32302 - Anthropology of Post-Socialist Societies

Course contents

              

The course Anthropology of Eastern Europe introduces both the East and West disciplinary trajectories of ethnology, ethnography and social/cultural anthropology in Eastern Europe with a particular emphasis on contemporary ethnographies of the region. It is divided into two modules, firstly, the Anthropology of Postsocialism, which offers case studies from the wider post-Soviet spaces; and, secondly, the Anthropology of Conflict, Violence and Reconciliation, which is based on the more narrow, post-Yugoslav context.

 

The course aims to introduce students to, and familiarise them with, the ethnographic, bottom-up and micro-perspectives of social/cultural anthropology as well as the discipline's critique on standard assumptions of international policy regarding development, transition and conflict management as these have been applied during the periods of post-socialist transition in Eastern Europe, in general, and of post-war interventions in post-socialist Southeastern Europe, in particular.

 

 

Module I: The Anthropology of Post-Socialism

Guided by anthropological theory, and through ethnographic case studies, this module aims to identify and discuss on-the-ground commonalities and differences of socio-cultural experience, practices, subjectivities, strategies, processes and change in response to both uncertainties and new opportunities as part of the post-socialist processes of decollectivisation, marketisation, pluralisation, new forms of governmentality and globalisation in South-eastern, Central and Eastern Europe and post-Soviet Russia. It explores the ways in which cultural and historical legacies, both of the pre-socialist and the socialist period, have informed socio-cultural continuities and change, and have shaped responses to post-socialist ideological and practical changes within specific ethnographic settings. Core questions concern the ways in which such changes have affected everyday and social lives; informed both individual and group survival strategies and practices; fostered formal and informal, entrepreneurial and civic, stationary and mobile agencies and subjectivities; how local perceptions and practices have subverted international interventions as well as transformed legacies from the past; and what grounded observations of response to crisis during the post-socialist period can tell us about contemporary coping mechanisms after the global economic crisis. Specific issues to be discussed include: ‘re-traditionalisation' and changing concepts of property: the ‘elasticity' of land and conflict; nostalgia, memory and new nationalism; reconfigurations of social relations (gender, class); civil society both as intervention ‘project' engendering unintended social/cultural consequences and as locally (re)conceptualised; new market moralities (‘market shock' and its effects on local moral economies, and local rationales regarding‘bribery' and ‘corruption'); nouveau riches, new elites and consumerism; and processes of de-secularisation, religious revivals and new-age-ism.

 

1.  Introduction: Social/Cultural Anthropology

Mo, 01 Feb, h 11 – 13, room 1.1

 

General course introduction

Discussion of individual course motivations

Discussion of course topics.

Discussion of course evaluation.

Distribution of reading assignments.

 

Lecture

·         What is social/ cultural anthropology?

·         What is this discipline's subject?

·         What is specific to the anthropological approach and method?

·         What is its subject, both traditionally and today?

·         How can we talk and write about ‘culture' without culturalist reductionism/essentialism?

·         What is specific about the ‘Anthropology of Eastern Europe'?

 

Selected Bibliography:

 

Appaduraj, Arjun (1990), ‘Disjuncture and Difference in the Global Cultural Economy', in: Mike Featherstone (ed.), Global Culture: Nationalism, Globalization and Modernity, London – New Delhi: Sage, pp. 295 – 310.

 

Bauman, Zygmunt (1999), Culture as Praxis, London – New Delhi.

 

Douglas, Mary (1966), Purity and Danger, London: Routledge.

 

Geertz, Clifford (1993), The Interpretation of Cultures, New York: Basic Books.

 

Elias, Norbert (1978 [orig. 1939]), The Process of Civilisation: The Development of Manners: Changes in the Code of Conduct and Feeling in Early Modern Times, New York: Urizen Books.

 

Herzfeld, Michael (2001), Anthropology: Theoretical Practice in Culture and Society, Malden, MA – Oxfrd: Blackwell.

 

Kroeber, Alfred L. and Clyde Kluckhohn (1952), Culture: A critical Review of Concepts and Definitions (Papers of the Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology), vol. XLVII, no. 1, pp. i-viii, 224, [iv].

 

Kuper, Adam (2001), Culture: The Anthropologist's Account, Cambridge, MA – London: Harvard University Press.

 

Marcus, George and Clifford, James (1986), Writing Culture: The Poetics and Politics of Ethnography, Berkeley: University of California Press.

 

Ortner, Sherry B. (1984), ‘Theory in Anthropology since the Sixties', Comparative Studies in Society and History 26/1, pp. 126 – 166.

 

Rapport, Nigel and Joanna Overing (2000), Social and Cultural Anthropology: The Key Concepts, London – New York: Routledge.

 

Sahlins, Marshall (1999), ‘Two or three things that I know about culture', Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (N.S.) 5, pp, 399 – 421.

 

2.  Ethnographic case study (northern Albania)

Tue, 02 Feb, h 11 – 13, room 1.1.

 

Film, MGD

·         How did the north Albanian villagers experience the system change?

·         What specific problems did the villagers have to deal with after the break-down of the previous regime?

·         How did they cope and what answers did they find?

