Ar baigėsi posocializmas Lietuvoje? Antropologija ir posocializmo transformacijų etnografija

Abstract

Has Post-Socialism Ended in Lithuania? The Anthropology and Ethnography of Post-Socialist Transformations The main aim of the paper is to overview ethnographic research on post-socialist transformations in Lithuania by contextualising it within the broader framework of the field of anthropology of post-socialism. The author refers to numerous discussions in the field on the validity of the use of the term post-socialism long after the collapse of the Soviet system (Sampson 1999; Humphrey 2002; Műller 2019, etc), and discusses whether and how selected ethnographies on social cultural transformations in Lithuania after the 1990s and later use the term postsocialism, and how the period is defined conceptually and chronologically. The first part of the paper introduces discussions in anthropology on challenges in defining the post-socialist region and the chronology of post-socialism (Humphrey 2002; Buyandelgeriyn 2008; Frederiksen, Knudsen 2015; Műller 2019; Нильсен 2004, etc), as well as reflections on issues of the representation and unequal relations between the West and the East in studies of post-socialist European countries (Thelen 2011; Buchowski 2012; Cervinkova 2012; Klumbytė, Sharafutdinova 2013b; Frederiksen, Knudsen 2015, etc). These critical studies indicate that ethnographies of socialist and post-socialist East Central Europe constructed it as the ‘other’, different to the western part of the region (Thelen 2011; Buchowski 2012; Cervinkova 2012; Klumbytė, Sharafutdinova 2013b; Frederiksen, Knudsen 2015; Műller 2019; etc), and that the term post-socialist/post-socialism refers to these unequal relations between the West and the East (Cervinkova 2012; Frederiksen, Knudsen 2015; Műller 2019; etc). However, disregarding certain conceptual challenges, it is agreed that the ethnographies of social cultural transformations in post-socialist European countries are unique and important, due to their methodological approach (long-term fieldwork), and focus on people’s everyday lives and the emphasis on the interrelations of cultural, social and economic processes (Burawoy, Verdery 1999; Hann 2002; Hőrschelmann, Stenning 2008, etc).