ORTHODOXY, SOCIAL MOBILITY AND ECONOMIC PROSPERITY IN SOCIALIST AND POST-SOCIALIST POLAND
Keywords:
Orthodox, economic prosperity, Weber, post-socialist capitalism, subaltern, social mobility, socialist modernityAbstract
Drawing on the analysis of the life trajectories of second and third generation Orthodox Belarusian farmers born in Poland (aged 50–70), this article discusses the interconnections between religion and economy by looking at the dynamic of the relationship between the socialist modernizing project and a religious identity considered as subaltern. It is argued that by downplaying the significance of religion in the public sphere, socialism made possible social mobility in this group and opened avenues to economic prosperity. The biographies of these farmers indicate a strong correlation between Orthodox identity and aspirations to leave their peasant roots behind and attain a high social status, which has often led to them prospering economically in the post-socialist period.
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References
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Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego.
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M. Tomlinson (eds.), The Limits of Meaning. Oxford: Berghahn, 129–146.
To m l i n s o n M. and E n g e l k e M. (eds.) 2006. The Limits of Meaning. Oxford: Berghahn.
We b e r M. 2001 [1905]. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. London & Chicago: Roxbury
Publishing Company.
We r t h P. 1996. Subjects for Empire: Orthodox Mission and Imperial Governance in the Volga-Kama Region,
1825–1881. PhD Dissertation, University of Michigan.
Z o w c z a k M. 2000. Biblia ludowa, Wrocław: Funna.
preliminary considerations. In V. Roudometof, A. Agadjanian and J. Pankhurs (eds.), Eastern
Orthodoxy in a Global Age: Tradition Faces the Twenty-First Century. Walnut Creek, Lanham,
New York, Toronto, Oxford: Altamira Press, 1–26.
A s a d T. 1997. Genealogies of Religion. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press.
B a b i ń s k i G. 1997. Pogranicze polsko-ukraińskie. Etniczność, zróżnicowanie religijne, tożsamość. Kraków:
Nomos.
B i e l o J. S. 2007. ‘The Mind of Christ’: financial success, born-again personhood, and the anthropology
of Christianity. Ethnos 72 (3), 315–338.
C a n n e l l F. 2005. The Christianity of anthropology. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 11 (2),
335–356.
C a n n e l l F. 2006. Introduction. The anthropology of Christianity. In F. Cannell (ed.), The Anthropology
of Christianity. Durham and London: Duke University Press, 1–49.
C o l e m a n S. 2000. The Globalisation of Charismatic Christianity: Spreading the Gospel of Prosperity.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
E n g e l k e M. 2006. Clarity and charisma: on the uses of ambiguity in ritual life. In M. Engelke, and
M. Tomlinson (eds.), The Limits of Meaning. Oxford: Berghahn, 63–83.
E n g e l k i n g A. 1995. “Jak katolik to Polak”. Co to znaczy? Wstępne wnioski z badań terenowych na
Białorusi. In A. Sadowski (ed.), Wschodnie pogranicze w perspektywie socjologicznej. Białystok:
Fundacja Ekonomistów Środowiska i Zasobów Naturalnych, 138–146.
En g e l k i n g A. 2012. Kołchoźnicy. Antropologiczne studium tożsamości wsi białoruskiej przełomu XX
i XXI wieku. Toruń: Wydawnictwo Naukowe Uniwersytetu Mikołaja Kopernika.
Gh o d s e e K. 2009. Symphonic secularism: Eastern Orthodoxy, ethnic identity and religious freedoms
in contemporary Bulgaria. Anthropology of East Europe Review 27 (2), 227–252.
Go l a c h o w s k a E. 2012. Jak mówić do Pana Boga? Wielojęzyczność katolików na Białorusi na przełomie
XX i XX wieku. Warszawa: Agade.
G o ł u b o w s k a U. 2013. Tożsamość Polaków wyznania prawosławnego. Białoruskie Zeszyty Historyczne
40, 257–269.
