EAST EUROPEAN ANTHROPOLOGY GROUP

From the Editor

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Anthropological Struggle in Eastern Europe:
A Commentary

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Contemporary Czech Ethnography:
Theory, Practice, Emphases

Zdenek Salzmann has contributed this, the first of what me hope will be a series on contemporary anthropology of the East European nations.

Let me first define the topic of this report with greater precision than the title permits. I am concerning myself! here with Czech ethnography that is, a discipline as it is represented by the publications of ethnographers in the Czech Socialist Republic (Bohemia and Moravia). I am not concerned with writings of Czech ethnographers residing and working outside their native country and I have excluded Slovak ethnographic scholarship which, though closely related, would merit a separate study.

The Term "ethnography" itself, as it is employed in the context of Czech scholarship, calls for a comment. According to the authoritative Ilustrovaný encyklopedický slovník (Vol. I: A-I EPrague, 1980]), published by the Encyclopedic Institute of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, the term národopis and its synonym etnozrafie refer to "culture-historical science that deals with the material and spiritual culture of nations, nationalities, ethnic groups, and the like", studies the evolution and function of dwellings, dress, subsistence, commercial exchange, tools, weapons, and social institutions, Land] concerns itself with the collecting, description, comparison, and evaluation of both partial and general expressions of human culture" (p. 607).

Etnografie is terminologically distinct from folkloristika [folkloristics, folklore studies], whose aim, according to the same source, is to examine the manner in which "collective consciousness is reflected in individual kinds and genres of folklore," be they oral traditions, rituals, folk theater, folk songs and music, folk dance, or the like. Nevertheless, for the Czechs the two fields are very closely related. This linkage is clearly evident from the identical designation of the two major centers of Czech ethnographic research- the Institute for Ethnography and Folkloristics of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences and the corresponding department [Ratedra] of 3thnography-and Folkloristics of the ancient and best-known Czechoslovak university, The Caroline University [Karlova univerzita] in Prague.

The Institute for Ethnography and Forkloristics publishes the Journal Ceský lid, currently in its seventieth volume (1983), which by virtue of its sponsorship is the premier Czech Journal in the field.

Because all scholarly activities in socialist Czechoslovakia must be institutionally sponsored and approved, they are highly centralized, and this is true in full measure also of Czech ethnography and folklore studies. It therefore does not come as a surprise that the functions of the director of the Institute, head of the university department, and editor in chief of Ceský lid all rest on the same individual, Dr. Antonfn Robek, a trusted and highly positioned member of the Communist party who for some years now has been the virtual czar of Czech ethnography and folklore studies.

Although Robek's professional career as an ethnographer dates back to 1951, when as a young student of twenty he translated from the Russian S. P. Tolstov's articlc flFundamental tasks and paths in the evolution of Soviet ethnography," his rise to administrative and ideological eminence did not occur until after the political events of 1968. Untainted by the spirit of liberalization that characterized the latter half of the 1960s and culminated in the "Prague Spring," he was entrusted with what was euphemistically referred to as "normalization" of Czech ethnographic and folkloristic scholarship. This was accomplished by a succession of personnel changes - for example, by his assuming effective control of the Journal Ceský lid, as of the final 1972 issue, through replacement of an editorial board of seasoned ethnographers with a relatively inexperienced colleague (several years later he took over the duties of editor himself).

The scope of Czech ethnography and folkloristic research can be gleaned from the latest comprehensive bibliography, covering the year of 1975 (Vera Trkovska Lcu-H.], Ceská národopisná bibliografie 1975 [Prague, 1977]). The work contains 626 entries, and although some of them refer to publications omitted from bibliographies for the previous several years, eventual addenda for 1975 should roughly compensate for the additional references. The arrangement of the bibligraphies provides us with a ready if somewhat mechanical guide to the topical interests of Czech ethnographers and folklorists. The largest number of contributions is in the area of ethnography and folklore of cities and industrial regions (54), followed by folk prose (46), folk architecture and conservationist concerns (43), and customs, superstitions, and folk medicine (26). Remarkable is the relative paucity of publications dealing with social relations (6).