·         What (pool of) knowledge informed their answers and coping strategies?

·         How and why did they shift their responses to the new situation?

·         What different interest groups can be identified, and how do these promote their interests?

·         Are the villagers ‘shackled by traditions of violence' or what other factors can be identified to be at the roots of their recourse to pre-communist local knowledge?

·         Is there a difference between ‘tradition' and ‘cultural continuity'? Under what conditions do pre-socialist past and ‘traditions' become significant in post-socialist everyday practices?

·         In what sense does this documentary film represent classic ethnography?

 

 

Backer, Berit 1991, ‘The Albanians of Rrogam', Disappearing World, BBC: Granada Films [incl. Film information materials]

 

De Waal, Clarissa 1996,‘Decollectivisation and total scarcity in high Albania', in: Ray Abrahams, After Socialism: Land reform and social change in Eastern Europe, Providence – Oxford: Berghahn, pp. 169 – 192. [Albania]

 

Kretsi, Georgia 2007, ‘”Good and Bad Biography”: The Concept of Family Liability in the Practice of State Domination in Socialist Albania', in: Ulf Brunnbauer, Andreas Helmedach and Stefan Troebst (eds), Schnittstellen: Gesellschaft, Nation, Konflikt und Erinnerung in Südosteurop, Festschrift für Holm Sundhaussen zum 65. Geburtstag, Munich: Oldenbourg Verlag, pp. 175 – 188.

 

Schwandner-Sievers, Stephanie 2004, ‘Times Past: References for the Construction of Local Order in Present-Day Albania', in: Maria Todorova (ed), Balkan Identities: Nation and Memory, London: Hurst, pp. 103 – 128.

 

 

 

3. Anthropological trajectories -  East & West

Wed, 03 Feb, h 15 - 17, room 1.1.

 

Lecture, MGD, reconstruction of E – W disciplinary debate

·         What is the Anthropology of Eastern Europe?

·         Why studying the Anthropology of Postsocialism?

·         What topics, themes and academic problem are posed by the Anthropology of Postsocialism?

·         What is the anthropological critique on the concept of ‘transition'?

·         Is ‘postsocialism' a useful term, and what does it imply?

·         How has the anthropology of postsocialism changed since the 1990s and where is it going?

·         Why and when has Anglo-Saxon anthropological interest shifted to post-socialist societies?

·         Was there an outside anthropological interest in communist societies before?

·         How have post-colonial studies informed the study of postsocialist societies, if at all?

·         Is there a difference of interests and methods between the Anglo-Saxon anthropology of EE and Russia?

·         What legacy of social/cultural anthropology as a discipline is there in EE?

·         How, if at all, has the discipline been politically differently contextualised in East and West during times of the ‘Iron Wall'?

·         What challenges did transition bring to the discipline in EE and how were these perceived?

·         Is there a hegemonic discourse in the international anthropology of post-socialism today?

·         Is there communication or ‘reconciliation' between ‘native' and ‘foreign' anthropologists?

·         What are the advantages/disadvantages of being a ‘native' or a ‘foreign' anthropologist today?

·         Is the study of the anthropology of ‘post-socialism' still justified?

·         How can processes of EU integration reconfigure the anthropology of post-socialism?

·         What is the contribution of the anthropology of emotions to the anthropology of post-socialism?

 

Jakubowska, Longina 1993, ‘Writing about Eastern Europe: Perspectives from ethnography and anthropology', in: Henk Driessen (ed.), The Politics of Ethnographic Reading and Writing, Saarbruecken/ Fort Lauderdale: Breitenbach, pp. 143 – 159. 

 

Hann, Chris 2007, ‘Reconciling anthropologies', Anthropology Today 23/6, pp. 17 – 19.

 

Tishkov, Valery 1998, ‘U.S. and Russian anthropology: unequal dialogue in a time of transition', Current Anthropology 39/1, pp. 1 – 17 [Russia].

 

Halpern, Joel M. And David A. Kideckel 1983, ‘Anthropology of Eastern Europe', Annual Review of Anthropology 12, pp. 377 – 402.

 

Hann, Chris, Caroline Humphrey and Katherine Verdery 2002, ‘Introduction: postsocialism as a topic of anthropological investigation', in: C. Hann (ed.), Postsocialism: Ideals, ideologies and practices in Eurasia. London: Routledge, pp. 1 – 28.

 

*Kürti, Laszlo and Peter Skalnik (2009), ‘Introduction: Postsocialist Europe and the Anthropological Perspective from Home', in: L. Kürti and P. Skalnik (eds), Postsocialist Europe: Anthropological Perspectives from Home, Oxford – New York: Berghahn, pp. 1 – 28.

 

*Markus, George E. (2008), ‘Developments in US Anthropology Since the 1980s, a Supplement: The Reality of enter-Margin Relations, to Be Sure, But Changing (and Hopeful) Affinities in These Relations', in: A. Boskovic (ed), Other People's Anthropologies: Ethnographic Practice on the Margins, New York – Oxford: Berghahn, pp. 199 – 214.

 

Phillips, Sarah 2005. ‘Postsocialism, Governmentality and Subjectivity: an introduction'. Ethnos 70/04, pp. 437 – 442.

