Paper short abstract:

The paper, based on ‘anthropology at home’ aims at description of the forms (resources) of social fear in contemporary Lithuania as well as at identifying the responses to and strategies of reducing those fears via analysing the dominant (majoritarian) perceptions of the particular groups in a society perceived as radical Other( immigrants, new ethnic minorities, new religions).

Paper long abstract:

Lithuania after entering the EU in 2004 is facing an influx of newcomers as immigrants (in particular from Africa), there is also significant grow of new ethnic minorities (in particular from East Asia) and as well as new religions. In many ways such new pluralism is marked by social uncertainty which is a feature of post-socialist Europe. Social fears are vivid expressions of the emotions of uncertainty, pictured by the postsocialist encounter with broad ethnic and religious diversity and otherness. As the emotion of fear is expressed socially it leads to a variety of its socio-cultural constructions. These socio - cultural demonstrations tackle on the major concerns of a society in a form of risks perceived as threatening to the society in general and can lead to collective societal fears.

The paper, based on 'anthropology at home' aims at description of the forms (resources) of social fear in contemporary Lithuania as well as at identifying the responses to and strategies of reducing those fears via analysing the dominant (majoritarian) perceptions of the particular groups in a society perceived as radical Other. Our fieldwork data has revealed particular forms of socio-cultural constructions of fear shaped in: loosing purity/contamination; braking social order; re-distributing of economic and symbolic power. Fieldwork material also shows that ethnic nationalism as well as cultural and religious conservatism/fundamentalism are the most frequently used forms of responses to such framework of fears.