“In our own way”: tradition and transmission among later-generation Transylvanian Saxons in Canada
Bibliographic record
Abstract
This thesis examines the motivations and directions of Transylvanian Saxon folklore transmission among later-generation immigrant members of the Transylvanian Saxon community in Aylmer, Ontario. Interviews, participant observation, and attendance at cultural performances and events inform this ethnographic study that applies performance theory to explore the concepts of nostalgia, authenticity, and tradition and their roles within a small diasporic organization. Additionally, the author investigates her own position as a third-generation Transylvanian Saxon and leader within the community. The thesis begins with background information leading to the author’s participation and research in the community, followed by introductions to the study’s participants. Transylvanian Saxon heritage and migration narratives are applied as a framework for presenting the group’s history and participants’ expression of nostalgia for an unknown Heimat or homeland. Next, a case study of a homecoming event in Germany illustrates the varying degrees of engagement with costume authenticity between different Saxon groups. Then, recorded folklore is presented as a key component to transmission in small immigrant communities where cultural practices are passed down, passed on, and passed back between members. Finally, contemporary material culture is presented in a case study demonstrating how nostalgia, authenticity and tradition are being creatively interpreted among later-generation Saxons and non-Saxons.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.001 | 0.003 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.002 | 0.003 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.025 | 0.007 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.006 | 0.001 |
| Open science | 0.002 | 0.004 |
| Research integrity | 0.001 | 0.002 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.004 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".