 

*Svasek, Maruska (2008): ‘Introduction: Postsocialism and the Politics of Emotion', in: Svasek, M. (ed.), Postsocialism: Politics and Emotion in Central and Eastern Europe, Oxford – New York: Berghahn, pp. 1 – 33.

 

Wolfe, Thomas C. 2000, ‘Cultures and Communities in the Anthropology of Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union', Annual Review of Anthropology 29, pp. 195 – 216.

 

 

Special interest/ further readings:

 

*Boskovic, Aleksandar, ‘Anthropology in Unlikely Places: Yugoslav Ethnology Between the Past and the Future', in: in: A. Boskovic (ed), Other People's Anthropologies: Ethnographic Practice on the Margins, New York – Oxford: Berghahn, pp. 156 – 168.

 

*Elchinova, Magdalena (2008), ‘Sociocultural Anthropology in Bulgaria: Desired and Contested', in: A. Boskovic (ed), Other People's Anthropologies: Ethnographic Practice on the Margins, New York – Oxford: Berghahn, pp. 70 – 82.

 

Godina, Vesna V. 2002, ‘From ethnology to anthropology and back again: negotiating the boundaries of ethnology and anthropology in postsocialist European countries', in: Peter Skalník (ed.), A post-communist millennium: the struggles for sociocultural anthropology in Central and Eastern Europe (= Prague Studies in Sociocultural Anthropology 2). Prague: Set Out, pp. 1 – 22. [Slovenia/YU]

 

*Kuznetsov, Anatoly, M. (2008), ‘Russian Anthropology: Old Traditions and New Tendencies', in: A. Boskovic (ed), Other People's Anthropologies: Ethnographic Practice on the Margins, New York – Oxford: Berghahn, pp. 20 – 43.

 

 

 

4.  Changing Property Regimes and conflict

Fri, 05 Feb, h 9 - 11, room 1.1.

 

Presentations (choice), MGD

·         Why are anthropologists so concerned with rural developments?

·         What can rural developments tell us about changes in society at large?

·         In what ways has the de-collectivisation process promoted social change?

·         What does Katherine Verdery's mean by the ‘elasticity' of land or the ‘fuzziness' of property?

·         What do we mean by ‘property'? What different concepts of ‘property' have clashed in the transition process and what values have been re-defined?

·         How can a culturally specific concept of ‘property' inform rights, entitlements and claims?

·         How can such claims explain traditionalism? How can they become ethnicist?

·         Have new elites emerged out of the de-collectivisation process?

 

 

Verdery, Katherine, 2003, The Vanishing Hectare: Property and value in postsocialist Transylvania, Ithaca – London: Cornell University Press(chapter 4).

 

*Buchowski, Michal (2009), ‘Property Relations, Class, and Labour in Rrural Poland', in: L. Kürti and P. Skalnik (eds), Postsocialist Europe: Anthropological Perspectives from Home, Oxford – New York: Berghahn, pp. 51 – 75. [Poland]

 

Kaneff, Deema 1998, ‘When “land” becomes “territory”: Land privatisation and ethnicity in rural Bulgaria', in: S. Bridger and F. Pine (eds), Surviving postsocialism: Local strategies and regional responses in eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, London – New York: Routledge, pp. 16 – 32. [Bulgaria]

 

Lampland, Marta 2002, ‘The Advantages of Being Collectivised: Cooperative Farm Managers in the Postsocialist Economy', in: Hann, Chris (ed.), Postsocialism: Ideals, ideologies and practices in Eurasia. London: Routledge 2002, pp. 31 – 55. [Hungary]

 

*Leutloff-Grandits, Carolin (2008), ‘Claiming Ownership in Postwar Croatia: the Emotional Dynamics of Possession and Repossession in Knin', in: Svasek, M. (ed.), Postsocialism: Politics and Emotion in Central and Eastern Europe, Oxford – New York: Berghahn, pp. 115 – 137. [Croatia]

 

Cartwright, Andrew 2003, ‘Private farming in Romania: what are the old people going to do with their land?', in: C. Hann (ed.), The postsocialist agrarian question: property relations and the rural condition, Münster: Lit Verlag, pp. 171 – 188. [Romania]

 

*Svasek, Maruska (2008), ‘Postsocialist Ownership: Emotiosn, Power and Morality in a Czech Village', in: Svasek, M. (ed.), Postsocialism: Politics and Emotion in Central and Eastern Europe, Oxford – New York: Berghahn, pp. 95 – 114. [Czech Republic]

 

*Zerilli, Filippo M. (2008), ‘Sentiments and/as Propery Rights: Restitution and Conflict in Postsocialist Romania', in: Svasek, M. (ed.), Postsocialism: Politics and Emotion in Central and Eastern Europe, Oxford – New York: Berghahn, pp. 74 – 94. [Romania]

 

 

 

5.  Post-socialist nostalgia and other emotions

Mo, 22 Feb, h 13 - 15, room 1.1.

 

Presentations (choice), MGD

·         What is the difference between ‘restaurative' and ‘reflective' types of remembering?

·         What do people miss of every-day life and culture under socialism?