In general there is emphasis on material culture, the urban and industrial scene, and folklore in its various manifestations, but a glaring gap in what in the United States is referred to as "social anthropology." In this respect, however, Czech ethnography is not unlike the ethnography of other European countries, excepting only Great Britain and France.

In contrast to the United States, where virtually all projects in sociocultural anthropology and folklore are chosen and carried out on an individual basis, Czech ethnographers and folklorists, especially those employed by the Institute, are primarily engaged in collective, or team, research enterprises. The most important projects of the last decade have centered on the ethnographic study of the working class (thus far 9 wolumes in a series published by the Institute), the period of Czech National Revival (5 volmes), and the socialist transformation of the rural sector (2 volumes).

There is one other subject that in recent years has been receiving special attention, especially on the pages of Ceský lid- the new settlers in communities of the border regions from which the former Sudeten German inhabitants were expelled immediately after World War II. The problems of readjustment that these new settlers experienced are particularly interesting in the case of Czechs repatriated from countries to which they had emigrated more than a century ago, especially Volhynia and the Banat, which today are in the Soviet Un$on and Rosania.

In addition to the definite shift in concentration from survivals to topics more consonant with Marxist conception of what ethnography ought to deal with, there is a strong bias in favor of historical rather than synchronic studies. Among the twenty or so articles by Czech ethnographera published in Ceský lid in 1981, ninety percent are historically oriented, ranging in tine from the Thirty Years' War (1618-48) to the end of World War II.

There are several reasons for the neglect of the contemporary scene. Recent studies of the peasantry and the proletariat, covering the era of AustriaHungary and the First Republic (1918-1938), generally strive to show the economic hardships with which the large majority of the working class had to cope. In one of the "editorials" with which Robek introduces the contents of each issue of Ceský lid, he takes up the subject under the title "Existential certainties of the socialist way of life" (my translation; Ceský lid 69:129 130 [l982]). Robek's contention is that "in his study of the past of villages and cities, the ethnographer frequently encounters to his surprise materials that give evidence of the fact that the old capitalist society offered practically no existential certainties.... Ethnographic and folkloric materials depict the wretched situation of old people--for example, retired peasants, deplorable relations between social groups and classes, Land] fear of diseases and other social and natural catastrophes." in the study of the contemporary socialist village," Robek continues, "one obviously does not meet with these phenomena. full employment, occasionally even a palpable shortage of labor force, tends to obliterate the memory of those phenomena of the past, which the socialist society has done away with."

Now there is little doubt that members of the former lower socioeconomic classes have been faring better under socialism, but to suggest that their situation could not bear further improvement is far from justified. The best evidence for this assertion is the multitude of jokes that constantly circulate among Czechs of all stripes and offer an incisive, if sub-rosa, commentary on the political and economic shortcomings of their present condition. Jokes of this kind unquestionably constitute legitimate folkloric material, but anyone who might wish to collect and analyze them would be engaged in treasonable activity. The preoccupation with the past on the part of ethnographers and folklarists thus parallels a similar trend found in the works of other social scientists as well as novelists who, apprehensive of frank assessment of the present, escape from it by choosing their topics from the presocialist past.

One of the departments in the Institute for ethnography and Folkloristics in Prague is charged with research concerning the socialist village. Whereas studies of villages and the peasantry by prewar ethnographers were characterized by concentration on the traditional features of village life and for the moat part neglected the social dynamics of rural communities, the contemporary Marxist approach calls for the rigorous application of the "basic methodological principles of Marxist-Leninist philosophy, including the materialist conception of society, historicism, and the recognition of the complex nature of the social system of any human collectivity" (Ceský lid 68:43 L19813)

It may now be of interest to offer an illustration of how the ethnographic study of the lifeway and culture of the Czech village during the period of building a developed socialist society is conceptualized by the research team of the Institute's Department of the Socialist Village. According to a fairly detailed outline of an ongoing research project (Ceský lid 68:43-50 C1981]), the main goal is to identify empirically both general and specific features that characterize the formation O! socialist lifeway in Czech villages, to elucidate those factors that play a significant part in the transformation, and to provide the administrative authorities rídící orgány] with basic data concerning the process. The communities already chosen for the study and those yet to be selected (as of 1981) must include both villages that are ethnically homogeneous and heterogeneous, located in the interior as well as the border regions, and in other ways representative of the demographic, economic, and sociocultural structure of the Bohemian rural sector.

