal relations, emotional expressiveness, and other aspects of life. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
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