Orthodox Women’s Day under Construction: Ruptures and Accommodation in the Development of Post-socialist Ritual Life in Russia
Keywords:
Russian Orthodoxy, post-socialism, education, ritual, womenAbstract
On the example of an attempt to introduce a new holiday, Orthodox Women’s Day, the article describes the peculiarities of ritual life in post-socialist Russia. In the Orthodox milieu there is a need to substitute Soviet era International Women’s Day with the Orthodox Women’s Day. However, many features of the new holiday show affinities with the previous one. The article discusses the main feature of post-socialist ritual life: mutually constitutive interrelation between the secular and the religious, and the way it articulates with the uses of the present in the past. The problem discussed is the way in which post-Soviet and post-atheist Russians imagine and use ruptures, as well as how they perceive continuities.
References
Baranova O. G. et al., 2001. Russkii Prazdnik. Prazdniki i obriady narodnogo zemledel’cheskogo kalendaria (The Russian Festiv. Festivals and Rituals of the Folk Kalendar), S.Petersburg: Isskustvo.
Benovska-Sabkova, M., Köllner T., Komáromi T., Ładykowska A., Tocheva D., and Zigon J., 2010. ‘Spreading grace’ in post-Soviet Russia. Anthropology Today, 26 (1), p. 16-21.
Berdiaev, N., 1955. Istoki i Smysl Russkogo Kommunizma. Paris: YMCA-Press.
Bernstein B., Elvin H.L., and Peters R.S., 1966. A Discussion on Ritualization of Behaviour in Animals and Man, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Series B, 251 (771): 429-436.
Bernstein, B., 2003 [1975]. Class, Codes, and Control. Volume III: Towards a Theory of Educational Transmission, London: Routledge.
Binns C., 1979. The Changing Face of Power: Revolution and Accommodation in the Development of the Soviet Ceremonial System: Part I, Man, 14 (4): 585-606.
Binns C., 1980. The Changing Face of Power: Revolution and Accommodation in the Development of the Soviet Ceremonial System: Part II, Man, 15 (1): 170-187.
Coleman, S., 2006. When silence isn’t golden: charismatic speech and the limits of literalism. In: Engelke, M. and Tomlinson M. eds. 2006. The Limits of Meaning, Oxford: Berghahn, pp. 39-61.
Cornbleth C., 1984. Beyond Hidden Curriculum? Journal of Curriculum Studies, 16 (1): 29-36.
Engel, B. A., 2004. Women in Russia, 1700-2000, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Engelke, M., 2006. Clarity and charisma: on the uses of ambiguity in ritual life. In: Engelke, M. and Tomlinson M. eds. 2006. The Limits of Meaning, Oxford: Berghahn, pp. 63-83.
Fernandez, J. W., 1965. Symbolic consensus in a Fang Reformative Cult. American Anthropologist, New Series, 67 (4): 902-929.
Filatov, S. and Lunkin, R., 2006. Statistics on religion in Russia: the reality behind the fi gures. Religion, State and Society, 34 (1): 33-49.
Gearing F. and Tindall A., 1973. Anthropological Studies of the Educational Process. Annual Review of Anthropology, 2: 95-105.
Geertz, C., 1968 [1966]. Religion as a cultural system. In: Banton M. ed. 1968. Anthropological Approaches to the Study of Religion, London.
Handelman D., 1998. Models and Mirrors: Towards an Anthropology of Public Events, Oxford: Berghahn.
Kaneff , D., 2004. Who Owns the Past? The Politics of Time in a ‘Model’ Bulgarian Village, Oxford: Berghahn.
Kapferer, J. L., 1981. Socialization and the Symbolic Order of the School. Anthropology and Education Quarterly, 12 (4): 258-274.
Kapusta-Pofahl, K., 2011. Reinstating International Women’s Day in the Czech Republic: Feminism, Politics and the Specter of Communism. Anthropology of East Europe Review. 29 (2): 204-214.
