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The adaptation to the agricultural norms decreed in the European Union heralds the disappearance of Romanian peasant farmers. However, the ethnographic approach to the discourse maintained by the active figures of a village of the Banat brings new light to this statement. The recovery of private properties engendered families’ withdrawal into the gospod_rie (household) set-up which gives the force to face up to deficiencies in technical and financial means. In conjunction with this, the power of the identity-based and ideologized portrayal of Romanian rural life induces a profound anchorage in the peasantry. The representations of the gospodar way of life combine identity-based discourse and defence of one’s property and take on a new colour. Experienced as a contemporary way of life, it testifies to different positioning strategies in the face of Otherness sometimes reflecting adherence, sometimes opposition, or sometimes an alternative to Western life.