Jennifer R. Cash

Performing Hospitality in Moldova: Ambiguous, Alternative, and Undeveloped Models of National Identity

This paper examines performances of hospitality in everyday life to explore the lived experience of “being Moldovan”. National identity in Moldova can only be understood by reference to the peculiarities of history—to the presence of a neighbouring kin-state (Romania), a multiethnic population, Soviet ideology, and successive efforts at nation-building. The instabilities, contradictions, and ambiguities of national identity are also experienced and interpreted, as they are regularly performed in informal and formal settings. The “hospitality” of Moldovans—performed daily through linguistic code-switching, in practices of buying and selling, in life-cycle celebrations such as weddings, and in the official greeting and welcoming of dignitaries and visiting delegations by folk-costumed performers—is, paradoxically, an important site of this experience of ambiguity. The same set of practices both renders its performers “masters of their own houses”, while at the same time revealing the limits of the metaphor.

The communists cannot take us to Europe : negotiating Moldova's place in the post-socialist world

In 2005, Moldovas Communist Party was re-elected to power on a platform that promised unification with the European Union, reversing the position officially held since 2001 which oriented the country toward Russia. The Partys new orientation also sparked widespread debate, especially within intellectual circles, as many individuals found themselves in the strange position of being ideologically anti-Communist and pro-European, at a moment when Communists themselves had become pro-European. This paper aims to capture the use of ‘Europe’ in the social and political negotiations of culture workers, whose professional identity includes a strong element of political opposition, and to explore how the increased proximity and power of the European Union to Moldova has caused the social and political geography of ‘Europe’ to shift within Moldova.

Contemporary godparenthood in Central and Eastern Europe: introduction

This introduction to the collection opens up the conversation between historians and anthropologists about the practical significance and social meaning of spiritual kinship. By discussing the key findings of five anthropological studies—in Italy, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, and Moldova—we point to resemblances and differences. We examine common structural elements of the spiritual kinship system and the religious and material meanings involved. We find differing symbolic logics as well as different intensities of godparental practices, which can be described as a geographical, east-west gradient. Speaking broadly, the more to the east a place is, the more thriving the practice. In explaining the variation, ethnographic insights suggest that long-term differentiating trends are important, and also contemporary historical factors—substantial economic and political changes since the mid-twentieth century.

Risking debt for honor: marital godparenthood in Moldova

Research on godparenthood has traditionally emphasized its stabilizing effect on social structure. This article, however, focuses attention on how the practices and discourses associated with marital sponsorship in the Republic of Moldova ascribe value to the risks and uncertainties of social life. Moldova has experienced substantial economic, social, and political upheaval during the past two decades of postsocialism, following a longer period of Soviet-era modernization, secularization, and rural–urban migration. In this context, godparenthood has not contributed to the long-term stability of class structure or social relations, but people continue to seek honor and social respect by taking the social and economic risks involved in sponsoring new marriages.

Revue des Livres Gwénola Sebaux, (Post)colonisation – (Post)migration: ces Allemands entre Allemagne et Roumanie. Paris: Le Manuscrit, 2015. 497 p.

In (Post)colonisation – (Post)migration: Ces Allemands entre Allemagne et Roumanie, Gwenola Sebaux reports the results of three separate research projects on Swabian identity. The first research is historical, examining the constitution of Swabian identity in the Banat. The second considers German identity in the Romanian Banat during the post-socialist period. The third research investigates the identities of Swabians who lived in Romania but have since (re)patriated to Germany. Sebaux’s pro...