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Why People Don’t Die ‘Naturally’ any More: Changing Relations Between ‘The Individual’ and ‘The State’ in Post‐Socialist Bulgaria
Author(s) -
Kaneff Deema
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
journal of the royal anthropological institute
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.62
H-Index - 62
eISSN - 1467-9655
pISSN - 1359-0987
DOI - 10.1111/1467-9655.00100
Subject(s) - ideology , state (computer science) , politics , theme (computing) , order (exchange) , context (archaeology) , natural (archaeology) , sociology , political economy , political science , economic system , history , law , economics , archaeology , finance , algorithm , computer science , operating system
This article explores the theme of death as a means of illuminating the changing relationship between ‘the individual’ and ‘the state’ in the context of post‐socialist Bulgaria. Previous research carried out on rituals and socialist society indicates a close connection between state ideology and the socially constructed ‘natural’ order – an order partly reproduced through engagement in state‐sponsored life‐cycle rituals, such as funerals. By focusing on the way in which funerals are presently carried out, and more specifically on the way in which villagers talk about death, I suggest that new discourse reveals important changes: a reordering of the relationship between ‘the individual’ and the socially constructed ‘natural’ order. The state is no longer such a strong mediating force in this relationship. Post‐socialist reform, therefore, involves more than ‘just’ political and economic change; it represents a more general breakdown in the total set of relations that constituted the socialist world.