ETHNOGRAPHY SEMINAR: POSTCOMMUNIST SOCIETIES 758657, 4 ov

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ETHNOGRAPHY SEMINARPOST-COMMUNIST SOCIETIES
(758657, 4 ov)

• Fall 2004

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General information

• Times Wed 12-14
• Location Unioninkatu 40, ls 14
• Email toomas.gross_at_helsinki.fi
• Phone [phone]
• Office Hours Thurs 12-14, E309

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Topics and aims

• Topics
• collective memory
• ethnic violence
• social stratification
• networks
• mafia
• center-periphery relations
• minorities
• politics of gender
• Aims
• how people cope with / adapt to / resist
  transition
• Ethnographic focus
• mainly Russia and Eastern Europe
• less on Central Asia and the Caucasus

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Format

• 3 lectures
• in English
• 8 lecture-seminars
• a general theme
• focus on one or two ethnographic cases
• a short lecture student discussions videos
• in English or in Finnish
• Lecture materials
• at http//www.helsinki.fi/antropologia/opetus.htm
  
• by 11 a.m.

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Course requirements

• 8 reflection papers
• 1 research paper
• active participation in seminar discussions
• Participation
• not mandatory
• additional paper if miss more than two classes
• topic and length to be negotiated

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"Reflection papers"

• Concise summaries of your thoughts
• Based on seminar readings
• authors main arguments
• their strong and weak points
• Comparison of the authors approaches.
• For classes 4-11
• Short (max 700 words, 1-2 pages)
• Not an essay
• May be hand-written
• in English or in Finnish
• Submission
• after the seminar
• By 12 at toomas.gross_at_helsinki.fi if missing the
  seminar
• Late submission not accepted
• 1-2 presentations (max 5 minutes) in each seminar

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Research paper

• A longer essay
• 8-10 pages, max 3000 words
• focus on a particular problem or a set of issues
• In certain (or comparative) ethnographic setting
• at least four bibliographical sources
• Suggested literature
• at http//www.helsinki.fi/antropologia/opetus.htm
• in English or in Finnish
• Topic
• to be decided by 10 November
• e.g. mafia, ethnic violence, networks
• Submission
• by midnight of 15 December at toomas.gross_at_helsink
  i.fi
• late submission penalties
• - 10 / 20 / 25.

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Seminar discussions

• Based on
• assigned readings
• reflection papers
• 1-2 short presentations (max 5 minutes)
• In smaller groups

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Evaluation

• Total grade comprised of the following
• Research paper - 40
• Reflection papers - 40 (8 x 5)
• Participation - 20
• attendance and contribution to discussion

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Texts and reading materials

• Required readings
• listed in the seminar schedule
• 2-3 for each seminar
• mainly articles or chapters from edited volumes
• not all are "anthropological"
• master copies by D112 at Unioninkatu 38
• EBSCO database articles marked with an asterisk
  ()
• Suggested literature for research paper.
• at http//www.helsinki.fi/antropologia/opetus.htm
• not an exclusive list
• Background literature
• general readers and discussions

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1. Introduction to the seminar (22.9)

• No reading assignment

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2. Theorizing transition in post-communist
societies (29.9)

• Key words
• transition, social change, communism,
  post-communism
• Readings
• Nazpary, Joma 2002. Bardak Elements of Chaos (Ch
  3). In Post-Soviet Chaos Violence and
  Dispossession in Kazakhstan. London Pluto.
• Verdery, Katherine 1996. What Was Socialism and
  Why Did It Fall? In What was Socialism, and What
  Comes Next? Princeton, N.J. Princeton University
  Press.

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3. Anthropology in communist and post-communist
context (6.10)

• Key words
• Katherine Verdery, Chris Hann, Caroline Humphrey
  etc.
• Readings
• Hann, Chris 1994. After Communism Reflections on
  East European Anthropology and the Transition.
  Social Anthropology, Vol. 2, No. 3, pp. 229-249.
• Wolfe, Thomas C. 2000. Cultures and Communities
  in the Anthropology of Eastern Europe and the
  Former Soviet Union. Annual Review of
  Anthropology, Vol. 29, pp. 195-216

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4. Politics of collective memory (13.10)

• Key words
• collective memory, collective amnesia, oral
  history, nationalism, Eastern Germany, Lithuania
• Readings
• Berdahl, Daphne 1999. '(N)Ostalgie' for the
  Present Memory, Longing, and East German Things.
  Ethnos, Vol. 64, pp.192-211.
• Klumbyte, Neringa 2003. Ethnographic Note on
  Nation Narratives and Symbols of the Early
  Post-Socialist Nationalism in Lithuania.
  Dialectical Anthropology 27 279-295.

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5. Ethnic violence (20.10)

• Key words
• ethnicity, ethnic groups, religion, violence,
  war, (ex-)Yugoslavia, Bosnia-Herzegovina
• Readings
• Bax, Mart 2000. Planned Policy or Primitive
  Balkanism? A Local Contribution to the
  Ethnography of the War in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
  Ethnos, Vol. 653, pp. 317-340.
• Hammel, E. A. 2000. Lessons from the Yugoslav
  Labyrinth. In Halpern, Joel M. and David A.
  Kideckel (eds). Neighbors at War Anthropological
  Perspectives on Yugoslav Ethnicity, Culture, and
  History. Pennsylvania Pennsylvania State
  University Press.

