ABSTRACT
The story of the Village Museum touches on two of them specifically. First, the museum was the product of the "scientification" of the rural world, visible in the social sciences—but not this alone. Second, the museum was connected to various international forums interested in rural reform. This, in turn, challenges us to see discourses of exhibition and heritage as part of and interlinked with projects of rural reform. This chapter therefore examines the history of this "social museum", looking to understand the relationship between sociology, the rural and the museum as part of efforts to govern the rural world. It then integrates the museum within the social and political history of interwar Romania, examining the specific relationship between the state, intellectuals and peasants. The chapter finally discusses the ways in which the concept of a "social museum" was undermined—and finally abandoned—to allow it to survive the postwar political context.
