Postsocialism: Ideals, Ideologies and Practices in Eurasia
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Postsocialism Social scientists did not predict the collapse of socialist systems in 1989–91 and most attempts to explain what has happened since have been flawed. Economic disintegration and political instability have been documented, but the deeper causes and consequences have often gone unnoticed. Consequently the solutions proffered, such as the promotion of non-governmental organisations as the foundations of ‘civil society’, have so far brought little success. Postsocialism presents a range of anthropological analyses of the new social order. The view ‘from below’, obtained through intensive fieldwork, opens up new understanding of the postsocialist condition and the extent to which one dominant ideology has been replaced by another. The topics addressed include: the role of social and cultural capital in determining the ‘winners’ of rural decollectivization, the devaluation of blue collar labour, the position of Gypsies, the viability of ‘multicultural’ models in situations of religious difference and ethnic violence, new patterns of consumption, changing ritual practices and the healing of socialist ‘trauma’. The forcible imposition of socialist rule destroyed the integrity of many communities and individual lives; the impact of its demise has also been shattering for millions of citizens in postsocialist Eurasia. Beneath the changes, anthropological analysis brings out significant continuities, both in values and in actual behaviour. Time was not ‘frozen’ during the two or three generations of socialist rule. Rather, the contours of postsocialist society are being shaped by a continuous stream of evolving institutions and practices, which emerges only slowly from the valley of socialism. The term postsocialist will remain pertinent so long as the ideals, ideologies and practices of socialism are perceived to provide a meaningful (albeit increasingly mythical) reference point for understanding people’s present condition. C.M.Hann is Founding Director of the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, in Halle, eastern Germany, which specialises in studies of postsocialist countries. His book Socialism was published by Routledge in the ASA Monographs series in 1993. Postsocialism Ideals, ideologies and practices in Eurasia Edited by C.M.Hann London and New York First published 2002 by Routledge 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2004. Selection and editorial matter, © 2002 C.M.Hann; individual chapters, © 2002 the contributors All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Postsocialism: ideologies, and practices in Eurasia/ [edited by] C.M.Hann. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Post-communism. 2. Social history—1970– . I. Hann, C.M., 1953– HX44.5. P693 2002 306~.095–dc21 2001048184 ISBN 0-203-42811-0 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-203-44798-0 (Adobe eReader Format) ISBN 0-415-26257-7 (hbk) ISBN 0-415-26258-5 (pbk) Contents Notes on contributors ix Preface and acknowledgements xi 1 Introduction: postsocialism as a topic of anthropological investigation 1 CHRIS HANN, CAROLINE HUMPHREY, KATHERINE VERDERY Farewell to the socialist ‘other’ 1 CHRIS HANN Does the category ‘postsocialist’ still make sense? 12 CAROLINE HUMPHREY Whither postsocialism? 15 KATHERINE VERDERY PART I 29 Social capital, trust and legitimacy 2 The advantages of being collectivized: cooperative farm managers in the postsocialist economy 31 MARTHA LAMPLAND 3 Economic crisis and ritual decline in Eastern Europe 57 GERALD W.CREED 4 The social production of mistrust 74 CHRISTIAN GIORDANO AND DOBRINKA KOSTOVA vi Contents PART II 93 Dimensions of inequality: gender, class and ‘underclass’ 5 Retreat to the household? Gendered domains in postsocialist Poland 95 FRANCES PINE 6 The unmaking of an East-Central European working class 114 DAVID A.KIDECKEL 7 Deprivation, the Roma and ‘the underclass’ 133 MICHAEL STEWART PART III 157 Violent histories and the renewal of identities 8 Intolerant sovereignties and ‘multi-multi’ protectorates: competition over religious sites and (in)tolerance in the Balkans 159 ROBERT M.HAYDEN 9 Withdrawing from the land: social and spiritual crisis in the indigenous Russian Arctic 180 PIERS VITEBSKY 10 Remnants of revolution in China 196 STEPHAN FEUCHTWANG PA RT I V 215 Stretching postsocialism 11 Rethinking Chinese consumption: social palliatives and the rhetorics of transition in postsocialist China 217 KEVIN LATHAM 12 How far do analyses of postsocialism travel? The case