Th e desire for disinheritance in austerity Greece

Daniel M. Knight

Abstract: Associated with notions of family continuity, lineage, national belonging, and cultural roots, in Greece property inheritance was once highly desired. Yet, in recent years, there has been a rising trend of people wanting to be disinherited be- cause of the economic burden of new taxes introduced as part of the international austerity program and the need to focus all resources on the short-term future of the immediate family. Th e desire for disinheritance amounts to a longing for dis- connectedness, for exiting not only political structures but also kinship structures that have been historically closely linked with a Greek sense of self as particular political subjects. A focus on inheritance demonstrates how the political can be located in the mundane and the everyday. Keywords: austerity, belonging, dispossession, Greece, inheritance

Vignette: Th e problem with property money maintaining rusty machines. Recently, the dishwasher stopped working and the bath Eleni’s grandmother owned a house on a small tap needed replacing because of the salt. And island close to Athens that was inherited by Ele- we buy endless amounts of bottled water. Th ere ni’s father, who subsequently added a small ex- are extra problems caused by humidity that eats tension to the original building and passed it on away at the surfaces. And then there are the to his fi ve children. Now in their twenties and crippling extra property taxes introduced over living in Athens, Eleni and her siblings oversee the last few years.” As austerity ravishes every the maintenance of the second home. Although aspect of life, the inherited home has become a the island is only a few kilometers from the cap- fi nancial and psychological drain. ital, there is no drinkable water. Th e corrosive Th e irony, Eleni notes, is that by signing nature of fi ltered sea water means that kitchen over the property, her father wanted to create appliances and pipes rust extremely quickly. It is social and economic security for his children rumored that the local mayor has struck a deal “but managed to achieve the exact opposite.” with bottled water companies and is therefore Th e idea of “putting in order [taktopoiisi] the reluctant to build a facility to pipe water from kids,” Eleni says, “is something really important Athens. According to Eleni: “We waste tons of in Greek families. … Postwar generations had

Focaal—Journal of Global and Historical Anthropology 80 (2018): 30–42 © Stichting Focaal and Berghahn Books doi:10.3167/fcl.2018.800103 Th e desire for disinheritance in austerity Greece | 31 the need to safeguard the future of their kids, tention to solidarity movements (see esp. Cabot but it’s such a huge burden now for the younger and Rakopoulos 2016), indignation and pro- generations. … Now we run and can’t keep up test (Th eodossopoulos 2013, 2014), and activ- [trexoume kai de ft anoume] with the costs.” She ism championing the political left (Dalakoglou is passionate in her belief that “bricks and mor- 2012; Graeber 2013). In the course of long-term, tar [or, in her case, cement and wood] represent fi ne-grained ethnographic fi eldwork with peo- kinship and our roots [rizes] in Greece, but now ple from diverse social backgrounds, there will an inherited home is something that weighs you undoubtedly be occasions when respondents’ down, it is a stress, a burden, not desirable.” opinions or actions do not sit comfortably with Th e idea of providing social and economic the researcher or when one may fi nd an appar- security for children is prominent in stories of ent void where political action perhaps ought to property inheritance, as is the need to maintain be located. For instance, since the 2009–2010 a link to family history and roots in the nation. economic crisis broke out in Greece, I have reg- Even Greek migrants to northern Europe over ularly encountered informants who have come the past 30 years usually retain or even build a to accept the need to accommodate new living new house in Greece to preserve connections to standards rather than resist change, people who their “roots,” returning for Christmas and sum- state a desire to “disconnect” and “disassociate” mer holidays. Taktopoiisi is now a double-edged from the extended family and state, and some sword, providing children with a home comes who fear the postcrisis future, expressing feel- with added responsibility and fi nancial outlay. ings of comfort with their present situation in Th e same may be said when a property is in- a manner that may be described as a type of herited upon the death of a relative. Among my Stockholm syndrome. research participants in western Th essaly, cen- Th e details of seemingly mundane activities tral Greece, over the past three years, there has are oft en multifaceted, not solely located in hope, been a growing desire to be disinherited, a dis- resistance, and positive action toward the future connection from family history, from roots, and or, conversely, in apathy, exhaustion, and resig- from nation. nation. Th is is not to suggest that the study of protest and highly visible explosions of moral indignation is not important, but rather to say Setting the scene: Finding that one must look into every nook and cranny the political in the mundane to understand how people on the margins of Eu- rope but at the center of crisis imagine their fu- Europe is in an era of social, political, and tures and perform the political. Oft -overlooked economic upheaval, a period brimming with aspects of everyday life can be pertinently po- promises of dramatic change and revolution- litical. For example, in a striking case that res- ary futures (utopian and dystopian), fi lled with onates with this article, Dzenovska (this issue) hope, speculation, anxiety, and apathy. Th e eco- demonstrates how not migrating but staying nomic crisis of 2008, the resurfacing of Cold put and fi ghting to maintain life as a little bit War tensions on the Eastern