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TRUST, KINSHIP AND CIVIL SOCIETY IN A POST-SOCIALIST SLOVAKIAN VILLAGE

100%
Torsello D.
Sociológia (Sociology)
|
2008
|
vol. 40
|
issue 6
514-529
EN
In spite of the rich theoretical literature in the social sciences, trust is a concept which has showed comparatively little applicability to the field of anthropology. Anthropological accounts of trust are scarce because of the recognized difficulty to contextualize this notion in people's everyday practices and ideas. This paper argues that, in order to constitute a useful analytical tool, trust must be empirically explored as a social fact. In the context of rapidly transforming Eastern Europe, actors make attentive uses of trust and mistrust as strategic means to define relatedness and to achieve control of economic transactions. The end of state socialism and the dramatic changes brought about by the democratic transformation have taught the villagers of Kralova to look for secure avenues of social and economic interaction. The author argues that here mistrust is not to be seen as the negation of social relations, cooperation and collective action. Mistrust becomes an expression of people's preoccupation with the uncertainty of present times, as well as the reflection of the social processes underpinning human action. On the other hand, trust is never absolute, even in family and kin relations, where strong emotions and impending moral obligations may undermine its social nature.
2

THE INVISIBLE BASES OF TRUST HOUSEHOLD PRODUCTION, WORK AND EXCHANGE IN SLOVAKIAN VILLAGE

100%
Torsello D.
Slovenský národopis (Slovak Ethnology)
|
2005
|
vol. 53
|
issue 1
5-19
EN
The paper has considered patterns of household production and distribution in today's village economy and put them in relation to the consumption sphere, labour and interaction between villagers with regard to family land. The kind of choices that people follow are dictated by considerations that go beyond the mere search for profit or a standard of well-being. It is in the ongoing tension between the social and economic dimension of these choices that the meaning of 'household economy' must be sought. Anthropological accounts of peasant economies and their attempts to categorise household practices that otherwise cannot be accounted for by classic economic parameters provide important insights into the family as a basic unit of production, consumption and reproduction. In the case of postsocialist societies these approaches fit very well due to the widespread diffusion of secondary economic activities originating in the late socialist period. In the village, secondary economic practices based on farming household plots and gardens can be traced back to the 1960s.During socialism the importance of managing these plots lay not simply in the villagers' desire to complement their household incomes, but it constituted a matter of social status in the village. However, after socialism this picture has changed slightly. Household farming has remained a crucial economic activity for villagers, but with an increased accent on its economic necessity. Food produced in gardens and through raising animals is consumed within the family and provides important reserves through the whole year. Furthermore, there are families who do sell part of their products grown in small family plots and in gardens. This clearly goes beyond the spirit of a 'subsistence economy' as defined by classic anthropological accounts of household economies almost everywhere in the world. As in cases where gardening and farming on household plots provide important supplements to the family's economy, the management of land, resources and work are conveyed into social strategies even in households where the need for additional sources of domestic provision is not desperately felt. These strategies are aimed at strengthening social ties and trust within the family group. These ties are dictated by precise considerations of the tasks and roles of family members which operate to construct rules of behaviour, obligations and expectations. At this point trust becomes the factor underpinning people's relatedness and the reliability of family members. The social use of land and the sharing of work are two of the several adaptation strategies that people have adopted in order to cope with the changing and unstable reality of Central Eastern Europe.
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