Suchergebnisse

A review essay on books by: Walter C. Clemens, Jr., Baltic Independence and Russian Empire (New York, NY: St Martin's Press, 1991); Dietrich Andre Loeber, V. Stanley Vardys, & Laurence P. A. Kitching, Regional Identity under Soviet Rule: The Case of the Baltic States (Hackettstown, NJ: Assoc for the Advancement of Baltic Studies, 1990); Toivo U. Raun, Estonai and the Estonians ([second edition] Stanford: Hoover Institution Press, 1991); Alfred Erich Senn, Lithuanian Awakening (Berkeley, CA: U of California Press, 1990); & Antanas J. Van Reenan, Lithuanian Diaspora: Konigsberg to Chicago (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1990 [see listings in IRPS No. 87]). These books on the situation of the post-Soviet Baltic states stimulates a discussion on the relationship between state building & ethnic consciousness. It is argued that the historically enforced subordination of the Baltic people to powerful neighbors, eg, Poland, Germany, & Russia, has catalyzed fear of cultural & religious extinction. Therefore, the Baltic states have sought sovereignty as a means of preserving their culture rather than seeking independence as a necessary end in itself. However, a diverse range of religious & ethnic subgroups exist within these states, & these subgroups are also willing to fight for independence if faced with extinction. It is suggested that military, political, & diplomatic relations have all been shaped by the need to ensure the safety of linguistic & cultural tradition. Therefore, it is concluded that state building must be seen as a product of ethnic consciousness, & that intellectuals must understand the historical link between these two factors in order to better predict & transform the future of the Baltic states. 5 References. T. Sevier

The households of traditional eastern Europe were frequently complex, containing a variety of kin beyond the members of the head's conjugal family unit. In these households, the domain of family roles was fused with the domain of kin roles. The interaction between the household and the kin group therefore means, in these coresidential units, the interaction of different role domains, and to understand this interaction we have to know more about the nature of each domain and more about how roles were enacted. This appears to be the next step in micro-level structural research for Eastern Europe.