frontier, frequent more of the present can be more “political” than terrorist attacks, political extremism and the migration or protest. Th e choice to remain does rise of the far right, and real and potential “Bre/ not seem radical but is actually a highly politi- Gre/Frexits” have prompted a surge in highly cized decision. politicized scholarship in the humanities and In the introduction to this special section, social sciences. Recently, anthropologists work- Dzenovska and De Genova argue that to truly ing in the crisis-stricken “not quite Europe,” as capture the political, one must look at disrup- Dace Dzenovska and Nicholas De Genova (this tions of an established order but not always dis- issue) term it, have passionately drawn our at- ruptions that one might expect or wish. To this 32 | Daniel M. Knight end, they suggest, it is sometimes useful to “es- A mixture of anger and apathy toward successive tablish critical distance from anthropology’s own governments has led people to express the need project of critique, if only to understand the lim- to disconnect from institutionalized politics, be- its and possibilities of current forms of scholarly coming disillusioned not only with individual and political engagement.” Our informants do actors and political parties from across the spec- not always desire the political as understood by trum but also with the whole idea of “the nation” critical scholars, but rather employ coping strat- as a family unit comprising brothers with shared egies and livelihood diversifi cation techniques interests, goals, and a sense of responsibility to- and make seemingly paradoxical decisions that ward social reproduction. As one informant put showcase their political agency. Hope, Nauja it, “Greeks no longer have each other’s backs. Kleist and Stef Jansen (2016: 388) argue, is not Th e trust in the nation of people with ethical always positive: “combinations of uncertainty, obligations toward each other is gone. Now one anticipation and aspirations … generate specifi c must look aft er oneself.” Much classic Greek eth- degrees, forms and intensities of hope, whereby nography has engaged with how national iden- it makes little sense to use ‘hope’ as a blanket tity informs mundane relatedness, especially the feel-good word in the way that it oft en seems link between family and ethnos (Campbell 1964; to appear in the contemporary moment.” Across Cowan 1990; Loizos and Papataxiarchis 1991, the “not quite Europe” in crisis, one might safely to name but a few). Owning a piece of inherited say that hope is a symbol of the grave situation land, a house, or a family property in the coun- (people cling to fragments of hope in desperate tryside was once an integral part of belonging to situations) rather than a positive vision of the the wider Greek collective; disconnection from future, perhaps symptomatic of the fact that the land, from family and village history, means “the crisis”—the initial event, the rupture—has estrangement from the nation. become chronic, static, with people feeling On a wider scale, the desire for disconnec- trapped within a time loop of the present where tion also relates to ambiguous feelings toward preventing further decline is a genuine desire belonging in a modern neoliberal Europe (in (Knight 2016). terms of both space and time) (see Knight 2017), In this article, transformations in inheritance as recently documented by scholars of solidarity practices—a topic at the very core of Greek movements (Rakopoulos 2016). Th e desire to cultural and temporal landscapes—are where be disinherited off ers a diff erent angle on initia- people critique long-established connections— tives across the country to participate in other between property ownership, familial roots, na- forms of sociality that exceed established ideas tional sentiment, and belonging. Triggered by of relatedness. During the austerity years, much rapidly increasing taxes on immovable property has been written on collective uses of land, the that most people perceive as unjust, undem- appropriation and reuse of public and private ocratic, and going against the social contract, property, health clinics, and resource-sharing the desire for disinheritance demonstrated by projects (see, e.g., Cabot 2016; Papataxiarchis the vast majority of my research participants— 2016; Rakopoulos 2014). Since the desire for something that could be termed a collective disinheritance is an emerging fi eld, the alterna- “movement” toward alternative relatedness—is tive forms of connectedness my informants seek a topic that does not necessarily sit well with the are still rising to the fore. Th ey are not engaged left -leaning ideologies of many researchers but with solidarity movements as usually defi ned, off ers a poignant insight into collective percep- but rather report similar feelings of disillusion tions of Europeanism, modernity, and progress, with the current political status quo in Greece raising questions of belonging, temporal trajec- and Europe. tory, and imaginations of the future. Th e desire Spatially, temporally, and ideologically, my for disinheritance is a desire for disconnection. Greek informants feel increasingly detached Th e desire for disinheritance in austerity Greece | 33 from the European politico-economic machine ancestors, an abundance of unlawfully built and have started to actively cultivate this discon- structures that require costly and time-consum- nection. Th is perception is only made stronger by ing legalization, the lack of fi nancial resources the intense Greek media coverage of “the crisis,” for property maintenance, and the feeling that which tends not to place the nation’s economic the nuclear family must be of primary fi nancial collapse in the context of global recession, mar- and emotional concern. Even during the Otto- ket crashes, and resultant job losses, price hikes, man era, when central Greece was divided into and social unrest. Taking disenchantment into landed estates where locals worked as peasant