C. M. Hann

Assumptions of increasing secularization have been called into question across the globe but under the socialist variants of modernity traditional forms of religious belief and practice were subject to quite specific forms of repression in favour of 'scientific atheism'. What is the legacy of this socialist experience for the postsocialist era? How is religion mobilized in the public sphere to support assertions of ethnic identity and the building of nations and states? In the private sphere, how does religion help persons to cope with uncertainty and dislocation? What has been the impact of external influences, including pressures to implement religious human rights as well as the missionising efforts of modernist, 'universalizing' faiths, both Christian and Muslim? This book explores new configurations of local, national and global religious communities through ethnographic studies from two regions, Central Asia and East-Central Europe. The main focus is on the consequences of changes in the sphere of religion for generalized civility, which is understood minimally as the acceptance of diverse beliefs and practices in everyday social life.

Faith and Power in Central Asia and East-Central Europe

The Postsocialist Religious Question

Ildikó Bellér-Hann

Based on fieldwork carried out between 1983 and 1999, this is an exploration of contemporary social identities in a region of Turkey's eastern Black Sea coast abutting the border with the Republic of Georgia. Recent developments are analyzed in the context of changes in Turkish civil society.

State, Market & Social Identities on the East Black Sea Coast

Turkish Region

Paul R. Magocsi

The essays in this volume examine Galicia beyond the traditional paradigm of national history, in an effort to better understand the region as a place where different ethnic communities - Poles, Ukrainians, Jews, Austro-Germans - lived in peaceful co-existence.

A Multicultured Land

Galicia

Peter Skalnik

Mihály Sárkány

Mihaly Sarkany

Peter Skalník

Under socialism the anthropological sciences developed under conflicting pressures: on the one hand Soviet influences, Marxist ideology and institutional changes, on the other the continued influence of national traditions and of the distinction between Volkskunde and Volkerkunde. The chapters bring out striking differences between the countries considered: the German Democratic Republic, Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary. They also draw attention to variation within countries, and between sub-branches of the discipline. Coverage extends from the Stalinist years to the end of the socialist era, and the topics range from folklore studies at home to fieldwork expeditions abroad.

Socialist Era Anthropology in East-Central Europe

Studying Peoples in the People's Democracies

Keith Hart

Karl Polanyi's 1944 book, 'The Great Transformation', offered a radical critique of how the market system has affected society and humanity since the industrial revolution. This volume brings together contributions from scholars in economic anthropology, sociology and political economy to consider Polanyi's theories in light of circumstances today.

C. M. Hann

About

Books

Join the club