On 'Modern' Christians, Consumption, and the Value of National Identity in Post-Soviet Lithuania

Abstract

Following the demise of the Soviet Union, Lithuania has opened up to global systems not only as a competitive consumer market but also as a new sphere of influence for various neo-Protestant charismatic churches. As signifiers of 'modernity,' transnational commodities and religious faiths are especially appealing to younger generations of Lithuanians who use them to redefine the meanings of their selfhood at the present moment of the disorienting 'transition to the West'. Focusing on differential drinking practices at Evangelist weddings, this paper examines the ways in which 'modern' goods, suchas Coca-Cola, become implicated in reconfigurations of Lithuanian national identity and 'tradition' as its significant support. I argue that transnational imports devalue this identity, undermine practices and dispositions perceived as 'traditional,' and create unprecedented intergenerational disjunctures. Simultaneously, imported goods and religions serve as means for constructing 'modern' selves and their concomitant sociabilities. I suggest that transnational forms engender the experience of rupture and estrangement, and at the same time help alleviate that experience. 'Modern' identities produced through such forms may be seen as a strategy for responding to the destabilizing postsocialist 'transition'.