An Ethnographic Chiefdom - (Methodology & History in Anthropology) by Nikola Balas (Hardcover)
About this item
Highlights
- The Czechoslovak academic discipline called 'Ethnography and Folklore Studies' was impacted and influenced by the daily realities of state socialism in 1969-1989.
- About the Author: Nikola Balas is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Institute of Ethnology of the Czech Academy of Sciences in Prague.
- 356 Pages
- Social Science, Anthropology
- Series Name: Methodology & History in Anthropology
Description
About the Book
"The Czechoslovak academic discipline called 'Ethnography and Folklore Studies' was impacted and influenced by the daily realities of state socialism in 1969-1989. This book examines the role of the planned economy, Marxist-Leninist ideology, disciplinary hierarchies and clientelist networks, ultimately showing how state socialist features together brought about the discipline's epistemic stalling. It offers a fresh perspective on the long-standing debates purporting to capture the differences between the Central and Eastern European tradition of ethnology and Western sociocultural anthropology"-- Provided by publisher.Book Synopsis
The Czechoslovak academic discipline called 'Ethnography and Folklore Studies' was impacted and influenced by the daily realities of state socialism in 1969-1989. This book examines the role of the planned economy, Marxist-Leninist ideology, disciplinary hierarchies and clientelist networks, ultimately showing how state socialist features together brought about the discipline's epistemic stalling. It offers a fresh perspective on the long-standing debates purporting to capture the differences between the Central and Eastern European tradition of ethnology and Western sociocultural anthropology.Review Quotes
"The book is clearly organized and the presentation maintains a high standard throughout. It is an original reappraisal of late socialist 'ethnography' in Prague." - Chris Hann, Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology
"This book is an innovative contribution to the history and theory of anthropology. It is an impressive piece of work that introduces a difficult subject in clear prose, is very well written, well composed and with a strong theoretical argument." - Han F. Vermeulen, Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology
About the Author
Nikola Balas is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Institute of Ethnology of the Czech Academy of Sciences in Prague. He spent a year as an Erasmus student at the Department of Anthropology, Durham University (UK), and is a co-recipient of the SIEF Young Scholar Prize 2023.
