ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates some particular ways in which dirtiness and cleanliness relate to a sense of progress in Suceava, a progress which elides the passing of historical events and the passing of the generations. Caroline Humphrey looks at material culture in the building of Russian homes, and notes some parallels in the postsocialist situation. In building new villas, people who are considered a part of the bourgeois up-and-coming New Russians attempt to mould the form and fittings of the house to fulfil their lifestyle aspirations, and yet rarely if ever make a successful match. The material culture of the experience of transition in postsocialist countries is thus related to the social interactions around objects. The glib usage of the word ‘market’ in relation to postsocialist countries has been criticized as oversimple, since it may imply that these societies are in the process of a ‘transition’ from socialism to capitalism, involving democracy and a market economy.
