"Steps to an Anthropology of Post-Communism"
Power, economy and identity in East / Central Europe
Finn
Sivert Nielsen
Fall 2001 - Two modules. Regional / Thematic course
Course language: English
The course runs continuously over two modules (14 weeks). It is
highly recommended that students follow both modules!
Most weeks, the course will be organized as 90 minute lectures / seminars on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
During week 40, two guest lecturers will appear; and during weeks 41, 45
and 49, there will be full-day seminars. The first two of these seminars
will discuss the two monographs included in the course literature.
During the last full-day seminar, students will give short presentations
of the course papers they are preparing. Course papers should treat
subjects that deal with East / Central Europe, but otherwise, students
may choose their themes freely.
Since the late 1980's, Western anthropologists have increasingly cast their eyes on the former Soviet block countries, where they have discovered an entire continent of social, ethnic and cultural diversity. They have seen complex socio-cultural processes playing themselves out here that differ markedly from similar processes in the rest of the world, and they have become acquainted with schools of anthropological thought that have little in common with Western traditions. Today, there exists a young, but growing field of post-Communist studies in Western anthropology, and, in East / Central Europe itself, West-ern-style anthropology is increasingly gaining acceptance.
This course provides an introduction to this new and dynamic anthropological field. It asks whether a new "regional tradition of ethnographic writing" (Fardon) is emerging, and tries to identify some of the "gatekeeping concepts" (Appadurai) that define this field. The course opens with a brief overview of the region (geographically, historically and culturally) and gives an introduction to East Euro-pean anthropological traditions. Later, we will read a broad selection of texts from all over region, paying particular attention to questions of power, economy and identity.
During the course, two guest lecturers will appear: Kristina Sliavaite (a young Lithu-anian anthropologist) and Jonathan Schwartz (who has done fieldwork in Macedonia).