Because in its development socialism inevitably confronts the lifeways of the past, it is necessary to establish first a data baseline for the Presocialist era, against which the nature of post-19L8 changes can be assessed. Gathering of data makes use of the standard methods applicable to research concerned with culture change: examination of documentary sources of every kind, from minutes of meetings to newspapers to family chronicles; structured interviews to elicit objective information as well as subjective views concerning a given topic; direct observation supplemented, whenever possible or appropriate, by sound recordings, photographs, or film; and questionnaires. Given the proposed scope of the field research, the work is to extend over a period of several years, possibly as long as a decade, and to take the form of short-term periodic visits to the villages under study.

The project has been divided among the team members into the following subject areas: (1) the village as a residential environment and the housing standards of the villagers during the period of building socialism; (2) social life in the village during the period of building socialism and the role of tradition; (3) the role of the family and nature of family life in the village during the period of building socialism; (4) family and family life in ethnically heterogeneous localities; (5) intergenerational family relations in ethnically heterogeneous localities; and (6) nonprofessional expressions of oral traditions (folklore). Each of these subject areas is assigned to one particular member of the research team, but care is taken that team members consult each other periodically lest their individual research contributions become disconnected from one another.

The results of the field research, already in print or to be published in the form of papers dealing with individual topics as they relate to specific communities or regions, will eventually serve as the basis for regional and topical monographs. Not until these have been completed can one expect a synthetic work that would provide a comprehensive account of the various aspects of the socialist transformation of Czech villages that the Institutes Department of the Socialist Village is currently studying.

Several comments come to mind as one examines the approach the Institute has taken to this major research undertaking.

One of the stated goals, namely, to provide the administrative organs with data concerning the process of socialization, suggests that the research findings may well be used in part as a basis for directed culture change (applied anthropology) by the ultimate sponsor of the research - the state. This admission takes on special significance when one considers the following statement made in the discussion of methodology: "One of the problems that arises as one conducts Field] observations is the undesirability of interfering with the process being studied. To avoid this, it is appropriate to make use of concealed [utajené] observation which, if one studies a village age in depth, can be carried out only in the initial phases of the research. In cases involving certain complex questions, the effects of observation can be mitigated by falsifying the actual research goals [navozením fiktivního cíle výzkumu]" (p. 46). The suggested procedure is in conflict on several counts with the standards o! professional ethics developed by the American Anthropological Association to guide field-workers in this country. One also notes the lack of explicit interest in the larger socioeconomic context in which a great many members of village communities today function: with agricultural work becoming highly mechanized, more and more villagers have been freed to accept industrial employment in nearby towns to which they commute on a daily or weeklies basis. Clearly. the once sharp: dichotomy between the rural and urban sectors has been effectively bridged, and the consequences cannot but be strongly felt in both material and sociocultural aspects of village life; yet, this important effect of socialist transformation is neglected in the fairly detailed-research plan, which among the objectives of its study singles out room Furnishings and sports activities.

