Hunters, Gatherers, and Practitioners of Powerlessness

Download or read book Hunters, Gatherers, and Practitioners of Powerlessness written by Tomasz Rakowski and published by Berghahn Books. This book was released on 2016-10-01 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The socio-economic transformations of the 1990s have forced many people in Poland into impoverishment. Hunters, Gatherers, and Practitioners of Powerlessness gives a dramatic account of life after this degradation, tracking the experiences of unemployed miners, scrap collectors, and poverty-stricken village residents. Contrary to the images of passivity, resignation, and helplessness that have become powerful tropes in Polish journalism and academic writing, Tomasz Rakowski traces the ways in which people actively reconfigure their lives. As it turns out, the initial sense of degradation and helplessness often gives way to images of resourcefulness that reveal unusual hunting-and-gathering skills.