Title:  “The  Momårlan’s  Museum.  (Elena  Mălinesc  and  Petru  Gălățean  Ethnographic 

Collection)” 

Author: Ana Pascu 

How  to  cite  this article: Pascu, Ana. 2009. “The Momårlan’s Museum.  (Elena Mălinesc and Petru Gălățean 

Ethnographic Collection)”. Martor 14: 165‐170. 

Published by: Editura MARTOR  (MARTOR Publishing House), Muzeul Țăranului Român  (The 

Museum of the Romanian Peasant) 

URL:  http://martor.muzeultaranuluiroman.ro/archive/martor‐14‐2009/     

 Martor  (The Museum  of  the  Romanian  Peasant  Anthropology  Review)  is  a  peer‐reviewed  academic  journal established in 1996, with a focus on cultural and visual anthropology, ethnology, museum studies and the dialogue among  these  disciplines. Martor  review  is  published  by  the Museum  of  the  Romanian  Peasant.  Its  aim  is  to provide,  as widely  as  possible,  a  rich  content  at  the  highest  academic  and  editorial  standards  for  scientific, educational and (in)formational goals. Any use aside from these purposes and without mentioning the source of the article(s) is prohibited and will be considered an infringement of copyright.    Martor (Revue d’Anthropologie du Musée du Paysan Roumain) est un journal académique en système peer‐review fondé  en  1996,  qui  se  concentre  sur  l’anthropologie  visuelle  et  culturelle,  l’ethnologie,  la muséologie  et  sur  le dialogue entre ces disciplines. La revue Martor est publiée par le Musée du Paysan Roumain. Son aspiration est de généraliser  l’accès vers un riche contenu au plus haut niveau du point de vue académique et éditorial pour des objectifs  scientifiques,  éducatifs  et  informationnels. Toute utilisation  au‐delà de  ces  buts  et  sans mentionner  la source des articles est interdite et sera considérée une violation des droits de l’auteur.  

 

 

 

 

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In 2004 Elena M`linesc and Petru G`l`]anopened the Momârlan’s Museum in the villageof Sl`tinioara, suburbia of Petro[ani City thatspreads on one side of the Parâng Mountains.The name of the museum suggests what its own-ers aimed to achieve: the reconstruction of thelife of Momârlani, the ‘native’ population in thearea. Cattle breeding has always been the basicoccupation for the Momârlani, but since theFirst World War they have also dealt with min-ing, though they have been reticent about it.They live in Petro[ani Depression, on the valleysof the two Jiu rivers, the East and the West Jiuand of their tributaries, but also on the sides ofthe the Vâlcan, Retezat and {ureanu Mountainsthat surround it. The origin of the word ‘momâr-lan’ is ambiguous, but the Momârlani considerthemselves the remnants of the indigenous Da-cian population and defined their identity in re-lation to the ‘barabele’, the foreigners who set-tled down the Valley once with the opening ofcoal mines during the Habsburg domination.

It is particularly recently that the Momârlanihave restarted to decline their identity and speci-ficity and capitalise on their heritage: ‘If I hadknown that beforehand, [I would have collectedmore]. Everyone burnt all old things, they setthem on fire. I could hardly recuperate any-thing… They asked themselves what to do with

them. They had no idea of what might happen inthe future and burnt them without realising thatour customs and traditions would be lost. That’swhy I wanted to gather what I could! Everythingbears the mark of Europe, but what about ourorigin? We must know what we inherit!’ (ElenaM`linesc)

Five years ago the two spouses inherited atraditional old wooden house they turned into amuseum. The former owner, the aunt of PetruG`l`]an, feared that her house would be pulleddown after her death. This ordinary womanliked the idea of setting up a museum meant topreserve not only the memory of her death, butalso the cultural context in which she lived: ‘I in-herited this house from my aunt who said ‘WhenI die you are going to destroy it!’ [...] ‘No’, saidI, ‘I’ll turn it into a museum!’ She said ‘what thehell is that museum for?’ Well…I explained toher what that meant and she said ‘Well, I likeit!’ But she laughed, you know... ‘Well’, said she,‘if you do that I won’t disturb you, otherwise I’llrise from the dead to punish you!’ She wasjoking, of course!’ (Elena M`linesc)

Made up of two rooms and an entrance hall,the house shelters a motley collection whichmainly consists of peasant objects collected fromthe Momârlani with a view to standing solidproof of their still rich traditional culture: ‘I

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The Momårlan’s Museum(Elena M`linesc and Petru G`l`]ean Ethnographic Collection)

Ana Pascu

want something like the Village Museum ofBucharest, which means many households andall that is typical of this area, all traditions,‘cause there are many, from baptism, […] frombirth to death.’ (Elena M`linesc) The two spou-ses want more than just an exhibition of a house-hold and its extensions. They want to build aneco-museum that should be a micro-replica ofthe Momarlan village with sheep and sheepfolds,a wooden church and ancient occupations. Untilthen, they wish the museum to be integratedinto a cultural tourism network, which is whythey also opened a guest house ready to welcomeits visitors.