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6. Center-periphery relations (27.10)

• Key words
• periphery, center, state, violence, war,
  Chechnya, Russia
• Readings
• Remnick, David 1998. Yeltsin's Vietnam. In
  Resurrection The Struggle for a New Russia. New
  York Vintage Books.
• Service, Robert 2002. Bloodbath in Chechnya. In
  Russia Experiment with a People. London
  Macmillan.
• Video
• War in Chechnya

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7. Social stratification (3.11)

• Key words
• elites, new rich, consumption, poverty, survival
  strategies, Russia, Ukraine, Romania, Hungary
• Readings
• Balzer, Harley 2003. Routinization of the New
  Russians? The Russian Review 63, pp. 15-36.
• Sampson, Steven L. 1994. Money Without Culture,
  Culture Without Money. Eastern Europe's Nouveaux
  Riches. Anthropological Journal on European
  Cultures, Vol. 3, No. 1, p.7-29.
• Walker, Michael 1998. Survival Strategies in an
  Industrial Town in East Ukraine. In Bridger, Sue,
  and Frances Pine (eds). Surviving Post-Socialism
  Local Strategies and Regional Responses in
  Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union.
  London Routledge.

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8. Networks (10.11)

• Key words
• networks, blat, economies of shortage, gifts,
  informal economy, corruption, Russia, Kazakhstan
• Readings
• Ledeneva, Alena 1998. Networking in the
  Post-Soviet Period (Ch 6). In Russia's Economy of
  Favours Blat, Networking and Informal Exchange.
  Cambridge Cambridge University Press.
• Nazpary, Joma 2002. Networking as a Response to
  Chaos (Ch 4). In Post-Soviet Chaos Violence and
  Dispossession in Kazakhstan. London Pluto.

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9. Mafia (17.11)

• Key words
• mafia, crime, violence, corruption, Russia
• Readings
• Humphrey, Caroline 1991. 'Icebergs', Barter, and
  the Mafia in Provincial Russia. Anthropology
  Today. Vol. 7, No. 2, pp. 8-13.
• Varese, Federico 2001. The Mafia in Perm (Ch 6).
  In The Russian Mafia Private Protection in a New
  Market Economy. Oxford Oxford University Press

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10. Politics of gender (24.11)

• Key words
• gender roles, women, feminism, stereotypes,
  religion, culture, media, Russia, Central Asia,
  Czech Republic
• Readings
• Akiner, Shirin 1997. Between Tradition and
  Modernity The Dilemma Facing Contemporary
  Central Asian Women. In Buckley, Mary (ed.)
  Post-Soviet Women From the Baltic to Central
  Asia. New York Cambridge University Press.
• Kay, Rebecca 1997. Images of an Ideal Woman
  Percpetion of Russian Womanhood through the
  Media, Education and Women's Own Eyes. In
  Buckley, Mary (ed.) Post-Soviet Women From the
  Baltic to Central Asia. Cambridge Cambridge
  University Press.
• Occhipinti, Laurie 1996. Two Steps Back?
  Anti-Feminism in Eastern Europe. Anthropology
  Today, Vol. 12, No 6.
• Video
• Noble Virgins

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11. Indigenous groups (1.12)

• Key words
• indigenous groups, identity, ethnicity, survival
  strategies, assimilation, land, language,
  culture, Siberia
• Readings
• Bartels, Dennis and Alice L. Bartels 1998.
  Soviet Hegemony among Northern Peoples.
  Dialectical Anthropology 23 337-359.
• Grant, Bruce 1995. Nivkhi, Russians, and Others
  The Politics of Indigenism on Sakhalin Island. In
  S. Kotkin and D. Wolff (eds) Rediscovering Russia
  in Asia Siberia and the Russian Far East.
  Armonk, NY M.E. Sharpe.
• Vitebsky, Piers 2002. Withdrawing from the Land
  Social and Spiritual Crisis in the Indigenous
  Russian Arctic. In Hann, Chris (ed.)
  Postsocialism Ideals, Ideologies and Practices
  in Eurasia. London Routledge.

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Deadlines and grades

• Reflection papers
• Seminar day
• Research paper
• 10.11 - Topic submission
• 15.12 - Paper submission
• Grades and feedback
• 22.12

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Muslims

• Azerbaijan 93
• Turkmenistan 89
• Uzbekistan - 88
• Tajikistan - 85
• Kyrgyzstan 75
• Albania - 70
• Kazakhstan - 47
• Bosnia and Herzegovina 40

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Catholics

• Poland 95
• Croatia 88
• Slovenia - 71
• Slovakia 60
• Hungary 68
• Czech Republic - 39
• Lithuania - ?

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Orthodox Christians

• Moldova 98
• Armenia 94
• Romania 87
• Bulgaria - 83
• Belarus 80
• Macedonia - 70
• Serbia and Montenegro - 65
• Georgia - 65
• Ukraine - 47
• Russia - ?

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Protestants

• Estonia
• Latvia
• Eastern Gemany
• Finland - 89

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