Abstract
In this paper the concept of the boundary of civilizations is discussed on the example of Polish‐Belarusian and Polish‐Ukrainian borderlands. The author starts from the assumption, shared by many historians and sociologists, that civilizations are real cultural entities based on certain long‐lasting patterns of symbolical order. Those patterns are closely related to respective religions like Catholicism and Orthodoxy, but they act even though people's religiosity is weak. The differences between Western Christian and Eastern Christian patterns remain important in a secularized world as well. The author analyses how these civilization differences influence both cross national and political identities in countries, situated on the boundary of civilizations. He shows, in particular, how symbolic patterns shape the identity of Catholic minority in modern Belarus and that of Orthodox minority in today's Poland.
Highlights
The term “civilization” refers to the widest type of cultural and political commonwealth
While defining religion as “symbolic universe” we will refer to these ideas and representations as religious ones
This wide definition, forged by Alfred Schütz (Schütz 1962), is used by some contemporary sociologists, e.g. by Thomas Luckmann and Peter Berger. Luckman expresses it in the following passage: “Symbolic universes are socially objectified systems of meaning referring to the world of everyday life, as well as to the realm of otherworld transcending it” (Luckmann 1996: 77)
Summary
Ann Engelking, who investigated the region of Grodno, writes: “Researcher asking people about differences between Polish and Belarusians in Belarus can hear only on similarities: No, no, all the same but confession, the rest is the same. They interpret it as a return to their authentic identity: “we have always been Belarusian Catholics, but we had a false consciousness of being Polish kolkhoznicks” According to this point of view, Catholicism refers to a certain ideology, like all other confessions: Orthodox, Baptist, or that of Old-believers. These Belarusian Catholics are usually extreme opponents of Łukaszenka and kolkhozes, and strong activists of opposition to the current regime
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