Just as in the other social sciences, theory in Czech ethnography has taken a sharp turn since World War II. The darkest years in the discipline's postwar development were unquestionably those of the Stalinist period in the early 1950s, which produced its share of sycophantic articles and books. Modern Soviet ethnography was characterized as "having outdistanced, in its development, all ethnographic schools of the whole world, taking as its fundamental point of departure the brilliant thought of J. V. Stalin- that 'every nation, whether large or small, has its qualitative particularities, its specific features, which belong only to it and which other nations do not possess"' (Otakar Nahodil and Jaroslar Kramarik: J. V. Stalin a národopisná veda [Praha, 1952], p. 9). "Ethnographic work," the authors continue, "that is guided by this thought cannot but follow the correct and progressive path in complete contradistinction to any harmful bourgeois tendencies of nationalistic and cosmopolitan character" (p. 10). As for the other side of the coin, "Antihumane and unscientific goals that 'Western bourgeois ethnography set for itself mean that bourgeois ethnography as a science has for all practical purposes been liquidated" (ibid., p. 95; incidentally, one of the authors of these statements has since chosen to make his home in Western Europe).

While these and similar pronouncements were the exception rather than the rule. they were made by ethnographers who came to wield considerable influence in the discipline, and if they were meant to bludgeon serious scholarship, they had a measure of success, at least for a time. The situation has long since stabilized, especially after the relatively bloodless purge following the "crisis situation" of 1968, which did not affect Czech ethnography to any significant extent. Apart from the programmatic exhortations of those whose task it is to keep Czech ethnographers on the correct ideological track, published research has been on the whole quite solid, though markedly lacking in methodological or theoretical innovation. Historically oriented, as it is supposed to be, the present Czech ethnography, together with the other social sciences, maintains its focus on subjects reflecting the new socioeconomic order and orientation--especially the proletariat as the bearer of the most progressive characteristics of cultural and social life, the process of the formation of an emancipated working class, and the nature of socialist transformation of the Bohemian countryside.

These are without question topics worthy of attention; what is to be regretted is that they are offered in a marketplace of ideas where the consumer has but one line to choose from.

Zdenek Salzmann
University of Massachusetts, Amherst

Teaching East European Anthropology

Katherine Verdery (Johns Hopkins University) shares her ideas for teaching a course in East European Anthropology. following her introduction and annotations written specifically for newsletter readers, we reproduce her syllabus in its entirety. We hope this is the first in a series on the subject. If you teach such a course, send us your ideas and syllabi. If-you don't teach such a course, shy don't you?

The course is designed to start students off with a fairly sympathetic view of the real problems faced in socialist transformation (i.e., Ferge -- supposedly but not actually available in paperback, it turns out). It then goes through a number of topics designed to raise obstacles to socialist "ideals," to present actual processes and variations in these, and to show attempted solutions to real-life dilemmas faced by the regimes and/or their citizens. It turns finally to assessing various forms of resistance or negative evaluation, asking how these vary in form and content for different social groups why we seize upon some forms more than others, etc., and emphasizing that much dissent comes from those who would not overthrow socialism far capitalism but would rather improve it as socialism. Throughout, I argue against the categories in terms of which Americans view socialist countries -- my first assignment juxtaposes propaganda pieces from Time and the Romanian press. Given the sorts of things my students are so far offering as views, I think combating this is the first duty of the course, more than any coherent "organizing scheme" beyond an attempt to move toward a sympathetic and informed critique, from initial presentations of socialism's attractiveness as an idea.

A couple of remarks on the specific content of a few assignments. In the week on "family ties etc., I aim partly to show how problems in the official distribution system are variably mediated, depending on the degree of private agriculture, by rural-urban kin ties and movements, and I will also use these ties and movements to talk about cross-class relations and bases for solidarity. I will then pivot the discussion around, on the rural-urban-movement theme, to talking about the "double burden" of women and problems in reproducing the labor force. The discussion of "cultural homogenization" takes several realms in which state policy is clearly aimed to create new kinds of public response~ new "silences" and new foci of attention, via appropriating folklore, censorship, minorities policies, etc.; two weeks later I take up the popular view of many of these things,

With Haraszti's book, my first aim is to get students to figure out what's wrong with it: why Haraszti is a bad informant, and why his kind of factory is nonrepresentative. Then I'll pick up the shreds that are worth keeping (work slowdowns, etc.). You will note that I have not used the only English-language anthropology book on Hungary (C. M. Hann)- the main reasons are that students mostly didn't follow it in a different course in which I used it, and I have too much on Hungary as it is. There are many reference works I am consulting to prepare lectures but have not included in the course bibliography. I will try to complete this longer bibliography for a later Newsletter.

