Ethnographic Chiefdom - Epistemic Arrest Knowledge Production in Czechoslovak Ethnography

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.

About the author

Nikola Balaš 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.

Product details

• Authors: Nikola Bala¿, Nikola Balas, Nikola Balaš
• Publisher: BERGHAHN BOOKS, INC
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 01.10.2024
• EAN: 9781805396741
• ISBN: 978-1-80539-674-1
• No. of pages: 356
• Series: Methodology & History in Anthropology
• Subjects: Social sciences, law, business > Social sciences (general); SOCIAL SCIENCE / Folklore & Mythology, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Anthropology / Cultural & Social, Social & cultural anthropology, ethnography, Folklore, myths & legends, Economic systems & structures, Social and cultural anthropology, Folklore studies / Study of myth (mythology), Planned economic systems, Theory and Methodology; Anthropology (General)