Farewell to a Nomad: The Anthropological Thinking of Wojciech Burszta (1957–2021) Cover Image

Pożegnanie nomady. Antropologiczne pomyślenia Wojciecha Burszty (1957–2021)
Farewell to a Nomad: The Anthropological Thinking of Wojciech Burszta (1957–2021)

Author(s): Mariusz Czubaj
Subject(s): Studies of Literature, Cultural Anthropology / Ethnology, Nationalism Studies, Sociology of Culture, Obituary
Published by: Instytut Studiów Politycznych PAN
Keywords: cultural anthropology; cultural studies; metaculture; pop culture; pop nationalism; literature;

Summary/Abstract: The author limns an intellectual portrait of the cultural specialist and anthopologist Wojciech Józef Burszta (1957–2021), who died at the beginning of 2021. Burszta’s reflections centered on the “post-anthropological” shape of contemporaneity. Such thinking involved, on the one hand, relinquishing the idea of culture as a cohesive, harmonious system (ideas close to the symbolic anthropology of Clifford Geertz), and on the other, the increasing awareness of “being in culture,” of the possession and appropriation of culture by the community, individuals, and institutions (Burszta described these processes as “metaculture”). In addition to popular culture and pop nationalism, another important area of interest for Burszta was literature—an essentially anti-systemic reverse of anthropological reflections on reality.

  • Issue Year: 65/2021
  • Issue No: 1
  • Page Range: 171-180
  • Page Count: 10
  • Language: Polish