Paradoxes of religious freedom and repression in (post-)Soviet contexts

The religious revival that followed the collapse of the USSR provides an excellent opportunity to compare the dynamics of projects of religious freedom with those of religious repression. Based on extensive ethnographic fieldwork in Georgia and Kyrgyzstan, this article documents the contradictory effects that both repressive and liberal policies and laws have on religious expression. Thus, while Soviet anti-religious policies undeniably caused much suffering and hardship, religious repression also contributed to an intensification of religious experience among certain Muslim and evangelical groups. And while religious freedom laws expanded the scope for public religious organization and expression, they also produced new inequalities between religious groups, as the cases of Georgia and Kyrgyzstan demonstrate. Ultimately, the article shows that the effects of liberal and repressive laws are far from straightforward and need to be analyzed in relation to the social context in which they are applied

The Concept of the "Field" in Early Soviet Ethnography : A Northern Perspective

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The Social Scientist Meets the “Believer”: Discussions of God, the Afterlife, and Communism in the Mid-1960s

In this article, I use the transcripts of interviews carried out under the auspices of the Institute of Scientifi c Atheism in the mid-sixties. Informants were asked about diverse aspects of their religious practice and belief, allowing scholars—both then and now—to consider the nature of Soviet “secularization.” Following Charles Taylor, I suggest that this was not simply “a story of loss, of subtraction”; instead, informants' rather heterodox conceptions of the aft erlife indicate moments of individual creativity. In particular, I fi nd that among the poor and marginalized, visions of the aft erlife sometimes articulated a desire for social equality considered missing from Soviet society. I also probe the Soviet state's problematic dependency on atheism. The regime's legitimacy rested on its claim to ensure progress and modernity, and religion— the epitome of backwardness—was a useful antithesis. The interview was a ritual that enacted the superiority of Soviet values (reason, rationality, and enlightenment). And yet the encounter between atheist-interviewer and “believer” could oft en prove unpredictable, suggesting that the religion-atheism binary was in practice rather more brittle than the authorities might have hoped

How do demographic trends change? The onset of birth masculinization in Albania, Georgia, and Vietnam 1990–2005

The theory of demographic transistion assumes the gradual move from a pre-transitional equilibrium of birth and death rates to a new equilibrium corresponding to lower vital rates. While this model remains largely correct,research on more than two centuries of demographic change has pointed to a signifcant number of variants and departures from the model. For instance, the secular decline in vital rates was often preceded by a short-term rise, starting from different high-fertility levels (Dyson and Murphy1985), and was at times followed by unexpected stalls and rebounds as in post war Europe (Van Bavel and Reher 2013), Southeast Asia (Hull 2012),sub-Saharan Africa (Shapiro and Gebreselassie 2013), and Central Asia(Spoorenberg 2015)

Some changes in perspectives on ethnicity theory in the 1980's : A brief sketch

Tamara Dragadze, Some changes in perspectives on ethnicity theory in the I980's. A brief sketch. To a certain extent. Western trends have often been marked by a greater recognition of essentialist, reflexive or cultural traits in die social coastruction of ethnic identity and the class-conflict based models arc on the wain. There are several reasons for this, one of them being the impact of the voice of members of ethnic minorities in Britain themselves. In the Soviet Union in the past, a Marxist framework was adapted to an essentialist, cultural model in order to escape the confines of simple class analysis and also to present a sanitized version of Soviet ethnic relations. The new glasnosť and the force of events themselves are permitting a review of some of the tenets of ethnicity theory. The materials are still being written and the diversity between Moscow and the republics has yet to be documented. This paper nevertheless attempts to elicit some thoughts on the direction some Soviet authors might be moving towards. The paper ends with a few comments on how I am trying to combine in my own work a selection of approaches from the vast variety of trends in both Western and Soviet anthropology.Tamara Dragadze, Quelques changements dans les points de vue sur la théorie de l'ethnicité dans les années 1980. Sous un certain rapport, les tendances occidentales ont été marquées par une plus grande reconnaissance de traits essentialistes, réflexifs et culturels, tandis que les modèles fondés sur les conflits de classes sont en perte de vitesse. A cela, plusieurs raisons, dont l'impact des voix des minorités ethniques en Grande Bretagne. En Union Soviétique, jusqu'à présent, un schéma marxiste a été adapté à un modèle essentialiste et culturel afin d'échapper à la pure analyse de classe et aussi de présenter une version aseptisée des relations interethniques en URSS. La nouvelle glasnosť et la force des événements permettent une révision de certains schémas de la théorie de l'ethnicité. Les enquêtes sont en cours et la diversité entre Moscou et les républiques périphériques a encore besoin d'être étudiée. Néanmoins, on tente ici de dégager quelques directions dans lesquelles certains auteurs soviétiques pourraient avancer. Enfin, cet article présente la façon dont l'auteur cherche à combiner différentes approches empruntées à la grande variété des tendances de l'anthropologie tant occidentale que soviétique.Dragadze Tamara. Some changes in perspectives on ethnicity theory in the 1980's : A brief sketch. In: Cahiers du monde russe et soviétique, vol. 31, n°2-3, Avril-Septembre 1990. Regards sur l'anthropologie soviétique. pp. 205-212

Regionalism and nationalism in the USSR 1989-1991

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