Katherine Verdery
Johns Hopkins University

7.335 Comparative Socialist Societies

This is an exploratory course designed to investigate a range of issues concerning East European socialist countries. The course has several objectives; the most important are to emphasize the countries' differences from one another, to relate both the differences and some of the problems of socialism's "working" to facts of varying political and economic histories, to present the issues ant problems as much as possible from the point of view of East Europeans rather than of Western analysts, and to insist on a close investigation of actual social processes, rather than mere outlines of structure, as the basis for assessing how these societies run. The special contribution of anthropology, even though relatively little of it has been done in Eastern Europe, is especially evident for the last of these points.

Literature of the sort I wish to emphasize is very unevenly distributed, for English-speaking readers. To my knowledge, there is little for Albania, Bulgaria, and East Germany; only modest amounts for Czechoslovakia; more for some aspects of Jugoslav and Polish society; and by far the most for Romania and Hungary (Hungarians themselves having produced much of the most useful and interesting work). To avoid overlap with other courses in the University and from limitations of my competence, I make only restricted use of material from the Soviet Union and include none from other socialist societies (China, Cuba, etc.).

Assignments

Attached is an outline of topics to be covered, a list of assignments, and a reference bibliography. Changes may be made in the assignments at any time: it is your responsibility to keep track of any such changes. Since many of the assigned items are available in only one copy in the Reserve Room, I urge you to begin reading well in advance of each week's class session. (This course will, if nothing else, expose you to the difficulties of working within economies of shortage like the East European economies!)

The following books have been ordered for the bookstore. Not all of them will be read in their entirety, but purchasing them will make life easier for you. The ones to be read more or less in--full are starred.

• Ferge, Zsuzsa 1979 A society in the making: Hungarian social and societal policy 1945-75.
• Haraszti, Miklós 1977 A worker in a worker's state. Okey, Robin 1982 Eastern Europe: feudalism to communism.
• Sweezy, Paul, and Charles Bettelheim 1971 On the transition to socialism.

Requirements

The course will be run as a combination of lecture and discussion sessions. Please come to class regularly, with assignments completed. I will give an occasional unannounced quiz, two short paper assignments on specific readings, and a final take-home exam. There will be no senior option for the final exam. Your grade will be based on all of these, including your participation in discussions.

