Būti lietuve

This study examines the formation of ethnic identity and nationality from the perspective of Lithuanian women's clothing. Various ethnic symbols were characteristic of many nineteenth-century national liberation movements. One of these symbols was ethnic clothing. Their importance and permanence in modernizing cultures demonstrate the growing realization of their significance to society as a means to express national and ethnic identity. This work discusses the differences between the new ethnic dress worn by Lithuanian women and traditional rural dress, their relationship between tradition and modernity, and how this new dress expresses an emerging national identity. Current research of nationalism and ethnicity allows an understanding of nationality as an expression of a modernizing society's identity. This work states that expressions of nationality exhibit ethnic features and characteristics that show a continuity of culture and distinguish or allow recognition of this nation as different from others. These characteristics have also become symbols of a collective identity. Detailed analysis of dress helps at least partially to illustrate the meaning of ethnicity and nationality in Lithuanian culture at the turn of the twentieth century. This work examines individual and group expression and development of national identity in dress from the late 19th century to the 1930s. For the purposes of this work, "women" includes both married and unmarried women. The start of this certain period of time coincided with the beginning of the national movement, when national and ethicized dress appeared for the first time as a symbol of national identity. It ends with the Soviet occupation and the attendant restriction of Lithuanian national expression, when ethnic expression was forced to fit people's art, supervised by state institutions and representing the internationalism of the Soviet Union. [...