SUMMARY:

Supporting the general idea of Katherine Verdery’s presidential address, the director of the Institute of European Ethnology at Humboldt University, Wolfgang Kaschuba, presents his thoughts on the new role of cultural anthropology in the region. He advocates cultural-anthropological consulting, because during the period of post-Soviet transition, neither political institutions, nor cultural memory nor a network of shared values were able to moderate social conflicts and coordinate social processes. The dialogical nature of anthropology makes it a valuable “cultural resource” for all those involved in the social-political transformation. At the same time, this situation presents a test for anthropology: will it be able to account for the other type of “modernity” characteristic of the region (different concepts of the individual, justice, different gender stratification, etc.)? New tasks should influence the method of anthropological field work. On the basis of his research experience in the region, Kaschuba questions the assumption of the political neutrality of anthropology: because of the history of the region, the focus of anthropologists on understanding is interpreted by the population as a controlling “policing” scrutiny (“Polizeiblick”). Kaschuba also warns against the linguistic Russo-centrism of cultural anthropology, which has to change its practices in the region and study “cultures” in their own languages. Finally, his major critical comments deal with Verdery’s interpretation of European ethnology and Soviet ethnography as the descendants of the same nationalizing ideological discourse. He describes contemporary European “ethnology” as being even more culture-oriented and self-reflective than American cultural anthropology.