Author: Prof. Gheorghiță Geană (Institute of Anthropology, Romanian Academy)
Keywords: Romania, peasants, village, redemption, land, wisdom, heaven
Abstract:
Starting from the famous assertion of Lucian Blaga, according to which eternity was born in village, the present author brings several explanations and nuances presupposed by the above assertion, all the more so as this was spoken within a philosophical context, rather unintelligible for most. Hence the author’s question: “If the existence of the Romanian places itself on the pure continuance, how one can explain this persistence? In other words: to whose factors does the village owes its resistance in front of the numberless trials of history?” To which question he answers by saying that these factors are “the estate, the nation, the light of knowledge and the heaven”. After the analysis of these four factors, he resorts to a „synoptic overview” of his theme, adding that “all these four love proofs revealed here projects transpose the Romanian peasant into eternity. They unite themselves in a kind of redemption technique; and we use technique in the antique sense of “téchnē”, which means applied art. Almost all the peasant work must finally be saved (redeemed); so that all his work revolves around redemption. But this redemption does not end here or in some moment; it is always followed by something else worthy to be saved/redeemed, until the thirst of his soul for redemption is fulfilled at the end of his life.
Pages: 48-59