Think Globally, Act Locally? Anthropological Strategies in/of East-Central Europe
Keywords:
postsocialism, difference, othering, hierarchies of knowledge, anthropological contemporaryAbstract
The paper aims to analyze the main arguments and dynamics of the debate on anthropological traditions in/of East-Central Europe through the prism of the “anthropology of postsocialism,” which has significantly conditioned intellectual exchange over the last decade. The internal logic of strategies employed by participants in the discussion has recently shifted from the need to “catch up with the West” towards a “think globally, act locally” rhetoric, but it has not managed to break entirely with an unproblematized concept of difference. Consequently, such binaries as East – West or local – global more or less explicitly still provide the organizing principles of the discourses in question. In the light of this predicament, the author turns to a toolbox that includes some elements of the “anthropology of the contemporary” of Paul Rabinow, the “para-ethnography” of George Marcus and the “ethnography in late industrialism” of Kim Fortun. The purpose of the suggested analytical devices is to destabilize the categories utilized in the discussed debate on the one hand, and to show its embeddedness in the wider context of the contemporary world on the other. This enables moving beyond dichotomous thinking and toward a more all-encompassing approach.
References
Baer, Monika. 2003. Women’s Spaces: Class, Gender and the Club: An Anthropological Study of the Transitional Process in Poland. Wrocław: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Wrocławskiego.
Baer, Monika. 2007. “W poszukiwaniu (nie)tożsamości: Kilka uwag na temat praktyki queer w akademickim dyskursie aktywistycznym.” In Z odmiennej perspektywy: Studia queer w Polsce, edited by Monika Baer and Marzena Lizurej, 93–112. Wrocław: Ofi cyna Wydawnicza “Arboretum”.
Baer, Monika. 2009. “Transformacje transformacji: O problemach antropologii postsocjalizmu.” In Antropologiczne badania zmiany kulturowej: Społeczno-kulturowe aspekty transformacji systemowej w Polsce, edited by Konrad Górny and Mirosław Marczyk, 33–55. Wrocław: Katedra Etnologii i Antropologii Kulturowej UWr.
Boyer, Dominic. 2010. “From Algos to Autonomos: Nostalgic Eastern Europe as Postimperial Mania.” In Postcommunist Nostalgia, edited by Maria Todorova and Zsuzsa Gille, 17– 28. New York: Berghahn Books.
Buchowski, Michał. 2001. Rethinking Transformation. Poznań: Wydawnictwo Humaniora.
Buchowski, Michał. 2004. “Hierarchies of Knowledge in Central-Eastern European Anthropology.” Th e Anthropology of East Europe Review 22(2): 5–14.
Buchowski, Michał. 2006. “Th e Specter of Orientalism in Europe: From Exotic Other to Stigmatized Brother.” Anthropological Quarterly 79(3): 463–82.
Buchowski, Michał. 2007. “Some Lessons from the Importance of History in the History of Central European Ethnology.” In Anthropology’s Multiple Temporalities and its Future in Central and Eastern Europe: A Debate. Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology Working Papers 90: 18–22. http://pendientedemigracion.ucm.es/info/antrosim/docs/Hann_et_ al_Anthropology_Multiple_Temporalities_Future_Central_Eastern_Europe_A_Debate.pdf
Buchowski, Michał. 2012a. Etnologia polska: Historie i powinowactwa. Poznań: Wydawnictwo Nauka i Innowacje.
Buchowski, Michał. 2012b. “Intricate Relations between Western Anthropologists and Eastern Ethnologists.” Focaal 63: 20–38.
Červinková, Hana. 2005. “Anthropology and the Politics of Learning.” In Anthropology of Europe: Teaching and Research, edited by Peter Skalník, 27–36. Prague: Set Out.
Červinková, Hana. 2005 as an anthropologist. Consequently, unlike Juraj Podoba (2007), at one of the EASA conferences I was quite “shocked” when a “Western” colleague called me a “native anthropologist.”
Červinková, Hana. 2006. Playing Soldiers in Bohemia: An Ethnography of NATO Membership. Prague: Set Out.
Červinková, Hana. 2012. “Postcolonialism, Postsocialism and the Anthropology of East-Central Europe.” Journal of Postcolonial Writing 48(2): 155–63.
Chari, Sharad, and Katherine Verdery. 2009. “Thinking between the Posts: Postcolonialism, Postsocialism, and Ethnography aft er the Cold War.” Comparative Studies in Society and History 51(1): 6–34.
