Hierarchy and Pluralism Living Religious Difference in Catholic Poland
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CONTEMPORARY ANTHROPOLOGY OF RELIGION A series published with the Society for the Anthropology of Religion Donald Seeman and Tulasi Srinivas, Series Editors Published by Palgrave Macmillan: Body / Meaning / Healing By Thomas J. Csordas The Weight of the Past: Living with History in Mahajanga, Madagascar By Michael Lambek After the Rescue: Jewish Identity and Community in Contemporary Denmark By Andrew Buckser Empowering the Past, Confronting the Future By Andrew Strathern and Pamela J. 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Kenyon The Anthropology of Protestantism: Faith and Crisis among Scottish Fishermen By Jospeh Webster The Anthropology of Religious Charisma: Ecstasies and Institutions Edited by Charles Lindholm Buddhism, International Relief Work, and Civil Society By Hiroko Kawanami and Geoffrey Samuel Hierarchy and Pluralism: Living Religious Difference in Catholic Poland By Agnieszka Pasieka This page intentionally left blank Hierarchy and Pluralism Living Religious Difference in Catholic Poland Agnieszka Pasieka HIERARCHY AND PLURALISM Copyright © Agnieszka Pasieka, 2015. Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2015 978-1-137-50052-6 All rights reserved. First published in 2015 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN® in the United States— a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world, this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-50549-4 ISBN 978-1-137-48286-0 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9781137482860 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Pasieka, Agnieszka, 1983– Hierarchy and pluralism : living religious difference in Catholic Poland / Agnieszka Pasieka. pages cm. — (Contemporary anthropology of religion) Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Religious pluralism—Poland. 2. Poland—Religion. 3. Religions— Relations. 4. Catholic Church—Poland. 5. Catholic Church—Relations. I. Title. BL980.P6P37 2015 201.509438—dc23 2014036590 A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library. Design by Newgen Knowledge Works (P) Ltd., Chennai, India. First edition: March 2015 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 For Dave This page intentionally left blank Contents List of Illustrations xi Pronunciation Key xiii Inhabitants of the District of Rozstaje xv Acknowledgments xvii Introduction: Seven Ways to God 1 Part I Mapping Religious Pluralism Chapter 1 Poland: A History of Pluralism 35 Chapter 2 Making Pluralism: The People and the Place 59 Part II Pluralizing the Past Chapter 3 Caroling History: Heteroglossic Narratives and Religious Boundaries 95 Chapter 4 Religion and Memories of Socialism 119 Part III Acting Upon Locality Chapter 5 The Different and the Common: About Multireligious Neighborhoods 147 x CONTENTS Chapter 6 Debating Pluralism 177 Conclusions: Challenging Hierarchical Pluralism 211 Epilogue 219 Notes 221 Bibliography 237 Index 253 Illustrations Maps 0.1 Fieldsite 13 1.1 Border changes in the history of Poland 37 Figures 0.1 Local landscape 14 0.2 A local church 18 0.3 An Orthodox procession 21 0.4 Buddhist meditations 21 2.1–2.4 Scans of students’ pictures 73–75 2.5–2.6 An abandoned village and one of its past inhabitants 89 3.1 Carol singers 99 5.1 An ecumenical cemetery 151 6.1 A stand from the folkloric fair 199 This page intentionally left blank Pronunciation Key a as in ‘avocado’ ą nasalized ‘a’ c as /ts/ in ‘cats’ and k as /c/ in ‘carrot’ ch and h as /h/ in ‘herbs’ * ć, ci, and cz as /ch/ in ‘chard’ e as in ‘bed’ ę nasalized ‘e’ i as in ‘ski’ j as /y/ in ‘year’ ł as /w/ and w as /v/ ń, ni as /n/ in ‘onion’ o as in ‘toe’ u and ó as /oo/ in ‘moon’ s as in ‘sun’ * ś, si, and sz as /sh/ y as in ‘myth’ z as in ‘zoo’ ż, rz as /z/ in ‘azure’ * There is a distinction in Polish between cz and ć and between sz and ś, but it is hard to render in English. This page intentionally left blank Inhabitants of the District of Rozstaje This list of people who appear in the book more than once, together with religious affiliations, as declared by them, is meant as a guide for the readers and it by no means aims to simplify the complexity of people’s reli- gious identities, as evinced throughout the book. The names (of people and localities alike) are anonymized. In order to facilitate following family trajectories, members of the same family unit were given names starting with the same letter. Inhabitants of Rozstaje (the district capital) Jakub, pastor, and Janka, Pentecostals, former owners of the petrol station Tadek and Tekla, Jehovah’s Witnesses, former workers of the min- eral water industry Władek, Greek Catholic, retired farmer Inhabitants of Krasne Hanna and Henek, farmers, and their daughter Hela, high school student, Orthodox Matylda, Adventist Mira, Orthodox Wasyl, Orthodox, the village’s chronicler Teodor, his son Tymko, and his daughter-in-law Tola, Greek Catholics, farmers Zenon and Zofia, Orthodox, cheese and offal producers Inhabitants of Leśna Izydor and Ida, members of the Orthodox parish, owners of a farm tourism Michalina, Orthodox, member of the Circle of Rural Housewives Franek, Roman Catholic, school director xvi INHABITANTS OF THE DISTRICT OF ROZSTAJE Inhabitants of Ciche Ala and Adam, Greek Catholics, farmers Bea, Roman Catholic, herbalist Bronek, village leader, and his wife Basia, Roman Catholics, farmers From other villages Bartek, son of the Orthodox priest Kaja and Kamil, heads of the Buddhist meditation center Leon, Jehovah Witnesses’ elder Metody, Bible reader Michał, Pentecostal pastor Miron, Orthodox, the district’s leader Szymon, retired professor Acknowledgments A s far back as my early student years, I have greatly enjoyed read- ing acknowledgments to scholarly books. Reading acknowledgments means tracing life and professional trajectories, recognizing a multi- tude of inspirations, and discovering connections and mutual influ- ences between different people—“discoveries” sometimes similar to those we make and are fascinated by in the course of our fieldwork. There is, then, something specifically anthropological in acknowledg- ments, in both the way they are written and the way we may read them. In the main, it is the recognition of the value of human encounters and a gratitude to all those people who share with us their stories, knowl- edge, and lives; who not only enable our work but also make diverse academic endeavors and the very process of writing less lonely. This book would have not come into being without a number of peo- ple whom I had the privilege to get to know in course of my fieldwork in Southern Poland. In the interest to preserve their privacy, I do not list their names, yet I very much hope that if they happen to read this book one day, they will recognize themselves and their voices in the message conveyed throughout the text. Their contribution meant much more than friendship, hospitality, and fascinating research material. Meeting them enabled me to realize what it means to be a minority in Poland and this awareness came to shape my life far beyond the academic realm. My work on the book had several steps. It started with a Ph.D. dis- sertation, written at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in Halle, where I very much benefited from stimulating conversations with scholars and friends. My supervisor, Chris Hann, provided me with suggestions, insights, and support well beyond the dissertation phase. The scholarship of my second supervisor, Michał Buchowski, strongly shaped my own work and his critical comments were instru- mental in transforming the dissertation into a book. The members of my research team, Kinga Sekerdej, Ingo Schröder, and Lina Pranaityte, were wonderful coworkers, careful readers, and irreplaceable backers. xviii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Nathan Light, Patrice Ladwig, Hans Steinmüller and Oliver Tappe helped me make the first steps in the anthropological writing, provid- ing me with critical readings and humorvoll comments.