Cultural Anthropology of Post-Socialism

Ethnographic Accounts and Anthropological Theories in and of East-Central Europe

Autumn 2009

Masaryk University in Brno



1. March 18, 2010 – Conceptual Foundations and Historical Overview


What Is East-Central Europe? Political and Cultural Geographies (Lecture, 15.00–16.20)

What Was Socialism? Historical Development and Economic Conceptualizations (Lecture, 16.35–17.45)

East-Central Europe as an Area of Anthropological Studies (Brief Lecture, 18.00–18.35)

Last Bus Stop (Documentary Film Screening, 18.40–19.30)


+ Hofer, Tamás (1968) Anthropologists and Native Ethnographers in Central European Villages:
Comparative Notes on the Professional Personality of Two Disciplines. Current Anthropology, Vol. 9,
No. 4. (Oct. 1968), 311–315.

+ Halpern, Joel Martin and David A. Kideckel (1983) Anthropology of Eastern Europe. Annual Review
of Anthropology, Vol. 12. (1983), 377–402.

+ Arnason, Johann P. (2005) Introduction: Demarcating East-Central Europe. European Journal of
Social Theory, Vol. 8, No. 4, 387–400. (ECE)


2. April 1, 2010 – From State Socialism to Post-Socialism: Theory and Practice


Political and Economic Theories of State Socialism (Lecture and Discussion, 15.00–16.20)

Practical Critique: Economic Reforms, Consumer Socialism, Second Economy (Discussion, 16.35–17.55)

Theories and Histories of the Transition: A Great Transformation or a Return to Europe? (Lecture,
18.10–19.30)


* Burawoy, Michael and János Lukács (1985) Mythologies of Work: A Comparison of Firms in State
Socialism and Advanced Capitalism. American Sociological Review, Vol. 50, No. 6 (Dec. 1985),
723–737. (HU)

* Sampson, Steven L. (1987) The Second Economy of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. Annals of
the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 493, The Informal Economy (Sep. 1987),
120–136. (ECE, SU)

+ Verdery, Katherine (1991) Theorizing Socialism: A Prologue to the ‘Transition’. American
Ethnologist, Vol. 18, No. 3, Representations of Europe: Transforming State, Society, and Identity
(Aug. 1991), 419–439.

* Lampland, Martha (1991) Pigs, Party Secretaries, and Private Lives in Hungary. American
Ethnologist, Vol. 18, No. 3, Representations of Europe: Transforming State, Society, and Identity.
(Aug. 1991), 459–479. (HU)

* Humphrey, Caroline (1991) ‘Icebergs’, Barter, and the Mafia in Provincial Russia. Anthropology
Today, Vol. 7, No. 2 (Apr. 1991), 8–13. (RU)

+ Verdery, Katherine (1996) What Was Socialism, and Why Did It Fall? In What Was Socialism, and
What Comes Next? (Princeton: Princeton University Press), 19–38.

+ Burawoy, Michael and Katherine Verdery (1999) Introduction. In Michael Burawoy and Katherine
Verdery, eds., Uncertain Transition: Ethnographies of Change in the Postsocialist World (Lanham:
Rowman and Littlefield), 1–17.

+ Berdahl, Daphne (2000) Introduction: An Anthropology of Postsocialism. In Daphne Berdahl, Matti
Bunzl and Martha Lampland, eds., Altering States: Ethnographies of Transition in Eastern Europe and
the Former Soviet Union. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1–13.


3. April 15, 2010– Negotiating Capitalism in East-Central Europe


Wild East: Global Capitalism in East-Central Europe (Lecture and Discussion, 15.00–16.20)

Privatization, Consumerism, and the Discourse on Normality (Discussion, 16.35–17.55)

Trajectories of Social and Cultural Change after 1989 (Lecture, 18.10–19.30)


* Konstantinov, Yulian, Gideon M. Kressel, and Trond Thuen (1998) Outclassed by Former Outcasts:
Petty Trading in Varna. American Ethnologist, Vol. 25, No. 4. (Nov. 1998), 729–745. (BG)

* Fehérváry, Krisztina (2002) American Kitchens, Luxury Bathrooms, and the Search for a ‘Normal’
Life in Post-Socialist Hungary. Ethnos, Vol. 67, No. 3, 369–400. (HU)

