Simmel and Slovak Village Shops

BÚRIKOVÁ, Zuzana. Simmel and Slovak Village Shops. In Departmental seminars in Anthropology. 2006.

Basic information

• Original name: Simmel and Slovak Village Shops
• Name in Czech: Simmel a Slovenské dedinské obchody
• Authors: BÚRIKOVÁ, Zuzana (703 Slovakia, guarantor).
• Edition: Departmental seminars in Anthropology, 2006.

Other information

• Original language: English
• Type of outcome: Requested lectures
• Field of Study: Archaeology, anthropology, ethnology
• Country of publisher: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
• Confidentiality degree: is not subject to a state or trade secret
• RIV identification code: RIV/00216224:14230/06:00036114
• Organization unit: Faculty of Social Studies
• Keywords (in Czech): Simmel; obchod; spotreba; nakupovanie
• Keywords in English: Simmel; Shop; Consumption; Shopping
• Tags: consumption, Shop, shopping, Simmel
• Tags: International impact

Abstract

From the viewpoint of the villagers, the past shops were historically interlinked with otherness and outside, embodied either by the Jewish shop and innkeepers or by the socialist state. Drawing on broader ethnographic research concerning retail and shopping , this paper will explore how shops conceived of and conceptualised today, when there is no stranger (Simmel 1971) there, and the shops are owned and operated mostly by the villagers themselves. Overall the wider theoretical concern of the paper is to demonstrate that the more simplistic dualism that asserts modern commerce as somehow intrinsically opposed to spirituality and the construction of village community (Simmel 1978, 1991) needs to be reconsidered. In this paper I shall argue that there are many ways in which the shops and the activity of shopping do not oppose but actually complement and contribute to the project through which the village attempts to construct itself as a viable and in many ways holistic community. Rather the shops and its products are seen as forms that can be appropriated and manipulated and provide the substance for this larger task.

Abstract (in Czech)

Z pohľadu dedinčanov boli obchody v minulosti asociované s inakosťou, ktorú predstvovali židovskí obchodníci alebo socialistický štát. Prednáška, ktorá vychádza z etnografického výskumu predaja a nakupovania sleduje, ako sú obchody vnímané v súčasnosti, keď v obchodoch nie je žiaden cudzinec (Simmel 1971) a ich vlastníkmi (aj predavačmi) sú miestni obyvatelia. Cieľom prednášky je demonštrovať, že dualizmus medzi moderným obchodom a duchovnosťou treba prehodnotiť - na etnografickom materiály ukážem, že obchody, tovary v nich, predaj a nakupovanie môžu v skutočnosti prispieť k vytváraniu dedinskej komunity a kresťanskej spirituality.