Chivens, Thomas. 2007. “Płeć a interwencja: Nadzór policyjny nad przemocą domową w Stanach Zjednoczonych i w Polsce,” translated by Karolina Szmagalska-Follis. In Gender: Perspektywa antropologiczna, vol. I, edited by Renata E. Hryciuk and Agnieszka Kościańska, 171–91. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego.
Dunn, Elizabeth C. 2004. Privatizing Poland: Baby Food, Big Business and the Remaking of Labor. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Dunn, Elizabeth C., and Katherine Verdery. 2011. “Dead Ends in the Critique of (Post)Socialist Anthropology: Reply to Thelen.” Critique of Anthropology 31(3): 251–55.
Fabian, Johannes. 2002. Time and the Other: How Anthropology Makes Its Object. New York: Columbia University Press.
Fabian, Johannes. 2012. “Comments on ‘Changing Global Flows in Anthropological Knowledge’.” Focaal 63: 62–65.
Fortun, Kim. 2012. “Ethnography in Late Industrialism.” Cultural Anthropology 27(3): 446– 64.
Giordano, Christian. 2014. “Does Postsocialism in Eastern Europe Mirror Postcolonialism? Grand Narratives, Myths and Inventions about the Fall of the Berlin Wall and What Followed.” In Does East Go West? Anthropological Pathways Through Postsocialism, edited by Christian Giordano, François Ruegg and Andrea Boscoboinik, 225–43. Berlin: LIT Verlag.
Gupta, Akhil, and James Ferguson. 1992. “Beyond ‘Culture’: Space, Identity, and the Politics of Difference.” Cultural Anthropology 7 (1): 6–23.
Hann, Chris. 2002. “Farewell to the Socialist ‘Other’.” In Postsocialism: Ideals, Ideologies and Practices in Eurasia, edited by Chris M. Hann, 1–11. London: Routledge.
Hann, Chris. 2003. “The Anthropology of Eurasia in Eurasia.” Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology Working Papers 57: 1–17. http://pendientedemigracion.ucm.es/info/antrosim/docs/HANN2003_Th e_Anthropology_Of_Eurasia_In_Eurasia.pdf
Hann, Chris. 2005a. “Postsocialist Societies.” In A Handbook of Economic Anthropology, edited by James G. Carrier, 547–57. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
Hann, Chris. 2005b. “Correspondence: Reply to Michał Buchowski.” The Anthropology of East Europe Review 23(1): 194–97.
Hann, Chris. 2007. “Anthropology’s Multiple Temporalities and its Future in Central and Eastern Europe.” In Anthropology’s Multiple Temporalities and its Future in Central and Eastern Europe: A Debate. Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology Working Papers 90: 1–11. http://pendientedemigracion.ucm.es/info/antrosim/docs/Hann_et_al_Anthropology_ Multiple_Temporalities_Future_Central_Eastern_Europe_A_Debate.pdf
Hann, Chris. 2012. “Faltering Dialogue: For a Doubly Rooted Cosmopolitan Anthropology.” Focaal 63: 39–50.
Hann, Chris. 2014. “Beyond Cold War, Beyond Otherness: Some Implications of Socialism and Postsocialism for Anthropology.” In Does East Go West? Anthropological Pathways Th rough Postsocialism, edited by Christian Giordano, François Ruegg and Andrea Boscoboinik, 35–56. Berlin: LIT Verlag.
Humphrey, Caroline. 2002. “Does the Category ‘Postsocialist’ Still Make Sense?” In Postsocialism: Ideals, Ideologies and Practices in Eurasia, edited by Chris M. Hann, 12–15. London: Routledge.
Kalb, Don. 2007. “The Path to the Post-Colony: Why Folklore won’t Save Us.” In Anthropology’s Multiple Temporalities and its Future in Central and Eastern Europe: A Debate. Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology Working Papers 90: 22 –28. http://pendientedemigracion.ucm.es/info/antrosim/docs/Hann_et_al_Anthropology_Multiple_Temporalities_Future_Central_Eastern_Europe_A_Debate.pdf
Kideckel, David A. 2014. “Post-socialism as Uncertainty, Uncertainty about Post-socialism.” In Does East Go West? Anthropological Pathways Through Postsocialism, edited by Christian Giordano, François Ruegg and Andrea Boscoboinik, 15–26. Berlin: LIT Verlag.
Kubica, Grażyna. 2002. “In Place of Foreword: ‘Praga Magica’.” In A Post-Communist Millennium: Th e Struggles for Sociocultural Anthropology in Central and Eastern Europe, edited by Peter Skalník, xii–xv. Prague: Set Out.
