Katherine Verdery

"Over the Past ten Years, as the socialist regimes of Eastern Europe have given way to new political systems, an unusual pattern has emerged. In each country of the former East Bloc, the bodies of revolutionary leaders, heroes, artists and other luminaries, as well as more humble folk, have been taken from their graves - and in many cases repatriated - to be reinterred in new locations. What forces inspired these exhumations of long-dead spirits of Eastern Europe's past, and what are the effects for the living of removing the bones of the dead from their resting places for ceremonial - or unceremonious - reburial? In The Political Lives of Dead Bodies, renowned anthropologist Katherine Verdery examines Eastern Europe's political transformation, exploring the sacred and symbolic ways that people redefine themselves, their history, and their world when new political orders are installed."--BOOK JACKET.

Among the first anthropologists to work in Eastern Europe, Katherine Verdery had built up a significant base of ethnographic and historical expertise when the major political transformations in the region began to take place. In this book, which deals with the aftermath of Soviet-style socialism and the different forms that may replace it, she explores the nature of socialism in order to understand more fully its consequences. By analyzing her primary data from Romania and Transylvania and synthesizing information from other sources, Verdery lends a distinctive anthropological perspective to a variety of themes common to political and economic studies on the end of socialism: themes such as "civil society," the creation of market economies, privatization, national and ethnic conflict, and changing gender relations. Infused by an ethnographic sensibility, the book rejects the assumption of a transition to capitalism in favor of investigating local processes on their own terms.

一九七三年，來自美國的人類學博士生凱薩琳．韋德瑞到羅馬尼亞進行田野調查。她生活在外西凡尼亞一個小村莊，漸漸和當地村民培養出家人般的感情。她以研究當地寫出的著作，更開啟西方國家東歐研究領域先河。然而，隨著九○年代羅馬尼亞共產政權垮臺，她卻從解密檔案中發現：自己曾被當成間諜，受到嚴密監控。國安局中有關她的祕密檔案，多達兩千多頁。 韋德瑞決定深入研究自己的監控檔案，藉以了解監控體制與線民文化。她回溯過去、找出線人，甚至訪問到當年負責監控她的國安局軍官。 然而揭開真相並不容易，甚至令人難堪。過程中，她曾看見自己被偷拍的影像，也曾發現過往深信不疑的人際關係，其實充滿陷阱。有人懷著目的接近她、更有朋友因她而身陷危險。而她與監控軍官的面對面，更是出乎意料之外的經歷。