Kintančių bendrumo ribų kontūrai: etniškumo ir religijos sąsajos tyrimo dalyvių požiūriu
LTŠiame skyriuje aptariama, kaip ir kokiais atvejais tyrimo dalyviai etninę tapatybę sieja su religija ir kokios atsiskleidė brėžiamos ribos su „kitu“, t. y. ar ir kaip skirtingų amžiaus grupių atstovai susieja etninę ir religinę tapatybes nusistatydami ribas tarp „sãva“ ir „svetima“ (Barth 1969; Wimmer 2008, 2013; Stroup 2017). Autoriai sutaria, jog tiek religija, tiek etniškumas yra sunkiai apibrėžiami (Stroup 2017), tačiau šiame tekste siekiama atskleisti pačių tyrimo dalyvių požiūrius – kaip jie apibūdina savo religinę tapatybę (stačiatikis, katalikas, krikščionis), ir nesigilinama į konkretų tapatybės turinį (praktikas, dogmas ir pan.). Pagal autorių pasirinktą lauko tyrimo ir informantų atrankos strategiją visi tyrimo dalyviai yra praktikuojantys, tikintys arba priklauso tam tikrai religinei bendruomenei (katalikų arba stačiatikių), todėl etninės tapatybės konstravimas pasitelkiant arba nepasitelkiant religiją šioje monografijoje atliepia katalikais arba stačiatikiais save laikančių asmenų požiūrį. Šiame skyriuje aptariami duomenys surinkti 2019 m. pabaigoje – 2021 m. pabaigoje atliekant lauko tyrimą Vilniuje, Kaune, Visagine, Šalčininkuose, Švenčionyse, Švenčionėliuose, Pabradėje. Skyriuje analizuojama daugiau kaip penkiasdešimt interviu su skirtingo amžiaus ir lyties minėtų vietovių gyventojais, kurių dauguma save apibūdino kaip lenkus bei rusus, tapatinosi su tam tikromis religinėmis bendruomenėmis (katalikų, stačiatikių) ir dalyvavo jų veikloje. Šie duomenys papildomi citatomis iš devyniolikos interviu su tam tikro socialinio statuso ir tam tikrą poziciją užimančiais tyrimo dalyviais (dvasininkais ar kitais su religinėmis institucijomis susijusiais asmenimis). [Iš straipsnio, p. 95]
ENIn the third chapter Kristina Šliavaitė and Monika Frėjutė-Rakauskienė discuss whether and how research participants of different age related their ethnic identity with religion. In making this connection between ethnic identity and religious affiliation we were interested in whether they explicitly drew boundaries between themselves and other ethnic groups (cf. Barth 1969, Wimmer 2008, 2013; Stroup 2017; etc.). The majority of the research participants emphasised ecumenism and the coexistence of Christian religions in Lithuania, and a general feeling of commonality or solidarity between different religious communities (mainly referring to Orthodox and Catholic). Our study reveals that such boundary making could be considered as “porous” (Cheskin, Kachuyevski 2019) in terms of both religious (Catholic and Orthodox) and ethnic criteria. We believe that these dominant attitudes imply that the majority of our study participants do not view religious identity (Orthodox or Catholic) as leading to experiences of inequality (cf. Macey and Carling 2011; Brubaker 2015). However, in terms of identity aspects, religion was not the only category in the construction of identities, i.e., in the context of Lithuanian society, being ‘Orthodox’, ‘Catholic’ or ‘Christian’ were not the main and only markers of identity, nor did they define their relationship with the ‘other’. The participants of the study used religion in the construction of ethnic boundaries, considering ethnic identity together with categories such as origin or language. Thus, the study suggests that the links between religion and ethnicity are context-dependent, social group-dependent, fluid and often not amenable to strict typologies, but can be grasped and named situationally.The period of the collapse of the Soviet Union and the regaining of Lithuanian independence is associated with a turning point and a sharp increase in the number of believers and practitioners, when the Lithuanian population of different ages "discovered" religion (cf. Ališauskienė, Samuilova 2011). The study revealed a difference in the way in which participants who described themselves as Polish Catholic or Russian Orthodox constructed the interaction between religion and ethnicity. In the case of study participants who identified with the Polish-Catholic group, Catholicism was strongly associated with Polishness (cf. Korzeniewska 2013, Savukynas 2003). The practice of religion during the Soviet period was seen in the Polish group as unbroken due to the maintenance of Catholic traditions in families and the community, and at the same time as a way of maintaining togetherness and ethnic identity. In the interviews with Russian Orthodox Christians, the Orthodox religion was more often emphasised as universalising (Stroup 2017), i.e. including and uniting different ethnic groups, but Orthodoxy was also closely associated with Russian culture and identity. The fieldwork data show that, compared to the Polish Catholic group, a higher proportion of Russian Orthodox middle and older generation informants talk about a certain interruption of the religious tradition during the Soviet period, about the transmission of the religious tradition not in the community, but in the family (grandparents to grandchildren), or about independent entry into the Orthodox Church and the community. On the other hand, the participants in the study also testify to the existence of practicing religious Orthodox communities in different areas of Lithuania during the Soviet period. [From the publication p. 230-231]
