Affiliation:
1. Randolph College, Virginia, USA,
Abstract
This article examines the representation of the Canadian province of Alberta at the 2006 Smithsonian Folklife Festival. Through a close analysis of the site layout of the festival, the author points to a conflict between the anthropological goals of the Smithsonian Institution and the political/industrial goals of the province. The article draws upon scholarship from the fields of anthropology, museum studies and cultural studies, using Gramsci’s notion of folklore and a comparison between the Folklife Festival and World’s Fairs.