SAMOGITIAN IDENTITY IN THE GLOBALIZED WORLD

Vaidotas Pakalniškis

Summary

       Contemporary Europe is undergoing processes of unification and globalization. More and more, the continent is considered as community of unified countries. Influence of the nation state on European political life has decreased to the minimum. Processes of Euro-integration are strongly influenced by the aspirations of multiculturalism as well as by the discourse of globalization.
       The Samogitian – Lithuanian “Lowlander” – identity, and globalization effects on the selfhood of the Samogitians, as well as related issues, are discussed in the article from the point of view of sociocultural anthropology. The article deals with the transformations of Samogitian identity, explains how Samogitianness coexists with Lithuanianness and how the crash of the bipolar world system has influenced such regional identities as Samogitianness.
       My discussion is based on fieldwork interviews and observations made both in Western Lithuania and elsewhere in the country as well as on literature suggesting that the Samogitians could be considered as an ethno-cultural community, to be defined by Samogitianness. Samogitianness is a category of ethno-cultural identity, which is defined by specific ethnic entities such as language, dialect, origin, history and territory of Samogitia. Ethnic characteristics are supported by several cultural categories such as clothing style, peculiarities of kitchen and architectural styles as well as by several psychological entities such as the way of thinking, way of feeling, and behavioral peculiarities. An important role is played by customs and traditions.
Globalization affects all activities of the Samogitian Cultural Association (SCA), which constitutes and promotes a specific understanding of selfhood and some sort of a model for identity as shaped by the essence of Samogitianness. First of all, Samogitianness as a category of ethno-cultural identity is applied to the inhabitants of the Western part of the Lithuanian state, most of whom are identified as being Samogitians, at least originally.
       Nevertheless, in the global arena, the category of Samogitianness appears as a cultural critique of homogeneity, critique of Lithuanianness as the consequence of nationalistic ideology and national identity model itself. Samogitianness is considered as an opposition to Lithuanianness. At the opposition between Samogitianness and Lithuanianness, the former becomes a high value quality, to be cherished and preserved, while Lithuanianness is left with only a single function, to keep the link with the Lithuanian state. Samogitia and Samogitianness itself become as an alternative to Lithuania, to its current economic hardship. Samogitianness also displays itself as a critique of absolute and extreme Lithuanianness, which manifests through the policy of education with its acceptance of only standard Lithuanian, even at primary schools. Samogitianness is directed against the hegemony of Lithuanianness.
       Due to activities of the SCA, Samogitianness in the identity construction among Western Lithuania inhabitants gradually increases. Not only does Samogitianness determine self-constitution of the Samogitian people, but it helps form new ways of identification. The Samogitians started to define themselves as cosmopolitans or/and Europeans, but at the same time introduced new models of regional identification. After ideas of globalization took over in the ideology of the SCA, they were rapidly distributed to the wider context. Globalization reinforced several transformations of Samogitian identity: new forms of cosmopolitan, European and regional identity were formed. Reaction to globalization produced even racist stereotypes that have reinforced the emergence of xenophobic and conservative-orientated shapes of regionalism. Even the definition of the Samogitian as traced by „common blood“ became popular and alliance “by blood” became critical in the process of identification: “everyone who has “samogitian blood” has a right to call himself Samogitian”.
       The crash of the Soviet system forced a rebirth of small-scale ethnic-based nationalisms. These have led to reemergence of states, which previously existed, as well as influenced the birth of new ones. Processes, which conducted rebirth of Lithuanian nationalism, affected rebirth of Samogitianness as well. Samogitian passivity during the Soviet period is explained by Samogitian elite as a political strategy of solidarity with the Lithuanians: “we were forced to fight against common enemy”. At the end of the Soviet period everyone might go his own way, or, in the words of Samogitians: “we don’t need to fight Russians now, so we can demonstrate our differences, our qualities and we want to lead our own way of life”.

[Lietuvos etnologija - 1 (10)]

© Lithuanian Institute of History, August 22, 2004