the private domain, there has also been a signif- sharecroppers, the family home was outside the icant breakdown of once prominent extended domain of the landlord, being passed down from family support networks. More than ever be- father to son. Th e change in attitude toward in- fore, the immediate needs of the nuclear family heritance is noteworthy, as property has formed have become the priority for fi nancial and emo- such a signifi cant aspect of social and political tional protection, hence the increasing desire to belonging since independence. Property has disconnect from histories and futures inherited long been the marker of family continuity, lin- in the form of ancestral property, now seen as eage, ethnos, nation, honor and status, morality, a millstone around the neck of both day-to-day and the sweat and blood of generations of an- survival in the present and the delicate craft ing cestors, and central to the provision of a dowry of future prosperity. It is to the desire to discon- (see Couroucli 1994; Sant Cassia and Bada 1992). nect from the highly signifi cant and culturally National sentiment is oft en expressed in terms loaded practice of inheritance to which I will of social relations: family, blood, kinship, an- now turn. cestry, fatherland, motherland, and patriline are the social categories that conglomerate in the in- dividual as a set of duties and obligations toward Th e “Greek crisis” and other citizens (Campbell 1964; Herzfeld 1992: emergent disconnectedness 100–101; Loizos and Papataxiarchis 1991). In most cases, “being Greek”—with the associated Th e so-called Greek economic crisis, which can- sense of duty to wider collectivities of family, not be discussed separately from the history neighborhood, and nation—is distinctly related of European political and fi nancial integration to owning a home that has been passed down since World War II, has transformed how my in- through the family. Images of the family—in formants perceive their futures, leading to feel- our case, inheritance of familial property—are ings of detachment from once vital aspects of commonly linked to belonging in history, in history and culture. Inheritance (klironomia) is place, and in nation, what Michael Herzfeld overtly linked to imaginations of the future and (1992: 101) terms a “simulacrum of sociality.” historical and political belonging in the family One currently unemployed friend in his mid- and nation, and is a site where the grassroots twenties whose father provided him a house impact of international tutelage and fi nancial for his eighteenth birthday in 2007 laments the restructuring become strikingly apparent—a amount of tax he has to pay on his property: prism through which to look at global involve- “On the one hand, I am grateful to my father ment in mundane aff airs (cf. Loft sdóttir 2014: and what I call ‘the Greek system.’ I will never 162). In Greece, immovable assets were once have a mortgage or have to worry about buying highly desired and inheritance of property was a place. But I just can’t aff ord to maintain it and at the center of much sibling rivalry, but this I am tied to this provincial town. I have no mo- has recently changed owing to increasing taxes bility and the anxiety from the mounting debts on immovable property, the need to repay out- is killing me.” He says that once upon a time, standing debts attached to property of deceased precrisis, fi nancial problems could be overcome 34 | Daniel M. Knight by taking out extra bank loans, and bureaucratic property?’” Giannis was dumbstruck. He con- issues solved by calling in “favors from friends tinues the story: “I just said, ‘What? Nobody or paying someone off under the table.” But informed us that we had inherited.’ I just felt my nowadays, “neither system works … civil ser- heart sink, that is the last thing that I need; to vants are afraid to take bribes or do you favors pay my father’s debts and take on his property. in case they are caught and fi red, and you can no What the hell?” Antonia chimes in: “How were longer get access to money in what you might we to know that he would leave everything to us? call the ‘capitalist system.’” He is disillusioned Four plots of land and a substantial house, some with the European political quagmire that has parts of which are still in need of legalization. Is left him in a once unimaginable situation: “I am it a gift or a curse? Did he do it deliberately to a Greek man who does not want to inherit his get revenge, was it an act of reconciliation, or father’s property, the property of my ancestors, a was he just lazy about getting his will in order?” piece of my country … let them all be damned.” When I meet them in the yard of their house While acts of civil disobedience or protest— on the outskirts of Trikala, Antonia and Giannis including migration out of the European South have only just learned of their inheritance and and political uprisings (Kurtović, this issue)— tell me that they had planned to reject it. “It is have been highly publicized, everyday activities not ethical to accept the inheritance,” they both that constitute the political are easily overlooked. insist. “We don’t want anything from him, but Inheritance in Greece is a site of politics where legally we are screwed because so much time the consequences of neocolonial debt relief has lapsed since his death. But more than that, policies provided by international creditors are it is a huge fi nancial burden that we just cannot realized. One result of the ongoing political tu- take.” Th ey say that there is a collective move- telage and economic waterboarding is that peo- ment in Greece to try to “get out” of inheriting ple wish to break away from the long-standing family property. inheritance system, to disconnect themselves Greek inheritance law allows four months from what, until now, has been an extremely for the next of kin to reject the legacy before important aspect of what it is to be a Greek po- they are legally bound to accept. “Th e inland