In the larger context - that of the region or nation - the question becomes one of what constitutes an identity system. The construction of individual and community identities has as much to do with actual confrontations with "the other" as anything. Identity on the individual and community levels is based on frequent daily experiences, contrasting each person's behaviour with that of other people in the group. Identity first centers on the individual and how we experience differences among those in our immediate context. We can argue that there can be no identity (individual, regional or national) without contrast of other persons or groups. In a sense, all identity deals with the issue of contrast.
The entire issue of national identity brings up first and foremost the question of identity systems. Folklore, in many instances, then, becomes synonymous with national identity, a national identity based on identity systems. The simple equation was posited that once folklore was documented, then there soon would follow a strengthening of the idea of nationhood (for an overall survey of these issues see Dundes 1983:235-261). Folklorists' early writings automatically assumed that all folklore items expressed national identity. The concept of how folklore relates to national identity has been of central concern to researchers ever since theorists in the 19th century began to analyse peasant culture. You know better than I how concepts and methods now prevalent in other countries might or might not be useful in the Baltic context. I do this in the spirit of dialogue, for obviously folklore scholarship in both parts of the world has developed in different directions. My comments are meant to hopefully provide new ways of looking at these issues in the Baltic region.
My remarks today are intended to be largely introductory, outlining broad conceptional developments in North American folklore studies that relate to the analysis of national identity and folklore. Pocius FOKLORE AND THE CREATION OF NATIONAL IDENTITIES:
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