·         Is there a gap between the official and an unofficial memory?

·         What past culture(s) do people, scholars and politics disassociate themselves from and associate themselves with?

·         What is the difference between private and public memories?

·         How can private and social memories become socially or politically instrumentalised?

·         How have the political uses of memories changed with political changes?

·         How have the symbolic structures of professional and political authority been transformed through recourse to collective memory?

·         How does memory shape perceptions of ‘progress' and ‘modernity' within a both postsocialist and globalised world?

·         What are the causes, cultural expressions and effects of nostalgia for socialist times?

·         How have emotions such as ‘trust', ‘anger' or ‘disappointment' of expectations affected views on both past and present?

 

Boym, Svetlana 2001, The Future of Nostalgia, New York: Basic Books (introduction & chapter 5).

Bringa, Tone 2004, ‘The Peaceful Death of Tito and the violent end of Yugoslavia', in: John Borneman (ed), Death of the Father: An Anthropology of the End in Political Authority, Oxford – New York, pp. 148 – 200. [YU]

*Heady, Patrick and Liesl L. Gambold Miller (2008), ‘Nostalgia and the Emotional Economy: a Comparative look at Rural Russia', in: Svasek, M. (ed.), Postsocialism: Politics and Emotion in Central and Eastern Europe, Oxford – New York: Berghahn, pp.34 – 52. [Russia]

 

Kaneff, Deema, ‘Negotiating the past in postsocialist Bulgaria', Ethnologia Balkanica 2, 1998, pp. 31 – 45. [Bulgaria]

 

Koleva, Daniela 2007, ‘The Memory of Socialist Public Holidays: Between Colonization and Autonomy', in: Ulf Brunnbauer and Stefan Troebst (eds), Zwischen Amnesie und Nostalgie: Die Erinnerung and den Kommunismus in Südosteuropa, Vienna: Böhlau, pp. 185 – 198. [Bulgaria]

 

*Müller, Birgit 2008, ‘The Misgivings of Democracy: Personal Resentment and Alternating Power in a Czech Village', in: Svasek, M. (ed.), Postsocialism: Politics and Emotion in Central and Eastern Europe, Oxford – New York: Berghahn, pp. 178 – 195. [Czech Republic]

 

Velikonja, Mitja, 2008, Red Shades: Nostalgia for Socialism as an Element of Cultural Pluralism in the Slovene Transition. Journal for Slovene Studies 30/2, pp. 171 - 183. [Slovenia]

               

Vukov, Nikolai 2007, ‘Refigured Memories, Unchanged Representations: Post-Socialist Monumental Discourse in Bulgaria, Brunnbauer and Troebst (eds), Zwischen Amnesie und Nostalgie …, pp. 71 -111. [Bulgaria]

 

 

 

6. Anthropology of Development and Civil Society

Tue, 23 Feb, h 11 - 13, room 2.3.

 

 

Presentations (choice), MGD

·         How has globalisation and international intervention shaped post-socialist experiences? How is globalisation negotiated locally? Does the local re-affirm itself in the face of globalisation processes? Has the transition process produced cultures of resistance? What sources and reasons are there for such resistance cultures?

·         What is the anthropological critique of ‘development' and of ‘civil society' as a concept? How has the concept of ‘progress' both ethnographically and locally be challenged?

·         Did ‘civil society' exist under Socialism, or was ‘civil society' alien to the former socialist states? How has the concept of ‘civil society' been promoted and/or changed in post-socialist EE and fSU? Is there a specific socialist trajectory of ‘civil society'? How has the ‘import' of ‘civil society' been locally perceived and shifted meaning?

·         Who staffs the civil society sector in post-socialist countries today? What happens to local staff in the long run? Who has locally profited from the new ‘civil society' ‘industry'?

·         What were the unintended consequences of outside-induced civil society projects?

 

Mandel, Ruth 2002, ‘Seeding Civil Society', in: Chris Hann (ed.), Postsocialism. Ideals, ideologies and practices in Eurasia. London: Routledge, pp. 279 – 296.

or

Sampson, Steven 2002, ‘Beyond transition: Rethinking elite configurations in the Balkans', in: Hann, Chris (ed), Postsocialism. Ideals, ideologies and practices in Eurasia. London: Routledge, pp. 296 -316.

 

Aplenc, Veronica 2001, ‘Local Politics, Personal Emotions: Support for Civic Action in Slovenia', in: Stryker, Rachael and Jennifer Patico (eds). The Paradoxes of Progress: Globalization and Postsocialist Cultures, Kroeber Anthropological Society Papers 86, pp. 37 - 46. [Slovenia]

 

Buchowski, Michael 1996, ‘The shifting meaning of civil and civic society in Poland', in: Chris Hann and Elizabeth Dunn, Civil Society: Challenging western models, London – New York: Routledge, pp. 79 -98. [Poland]

 

Sampson, Steven 2003, ‘From kanun to capacity-building: The “internationals”, civil society development and security in the Balkans', in: Peter Siani-Davies (ed.), International Intervention in the Balkans since 1995, London: Routledge, pp. 136 – 157. [Kosovo]

 

Todorova, Maria 2007, ‘Was there civil society and a public sphere under socialism? The debates around Vasil Levski's alleged reburial in Bulgaria', in: U. Brunnbauer et al. (eds), Schnittstellen: Gesellschaft, Nation, Konflikt und Erinnerung in Südosteurop, Festschrift für Holm Sundhaussen zum 65. Geburtstag, Munich: Oldenbourg Verlag, pp. 162 – 174. [Bulgaria]

 

 

 

7. Social Change and Gender

Wed, 24 Feb, h 9 -11, room 2.3.