litical subject. revenue will fuck me,” Giannis insists with an air of desperation. Antonia, who lives overseas, is legally entitled to reject her share of the in- Th e case of Antonia and Giannis heritance for up to 12 months aft er the death, but she feels it necessary to show solidarity with “I hadn’t seen my father in 25 years,” Antonia her brother, who is a self-employed electrician tells me one Sunday morning in early 2016, earning a paltry and irregular wage. With a wife nine months aft er her father passed away from and two children under the age of 10, some- a heart attack. She and her younger brother, Gi- times Giannis earns as little as one hundred eu- annis, had become estranged from their father ros a month, having to borrow money from his aft er their parents went through a messy divorce mother and extended family. “He [Giannis] is in the 1980s. Th ey learned from an aunt that he on such a low wage; he cannot aff ord to pay all had been hospitalized but decided not to visit the taxes on the new property, as well as all the him and not to attend his funeral. Nine months debt that our father has accumulated, including later, Giannis received an unexpected telephone 1,800 euros of outstanding tax and 1,500 euros call from the same aunt. Antonia: “She said to on electricity bills.” Th e siblings are on an emo- Giannis, ‘Why have you not accepted your in- tional roller-coaster, not wanting to go near the heritance? Th e debts on the electricity bills are house that holds such painful childhood mem- rising. What are you planning to do—pay the ories yet being legally obliged to get the paper- bills, disconnect the electricity, look aft er the work in order. Th e desire to disinherit is based Th e desire for disinheritance in austerity Greece | 35 on the current poor economic circumstances of ings in the early years of the twentieth century. many households, disillusionment with belong- Based on contemporary narrative accounts and ing to the nation and the extended family, and local newspaper reports, Giorgos D. Karanikolas the inability to imagine futures of prosperity (1980: 149) presents the collective feeling among and plenty. Giannis laments: “We no longer feel Greeks that they were residing in “the state of the passion to own a piece of Greece. A piece of the Tsifl ikades; they were neither human, nor land or a house that once meant so much is now Greeks, nor Christian.” just a target for aggressive foreign taxation and Th e continued importance of the tsifl iki sys- a way for our own government to raise funds tem to twenty-fi rst-century socioeconomic con- while not taking any cuts in their own lives.” For ditions and to notions of belonging within both Giannis, the nation, being a Greek among oth- the family and the nation becomes apparent ers, is not as important as it once was. Detaching when one considers the land reforms that com- oneself from the land that ancestors worked, An- menced in 1917. Th e redistribution of land was tonia adds, is painful, but it is the new social re- supposed to allow a new route for social mobil- ality for anybody who wants to survive the crisis ity, as people could theoretically sell their small- and look to the future without the unnecessary holdings and reinvest the capital elsewhere, oft en burden imposed by “other people’s” property, in educating their children (Mouzelis 1978: 78; even if this means rejecting the inheritance left Sanders 1962: 65; Sant Cassia and Bada 1992: by a deceased parent. Nodding in agreement, 10). Th e redistribution of land meant that peas- Giannis says that although “sweat and tears have ants could now choose what crop to cultivate, gone into building the house or cultivating the where to sell their surplus produce, and how to land, now it is a curse and something that I, and reinvest the profi t (if any). Th ey also had greater many other people in Greece, cannot aff ord to freedom to diversify or indeed sell up and rein- incorporate into my life as a part of my future.” vest the fi nancial capital in another enterprise. Since the breakup of the Ottoman-era landed Sellable private property became a valuable as- estates (tsifl ikia) aft er the independence of Th es- set that could at least support a child through saly in 1881, land has been the marker of po- post-gymnasium (secondary school) education litical subjectivity, familial status, and fi nancial and became a signifi cant aspect of a young girl’s capacity (locals oft en lament the four hundred dowry, enhancing her prospects of a benefi cial years of “slavery” under the Ottoman Empire marriage. Land and property has traditionally without private property). Tsifl ikia were orig- played a signifi cant role in defi ning one’s social inally land grants made by Ottoman sultans standing, and throughout the prosperous 1990s to Muslim settlers in Turkish-occupied lands, and early 2000s, inheritance of land and prop- varying in size from 6 to 15 hectares. At the end erty was highly sought aft er. Land and property of the seventeenth century, tsifl ikia became part have long been at the heart of perceptions of of much larger estates where the landlord held political suppression, liberation, independence, rights over entire villages whose inhabitants be- social mobility, the provision of a dowry, and came his tenants. Aft er the annexation of Th es- honor both vis-à-vis the local community and saly to Greece, the tsifl ikia were purchased by as part of the new nation-state (see esp. Camp- Greek entrepreneurs of the diaspora, the major- bell 1964; Friedl 1962). Until the 2009 Greek ity of whom originated from the Ionian Islands crash, property was desirable. and northern Epirus, and living conditions for the tenants drastically deteriorated (see Knight 2015: 43). Th e change in ownership coupled Desirable dispossession with broken government promises about the allocation of private property upon “liberation” And so back to the case of Antonia and Giannis. triggered a series of legendary peasant upris- Whereas the inheritance