The interior of the old house has remainedunchanged. The two spouses preserved every-thing: furniture, icons and photos, clothes, fa-bric, a loom, ceramics, even a pick-up and oldvinyl records. Elena M`linesc rummaged in theattic and wondered through all Momarlan vil-lages to buy objects: costumes and fabric,footwear, ceramics, pitchforks, iron tools andwooden food containers. The two owners de-signed the collection according to few and sim-ple criteria: the objects must belong to local cul-ture and be as old as possible. Costumes are themain and the most valuable component of theircollection.

Elena M`linesc chose the peasant weddingceremony as an exhibition theme and arrangedthe costumes function of the importance of theroles that the participants played in the ceremo-ny: the bride and groom’s costumes hang on awall; close to them lie the godparents’ and theson-in-low’s and daughter-in-law’s mother and fa-ther’s costumes; the elders’ holiday costumes arethe next important elements in so far as the wed-ding ceremony is concerned. Puppet-man-nequins dressed in costumes carefully tailoredand woven from irretrievable pieces completethe exhibition and stand for the wedding convoy.Fabric is displayed on the bed and objects foreveryday use are exhibited around the floor.

The wedding guests wear holiday costumes.A flax work shirt of which the owner is very

proud is displayed next-door. The last towelwoven by the former landlady can still be foundon the inherited loom. Hemp and wool process-ing tools are scattered around the room whereasa peasant woman keeps a pitchfork in her waist-band. Next to her stands a shepherd made of awooden hanger in an original way, cooking ves-sels, a vessel for brewing the palinka and twokitchen cupboards with Austrian china crockerythat circulated in the area lie on the oven.

Between 2008 and 2009, Elena M`linesc re-furbished the museum and rearranged the exhi-bition, sticking to the same theme related to thewedding ceremony of the Momârlani. The beau-tifully decorated wooden canteen of the ‘caller’,the one who invited the householders to thewedding, old and new photos representing dif-ferent moments of this important point in timein the life of the family and community suggestthe owners’ concern with this theme. The muse-um is still being refurbished; male costumes aremissing from the current exhibition. They willdefinitely find their place because a weddingwithout ‘callers’, godparents, mothers and fa-thers of sons and daughters-in-law and weddingguests does not mean anything.

As is usually the case, some praised them anddid their best to help them, others failed to un-derstand their retrieving action or remained in-different. ‘At first they said ‘Petre and Leana aremad! They’ve gone mad! Why the hell do theycollect the rubbish that we burn and throwaway? Both are crazy! To hell with them!’ Theycursed us and mocked our initiative. Later on,when they heard different people saying,‘They’ve really got valuable things’, they replied,‘What? Valuable things?’ Rumours said that theobjects had to be taken to the Museum of Sibiu…’(Petru G`l`]an) The interest shown by the own-ers, the authorities and the ever-increasing num-ber of tourists who cross their threshold makesthe villagers become aware of the value of theold objects, but this means that they ask theowners larger sums for objects that otherwisethey would throw away. However, the two

166 Ana Pascu

spouses continue to collect only what they canafford: ‘The lady is fond of objects, she is eager tospend her last penny and even to starve in orderto buy objects for the Museum.’ (Nicu)

Elena M`linesc would like to have a better co-operation with the local authorities. She hopesthat they will provide support for the rehabilita-tion of the road. On the other hand, the CityHall would offer them support but this cannothappen yet because the two owners have to turnthe Museum into a legal person.’ I have seen hiscollection, I think it’s a treasure of the wholecommunity which is not yet turned to good ac-count. He shows it to his friends, but we have tofind a solution and turn this treasure into atourist attraction.’ (Tiberiu Iacob Ridzi, mayorof Petro[ani City). The City Hall offered them anexhibition space in the city but, as the two spous-es believe, it is not suitable for the eco-museumthey want to build. Finally, they will find coop-eration solutions because both the owners andthe City Hall are aware of the worth of theMomârlan’s Museum.

Other people also feel the need to set up alocal ethnographic museum. For instance, en-couraged by the establishment of the Museumand supported by the City Hall, the priest Nico-lae Octavian P`tra[cu of the Parish of Livezeni1, will also set up a museum where he intends toexhibit both religious and ethnographic objects:‘We have known our fellow Petru for long. He isaddicted to traditions, costumes and objects… Wecongratulate them for what they do, it’s verynice… Now I want to say that we haven’t col-lected anything for our museum because we haveno available space… We have just a few objects,but he doesn’t have what I do. I have heritageobjects, books, old icons, wood- and glass-paintedicons.’

As you can see, whether praised or criticised,Elena M`linesc and Petru G`l`]an’s initiative hasbecome, not without hesitation, a landmark inthe conscience of the local community.

The Momårlan’s Museum 167