Reference Bibliography for Assignments

• Abonyi, A. 1982 Dependent development: a socialist variant. MS.
• Bahro, Rudolf 1978 The alternative in Eastern Europe. London: Verso.
• Berend, Ivan T. 1980 Hungary's road to the seventies. Acta Oeconomica 25: 1-17.
• Binns, C. A. P. 1979-80 The changing face of power: revolution and necommodation in the development of the Soviet ceremonial system. Man 14: 585-606, 15: 170-i87.
• Cernea, Michael 1975 The large-scale organization and the family primary group. J. of Marriage and the Family 927-936. 1978 Macrosocial change, feminization of agriculture, and peasant women's threefold economic role. Sociologia Ruralis 18: 107-124.
• Cole, John W. 1979 Patterns of daily life in Southeastern Europe. MS.
• Djilas, Milovan 1957 The new class: an analysis of the co ~ lnsst system. NY: Prneger.
• Doder, Dusko 1978 The Yugnslavs. NY: Vintage.
• Fallenbuchl, Zbigniew 1982 The interaction of development strategy and economic system as a source of periodic socio-economic crises in Poland. MS.
• Ferge, Zsuzsa 1979 A society in the making: Hungarian social and societal policy 1945-1975. Baltimore: Penguin.
• Feuer, Lewis S. 1959 Marx and Engels: basic writings on politics and philosophy. NY: Doubleday.
• Gregory, Paul R., and Robert C. Stuart 1980 Comparative economic systems. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
• Haraszti, MiRlos 1978 A worker in a worker's state. NY: Universe Books.
• Hauser, Ewa 1977 MultivocaIity of the May Day parade message. MS.
• Hollos, Marida 1982 Ideology and economics:cooperative organization and attitudes toward collectivization in two Hungarian communes. Dialectical Anthro. 7 (2): 165-183.
• Hungarian Short Stories 1979 from 44 Hungarian short stories. Budapest: Corvina. Interview with Andras Hegedus 1981 In Telos 47: 132-137.
• Kenedi, Janos 1982 Do it yourself: Hungary's hidden economy. NY: Pluto Press.
• Kligman, Gail 1982 Poetry and politics in a Transylvanian village. MS.
• Konrad, Gyorgy, and Ivan Szelenyi 1977 Social conflicts of underurbanization. InCaptive cities, ed. Michael Harloe, pp. 157-173. London: John Wiley.
• Kott, Jan 1978 Controlling the writing on the wall. New York Review of Books 25 (13) 16-18 ( August 17).
• Kuron, Jacek, and Karol Modzetewski 1968 Revolutionary Marxist students in Poland speak out. Merit Publishers.
• Lifshitz-Losev, Lev 1978 What it means to be censored. New York Review-of Books 25 (11): 43-50 (June 29) .
• Lockwood, William G. 1976 The peasant-worker in Yugoslavia. In The social structure of Eastern Europe, ed. Bernard Faber, pp. 281-300. NY:Praeger.
• Long, Tom 1981 On the class nature of Soviet-type societies: two perspectives from Eastern Europe. (Review of Bahro, and Konrad and Szelenyi). Berkeley Journal of Sociology 26: 157-188.
• Marrant, Joel 1975 A contextual view of Romanian fol kl ore. MS.
• Marx, Karl, and Friedrich Engels 1848 The communist mP^ifesto.
• Nagengast, birian Csrole 1982 Polish peasants and the state. Dialectical Anthropolo&y 7(1): 47-66.
• Norgaard, Ole, and Steven Sampson 1982 Poland's crisis and East European socialism: structural, specific, and conJunctural implications. MS.
• Nyiri, Karoly 1982 Toward an integrated international division of labor: the place of the world socialist economy. Review 6(1):15-24.
• Okey, Robin 1982 Eastern Europe 1740-1980: feudalism to co ~ rnism. U. of Minnesota Press.
• Pine, Frances, and P. T. Bogdanowicz 1982 Policy, response, and alternative strategy: the process of-change in a Polish highland village. Dialectical Anthropology 7 (1): 67-80.
• Preobrazhensky, Evgenii (1971) Peasantry and the political economy of the early stages oi industrialization. In Peasants and peasant societies, ed. T. ShPnin, pp. 219-226. Baltimore: Penguin.
• Salzmaan, Zdenek 1982 Kom4tov revisited: from local cooperative to regional consolidation. MS.
• Sampson, Steven 1981 Why do they leave? MS. 1982 Rich f~'lies and poor collectives: some anthropological notes on Romania's second economy. MS.
• Scott, Hilda ig74 Does socialism liberate women? Boston: Beacon.
• Silverman, Carol 1983 The politics of folklore in Bulgaria. MS.
• Simic, Andrei 1973 The peasant urbanites: a study of rural-urban mobility in Serbia.' NY: Seminar Press.
• Spulber, Nicolas 1971 Socialist management and planning: topics in comparative socialist economics. Indiana University Press.
• Sweezy, Paul M., and Cgarles Bettelheim 1971 On the transition to socialism. NY: Mee.
• Trotsky, Leon 1972) The revolution betrayed. NY: Pathfinder Press.
• Tucker, Robert 1965 Philosophy and myth in Karl Marx. Cambridge University Press.
• Verdery, Katherine 1983 Transylvanian villagers: three centuries of political, economic, and ethnic change. University of California Press.
• Wilezynski, Jozef 1982 The economics of socialism. (Fourth edition). London: George Allen and Unwin.

Selected Monographic Works and Theses, for Reference