 

Presentations (choice), MGD

·         What can the study of gender tell about social change?

·         How have roles of men and women be re-configured with post-socialist change?

·         How have national ideologies appropriated gender questions, and how has this changed with change of ideologies, if at all?

·         How did family, kinship and gender role change from pre- to postsocialism?

·         How does the negotiaton of gender relate to the reconfiguration of public and private spaces in post-socialist societies?

·         How are economic insecurities related to a revival of patriarchalist attitudes?

·         Is the ‘double burden' a socialist or post-socialist phenomenon or both?

·         How and in what context have socialist and post-socialist states controlled reproduction?

·         Has poverty been feminised?

·         Has post-socialist transition disadvantaged women only?

·         What new chances and what opposition have reconfigured or ‘imported' gender ideas faced? How has this translated into the empowerment of previously silenced groups defind by gender? What new conflicts have arisen in society out of these changes?

 

Barbara Einhorn 1993, ‘”The Woman Question”: The Legacy of State Socialism', (chapter 1 in: B Einhorn, Cinderella Goes to Market: Citizenship, Gender and Women's Movements in East Central Europe. London - NY: Verso, pp. 17 – 38).

 

*Bitusikova, Alxandra and Katarina Kostialova (2009), ‘Gender and Governance in rural Communities of Postsocialist Slovakia', in: L. Kürti and P. Skalnik (eds), Postsocialist Europe: Anthropological Perspectives from Home, Oxford – New York: Berghahn, pp. 29 – 50. [Slovakia]

 

*Cervinkova, Hana (2009), ‘Migs and Cares on the Move: Thoughts on the Mimetic Dimensions of Postsocialism', in: L. Kürti and P. Skalnik (eds), Postsocialist Europe: Anthropological Perspectives from Home, Oxford – New York:

Berghahn, pp. 76 - 94. [Czech Republic]

 

Fodor, Eva (in cooperation with Lilla Vicsek) 2006, ‘A Different Type of Gender Gap: How Women and Men Experience Poverty', East European Politics and Societies 20/1, pp. 14 – 39. [Central Europe]

 

*Kubica, Grazyna (2009), ‘A Rainbow Flag against the Krakow Dragon: Polish Responses to the Gay and Lesbian Movement', in: L. Kürti and P. Skalnik (eds), Postsocialist Europe: Anthropological Perspectives from Home, Oxford – New York:

Berghahn, pp. 118 – 150. [Poland]

 

Pine, Frances 2002, ‘Retreat to the household? Gendered domains in postsocialist Poland', in: Hann, Chris (ed), Postsocialism. Ideals, ideologies and practices in Eurasia. London: Routledge, pp. 95 – 113. [Poland]

 

Marody, Mira an Anna Giza-Poleszczuk 2000, ‘Changing Images of Identity in Poland: From the Self-Sacrificing to the Self-Investing Woman?', in S Gal and G Kligman, Reproducing Gender …, pp. 151 – 175. [Poland]

 

Kovacs, Katalin and Monika Varadi 2000, ‘Women's Life Trajectories and Class Formation in Hungary', in S Gal and G Kligman, Reproducing Gender …, pp. 176 – 199. [Hungary]

 

Szalai, Julia 2000, ‘From Informal Labor to Paid Occupations: Marketization from below in Hungarian Womens' Work', in S Gal and G Kligman, Reproducing Gender …, pp. 200 – 224. [Hungary]

 

Verdery, Katherine 1996, ‘From Parent-State to Family Patriarchs: Gender and Nation in Contemporary Eastern Europe', (chapter 3 in K. Verdery, What Was Socialism and What Comes Next? Princeton University Press) [Romania]

 

 

 

8.  Ethnographies of Consumption

Thu, 25 Feb, h 9 -11, room 1.1.

 

Presentations (choice), MGD

·         What socialist patterns of consumption differ from post-socialist ones? How have patterns of consumption shifted with post-socialist changes?

·         Has any ‘socialist legacy' survived in post-socialist, everyday economies?

·         How has post-socialist marketization been experienced in everyday-lives?

·         How has marketization contributed to changes in values and mores? Can the so-called ‘market shock' explain changing moralities?

·         How have globalisation processes affected every-day economies in post-socialist countries?

·         How have altered patterns of consumption informed post-socialist prestige economies?

·         How have new forms of consumption informed the emergence of new elites?

 

Patico, Jenifer and Melissa L. Caldwell 2002, ‘Consumers Exiting Socialism: Ethnographic Perspectives on Daily Life in Post-Communist Europe', Ethnos 67/3, pp. 285 – 294.