of a house and four 36 | Daniel M. Knight plots of land in a prime location close to town— to stand shoulder to shoulder with her brother “one of the four villages in the whole prefecture at this diffi cult time. She has mixed feelings that one would want to raise their children,” as about her inheritance. On a pragmatic level, the the family lawyer put it—once would have been house is not worth as much as fi ve years earlier, a godsend to a hard-up family, potentially fa- when prices were soaring. However, her mind is cilitating fi nancial and social profi t, in 2016 it also on the long-term value of the bequest: “My brings nothing but strife. Now, in the grips of brother cannot see it because he is blinded by economic crisis, the pain of inheritance is two- the current crisis. He lives in Greece where he is fold: taxes on immovable property have risen bombarded all day by news of ‘crisis, crisis, and exponentially in accordance with troika auster- more crisis.’ Th e media have destroyed people’s ity policy, and the housing market has crashed, ability to see beyond crisis, as if Greece is the meaning it is virtually impossible to sell both exception.” Antonia believes that her brother is houses and land. For instance, apartments in only planning for the immediate future—the to- the prestigious Kolonaki neighborhood of cen- day, the tomorrow. He thinks only of paying the tral Athens are advertised for as little as 15,000 outstanding electricity bill and the new troika euros—or in one case, 5,000 euros—while in taxes that he says resemble those of the Ottoman some villages near Trikala a large farmhouse is landlords (see Knight 2015: 54). He is “caught unlikely to fetch 30,000 euros when once it up in the hurricane” of austerity Greece, as An- would have been considered a bargain at 150,000 tonia puts it, “blinded by the storm that engulfs euros. Nowadays, parents threaten their chil- him.” Th e crisis has made Giannis forget how dren with the prospect of inheritance. Recently, land and property should be “desirable assets,” Christina, 44, a long-term research participant historically a route to a better life, to respect and and friend, insisted that her father visit the doc- honor as well as fi nancial gain. Even the family tor about an ongoing medical complaint only lawyer suggested that the siblings should be cel- for him to turn to her and, aggressively and ebrating their inheritance, not bemoaning their only with the slightest hint of mischief, raise bad luck and wanting to disconnect from what his voice: “Be careful, I will leave everything to she termed their “ancestry.” “But what would you in my will. Th en we will see who has to visit you expect her to say?” Giannis abruptly re- the doctor!” It has become a well-known ironic marks. “She is a lawyer, on a good wage, taking quip for parents to threaten their children with kickbacks. She does not have to feed a young inheritance—for once, dispossession and dis- family while watching every euro in the bank.” connection is desirable. Herzfeld (1991: 147) Antonia says that she can see beyond the crisis rightly notes that once upon a time there was because she lives and works outside of Greece great pride in inheriting a father’s house—the and that one day she and her brother will be house must “be heard,” not fall into ruin, be grateful for the land, one small part of which conserved to be passed on through the genera- she intends to pass down to her child as part of tions. A father’s house would also be perceived his inheritance. She is on the outside looking in, as channeling aff ect through intergenerational belonging spatially and temporally to another transmission. domain. If Greece is in the “not quite Europe,” At least Antonia and Giannis will share the then her brother may argue that Antonia resides pain of their father’s legacy. “Even if he has in the “not quite Greece.” left us nothing but stress and anxiety, as well Owing to our long-term relationship stretch- as 5,000 euros of debt and legal fees, we will ing back more than a decade, I was able to wit- halve the burden.” Giannis will have to raid his ness the process of Antonia and Giannis register- mother’s savings to pay his half, while Antonia ing their father’s death and completing the com- has sacrifi ced part of the down payment on an plicated bureaucratic process of accepting their apartment but says that she has no choice but inheritance. Th e time-consuming and emotion- Th e desire for disinheritance in austerity Greece | 37 ally exhausting process of processing inheri- has penetrated the local moral economy, creat- tance is fraught with bureaucratic booby traps ing increasing confusion between what citizens in what is, in many ways, a failing state. Aft er are supposed to do, how bureaucratic transac- consulting a lawyer who was recommended by tions are processed, and where it is appropriate a member of the extended family, the siblings for resistance against universally despised gov- then engaged a notary (simvolaiografos) to track ernment prying on familial aff airs (cf. Loft s- down all pieces of land and property registered dóttir 2014: 175). Until the late 1980s, sales of to their late father. First, the death had to be real estate between kin were oft en not put into registered in the tax offi ce (eforia), an exercise contractual form, thus evading taxation and the that took two hours because of the amount of government’s bureaucratic regulation of familial handwritten paperwork and lack of clear di- transactions. Where property is concerned, the rection by the civil servant employees. At one assumption that everyone evades tax is so deeply point, aft er several trips up and down the stairs rooted, Herzfeld (1991: 148–151) suggests, that in the three-fl oor building in 30 degrees Celsius, the rare occasions when people declare in full or Antonia broke down in tears. Th e death of her wish to pay up front can cause great trouble, as estranged father was recent, and nobody was Antonia and Giannis discovered. willing