* Dunn, Elizabeth (1999) Slick Salesmen and Simple People: Negotiated Capitalism in a Privatized
Polish Firm. In Michael Burawoy and Katherine Verdery, eds., Uncertain Transition: Ethnographies of
Change in the Postsocialist World (Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield), 125–150. (PL)

* Verdery, Katherine (1999) Fuzzy Property: Rights, Power and Identity in Transylvania’s
Decollectivization. In Michael Burawoy and Katherine Verdery, eds., Uncertain Transition:
Ethnographies of Change in the Postsocialist World (Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield), 53–81. (RO)

* Berdahl, Daphne (2001) “Go, Trabi, Go!”: Reflections on a Car and Its Symbolization over Time.
Anthropology and Humanism, Vol. 25, No. 2, 131–141. (D)

* Galbraith, Marysia H. (2003) ‘We Just Want To Live Normally’: Intersecting Discourses of Public,
Private, Poland, and the West. Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Europe, Vol. 3, No.
1, 2–13. (PL)

* Harper, Krista (2005) “Wild Capitalism” and “Ecocolonialism”: A Tale of Two Rivers. American
Anthropologist, Vol. 107, No. 2. (Jun. 2005), 221–233. (HU)

* Friedman, Jack R. (2007) Shame and the Experience of Ambivalence on the Margins of the Global:
Pathologizing the Past and Present in Romania’s Industrial Wastelands. Ethos, Vol.35, No.2,
235–264. (RO)

* Kalb, Don (2009) Conversations with a Polish Populist: Tracing Hidden Histories of Globalization,
Class, and Dispossession in Postsocialism (and Beyond). American Ethnologist, Vol. 36, No. 2 (May
2009), 207–223. (PL)


4. April 29, 2010– Politics of Memory and Identity in a Post-Socialist Context


History and National Identity in the Post-Socialist Context (Lecture and Discussion, 15.00–16.20)

Forms of Nationalism in East-Central Europe (Lecture, 16.35–17.55)

Gender and Generation: Enduring Traditions of Exclusion (Lecture and Discussion, 18.10–19.30)


* Gal, Susan (1991) Bartók’s Funeral: Representations of Europe in Hungarian Political Rhetoric.
American Ethnologist, Vol. 18, No. 3, Representations of Europe: Transforming State, Society, and
Identity (Aug. 1991), 440–458. (HU)

* Borneman, John (1993) Uniting the German Nation: Law, Narrative, and Historicity. American
Ethnologist, Vol. 20, No. 2 (May 1993), 288–311. (D)

* Holy, Ladislav (1994) Metaphors of the Natural and the Artificial in Czech Political Discourse.
Man, New Series, Vol. 29, No. 4 (Dec. 1994), 809–829. (CZ)

+ Brubaker, Rogers (1996) National Minorities, Nationalizing States, and External National
Homelands in the New Europe. In Nationalism Reframed: Nationhood and the National Question in the
New Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 55–76.

* Hayden, Robert M. (1996) Imagined Communities and Real Victims: Self-Determination and Ethnic
Cleansing in Yugoslavia. American Ethnologist, Vol. 23, No. 4 (Nov. 1996), 783–801. (YU)

* White, Jenny B. (1997) Turks in the New Germany. American Anthropologist, Vol. 99, No. 4 (Winter
1997), 754–769. (D)

* Hann, Chris (1998) Postsocialist Nationalism: Rediscovering the Past in Southeast Poland. Slavic
Review, Vol. 57, No. 4 (Winter 1998), 840–863. (PL)

+ Wolfe, Thomas C. (2000) Cultures and Communities in the Anthropology of Eastern Europe and the
Former Soviet Union. Annual Review of Anthropology, Vol. 29 (2000), 195–216.

* Lemon, Alaina (2002) Without a ‘Concept’? Race as Discursive Practice. Slavic Review, Vol. 61,
No. 1 (Spring 2002), 54–61. (RU)

* Galbraith, Marysia H. (2004) Between East and West: Geographic Metaphors of Identity in Poland.
Ethos, Vol. 32, No. 1 (Spring 2004), 51–81. (PL)

* Kotnik, Vlado (2007) Sport, Landscape, and National Identity: Representations of an Idealized
Vision of Nationhood in Slovenian Skiing Telecasts. JSAE, Vol. 7, No. 2, 19–35. (SL)



Readings marked with a plus sign (+) are required readings for all students (9 readings).

Readings marked with an asterisk (*) may be chosen for class presentation (22 readings).