The Social Fields of Everyday Exchanges in a Latvian Village

This paper is based on works on social and economic transformations in Post- Soviet societies and field materials, collected in a Latvian village in 2005- 2006, and proposes a classification of typical social fields with corresponding forms of everyday exchanges (relationships) and interpretative categories. This classification is built upon the roles, which alcohol plays in different fields of everyday exchanges. Indefiniteness of interaction situations, produced by superimposition of a new social and economic order on the social fields, inherited from the Soviet history, it is shown, tends to be resolved via redefining the situation by reinterpreting the borders between habitual social fields. The Russian obscenities serve as a powerful interpretative facilitator, permitting negotiating parties to start a search for an acceptable form of exchange on a preconceptual level. Adapted from the source document.