of Central Asia 238 DENIZ KANDIYOTI Contents vii 13 ‘Eurasia’, ideology and the political imagination in provincial Russia 258 CAROLINE HUMPHREY PART V 277 Democracy export and global civil society 14 Seeding civil society 279 RUTH MANDEL 15 Beyond transition: rethinking elite configurations in the Balkans 297 STEVEN SAMPSON 16 Afterword: globalism and postsocialist prospects 317 DON KALB Index 335 Contributors Gerald W.Creed: Department of Anthropology, Hunter College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York, 695 Park Ave, New York, NY 10021, USA. Stephan Feuchtwang: Department of Anthropology, London School of Economics, Houghton Street, London, WC2A 2AE, UK. Christian Giordano: Institut d’Ethnologie, Universität Fribourg, Rte de Bonnefontaines 11, CH-1700, Fribourg, Switzerland. Chris Hann: Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, PO Box 11 03 51, 06017 Halle (Saale), Germany. Robert M.Hayden: Department of Anthropology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA. Caroline Humphrey: Department of Social Anthropology, University of Cambridge, Free School Lane, Cambridge, CB2 3RF, UK. Don Kalb: Department of Anthropology, Utrecht University, and University College, PO Box 80145, 3508 TC Utrecht, The Netherlands. Deniz Kandiyoti: Department of Anthropology, School of Oriental and African Studies, Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square, London, WC1H 0XG, UK. David Kideckel: Department of Anthropology, Central Connecticut University, 1615 Stanley St, New Britain, CT 06050, USA. Dobrinka Kostova: Institute of Sociology, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia, Bulgaria. Martha Lampland: Department of Sociology, University of California, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, San Diego, CA 92093–0102, USA. Kevin Latham: Department of Anthropology, School of Oriental and African Studies, Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square, London, WC1H 0XG, UK. x Contributors Ruth Mandel: Department of Anthropology, University College, Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT, UK. Frances Pine: Department of Anthropology, University of Cambridge, Free School Lane, Cambridge, CB2 3RF, UK. Steven Sampson: Department of Social Anthropology, University of Lund, Box 114, 22100 Lund, Sweden. Michael Stewart: Department of Anthropology, University College, Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT, UK. Katherine Verdery: Department of Anthropology, University of Michigan, 1020 LSA Building, Ann Arbor, MI 48109–1382, USA. Piers Vitebsky: Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge, Lensfield Road, Cambridge, CB2 1ER, UK. Preface and acknowledgements This book derives from a conference titled ‘Actually-existing Postsocialisms’, held in Halle in November 2000. Together with the meeting of specialists on the Russian North immediately preceding it, the papers from which are being published separately, this was the first major conference of the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, founded in the previous year. The Institute is located in the former East Germany and investigations of the postsocialist world have high priority in our research agenda. We aim not only to show specialists in other subjects that anthropology can contribute to the study of contemporary social transformations, but also to demonstrate to anthropologists the pertinence of such studies for other concerns of the discipline. Vast regions of Europe and Asia have been relatively neglected in the dominant anthropological traditions and their integration is long overdue. Since most of our own staff only took up their positions in 2000, it was too soon for us to present results of our new fieldwork projects concerning postsocialist property relations (for details see www.eth.mpg.de). Rather, we were treated to a feast by distinguished external scholars, who were invited to present examples of their own recent work and simultaneously to address more general themes and review the current ‘state of play’ across a wide range of topics and countries. All have carried out fieldwork in the postsocialist years, usually among people whom they knew well under the ancien régime, and they were encouraged to set this work in wider contexts. The outcome is a volume in which micro-level insights into particular processes of transformation are combined with an insistence on the more general validity of an anthropological approach, complementing the perspectives of other disciplines. The distinctive character of this approach cannot be reduced to any one body of theory or