Kürti, László, and Peter Skalník. 2009. “Introduction: Postsocialist Europe and the Anthropological Perspective from Home.” In Postsocialist Europe: Anthropological Perspectives from Home, edited by László Kürti and Peter Skalník, 1–28. New York: Berghahn Books.
Lévi-Strauss, Claude. 1966. “Anthropology: Its Achievements and Future.” Current Anthropology 7(2): 124–27.
Marcus, George E. 2007. “Collaborative Imaginaries.” Taiwan Journal of Anthropology 5(1): 1–17.
Owczarzak, Jill. 2009. “Introduction: Postcolonial Studies and Postsocialism in Eastern Europe.” Focaal 53: 3–19.
Pine, Frances. 1998. “Dealing with Fragmentation: The Consequences of Privatization for Rural Women in Central and Southern Poland.” In Surviving Post-Socialism: Local Strategies and Regional Responses in Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union, edited by Susan Bridger and Frances Pine, 106–23. London: Routledge.
Pine, Frances. 2000. “Kinship, Gender and Work in Socialist and Post-socialist Rural Poland.” In Gender, Agency and Change: Anthropological Perspectives, edited by Victoria Ana Goddard, 69–81, London: Routledge.
Pine, Frances. 2002. “Retreat to the Household? Gendered Domains in Postsocialist Poland.” In Postsocialism: Ideals, Ideologies and Practices in Eurasia, edited by Chris M. Hann, 95– 113. London: Routledge.
Pobłocki, Kacper. 2009. “Whither Anthropology without Nation-state? Interdisciplinarity, World Anthropologies and Commoditization of Knowledge.” Critique of Anthropology 29(2): 225–52.
Rabinow, Paul. 2003. Anthropos Today: Reflections on Modern Equipment. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Rabinow, Paul, and George E. Marcus, with James D. Faubion, and Tobias Rees. 2008. Designs for an Anthropology of the Contemporary. Durham: Duke University Press.
Restrepo, Eduardo, and Arturo Escobar. 2005. “‘Other Anthropologies and Anthropology Otherwise’: Steps to a World Anthropologies Framework.” Critique of Anthropology 25(2): 99–129.
Rivkin-Fish, Michele. 1999. “Sexuality Education in Russia: Defining Pleasure and Danger for a Fledgling Democratic Society.” Social Science and Medicine 49: 801–14.
Skalník, Peter. 1998. “Comments.” Current Anthropology 39(1): 10–11.
Skalník, Peter. 2014. “Postcommunism Is Here to Stay: An Optimistic Anthropologist’s View.” In Does East Go West? Anthropological Pathways Through Postsocialism, edited by Christian Giordano, François Ruegg and Andrea Boscoboinik, 219–23. Berlin: LIT Verlag.
Skalník, Peter, ed. 2002. A Post-Communist Millennium: The Struggles for Sociocultural Anthropology in Central and Eastern Europe. Prague: Set Out.
Strathern, Marilyn. 2006. “A Community of Critics? Thoughts on New Knowledge.” The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 12(1): 191–209.
Thelen, Tatjana. 2011. “Shortage, Fuzzy Property and Other Dead Ends in the Anthropological Analysis of (Post)Socialism.” Critique of Anthropology 31(1): 43–61.
Valentine, David. 2007. Imagining Transgender: An Ethnography of a Category. Durham: Duke University Press.
Verdery, Katherine. 1996. What Was Socialism, and What Comes Next? Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Verdery, Katherine. 1998. “Comments.” Current Anthropology 39(1): 13–14.
Verdery, Katherine. 2002. “Whither Postsocialism?” In Postsocialism: Ideals, Ideologies and Practices in Eurasia, edited by Chris M. Hann, 15–21. London: Routledge.
Verdery, Katherine. 2007. “‘Franglus’ Anthropology and East European Ethnography: The Prospects for Synthesis.” In Anthropology’s Multiple Temporalities and its Future in Central and Eastern Europe: A Debate. Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology Working Papers 90: 48– 51. http://pendientedemigracion.ucm.es/info/antrosim/docs/Hann_et_al_Anthropology_Multiple_Temporalities_Future_Central_Eastern_Europe_A_Debate.pdf
Verdery, Katherine. 2012. “Cold War Imperialism and After: US Anthropology of Eastern Europe.” Prepared for the Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association. http:// www.wcaanet.org/downloads/AAA2012/Verdery_WCAA_AAA.pdf
Wolfe, Thomas C. 2000. “Cultures and Communities in the Anthropology of Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union.” Annual Review of Anthropology 29: 95–216.