 

Luthar, Breda 2007, ‘For the Love of the Goods: The Politics of Consumption in Socialism', in: Brunnbauer and Troebst (eds), Zwischen Amnesie und Nostalgie …, pp. 164 - 184. [Slovenia]

 

Caldwell, Melissa 2002, ‘The Taste of Nationalism: Food Politics in Postsocialist Moscow', Ethnos 67/3, pp. 295 - 319. [Russia]

 

Dunn, Elizabeth 1999, ‘Slick Salesmen and Simple People: Negotiated Capitalism in a Privatized Polish Firm', in: Burowoy, Michael and K. Verdery (eds), Uncertain Transition: Ethnographies of Change in the Postsocialist World. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, pp. 1125 – 150. [Poland]

 

Fehérváry, Krisztina 2002, ‘American Kitchens, Luxury Bathrooms, and the Search for a 'Normal' Life in Postsocialist Hungary', Ethnos 67/3, pp. 369 - 400. [Hungary]

 

Humphrey, Caroline 2002, ‘The Villas of the “New Russians”: A Sketch of Consumption and cultural Identity in Post-Soviet Landscapes', chapter 9 in: ibidem, The Unmaking of Soviet Life: Everyday economies after socialism. Ithaca – London: Cornell University Press, pp. 175 – 201. [Russia]

 

Pine, Francis 2002, ‘Dealing with Money: Zlotys, Dollars and Other Currencies in the Polish Highlands', in: Mandel, R. and C. Humphrey (eds), Markets and Moralities: Ethnographies of Postsocialism, Oxford – New York: Berg, pp. 75 – 97. [Poland]

 

Wanner, Catherine, ‘Money, Morality and New Forms of Exchange in Postsocialist Ukraine', Ethnos 70/4 (2005), pp. 515 - 537. [Ukraine]

 

 

 

9. Informal Markets and Entrepreneurs

Fri, 26 Feb, h 9 -11, room 1.1.

 

Presentations (choice), MGD

·         Why have barter and gift exchange acquired, or remained of, such high significance in many post-socialist local economies?

·         How specific is ‘organised crime' and ‘corruption' to post-socialism?

·         To what extent can it be regarded as a legacy of socialism – to what extend a response to globalisation?

·         How can conflicting perceptions regarding ‘legitimacy' and ‘legality' be related to the change of political systems?

·         In what context are social practices perceived as morally ‘legitimate' that are ‘illegal' according to state law?

·         How can concepts such as ‘bribery', ‘crime', ‘corruption' be rethought, anthropologically?

·         What are the limits to relativism when it comes to crime?

 

 

Humphrey, Caroline 2002, The unmaking of Soviet life: everyday economies after Socialism, Ithaca – London: Cornell University Press. (chapter 6: ‘Rethinking bribery in contemporary Russia')

 

Patico, Jenifer 2002, ‘Chocolate and Cognac: Gifts, and the Recognition of Social Worlds in Post-Soviet Russia, Ethnos 67/3, pp. 345 – 368. [Russia]

 

Koehler, Jan 1999, ‘The School of the Street: Organising Diversity and Training Polytaxis in a (Post-)Soviet Periphery', AEER 17/2. [Russia/ Georgia] [web]

 

Ivanova, Radost 1997, ‘Valiant Young Men, Wrestlers, Bodyguards, Thugs … The Hero in the Bulgarian Daily Press', Ethnologia Balkanica 1, pp. 156 – 172. [Bulgaria]

 

Nadkarni, Maya 2000, ‘The “Whisky Robber”: Criminality as a Moral Discourse in post-'89 Hungary', AEER 18/1. [Hungary] [web]

 

Ssorin-Chaikov, Nikolai 2000, ‘ Bear skins and makaroni: the social life of things at the margins of a Siberian state collective', in: Seabright, Paul (ed), The Vanishing Rubel: Barter networks and Non-Monetary Transactions in Post-Soviet Societies, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 345 – 362. [Siberia]

 

Sneath, David 2006, ‘Transacting and enacting: Corruption, obligation and the use of monies in Mongolia', Ethnos 71/1, pp. 89 – 112. [Mongolia]

 

 

 

10. Religion and Religiosity after Socialism

Mo, 01 March, h 11 - 1[t.b.c].

 

Presentations (choice), MGD

·         What is specific to religion after socialism? What socio-psychological functions has it served?

·         Was socialism truly secular, or did religion survive in private realms?

·         Does the socialist legacy of secularisation, ‘scientific atheism' and repression explain the forms that post-socialist religiosity has taken?

·         What is the place of religion after more than a decade of postsocialist transition in society?

·         How is religion mobilized in the public sphere today, in order to support assertions of ethnic identity and the building of nations and states? (Hann 2006)

·         What are the sources and vehicles of escapist and millenarist practices and faiths in post-socialism?

·         How can ‘new age-ism' ethnographically be explained?

·         What has been the impact of external influences and missionising efforts, including pressures to implement religious human rights as well as the modernist, `universalizing' of faiths, both Christian and Muslim? (Hann 2006)

 

 

Potrata, Barbara 2004, ‘New Age, socialism and other millenarianisms: affirming and struggling with (post)socialism', Religion, State & Society 32/4, pp. 365 – 379.

