Struggles for the Folk. Politics of Culture in Czechoslovak Ethnography, 1940s–1950s

Grill, Jan

doi:10.1080/02757206.2015.1070847

Cited by 5 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…Nonetheless, the relationship between the Marxist-Leninist and nationalist ideologies continues to present one of the most intriguing aspects related to communist rule and evinces remarkable variability across the countries of the Eastern Bloc (e.g. Górny, 2018;Grill, 2015;Holý, 1996;Křesťan, 2012;Mervart & Růžička, 2020;Slezkine, 1994;Šnirelman, 1997;Verdery, 1991). Unfortunately, Skalník ignores this body of scholarship and does not show how exactly the coexistence of the two ideologies was made possible in Czechoslovak ethnography.…”

Section: Factual Criticismmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Crusade for Social Anthropology: An Analysis of Politics in Post-Socialist Debates

Balaš

2024

Czech Sociological Review

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This article aims to apply critical scrutiny to post-socialist discourse, an ongoing series of debates concerning the relationship between sociocultural anthropology and ethnology in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). To achieve my goal, I single out Petr Skalník's writings and subject them to twofold scrutiny. In the first part of my article, I offer factual criticism and point out the factual shortcomings of his work. The second part of the article puts the writings under sociological scrutiny, based on what I call a 'political reading', and proceeding from the sociology of science of Pierre Bourdieu. This perspective shows how scholars' concrete utterances in their factual accounts are related to power struggles within the scholarly community. This approach demonstrates how Skalník's concrete factual misrepresentations intrinsically relate to his objective of establishing sociocultural anthropology in post-socialist Czechia and the associated struggles between Czech anthropologists and ethnologists. The present analysis, by extension, allows us to better understand the post-socialist transformation of CEE academia and casts doubt on the veracity of post-socialist discourse itself.

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Section: Factual Criticismmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Crusade for Social Anthropology: An Analysis of Politics in Post-Socialist Debates

Balaš

2024

Czech Sociological Review

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“…Other accounts go as far as to stress its nationalist overtones [cf. Grill 2015;Holubová, Petráňová, and Woitsch 2002: 231-270;Scheffel and Kandert 1994]. Its focus of interest remained much the same after the Communist coup in 1948.…”

Section: Národopis Ethnography Folklore Studies Ethnology: a Jumblmentioning

confidence: 99%

Academia without Contention? The Legacy of Czechoslovak Ethnography and Folklore Studies in Czech Anthropology

Balaš¹

2018

Czech Sociological Review

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One issue of the post-socialist transformation of Czech higher education has been the many attempts to establish an independent discipline of sociocultural anthropology. As many observers noted, the establishment of a fully-fledged Czech anthropology after the collapse of communism in 1989 proved to be a rather difficult task. Many accounts offered various explanations for the uneasy state of emerging Czech anthropology, but none of them focused on the specific academic practices that anthropology inherited from its predecessor-Czechoslovak ethnography. While anthropological names, books, and theories entered wide circulation and have become a regular part of curricula since the 1990s, the specific way ethnography is practiced has remained unchanged. The article looks at the Department of Ethnography and Folklore Studies at Charles University, which, in the 1990s, became one of the departments where students were able to take courses in anthropology. While the students were given an introduction to anthropological knowledge, they were not led to adopt the specific set of scholarly attitudes that are intrinsic to sociocultural anthropology, the most important of which is a specific approach to academic debates. It could be concluded that this uneven distribution of academic expertise, this disunion between knowledge and non-knowledge, may have severely delayed the development of an autonomous tradition of Czech sociocultural anthropology. keywords: culture of contention, postsocialism, higher education, history of anthropology, history of ethnography and folklore studies

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“…Despite the declared new aims of ethnographic research in Czechoslovakia aer 1948 (Grill, 2015), and the programme published at the beginning of the 1950s (Resolution, 1952), according to which enquirers were to concentrate on specific features of the mode of life and culture of all ethnic communities in the republic, research into ethnic minorities developed only gradually. Researchers at the SAV Ethnographic Institute concentrated their efforts on research of the Slovak population, since it had become a primary aim to create a synthesis on the traditional folk culture of the Slovaks.…”

Section: S C Hol a R Sh I P A N D P Ow E Rmentioning

confidence: 99%

Scholarship and Power: “Research of the Ukrainian Ethnic Group” – An Academic Project in Slovakia Under the Communist Regime

Kiliánová

2019

Slovenský Národopis / Slovak Ethnology

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This paper considers the relations between political power and scholarly activity during the period of the communist regime in Slovakia, then part of Czechoslovakia. Taking the example of a research project on the Ukrainian minority, undertaken by the Slovak Academy of Sciences during the years 1954–70, the paper traces the relationships between scholars and politicians and among academic institutions in the Czech lands and Slovakia, and the interventions by political power in academic work. The author focuses on the following questions: how did the project originate, and what were its aims and results? In what political, economic and social context did scholars undertake the project? How did the power relations between scholars and politicians develop and change in the course of the project? Why did political power intervene in research of the Ukrainian ethnic group? The paper draws upon M. Foucault’s views on the exercise of power, develops questions of the legitimacy of power (R. Barker), conceives scholarly work as an activity of a certain kind (P. Rabinow), and concentrates on the actors in power relationships, their strategies and motivations. Empirical data for the answer to research questions were acquired from archival documents about the project and from interviews with scholars who had participated in its work. The findings from analyses show what the specific possibilities and limits were for scholars functioning in the respective network of power relationships. They furthermore reveal a gamut of successful or unsuccessful strategies which scholars employed to bring about changes in the processes of the exercise of power.

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Struggles for the Folk. Politics of Culture in Czechoslovak Ethnography, 1940s–1950s

Cited by 5 publications

References 14 publications

A Crusade for Social Anthropology: An Analysis of Politics in Post-Socialist Debates

A Crusade for Social Anthropology: An Analysis of Politics in Post-Socialist Debates

Academia without Contention? The Legacy of Czechoslovak Ethnography and Folklore Studies in Czech Anthropology

Scholarship and Power: “Research of the Ukrainian Ethnic Group” – An Academic Project in Slovakia Under the Communist Regime

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