History, Time, and Economic Crisis in Central Greece (eBook)

Author Daniel M. Knight: Daniel M. Knight is Addison Wheeler Research Fellow in the Department of Anthropology at Durham University, UK.

Contents 6
List of Figures 7
Foreword 8
Acknowledgments 11
CHAPTER 1 Introduction: Prosperity and Crisis 14
History and Crisis: A Theory of Cultural Proximity 16
Michel Serres: A Muse 18
The Greek Economic Crisis (2009–) 24
Initial Local Reactions to Crisis 28
Chapter Overview 31
CHAPTER 2 Ethnography on the Plain of Thessaly 33
Trikala: A Town of Contrasts 36
Spaces of Socialization 39
Away from Asklipiou 42
The Anthropologist’s Home from Home: The Village of Livadi 42
Livelihoods in Trikala 45
Living with a Family in the Field 48
CHAPTER 3 Return of the Tsiflikades: Crisis and Land Tenure 1881–1923 53
Tsiflikia: A Brief History of Changing Social Relations 55
Agrarian Reforms: 1917 Onward 60
The Impact of Anatolian Refugees on Land Reform 63
Return of the Tsiflikades:The Temporality of Land in the Current Economic Crisis 65
The First Example of Cultural Proximity 73
CHAPTER 4 Hungry with the Same Famine 76
The 1941–43 Great Famine 77
Famine in Trikala? 80
A Tale of Two Cities: Dimitris Psathas and Dimitra Papafotis 84
Food and Crisis in Trikala 91
Conclusion 94
CHAPTER 5 Things to Forget, Things to Remember: The Greek Civil War 96
Civil War Trikala 96
“Greek Crisis”: Remembering and Forgetting the Civil War 102
Selective Proximity 109
CHAPTER 6 Public Faces: Food and Protest in the Current Crisis 112
Money Eating 113
The Humble Vegetable 116
The 1973 Polytechnic Uprising: “Bread, Education, Freedom” 119
Futuristic Policy and Protest 121
Food and Suicide: The Proximity of the Stock Market Crash 123
Suicide in the Twenty-First Century Economic Crisis 129
In Lieu of Conclusion 130
CHAPTER 7 Transforming the Public Sphere 131
Reassessing the Public Sphere 132
Public Sphere in Times of Crisis 134
Collective Defiance and Solidarity 137
Escapism, Collective Suffering, and Blame 141
Culture Change? 148
CHAPTER 8 Status in Crisis 151
2008 Beach Odyssey 153
Social Status in Prosperity and Crisis 156
The Cases of Andreas and Yannis 159
“Show Me the Money”: Cars, Clothes, and Vacations 163
Accommodating Crisis 167
Conclusions 172
CHAPTER 9 Conclusions: Past, Future, and Beyond 175
All in the Detail: A Final Remark on Cultural Proximity and the Role of History 179
Notes 183
Chapter 1 183
Chapter 2 184
Chapter 3 186
Chapter 4 188
Chapter 5 190
Chapter 6 191
Chapter 7 192
Chapter 8 194
Bibliography 197
Index 214