Anthropology and the Religious Imaginary of the Past – Catherine Wanner
- Author Catherine Wanner, Pennsylvania State University
- Presented at The Hidden Galleries closing conference: The Secret Police and Study of Religions: Archives, Communities and Contested Memories in Central and Eastern Europe, 19th March, 2021
There is a new emotionality arising in public domains in many parts of the world. It is remaking understandings of neoliberalism, citizenship and rights, and even personhood itself. This new era is characterized, not only by nationalism, populism and patriotism gaining ground, but also by dissolving the lines of division that used to clearly separate politics from popular culture, public from private spheres, and historical studies from memories of the past. In such a moment, the Hidden Galleries project makes a particularly valuable contribution to our understandings of the past in Eastern Europe and to the clandestine lives so many citizens in socialist regimes led. Many religious minorities in the region, whose existence was largely underground and yet vigorously pursued by state authorities, now have a legal status and can assemble with a degree of ease that was unimaginable in the past. However, when these communities continue to exist it is often through adaptation to dramatically new social and political circumstances. The collapse of socialist regimes poses a challenge for all scholars: how can we know what inspired and motivated socialist-era religious minorities to take such risks to live an unauthorized life? When our own religious imaginary is not up to the task, where can we turn for clues as to what animated these communities and lent meaning to the individual lives of their members? This talk will analyze why memory studies has become so tremendously fashionable in Eastern Europe and what anthropologists through their study of material culture can add to our understandings of the past and specifically the insight offered by the study of processes to “other” non-conforming religious communities.