 

Buzalka, Juraj 2005, ‘Religious Populism? Some Reflections on Politics in Post-Socialist South-East Poland', Slovak Foreign Policy Affairs, pp. 75 – 84. [Poland]

 

Caldwell, Melissa 2005, ‘A New Role for Religion in Russia's New Consumer Age: the Case of Moscow', Religion, State & Society 33/1, pp. 19 – 34. [Russia]

 

Hann, Chris 2006, ‘Faith, Power and Civility after Socialism', introduction in, C Hann (ed.), The Post-socialist Religious Question: Faith and Power in Central Asia and East-Central Europe, Lit, pp. 1 – 26.

*Leutloff-Grandits, Carolin 2004, ‘Religious celebrations and the (re)creation of communities in post-war Knin, Croatia, in: Frances Pine (ed.), Memory, politics and religion, Münster: Lit Verlag, pp. 229 – 254. [Croatia]

Klekot, Ewa 2007, ‘Mouring John Paul II in the streets of Warsaw', Anthropology Today 23/4, pp. 2 – 6. [Poland]

 

Lindquist, Galina, ‘Breaking the Waves: Voodoo magic in the Russian Cultural Ecumene', in: R. Stryker and Jennifer Patico (eds) 2001. The Paradoxes of Progress: Globalization and Postsocialist Cultures, Kroeber Anthropological Society Papers 86, pp. 93 - 112.

 

Zanca, Russell 2005, ‘Believing in God at Your Own Risk: Religion and Terrorism in Usbekistan', Religion, State & Society 33/1, pp. 71 – 82. [Usbekistan]

                                          

**Rogers, Douglas 2005, ‘Introductory Essay: The Anthropology of Religion after Socialism', Religion, State & Society 33/1, pp. 5 – 18.

 

Conclusion & evaluation

 

MID-COURSE ORAL EXAMINATONS

 

 

Bibliography

*Newly added.

**Availability in library to be checked.

 Module1: Anthropology of Postsocialism

 

Abrahams, Ray (ed.) 1996. After Socialism: Land Reform and rural social change in Eastern Europe, Providence – Oxford: Berghahn.

 

AEER = The Anthropology of East Europe Review, available at:

http://condor.depaul.edu/~rrotenbe/aeer/specialissues.html.

Recommended Special Issues:

Culture and Society in the Former Soviet Union, 13/2 (1995)

Out of the Ruins: Cultural Negotiations in the Soviet Aftermath, 16/2 (1998)

Reassessing Peripheries in Post-Communist Studies, 17/2 (1999)

Why Postsocialism Is good to Think, 18/1 (2000)

New Directions in Postsocialist Studies, 20/2 (2002)

Food and Foodways in Postsocialist Eurasia, 21/1 (2003)

Ethnographies of Socialism, 21/2 (2003)

 

Appiah, Kwame Anthony 2006. Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers, London - New – York: Allen Lane (Penguin).

 

Aslanbeigui, Nahid 1994. Women in the Age of Economic Transformation. London – New York: Routledge. [part I on Eastern Europe]

 

Berdahl, Daphne, Matti Bunzl and Martha Lampland (eds.) 2000. Altering States: Ethnographies of Transition in Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union. Chicago: University of Michigan Press.

 

Borneman, John (ed) 2004. Death of the Father: An Anthropology of the End in Political Authority. Oxford – New York: Berghahn.

 

*Boskovic, Aleksandar (ed) 2008, Other People's Anthropologies: Ethnographic Practice on the Margins, New York – Oxford: Berghahn

 

Boym, Svetlana 2001. The Future of Nostalgia, New York: Basic Books.

 

Bridger, Sue and Frances Pine (eds) 1998. Surviving Postsocialism. Local strategies and regional responses in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. London: Routledge.

 

Brunnbauer, Ulf, Andreas Helmedach and Stefan Troebst (eds) 2007, Schnittstellen: Gesellschaft, Nation, Konflikt und Erinnerung in Südosteurop, Festschrift für Holm Sundhaussen zum 65. Geburtstag, Munich: Oldenbourg Verlag.

 

Brunnbauer, Ulf and Stefan Troebst (eds) 2007, Zwischen Amnesie und Nostalgie: Die Erinnerung and den Kommunismus in Südosteuropa, Vienna: Böhlau Verlag.

 

Buchowski, Michal 1994. Rethinking Transformation: an anthropological perspective on postsocialism, Poznan, Wydawnictwa Humaniora.

 

Burowoy, Michael and K. Verdery (eds) 1999. Uncertain Transition: Ethnographies of Change in the Postsocialist World. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield.

 

Caiazza, Amy 2002. Mothers and Soldiers: Gender, Citizenship and Civil Society in Contemporary Russia, London: Routledge.

 

De Soto, Hermine, Nora Dudwick (eds) 1993. Fieldwork Dilemmas: Anthropologists in Postsocialist States, Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.

 

Drakulic, Slavenka 1993. How we survived Communism and even laughed, Vintage.

 

--- 1996. Café Europa: Live After Communism. Harmondsworth: Penguin.

