Torsello, Davide - Pappová, Melinda: Social Networks in Movement. Time, interaction and interethnic spaces in Central Eastern Europe - Nostra Tempora 8. (Somorja-Dunaszerdahely, 2003)

Interaction, migration and change

Property, power, and emotions 229

12. Property, power, and emotions. Social dynamics in a Bohemian village1

Maruška Svašek

Property: Subjects, objects, and emotions

In the past eleven years, one of the major political issues in post-socialist Europe has been the privatisation and restitution of former state-owned property. Several anthropologists, who all regard ownership as a multi-dimensional socio-cultural phenomenon, have explored this process in a number of different countries.2 Chris Hann (1998: 34), for example, noted that:

A concern with property relations requires investigations into the total distributions of rights and entitlements within society, of material things and of knowledge and symbols. It