Russia, Anthropology in Alymovs Sokolovskiys Final

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Russia, Anthropology in Alymovs Sokolovskiys Final Russia, anthropology in Sergei Sokolovskiy Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology, RAS [email protected] Sergei Alymov Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology, RAS [email protected] Abstract The entry provides the description of the main periods in the history of Russian anthropology from the early 18th c. to the present time, with special attention to Soviet and post-Soviet periods, its institutional structure, current subdivisions into sub-disciplines and research fields, thematic differentiation, area specializations, and current development trends. Suggested Keywords: Russian anthropology, Soviet anthropology, history of anthropology, anthropological sub-disciplines, area studies Main Text The 18th Century Although travelogues as well as information about exotic peoples existed in medieval Russian state, the beginning of scientific systematic collection of this information can be traced back in Russia to the establishment of the Academy of Sciences by Peter the Great in 1725. The age of Enlightenment, ushered by Peter, was also a period of “great academic expeditions” which carried on throughout the 18th century. The most well known of them were the expedition of Daniel Gottlieb Messerschmidt to Siberia (1720-1727), the Great Northern Expedition, headed by naval explorer Vitus Jonassen Bering; with an “academic troop” including Gerhard Friedrich Müller and Johann Georg Gmelin (1733-1743). The “Physical Expedition” headed by Peter Simon Pallas traversed Southern Russia and Siberia from the Orenburg steppes to the Transbaikal region (1768-1774). The Southern borders of the Empire were also studied by the Orenburg expedition, which featured the famous Russian historian Vasilii Tatishchev among its organizers. These expeditions were aimed at collecting all kinds of knowledge mainly about natural resources of empire’s vast periphery. They studied mineral, botanical, and water resources, made geographical maps, discovered new routes. The works, which resulted from these expeditions, also depicted the diversity of peoples and languages they encountered. The findings of the expeditions were conveyed to the imperial authorities in numerous maps and memos. The scientific results were also published in German, Russian, and French languages. According to Vermeulen (2015), one of the main outcomes of these expeditions was the genesis of ethnography or ethnology as “research programs” which later resulted in the inception of the term “ethnology”. The German historian Gerhard Friedrich Müller (1705-1783) joined the Academy in Saint Petersburg in 1725, and was enlisted in the Bering expedition to study Siberia’s history and geography. He collected huge amount of information about the peoples of this land, only part of which was published in his “History of Siberia”. Müller also suggested terms for a new scientific field such as “history of peoples” (historia gentium) and “description of peoples” (Völker-Beschreibung). These terms were probably the prototypes for the terms 1 ethnographia, coined by Müller’s associate August Ludwig Schlözer and his colleagues at Göttingen in the 1760-70s. One of the major influences behind this development was philosopher Leibniz’s idea of historical linguistics as evidence for the “origins of nations”, applied by Müller to his Siberian material. Apart from Müller’s conceptualizations, the age of great expeditions yielded the first systematic ethnographic description of the peoples of the empire. Its author, doctor and naturalist Johann Gottlieb Georgi’s (1729-1777) took part in the “Physical Expedition” and published his “Description of All Peoples Living in the Russian State” in Saint Petersburg in 1776-77. He used both his own field observations and works of his predecessors. He also personally consulted Müller and other academics. The book was a series of essays on peoples of European Russia, Siberia, the Caucasus and Central Asia, classified according to their linguistic affinity. Each essay was organized in a similar way and contained information on a people’s name, territory, history, physical type, laws, way of life, material culture, mores etc. The first half of the 19th century saw the continuation of geographical explorations – now including territories of the Americas, Pacific and the Far East. The influence of Romanticism contributed to the development of folklore collection and interest in the life of Russian peasantry. Such scholars as Ivan Snegirev (1797-1868), Ivan Sakharov (1807-1863) and Aleksandr Tereshchenko (1806-1865) published collections songs, proverbs etc., and their analysis. First Institutions The institutionalisation of ethnography as a discipline in Russia is usually dated 1845, when the Imperial Russian Geographical Society with a department of statistics and ethnography was established. This establishment was effected amidst the struggle between two factions: academics and naval officers mostly of German origin and the “Russian faction”, supported by the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The first years of its existence the department of ethnography was controlled by the naturalist Karl von Baer who advocated its tasks in terms of the study of human “races” with a focus on non-Russian periphery. He is also viewed as the first Russian biological anthropologist who classified crania in Kunstkamera collection and published papers on craniology. Baer’s vision was challenged by the philologist and literary critic Nikolai Nadezhdin (1804-1856). He took up the lead in the department in 1848. In the first published statement of the tasks of Russian ethnography “About the ethnographic study of the Russian nationality” (1847) Nadezhdin presented his view, based on the tradition of Herder and Schelling, who considered humanity as divided into “distinct nations, each