Apie santuokos apeigų „valstybinimą“ sovietų Lietuvoje

Abstract

On the ‘Statising’ of Marriage Rites in Soviet Lithuania The article explores marriage rituals in Soviet Lithuania using ethnographic and historical materials. These socially significant life-cycle rites were strategically mobilised by the authoritarian state for ideological propaganda, and for the consolidation of its power and legitimacy. In an effort to make its dominance more pervasive, the Party purposely ‘statised’ marriage rituals, by rendering them secular, investing them with ideologically neutralised ‘folk culture’, and by reconfiguring them aesthetically. ‘Statising’ is discussed as a polyvalent process, which aimed at appropriating and controlling the space-time, or chronotopes, of wedding participants. Their resistive responses directed against the hegemony of the Soviet state are also examined. Key words: marriage rites, Soviet Lithuania, the state, time and space, pluralism of meaning.