Hierarchy and Pluralism: Living Religious Difference in Catholic Poland

by A. Pasieka

Overview

What is the place of pluralism in the context of a dominant religion? How does the perception of religion as “tradition” and “culture” affect pluralism? Why do minorities’ demands for recognition often transform into exclusion? Through her ethnography of a multireligious community in rural Poland, Agnieszka Pasieka demonstrates how we can better understand the nature of pluralism by examining how it is lived and experienced within a homogenous society. Painting a vivid picture of everyday interreligious sociability, Pasieka reveals the constant balance of rural inhabitants between ideas of sameness and difference, and the manifold ways in which religion informs local cooperation, relations among neighbors and friends, and common attempts to “make pluralism.” The book traces these developments through several decades of the community’s history, unveiling and exposing the paradoxes inscribed into the practice and discourse of pluralism and complex processes of negotiation of social identities.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781137500526
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan US
Publication date:	03/18/2015
Series:	Contemporary Anthropology of Religion
Edition description:	2015
Pages:	261
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Agnieszka Pasieka is a research fellow at the University of Vienna, Austria.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Seven Ways to God PART I: MAPPING RELIGIOUS PLURALISM 1. Poland: A History of Pluralism 2. Making Pluralism: The People and the Place PART II: PLURALIZING THE PAST 3. Caroling History: Heteroglossic Narratives and Religious Boundaries 4. Religion and Memories of Socialism PART III: ACTING UPON LOCALITY 5. The Different and the Common: About Multireligious Neighborhoods 6. Debating Pluralism Conclusions: Challenging Hierarchical Pluralism

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"In a masterful study of pluralism and religion in Poland, Pasieka's intensive ethnographic work shows how, in the context of continued and sometimes sharp boundaries defined by religion and ethnicity, ordinary villagers construct their own, pluralistic social worlds not nullifying those boundaries but allowing overlapping and shifting friendships and cooperation to flourish." - John R. Bowen, Dunbar-Van Cleve Professor in Arts and Sciences, Washington University, St. Louis, USA; author of Why the French Don't Like Headscarves (2006)

"Pasieka manages to bring to life not only the complex social, religious, and cultural relations shaping daily life in the region, but actually shows how diversity and pluralism, as social constructs and normative political projects are experienced and performed by inhabitants of the region. The rich ethnography, which is theoretically grounded and historically situated, ultimately allows the author to make convincing claims about broader issues relatedto ethnic and religious pluralism, issues currently at the heart of contemporary political and academic debates." - Genevieve Zubrzycki, Associate Professor of Sociology, Director of the Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies, and Director of the Copernicus Program in Polish Studies, University of Michigan, USA

Editorial Reviews

"In a masterful study of pluralism and religion in Poland, Pasieka's intensive ethnographic work shows how, in the context of continued and sometimes sharp boundaries defined by religion and ethnicity, ordinary villagers construct their own, pluralistic social worlds not nullifying those boundaries but allowing overlapping and shifting friendships and cooperation to flourish." - John R. Bowen, Dunbar-Van Cleve Professor in Arts and Sciences, Washington University, St. Louis, USA; author of Why the French Don't Like Headscarves (2006)

"Pasieka manages to bring to life not only the complex social, religious, and cultural relations shaping daily life in the region, but actually shows how diversity and pluralism, as social constructs and normative political projects are experienced and performed by inhabitants of the region. The rich ethnography, which is theoretically grounded and historically situated, ultimately allows the author to make convincing claims about broader issues related to ethnic and religious pluralism, issues currently at the heart of contemporary political and academic debates." - Genevieve Zubrzycki, Associate Professor of Sociology, Director of the Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies, and Director of the Copernicus Program in Polish Studies, University of Michigan, USA

From the Publisher