to help explain to her the process of reg- Over the following days and weeks, Antonia istering the death and paying the outstanding and Giannis encountered numerous occasions debts; many undesirable stereotypes about pub- of similar frustration, including attempts to pay lic sector services were empirically reinforced. fi nes and correct parts of the house that were Aft er three days of regular visits to various pub- built without planning consent. What is re- lic offi ces and calling in favors from civil servant markable in this story is that Antonia was try- friends of friends, Antonia eventually managed ing to pay her debts to the state. Usually through to pay the 1,800 euros in outstanding tax and clumsy and ill-advised policies, for years the 1,500 euros in old electricity bills and fi nalize troika have been insisting on a more effi cient the inheritance. And even then, the payment and streamlined tax collection system, resulting had to be in cash (there was a blanket absence of in successive Greek governments emphasizing credit card machines, and bank transfers were the need for its citizens to pay their taxes. Tax not accepted); a problem when Greece’s capital evasion, as Herzfeld (1991: 147) notes, is “a key controls, introduced in June 2015 at the time locus for the struggle between the citizen and the SYRIZA-ANEL government called a refer- the state over the control, defi nition, and rights endum on a new troika bailout package, only of the self.” “Imagine,” Antonia astutely observes, allowed Greek citizens to withdraw 420 euros “what would happen if you were trying to get per week, and Antonia’s foreign debit card has something from them rather than give them an upper daily withdrawal limit of fi ve hundred something? It is better to detach yourself from dollars. the state in any way you can. It is a failure; I want Greek bureaucracy has been discussed at nothing to do with it.” Surely, she bemoans, the length by Herzfeld (1991, 1992), who points to tax offi ce should be delighted that somebody the intrusion on family life of a bureaucratically actually wants to pay their debts. Other hin- regulated economy with increased public scru- drances to the process that contribute to the tiny on bureaucratic transactions, infl uencing widely held perception that inheritance is now the sense of kinship morality (see also Pipyrou a poison chalice (all of which Antonia encoun- 2016). At the time of Herzfeld’s writing, Greece tered) include the complexities of locating and was undergoing dramatic reforms in tax law that resolving court documents chronicling disputes would have signifi cant consequences on how between family and neighbors over land own- property was valued and tax declared. In a sim- ership (see also Friedl 1962: 48; Herzfeld 1980), ilar way, the recent avalanche of troika reforms for which a lawyer needs to be paid, the ne- 38 | Daniel M. Knight cessity to reimburse pension overpayments to demonstrate modernity and being part of “the public and sometimes numerous private bodies, civilized West” rather than the cultural areas of outstanding electricity bills that include hidden “the Balkans” or “the Orient” (Herzfeld 1987), taxes known as haratsia introduced as part of yet land was imperative to long-term social mo- the troika austerity program, unpaid bank loans bility and essential for acceptance within the that require returning in full upon the death of highest social circles of the town. Since the out- the recipient, and, inevitably, the nigh impossi- break of economic crisis, the decrease in wages bility of selling inherited property in the current and the imposition of a plethora of new taxes, fi nancial climate. land and property, although still desirable in Antonia and Giannis approached their fa- some utopian postapocalyptic version of the ther’s sister about purchasing the property. Th e world, have become a burden on quotidian life. house, which stands close to the village square in Talk around disconnecting from long-es- an admirable location close to the major town of tablished inheritance practices provides a lens Trikala, was, in 2008, valued at 150,000 euros. It through which people discuss belonging (or is now, according to objective valuation, worth not) politically, economically, and culturally to 30,000 euros, splitting opinion among the sib- the West, with people asking questions that res- lings—Antonia believes that, in this desperate onate with Herzfeld’s observations in the 1980s economic climate, to fi nd a buyer for 30,000 eu- that “whether as the land of revered but long ros (but keeping the separate small plots of land) dead ancestors, or as the intrusive and rather would signify an unexpected windfall, while tawdry fragment of the mysterious East, Greece Giannis feels bitter that the price is so low; it is might seem condemned to a peripheral role in “far too charitable” to sell the house so cheaply, the modern age” (1987: 3). Giannis discusses he argues. Th ey both agree that they must try to his inheritance in terms of shame and discon- get the house out of their names by selling it im- nection from his cultural and historical roots. mediately, whatever the price, as because they “What have you become when you are begging both already own property in Greece the amount your father to disinherit you? Th is goes against of tax payable on second and third homes can be any logical notion of progress or national soli- fi nancially devastating. Finding a buyer, though, darity, or family honor. Shame on them. Shame will present a signifi cant challenge—although, on them [dropi tous].” Giannis is here referring aft er three months, they did receive one off er of to both the international creditors and the Greek a paltry three thousand euros. government, whom he sees as responsible for the dramatic shift s in sociality at the grassroots level. Frequently, comparisons with Balkan and Property and belonging over time African nations—which share a place in the collective Greek imagination as stereotypes of Previous