On the Love of Pure Vodka and the Postsocialist « Progress » of the Lithuanian Nation
Focusing on the urban wedding as its main ethnographic setting, this essay examines Lithuanian consumers’ « loving » relationship with domestic brands of vodka or degtinė. Drinkers’ affective disposition toward degtinė is discussed in relation to the ongoing « re-domestication » of this popular national beverage produced with new technologies identified as Western and progressive. Invoking « ancient » tradition and « eminent » history, as well as manipulating metaphors of purity and naturalness, « loveable » brands of domestic vodka speak to local desires of national oneness and distinction. Simultaneously, and paradoxically, such brands enable consumers to construct imaginaries and identities seen to be more global and modern. In contemporary Lithuania, degtinė drinking reveals how encroaching global modernity creates sameness, and how at once it becomes implicated in the reproduction of local distinctiveness defined in nationalist terms. The essay also argues that « loveable » vodka brands constitute significant means for marking and effecting post socialist change perceived to be positive.