Spirits and Souls of Business

New Russians, Magic and the Esthetics of Kitsch

Dados Bibliográficos

ID2390819
AutoresGalina Lindquist (Stockholm University, autor correspondente)
Ano2002
Volume7
Fascículo3
Páginas329-343
Data de publicação2002-11-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoJournal of Material Culture (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 1359-1835 • E-ISSN: 1460-3586
EditoraSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/135918350200700304
OpenAlexW1968767291
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas12
Referências citadas10

This article considers an instance of magical services in Moscow, where the practitioner adapted western neo-shamanic methods to cater to the problems of the newly rich. The techniques that are ostensibly used for improving business are analyzed as attempts to alter the problematic morality of money making. The semiotic mechanisms of kitsch and magic are compared, and it is suggested that similar mechanisms are involved in the processes of identity construction of the new elites. These semiotic processes are seen as symptomatic of deep changes at the very foundations of cultural cosmologies, resulting from the new openness to the globalized world

Aesthetics · Epistemology · Identity (music · Kitsch · MAGIC (telescope · Morality · Openness to experience · Semiotics · Sociology · Cross-Cultural and Social Analysis · Cultural Differences and Values · Philosophy · Psychology · Religious Studies and Spiritual Practices · Social Psychology