shift s from prosperity to crises and backwardness and suff ering—arise in debates back again have led to alterations in how prop- about dispossession, the breakdown of the fam- erty is linked to imaginations of the future and ily, and economic extraction for which neolib- social belonging. In the 1950s, ownership of eral austerity is held responsible. Giannis feels land and property provided great status and fa- sapped of energy for his future: cilitated infl uence on local councils (du Boulay 1974: 248). Land and immovable property was When they drain you of your past, your an incredibly valuable social asset. With mar- legacy, your lineage by making it impos- ket liberalization and increased access to global sible to inherit, how do they expect you ideals of materiality, from the 1980s conspicu- to build a future for your family, your na- ous consumerism became the primary way to tion? You are removed from everything Th e desire for disinheritance in austerity Greece | 39

that is meaningful. In the end you want when the crisis struck and I couldn’t sell my pro- to be removed and actively seek discon- duce at market and a big company I had a con- nection. … Th at is what we are doing now, tract with went bankrupt.” Panayiotis says that trying to get away from global and na- he and his wife struggled on, hoping that life tional processes that are holding us back could only get better. “Th e arguments got more and damaging our lives. regular, usually about money. We were both so stressed out. We argued about politics, about Th ere is no understanding, he stresses, from the how our country could be saved … [He pauses, troika or his own government of the things im- ironically and with a smirk.] She supported PA- portant to everyday citizens. Th ere is instead a SOK. [We argued] about how our livelihoods desire to break from long-established patterns could be saved. But whatever we did to try to of inheritance that were until recently so central better our situation, things only got worse; more to the Greek social and political subject. tax, more austerity, more persecution.” In my recent book (Knight 2015: 163–164), Panayiotis is keen to emphasize his belief that I discuss the case of Panayiotis, whom I met in all political parties that have governed Greece 2005 when he was in his mid-thirties. Panayiotis, since the 2009 crash (PASOK, New Democracy, who owned two hundred stremmata of land and and SYRIZA-ANEL) have been equally culpable was fi nancially very secure with no outstanding for the worsening socioeconomic situation in the loans, had been courting a woman from Larisa country and for breaking promises made to the for more than two years. Despite being in love, citizens of Greece, forcing people to seek a break eventually Litsa was persuaded by her parents from the very things that were once at the heart that Panayiotis was not a respectable husband, of Greek collective and individual identity. Kat- as he was uneducated and they had high aspira- erina, increasingly frustrated and already feeling tions for their daughter to marry into the town’s that she had married beneath her, left her hus- elite. Panayiotis built a new house on his land to band in 2014, three weeks aft er he had inherited demonstrate that Litsa would be well provided his father’s land and two properties. “My father for. In 2005, Panayiotis did not have a desirable left us all his land, a property in a village outside future as far as marriage was concerned. of Trikala and a small dwelling in his ancestral I have stayed in contact with Panayiotis for home in the Pindos Mountains,” Panayiotis says. more than a decade. He has invested in Euro- Th ey were already listed as owning three homes pean Union renewable energy programs, build- between them, so for Panayiotis and Katerina, ing small wind turbines on his arable land. In the tax burden resulting from the inheritance, 2008, he married a local woman called Katerina, coupled with the father’s unpaid debts, was too the daughter of the village mini-mart owner. much to bear. According to Panayiotis, this was Th ey divorced in 2014. Panayiotis attributes the the straw that broke the camel’s back; Katerina failed marriage to the lack of a future off ered in moved back in with her parents. Once, Panay- austerity Greece and particularly to the crip- iotis says, smiling at me, land and property were pling new taxes on land and property that pre- the “ultimate sources of social, political, and eco- vented him from providing his new wife with nomic power.” Now they are worthless, a burden the life she had expected. “Th is crisis is killing and a millstone that people want to avoid at all relationships all over the country,” Panayiotis costs: “I have no chance of remarrying. I tried to laments. He says that the stress of dealing with build a future. I did everything I could. I diversi- social and economic woe daily is tearing fami- fi ed (by investing in renewable energy) to build lies apart: “I could not provide for her in the way a future, I scrimped and saved to build a future, she was hoping for. Th e way I was expecting and but I was lynched by my own government’s obe- expected to. Th e agricultural markets crashed dience to evil European dictators.” 40 | Daniel M. Knight