Ha n n C. 2007. The Anthropology of Christianity per se. Archives européennes de sociologie 48 (3),
383–410.
Ha n n C. 2011. Eastern Christianity and western social theory. Erfurter Vorträge zur Kulturgeschichte des
Orthodoxen Christentums 10, 5–32.
Ha n n C. 2012. Personhood, Christianity, modernity. Anthropology of This Century 3,
http://aotcpress.com/articles/personhood-christianity-modernity/
Ha n n C. and G o l t z H. 2010. Introduction: the other Christianity? In C. Hann and H. Goltz (eds.),
Eastern Christians in Anthropological Perspective. Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of
California Press, 1–29.
K e a n e W. 2007. Christian Moderns: Freedom and Fetish in the Mission Encounter. Berkeley: University
of California Press.
K ł o s k o w s k a A. 1996. Kultury narodowe u korzeni. Warszawa: PWN.
K o r m i n a J. 2010. Avtobusniki: Russian Orthodox pilgrims longing for authenticity. In C. Hann and
H. Goltz (eds.), Eastern Christians in Anthropological Perspective. Berkeley, Los Angeles, London:
University of California Press, 267–286.
K ö l l n e r T. 2012. Practising Without Belonging? Entrepreneurship, Morality, and Religion in Contemporary
Russia. Berlin: Lit-Verlag.
L u b a ń s k a M. and Ł a d y k o w s k a A. 2013. Prawosławie – „chrześcijaństwo peryferyjne”? O teologicznych
uwikłaniach teorii antropologicznej i stronniczości perspektyw poznawczych antropologii
chrześcijaństwa. Lud 97, 195–219.
P a s i e k a A. 2015. Hierarchy and Pluralism: Living Religious Difference in Catholic Poland. Houndmills,
Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave & Macmillan.
R o b b i n s J. 2003a. What is a Christian? Notes toward an anthropology of Christianity. Religion 33,
191–99.
R o b b i n s J. 2003b. On the paradoxes of global Pentecostalism and the perils of continuity thinking.
Religion 33, 221–31.
R o b b i n s J. 2004. Becoming Sinners: Christianity and Moral Torment in a Papua New Guinea Society.
Berkeley: University of California Press.
R o b b i n s J. 2007. Continuity thinking and the problem of Christian culture: belief, time, and the
anthropology of Christianity. Current Anthropology 48 (1), 5–38.
S a d o w s k i A. 1995. Pogranicze polsko-białoruskie. Tożsamość mieszkańców. Białystok: Trans Humana.
S t r a c z u k J. 2006. Cmentarz i stół. Pogranicze prawosławno-katolickie w Polsce i na Białorusi. Wrocław:
Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Wrocławskiego.
Sm u ł k o w a E. 2002. Białoruś i pogranicza: studia o języku i społeczeństwie. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo
Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego.
To m l i n s o n M. 2006. The limits of meaning in Fijian Methodist sermons. In M. Engelke and
M. Tomlinson (eds.), The Limits of Meaning. Oxford: Berghahn, 129–146.
To m l i n s o n M. and E n g e l k e M. (eds.) 2006. The Limits of Meaning. Oxford: Berghahn.
We b e r M. 2001 [1905]. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. London & Chicago: Roxbury
Publishing Company.
We r t h P. 1996. Subjects for Empire: Orthodox Mission and Imperial Governance in the Volga-Kama Region,
1825–1881. PhD Dissertation, University of Michigan.
Z o w c z a k M. 2000. Biblia ludowa, Wrocław: Funna.
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Published
2019-12-03
How to Cite
Ładykowska, A. (2019). ORTHODOXY, SOCIAL MOBILITY AND ECONOMIC PROSPERITY IN SOCIALIST AND POST-SOCIALIST POLAND. Ethnologia Polona, 39, 146–159. Retrieved from https://journals.iaepan.pl/ethp/article/view/2008
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