ISSN 2084–1418
The paper edition of the Anthropology of History Yearbook is the definitive version
2012, No. 1 (2), Anthropology / history of the Contemporary World
Barbara Klich-Kluczewska
The Case of Maria from the Area of Bochnia. An Attempt at a Micro-Historical Analysis of an Abortion Court Case from 1949
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Keywords: microhistory, Poland 1945-1956, Stalinism, taboo, trials, abortion
Abstract: The article presents possibilities and limits of adaptation of micro-historical methods to the studies of post-war Polish society on the example of the abortion trial that took place at the threshold of a social transformation of Stalinism era.
The political pressure to eliminate the abortion black market was a part of a broader centrally directed pro-natalist policy of that days, but a detailed record of the action brought against Maria of Bochnia in 1949 is analysed here as a starting point for a reflection on the presence and operation of a taboo within the community (following the concept of pollution and anomalous by Mary Douglas). The main thesis of the article concerns the unique accumulation of taboo processes as a result of the simultaneous existence of preserved traditional methods of "avoiding" subjects of taboo, labelling the phenomenon as a threat by the religious instances and unique physical control by instances of state.
About Author:
BARBARA KLICH-KLUCZEWSKA - historian, adjunct at the Institute of History of the Jagiellonian University in Krakow.
