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Let's Twist Again
  • Language: en
  • Pages: 264

Let's Twist Again

This book explores the lives of young Bulgarians in the Cold War era when the Communist Party saw dance hits like "The Twist" as a menace to youth and society. It investigates the Party's efforts to shape youth into "socialist personalities" and to create a socialist mass culture in the face of "Westernization". On the basis of biographical interviews, the book takes a critical look at the popular view of youth enthusiasm for Western rock and lifestyles as resistance. Young Bulgarians scarcely challenged the socialist order. But at the same time, the Party failed to impose its notion of conformity on the self-proclaimed "Beatles generation".

Family, Sex, and Faith
  • Language: en
  • Pages: 282

Family, Sex, and Faith

Family, Sex, and Faith is the first systematic examination of what the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) teaches and how believers respond to its messages regarding issues such as marriage, divorce, contraception, abortion, husband-wife relations, and LGBTQIA+ rights. According to Pål Kolstø, for the ROC, the ethics of private life involve what Michel Foucault called "biopolitics": the state regulates the sex lives of its citizens to control the development of the population. Family, Sex, and Faith offers a systematic analysis of aspects of the moral theology of the ROC, discussing the means and strategies it employs to achieve its goals, to counter resistance, and to emerge victorious from the battles in which it is embroiled. Although the constitution defines Russia as a secular state, the ROC has achieved a privileged position in society, functioning as a major provider of ideology and legitimacy for the Putin regime.

Orthodox Revivalism in Russia
  • Language: en
  • Pages: 203

Orthodox Revivalism in Russia

  • Type: Book
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  • Published: 2020-10-12
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  • Publisher: Routledge

Orthodoxy has achieved a large scale revival in Russia following the collapse of Communism. However, paradoxically, although there is a high level of identification with Orthodoxy, there is in fact a low level of church attendance. This book, based on in depth ethnographic fieldwork, explores the social background and moral attitudes of the "little flock" of believers who actively participate in religious life. It reveals that the complex moral beliefs of the faithful have a disproportionately high impact on Russian society overall; that among the faithful there is a strong emphasis on striving for personal perfection; but that also there are strong collective ideas concerning religious nationalism and the synergy between the secular and the religious.

Interculturalism and Discrimination in Romania
  • Language: en
  • Pages: 348

Interculturalism and Discrimination in Romania

This volume presents research on intercultural relations in South-Eastern Europe, including the way they are imagined and managed in different social and historical contexts. After an introductory critique of the concepts of interculturalism and citizenship, the situation in Romania is investigated. The second part deals with a series of in-depth comparative studies, namely on the Roma minorities in Romania and Bulgaria. But it also considers the case of the Pomaks in Bulgaria, of Russians living in parallel societies in the Baltic States and the recent evolution of interculturalism in the region.

Emotions, Senses and Affects in the Context of Southeast Europe
  • Language: en
  • Pages: 280

Emotions, Senses and Affects in the Context of Southeast Europe

  • Type: Book
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  • Published: 2020-01-07
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  • Publisher: LIT Verlag

The papers in this volume continue our focus on emotions of people in Southeast Europe. Grief and sadness are, of course, universal, but they take on different forms of expression. Strong emotional values are often attached to specific foods (e.g. the kurban), usually food is of great importance for labour migrants and in times of crisis. Likewise, dress can be of great emotional significance and value. Wars as well as communist collectivization often lead to emotional consequences such as trauma. Smells and tastes can become expressions of actual or remembered emotions, a fact that can also concern the researchers themselves. Klaus Roth is professor em. at the Institute for European Ethnology of Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich. Milena Benovska is professor em. of the Dept. of Ethnology and Balkan Studies of the South-West University of Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria. Ana Luleva is Assoc. Prof. at the Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Studies of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences in Sofia.

A Companion to Folklore
  • Language: en
  • Pages: 690

A Companion to Folklore

A Companion to Folklore contains an original and comprehensive set of essays from international experts in the field of folklore studies. This state-of-the-art collection uniquely displays the vitality of folklore research across the globe. The Companion covers four main areas: the first section engages with the practices and theoretical approaches developed to understand the phenomena of folklore; the second discusses the distinctive shapes that folklore studies have taken in different locations in time and space; the third examines the interaction of folklore with various media, as well as folklore’s commoditization. In the final section on practice, essays offer insights into how folklo...

Studying Peoples in the People's Democracies
  • Language: en
  • Pages: 467

Studying Peoples in the People's Democracies

Bulgaria and Serbia during socialism are outlined from many different points of view in this volume. Beyond local and personal trajectories the authors illuminate more general and comparative questions. Was there anything like a "socialist anthropology", common to all three countries? Did Soviet and/or Marxist influences, in the discipline and in society in general, penetrate so deeply as to form an unavoidable common denominator of anthropological practice? The answers turn out to be complex and subtle. While unifying ideological forces were very strong in the 1950s, diversity increased thereafter. Anthropology was entangled with national ideology in all three countries, but the evidence nonetheless calls for "polyphonic" interpretations.

Diaspora as a Resource
  • Language: en
  • Pages: 308

Diaspora as a Resource

Diasporas are nodes of cultural exchange, connecting different systems of values, beliefs, and social organization. Throughout history and the present, diasporas have provided important contributions to economies, politics, and culture, both for the home countries and for societies of residence. This book contains case studies from different disciplines, exploring diaspora as a resource, both on collective and on individual levels. Common themes are the structure and use of diaspora networks, as well as relations between different diasporas, ranging from co-existence to competition or strategic co-operation, and the complex interdependence between diaspora and urbanity. (Series: Freiburg Studies in Social Anthropology / Freiburger Sozialanthropologische Studien / Etudes d'Anthropologie Sociale de l'Universite de Fribourg - Vol. 36)

Southeast European (Post)Modernities. Part 2
  • Language: en
  • Pages: 376

Southeast European (Post)Modernities. Part 2

In southeast Europe, more than 20 years of rapid change under the combined impact of transformation, globalization, and EU integration have deeply affected the structures of everyday life and have produced a variety of (post-)modern lifestyles. This book's contributions focus on the changing practices and patterns of everyday life. The concepts of multiple modernities and post-modernity appear to be particularly appropriate for a region in which everyday life is marked by often sharp contrasts: the coexistence of modern and traditional labor relations and legal concepts * the return to traditional religions and the adherence to new religious forms * the enthusiasm for modern communication technologies * the reliance on national identification. Understanding these paths to (post-)modernity is relevant for those generally interested in processes of socio-cultural change, but particularly for those interested in the Balkans. (Series: Ethnologia Balkanica - Vol. 16)

Roma Pentecostals Narrating Identity, Trauma, and Renewal in Croatia and Serbia
  • Language: en
  • Pages: 262

Roma Pentecostals Narrating Identity, Trauma, and Renewal in Croatia and Serbia

  • Type: Book
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  • Published: 2022-10-17
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  • Publisher: BRILL

Stories of Pentecostal conversion and church growth in Roma communities are prolific across Europe but how does conversion impact daily lives in the context of economic hardship and social marginalization? In fact, Roma Pentecostal life stories from Croatia and Serbia reveal both resilience and suffering, and consequently reveal the struggle of lived faith amidst formidable challenges. In what ways, then, has a new Pentecostal identity shifted relationships, thinking, and behaviour? This ethnography explores the ways in which these Roma Pentecostals incorporate their faith in their daily lives through analysing their life stories in conjunction with their socio-cultural contexts and Pentecostal theology.