 

Einhorn, Barbara 2002. Cinderella Goes to Market, London – New York: Verso.

 

Gal, Susan and Gail Kligman 2000 (a). The Politics of Gender after Socialism, Princeton University Press

 

Gal, Susan and Gail Kligman (eds) 2000 (b). Reproducing Gender: Politics, Publics, and Everyday Life after Socialism. Princeton University Press.

 

Gardner, Katy and David Lewis 1996. Anthropology, Development and the Post-Modern Challenge. London: Pluto Press.

 

Ghodsee, Kristen 2005. The Red Riviera: Gender, Tourism, and postsocialism on the Black Sea. Durham: Duke University Press.

 

Grandits, Hannes and Patrick Heady (eds) 2003, Distinct inheritances: property, family and community in a changing Europe , Münster: Lit Verlag.

 

Hann Chris (ed.) 2005, St udying peoples in the people's democracies: socialist era anthropology in East-Central Europe, Münster : LIT.

 

Hann, Chris (ed.) 2006, The Post-socialist Religious Question: Faith and Power in Central Asia and East-Central Europe, Lit

 

Hann, Chris (ed.) 2003, The postsocialist agrarian question: property relations and the rural condition, Münster: Lit Verlag.

 

Hann, Chris (ed.) 2002. Postsocialism. Ideals, ideologies and practices in Eurasia. London: Routledge.

 

Hann, Chris (ed.) 2002. Socialism: ideals, ideologies and local practice, ASA, London: Routledge.

 

Hann, Chris and Elizabeth Dunn (eds) 1996. Civil Society: Challenging Western Models. London: Routledge.

 

Higely, John and Gyorgy Lengyel (eds) 2001. Elites after State Socialism. Oxford: Rowman and Littlefield. [specific sub-field (elite continuities and change), limited to Eastern and Central European case studies]

 

Humphrey, Caroline 2002. The Unmaking of Soviet Life: Everyday economies after socialism. Ithaca – London: Cornell University Press.

 

India, Jonathan Xavier and Renato Rosaldo (eds) 2002. The Anthropology of Globalization: a Reader, Oxford – New York: Blackwell.

 

Kaneff, Deema 2003. Who Owns the Past? The Politics of Time in a ‘Model' Bulgarian Village. New York – Oxford: Berghahn Books.

 

Kideckel, David 1995. Local Communities in Eastern Europe, Westview.

 

Kennedy, Michael D. 2002. Cultural Formations of Post-Communism: Emancipation, Transition, Nation and War. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

 

*Kürti Laszlo, and P. Skalnik (eds) 2009, Postsocialist Europe: Anthropological Perspectives from Home, Oxford – New York: Berghahn.

 

Ledeneva, Alena 1998. Russia's Economy of Favors: Blat, Networking and Informal Exchange. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

 

Leonard, Pamela and Deema Kaneff (eds) 2001. Postsocialist Peasant? Rural and urban constructions of Identity in Eastern Europe, East Africa and the Former Soviet Union. Basingstoke: Palgrave.

 

Mandel, Ruth and Caroline Humphrey (eds) 2002. Markets and Moralities: Ethnographies of postsocialism, Oxford – New York: Berg.

 

**Pine, Frances (ed.) 2004, Memory, politics and religion, Münster: Lit Verlag.

 

Sahadoe, Jeff and Russell Zanca (eds) 2007. Everyday Life in Central Asia . Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

 

Seabright, Paul (ed) 2000. The Vanishing Rubel: Barter networks and Non-Monetary Transactions in Post-Soviet Societies, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

 

Soyuz: The Research Network for Postsocialist Studies, available at: http://www.abdn.ac.uk/soyuz/.

 

Stryker, Rachael and Jennifer Patico (eds) 2001. The Paradoxes of Progress: Globalization and Postsocialist Cultures, Kroeber Anthropological Society Papers 86.

 

*Svasek, Maruska (ed.) 2008, Postsocialism: Politics and Emotion in Central and Eastern Europe, Oxford – New York: Berghahn.

 

Trigg Dylan 2006. The Aesthetics of Decay: Nothingness, Nostalgia, and the Absence of Reason. New York: Peter Lang.

 

True, Jacqui 2003. Gender, Globalization, and postsocialism: The Czech Republic After Communism. New York: Columbia University Press.

 

Verdery, Katherine 2003. The Vanishing Hectare. Property and Value in Postsocialist Transylvania. Ithaca – London: Cornell University Press.

 

Verdery, Katherine 1996. What was Socialism and what comes next? Princeton University Press.

 

 

 

 

Readings/Bibliography

 

Teaching methods

Introductory lectures and seminar in 20 hrs classes per module: course work including core reading assignments, individual student presentations of selected readings (choices available) and 80% AQCI submissions and participation (see next pages); moderated group discussions (MGD-s).

Assessment methods

·         40% (20% each module): selected presentations of reading texts and general participation in class (in MGD-s and fulfillment of AQCI requirements)

·         20%: mid-course 15-min oral examination,

40%: 3,000 word essay.

Teaching tools

Selected documentary film, power point, e-communication.

Office hours

See the website of Stephanie Schwandner Sievers