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3 Being “One’s Own” in Solovyovo
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Paxson.050-085 8/16/05 10:36 AM Page 50 ,r ,r 3 Paxson.050-085 8/16/05 10:36 AM Page 51 [3.91.8.23] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 18:17 GMT) Memory is part of cognitive empowering and a means to being; it is developed through social interaction; it is medium as well as message. —ELIZABETH TONKIN, NARRATING OUR PASTS (1992:112) 52 INTRODUCTION: SOCIAL CIRCLES * * * The eye for physical geography seeks shifting patterns in physical landscapes , such as the places where hills rise and fall, where water drains and flows, and where there are trees or grasses or wildlife. The eye for social geography seeks clusters of people engaged in some shared activity , such as working together, living or sleeping together; distributing resources; passing knowledge down or over; evoking transcendent worlds. The shape of the social circles that form and reform creates a telling landscape. In this chapter, I map social space with this in mind: that “social identification and organization”—as they “tend to fixity” (Tonkin 1992:110–111)—set the foundation for social memory. The categories that emerge in this chapter will serve as reference points throughout this work. 3 Being “One’s Own” in Solovyovo Paxson.050-085 8/16/05 10:36 AM Page 52 Before proceeding, there are three Russian terms that must be introduced . Together, they lie at the heart of modern Russian social organization , and will be of tremendous importance in the entire analysis of social memory that follows. The first is the term svoi (f. svoia, n. svoe) translated most directly as “one’s own.” Being svoi can mean being a member of one’s immediate or extended family, a co-villager, a dear friend, a compatriot. The term svoi is a marker for belonging of a wide range of types. Throughout this work, I will refer to categories of belonging with all their range of sizes, shapes, and qualities, as “svoi-formations.” The second term, chuzhoi (f. chuzhaia), is the opposite of svoi. It refers to being a stranger—one who is a foreigner or outsider. It can be a person from another family or village or region or country. That which is chuzhoi is, most fundamentally, “someone else’s,” and the dangers associated with that which is chuzhoi will be treated at some length in the course of this book. Finally, rodnoi (f. rodnaia) is akin to svoi in its evocative range. The definition for rodnoi is first “own,” and then “native; home; intimate; familiar.” The root of rodnoi is the very productive term rod, or family line, which ranges in meaning from “family, kin, clan, birth, origin, stock, generation, genus, sort, kind.” There is a relationship between the sense of being rodnoi, and that of coming from the same rodina , or motherland, or being from the same narod, or people. But the term is far from being simply descriptive of affiliation; it has a profound set of emotions associated with it. A person who is rodnoi can feel as close as one’s flesh and blood, and there is perhaps no dearer term for a beloved than moi rodnoi. It is a word with earth and soil in it, as well as ancestral rootedness. Each of these terms is broadly generative. Each comes with a set of feelings and associations. Each—with its particular pastiche of trust and belonging—expands and contracts according to the social context in which it is realized. SOLOVYOVO’S SENSE OF SVOI * * * Residence in the Dvor In Solovyovo, entering the home of a villager requires passing over several thresholds. One walks through the gate of the fence that encloses the tangled garden; through the front door that encloses the porch where tools, pails of water, just-picked mushrooms and berries and milk to be sold are stored; beyond the porch door which leads to the living space of BEING “ONE’S OWN” IN SOLOV YOVO 53 Paxson.050-085 8/16/05 10:36 AM Page 53 animals and people—which is barred at night to keep out drunks and wolves; and finally one arrives at the door to the living quarters, the most important threshold that requires subtle rituals of protection. One knocks and calls out, “Anna Ivana! I have come to see you! May I enter ?” The door opens to the figure of Anna Ivanovna (or Fedor Sergeevich or Larisa Andreevna), and beyond the figure is, perhaps, an entryway ; a large brick stove, painted white...