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Values of honourable courtship are expressed in dance and this paper is an ethnographic reconstruction of a Greek island dance called the sousta practised on the Dodecanesian island of Rhodes during the interwar period (1925-1940). Its performance was a dynamic interplay of gender roles that mediated romance and moved the performers toward the resolution of marriage. The aim of the paper is to elaborate on values ascribed to men and women during the occasion of dancing at a village wedding in southern Rhodes. The interplay of grace (hari) and honour (timi) will locate why and how men reveal through hari and why women are concealed through timi during the dance performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Trikala, central Greece, specific historical events significantly inform understandings of the present economic crisis through what is termed “cultural proximity”. This is the notion that previous times of social and economic turmoil, apparently distant points in time, are embodied within the context of the present. Some past epochs of prosperity and crisis have proved more significant than others in shaping contemporary crisis experience. As accounts of the Great Famine of 1941–1943 are brought to the fore by the current economic crisis, concepts of lineal time and the nationalization of critical events must be interrogated. Through considering theories of time as proposed by Michel Serres, this paper addresses how specific historical events can become embodied during the current economic crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper focuses on dream-experiences and dream-narratives as sites of creativity and agency. Through the ethnographic exploration of dreams recounted to me mainly by informants in Thessaloniki, Greece I will argue that dreams are means of making sense of the world in a relational and intersubjective manner, as well as instances of the human capacity to invent new forms and ëoriginal figurationsi. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the nationalist character of divine interventions that marked Greek society during critical periods. In order to analyze the diachronic structure and the variety of such interventions that can occasionally even convey an anti-Greek meaning, distant and more recent events of Greek history will be discussed. It will be shown that the warrior saints, who are predominantly male characters, are presented as able to assist the Greek warriors against the national (or the local) enemy. The key figure of the Virgin seems to retain her female attributes and to waver between two different positions, one of inferiority and one of superiority: perceived as a female character who may need protection, she can also guarantee ultimate victory for the Greeks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the nationalist character of divine interventions that marked Greek society during critical periods. In order to analyse the diachronic structure and the variety of such interventions that can occasionally even convey an anti-Greek meaning, distant and more recent events of Greek history will be discussed. It will be shown that the warrior saints, who are predominantly male characters, are presented as able to assist the Greek warriors against the national (or the local) enemy. The key figure of the Virgin seems to retain her female attributes and to waver between two different positions, one of inferiority and one of superiority: perceived as a female character who may need protection, she can also guarantee ultimate victory for the Greeks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the interrelations between politics and music as they appear in the ongoing debate about the rebetiko genre, within the intellectual circles of the left-wing movement in the post-war era. Through the analysis of the rebetika texts and biographical material, the ambivalent attitude of the Greek Left movement about the political context and the class affiliation of rebetiko are exposed. The Left saw popular music as a pedagogic means for inculcating class-consciousness among the masses and promoting optimistic utopian images of a possible communist future. In the framework of this politically motivated consideration, the attempt of left-wing intellectuals to interpret and evaluate the rebetiko genre led to various ambivalences and controversies within the Left movement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In five villages of Northern Greece, the communities of the Anastenaria have a long tradition of fire-walking rituals. The Anastenaria are Orthodox Christians, and their rituals are performed in honour of saints Constantine and Helen. However, the majority of Greek scholars have argued that these rituals originate from the ancient orgiastic cults of Dionysus. This theory was intentionally designed to serve specific political agendas, namely to prove the continuity of Greek civilization from ancient to modern Greece. Despite lacking any evidentiary support whatsoever, it became the dominant view of the Anastenaria for more than a century and has heavily influenced not only the ethnographic representation of this tradition but also the tradition itself. This article explores ethnographic practice in the context of the Anastenaria, its effects on this tradition, and the implications for further anthropological research on the subject. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ruins of an ancient Greek temple on a Cycladic island form part of an Orthodox Christian shrine. To local people and returning migrants, the site is that of their patron saint; its pre-Christian past is irrelevant except in so far as it establishes their specific link with the ancient world, and thus with national claims of unbroken continuity between modern and ancient Greece. To early travellers and antiquarians, and to today's archaeologists, it has been primarily the ancient site which is of interest, while tourists are more concerned in finding “an unspoilt island”. A historical survey of information about the ancient and the Christian site reveals ambiguities and confusions about both. These multiple meanings for locals and scholars are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the transformations occurring in the context of Greek industry by paying special attention to the shipbuilding sector. In recent years, the economic crisis created extensive structural problems, acute deindustrialization, rising unemployment and a context of declining investment as well as employment uncertainty. Through the ethnographic research conducted in a workplace located at Piraeus, the author attempts to show the effects of these processes on the qualitative characteristics of labor relations as the latter are embedded in the strategies of supranational decision makers and mediated by the policies adopted by the Greek state regarding these issues. Finally, it is argued that local actors follow strategies and make decisions taking into account the asymmetrical context within which they are involved in order to make their lives possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the tangled question of continuity and change from the point of view of ritual. It brings together in dialogue recent theoretical approaches to ritual in anthropology with several examples of diachronic studies of Greek death practices. It points to the importance of focusing on questions of "form" in ritual practices—that is, "how" rituals work and are transmitted, more or less completely, from one generation to the next. It also considers the importance of historical consciousness, in particular the notion of "changing continuities", in understanding some of the existential ways that ritual addresses common human experiences of temporality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]