Religion and Magic in Socialist and Post-Socialist Contexts II: Baltic, Eastern European, and Post-USSR Case Studies (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9783838210902)

Religion and magic have often played important roles in Baltic, Eastern European, and post-Soviet societies like those in Russia, Romania, Serbia, Latvia, Kyrgyzstan, and Estonia. Taken together, the studies presented in this collection suggest that the idea that religion and magic are connected to each other in some consistent, universal way may be nothing more than a remnant from nineteenth-century anthropology. Further, these studies challenge another part of anthropology's historical legacy: the idea that magic is something that modernity and modernization will transcend. Rather, these studies suggest instead that magic is a form of work that brings modernity into being and helps render it intelligible to those who find themselves engaged in its creation.

This volume brings together historical (pre- and post-1989), ethnographic, and area studies that look at the divergent roles of state, culture, society, tradition, and the individual in enactments of magic and religion. Assessing the role magic and religion have played in the countries of Eastern Europe and beyond before and after the Cold War, it is an absorbing read for scholars of anthropology and history as well as ethnology.

Author: Alexandra Cotofana
ISBN-10: 3838210905
ISBN-13: 9783838210902
Publisher: Ibidem Press
Language: English
Published: 11/28/2017
Pages: 350
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.85lbs
Size: 8.30h x 5.80w x 0.80d