Panayiotis sees his inheritance as the deci- Conclusions sive blow, a fi nal nail in his coffi n, so to speak, telling me that it is best explained by narrating Th e emerging desire for disinheritance amounts a scene from a friend’s father’s funeral he at- to a desire for disconnectedness, for exiting not tended in the town of Katerini in early 2016. only political structures but also kinship struc- Th e man, he says, had three sons, all in their tures that have been historically closely linked forties with wives and children. At the funeral, with a Greek sense of self as particular political the coffi n of the dead man was in the center of a subjects. Th ere is the desire to disconnect from large room and the three sons were standing in a failing state that is seen to be unscrupulously three separate corners, some distance from the and arbitrarily punishing its citizens, going back body. All the sons wore dark sunglasses, “not on its promises of hope and redemption, as well to hide their tears but to hide their anger and as a radical reassessment of what it means to be to shield the glares of suspicious eyes.” No son part of the nation, with perceived shared roots wanted to inherit the father’s estate or to deal and a set of moral obligations toward social with his substantial outstanding tax and loan well-being. Further, there is an increasing desire repayments. Th ey were seeking to disconnect to disconnect with the European politico-eco- from family, land, and nation. Th is issue, ac- nomic program that is generally blamed for cording to Panayiotis, had torn the family into the rising tax imposed on immovable property three parts. Th e sons were not speaking to each and the never-ending tunnel of fi nancial tute- other and not publicly mourning their father: lage in the form of bailout packages and auster- “Once the brothers would have been fi ghting ity measures. Finally, there is a striking desire over who would inherit the father’s property. In for disconnection from ancestral history and the richest and in the poorest families at least family assets, once at the very heart of what it the family house would be passed down to one meant to be a Greek political subject. Th e nu- of the children. Now, brothers live in fear of clear family has become the focus of economic inheriting.” and emotional protection; the attempt by some In a similar case, a Scandinavian woman was informants to disassociate themselves from married to a Greek man (they both lived in the family history and collective perceptions of na- United Kingdom). When they divorced, the tional culture by rejecting inheritance is painful man promised to give his house in his ancestral but understood as necessary if the basic future Greek village to the woman as part of the di- needs of the nuclear family are to be met. Dis- vorce settlement, much to her distress. “What connection from global processes is an active at- do I want a house in Greece for, just to pay all tempt to protect one’s future from the unknown, the taxes?” she remarked. Th e woman believed the outsider, an attempt to maintain some form that her former husband was trying to burden of limited control over one’s future that is rap- her with the house in Greece to escape paying idly disappearing over the ever-distant horizon. the taxation himself. “He is so manipulative, so With such historical and cultural import, the cunning,” she bemoaned. signifi cance of the desire for disinheritance as a Juliet du Boulay once stated that “land … is political gesture should not be underestimated. immortal—it cannot die, it is always a secure Inheritance is a subject of study where the investment,” while expecting to inherit a house consequences of the violent eff ects of neolib- would ensure the “good behaviour” of the son eral austerity, democratic defi cit, and colonial and his wife (1974: 250, 21). Yet, in 2016, at the legacies are played out. Th e consequences of grassroots level, land and property have been austerity policy on the fi ne-grained detail of the stripped of their social and economic value, as political in central Greece are expressed through locals fail to see their long-term futures for the the desire to disinherit, to disconnect from fa- life-sapping smog of suff ocating austerity. milial, national, and European imaginations of Th e desire for disinheritance in austerity Greece | 41 the future. In this emerging fi eld, where alter- Acknowledgments native connections may lie largely remains to be seen. Th e creation of a “New Greece” (compared I am especially grateful to Alexia Liakounakou to the “New Iceland” discussed by Loft sdóttir, for inspirational conversations on property in- this issue) is, it seems, not to be based on the heritance and bureaucracy in austerity Greece. once culturally vital qualities of property inher- Th e article benefi ted immensely from the in- itance. Th at is now a past future. Chronic aus- sights of Dace Dzenovska and Stavroula Pipy- terity has provoked my informants to envisage a rou. Th e research was funded by the Leverhulme diff erent version of the future based away from Trust, ECF-2015-214. long-established concepts of family continuity, lineage, and tangible links to the ethnos through land and property inheritance. Daniel M. Knight is a Lecturer and Leverhulme By rejecting an established system of troika Fellow in the Department of Social Anthropol- (read “European”) taxation and national gov- ogy at the University of St Andrews. He works ernment hoodwinking, people reassess their in central Greece, writing on time, temporality, ideas of national belonging and family heritage austerity, and extractive economies. He is the associated with property ownership. It would be author of History, Time, and Economic Crisis easy for the observer to criticize the abandon- in Central Greece (Palgrave, 2015) and coedi- ment of centuries-old inheritance practices that tor of two special collections, “Ethnographies has come about in part because of the morally of Austerity: Temporality, Crisis and Aff ect in suspect pressures of international creditors. Th e Southern Europe” (with Charles Stewart) and desire for disinheritance is not so much a matter “Alternatives to Austerity” (with Laura Bear). of solidarity but more a means of “maintaining His work has appeared in journals such as a life,” a way of “reworlding,” as Dzenovska has American Ethnologist, JRAI, and Anthropologi- put it, “even if only in the sense of making life go cal Quarterly, and he is coeditor of History and on for a little bit longer.” Th e Greek case study Anthropology. does poignantly show, however, how the politi- E-mail: [email protected] cal can be located in unusual, even paradoxical, spaces of everyday life. 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