Karpov, V. and Lisovskaya, L., 2005. Educational Change in Time of Social Revolution: the Case of Post-Communist Russia in Comparative Perspective. In: Eklof B., Holmes, L. E. and Kaplan, V., eds., 2005. Educational Reform in Post-Soviet Russia. Legacies and Prospects. London & New York: Frank Cass, pp. 23-55.
Kay, R., 1997. Images of an ideal woman: perceptions of Russian womanhood through the media, education and women’s own eyes. In: Buckley M. ed. 1997. Post-Soviet women: from the Baltic to Central Asia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 77-98.
Kryvelev I., 1977. Sovremennye obriady i rol etnografi cheskoi nauki v ikh izuchenii, formirovanii i vnedrenii (Modern Rituals and the Role of Anthropology in their Study, Elaboration and Propagation), Sovetskaia Etnografi ia, 5: 36-45.
Lane, C., 1979. Ritual and Ceremony in Contemporary Soviet Society. The Sociological Review, 27 (2): 253-278.
Lane, C., 1981. The Rites of the Rulers. Ritual in Industrial Society – the Soviet case, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Lapidus, G. W., 1978. Women in Soviet Society. Equality, Development, and Social Change, Berkeley: University of California Press.
Luehrmann, S., 2005. Recycling Cultural Construction: Desecularization in Postsoviet Mari El. Religion, State & Society, vol. 33 (1), pp. 35-56.
Ładykowska, A., 2011. Post-Soviet Orthodoxy in the making: strategies for continuity thinking among the Russian middle-aged school teachers. In: Zigon J ed. 2011. Multiple Moralities and Religions in Post-Soviet Russia. New York: Berghahn, pp. 27-47.
Martin, J., 1976. What Should We Do with a Hidden Curriculum When We Find One? Curriculum Inquiry, 6 (2): 135-151.
McDowell, J., 1974. Soviet Civil Ceremonies. Journal for the Scientifi c Study of Religion, 13 (3): 265-279.
McMahon, P., 1994. The effect of economic and political reforms on Soviet/Russian women. In: Aslabeigui. A, Pressman S. and Summerfi eld G. eds. 1994. Women in the Age of Economic Transformation. Gender Impact of Reforms in post-socialist and developing countries, London: Routledge, pp: 59-73.
Overly, N., ed., 1970. The Unstudied Curriculum. Its Impact on Children, Washington: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Pilkington, H., ed., 1996. Gender, generation and identity in contemporary Russia, London: Routledge.
Quantz, R., 1999. School ritual as performance: A reconstruction of Durkheim’s and Turner’s uses of ritual, Educational Theory; 49 (4): 493-514.
Robbins, J., 2003. On the paradoxes of global Pentecostalism and the perils of continuity thinking, Religion, 33: 221-231.
Robbins, J., 2007. Continuity Thinking and the Problem of Christian Culture: Belief, Time, and the Anthropology of Christianity. Current Anthropology, 48 (1): 5-38. Snyder. B. R., 1971. The Hidden Curriculum, New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
Tomlinson, M., 2006. The limits of meaning in Fijian Methodist sermons. In: Engelke, M. and Tomlinson, M. eds. 2006. The Limits of Meaning, Oxford: Berghahn, pp.: 129-146.
Tomlinson, M. and Engelke, M., eds.2006. The Limits of Meaning. Oxford: Berghahn.
Turner, V., 1964 [1957]. Symbols in Ndebu Ritual. In: Gluckman M. ed., reprint. Closed Systems and Open Minds: The Limits of Naïveté in Social Anthropology. Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd.
Turner, V., 1967. The Forest of Symbols. Aspects of Ndebu Ritual, Ithaca: Cornell University.
Vogelsgang, I., 2004. Soviet Ideology and Religious Practices in Simferopol, Crimea. In: F. Pine, D. Kaneff and H. Haukanes eds. 2004.Memory, Politics and Religion. The Past Meets Present in Europe, LIT.