one animated by a unique and immutable essence which revealed itself in the creative expression of common folk” (Knight 1998). His vision of Romantic nationalism combined with belief in the ability of ethnography to reveal and present this “essence” in scientific terms. Under Nadezhdin the department of ethnography carried out a vast survey of Russian folklore and traditions based on questionnaires, completed by local correspondents. Most interesting answers were published by the IRGO or were included in Aleksandr Afanasiev’s famous collection “Russian Folktales”. The society also published the first ethnographical map of the Russian Empire (1851), prepared by Peter Köppen. The institutionalization of physical/biological anthropology in Russia also took place in a learned society – in this case, the Society of Amateurs of Natural Sciences, established in 1863 at the Moscow University. In the following year a department of anthropology was created there, and in 1867 it was renamed as “The Imperial Society of Amateurs of Natural Sciences, Anthropology and Ethnography” (OLEAE). The driving force behind this institution for the first several decades was professor of zoology at the Moscow University Anatolii Bogdanov (1834- 1896), who’s specialization in anthropology was craniology. He organized systematic archaeological excavations of burial hills in Moscow region and authored the first Russian monograph in biological anthropology titled “The Materials for the Anthropology of the Burial 2 Hills Period in Moscow region” (1867). In 1879 the Society opened an international Anthropological Exhibition and congress in Moscow, which firmly placed Russia on the map of the world anthropology. In 1889 OLEAE started the first Russian ethnographical journal “Etnograficheskoe obozrenie” (Ethnographical Review). The journal was meant to publish folklore and ethnographic materials collected by intelligentsia in the provinces, including political exiles, along with papers of famous scholars. In 1887 chairs in geography and ethnography were established at natural sciences divisions of the Moscow and Saint-Petersburg universities. Although lectures in ethnography featured in the curriculum, it was oriented towards physical anthropology. Dmitrii Anuchin (1843-1923) held the chair in Moscow. A student of Bogdanov, in the 1870s he studied with Pierre-Paul Broca (1824-1880), Paul Topinard (1830-1911), and Rudolf Virchow (1830-1902). During his long career he produced a range of anthropological studies, the most influential among them was “About the geographical distribution of the body height of the male population of Russia” (1889). Anuchin taught the next generation of Moscow anthropologists and ethnographers (Vladimir Bogdanov, Viktor Bunak, Boris Kuftin and others). The first lecturer of anthropology at Saint-Petersburg University was Eduard Gottlieb Petri (1854-1899), a descendant from a Livonian Swedish family, who received his medical education in Bern. His lectures “Anthropology” were published in two volumes in 1890 and 1895 and became the first course book on the subject in Russian. In 1888 the Russian Anthropological Society at the Saint-Petersburg University was established (Mogilner 2013). It became the mouthpiece of the school of anthropologists since 1907 lead by Fyodor Volkov (Vovk) (1847-1918), a Ukrainian national activist, anthropologist, archaeologist, and ethnographer, born in Poltava province in the Southern Russia/Ukraine. After 25 year of exile, which he spent mostly in Paris, he was allowed to return to the Russian Empire and teach anthropology and ethnography at the Saint-Petersburg University. In 1916 he published his essays on the anthropology and ethnography of Ukrainians, which became not only valuable contribution
Recommended publications
  • The Eskimo Language Work of Aleksandr Forshtein
    Alaska Journal of Anthropology Volume 4, Numbers 1-2 The Eskimo Language Work of Aleksandr Forshtein Michael E. Krauss Alaska Native Language Center, University of Alaska Fairbanks, AK 99775, ff [email protected] Abstract: Th e paper focuses on another aspect of the legacy of the late Russian Eskimologist Aleksandr Forshtein (1904-1968), namely his linguistic materials and his publications in Eskimo languages and early Russian/Soviet school programs in Siberian Yupik. During the 1930s, the Russians launched an impressive program in developing writing systems, education, and publication in several Native Siberian languages. Forshtein and his mentor, Waldemar Bogoras, took active part in those eff orts on behalf of Siberian Yupik. Th e paper reviews Forshtein’s (and Bogoras’) various contributions to Siberian Yupik language work and language documentation. As it turned out, Forshtein’s, as well as Bogoras’ approach had many fl aws; several colleagues of Forshtein achieved better results and produced alternative writing systems for Siberian Yupik language. Th is review of the early Russian language work on Siberian Yupik is given against the backdrop of many colorful personalities involved and of the general conditions of Russian Siberian linguistics during the 1920s and the 1930s. Keywords: A.S. Forshtein, V.G. Bogoraz, K.S. Sergeeva, E. P. Orlova, Yuit Th is paper that evaluates the Eskimo language work of forced me to compromise a freedom taken for granted on Aleksandr Semenovich Forshtein (1904-1968) must begin this side. with a painfully confl icted apology. In the early 1980’s I was invited by Isabelle Kreindler of Haifa University to contrib- Furthermore, I feel the need to warn the reader to bear ute a paper to a collection on Soviet linguists executed or with me that in the recent process of research for the present interned by Stalinist repression in the former USSR during paper, I was repeatedly faced with new discoveries and re- the years 1930-1953 (Kreindler 1985).
    [Show full text]
  • LEV IAKOVLEVICH SHTERNBERG: at the OUTSET of SOVIET ETHNOGRAPHY1 Anna A. Sirina and Tat'iana P. Roon Introduction the Works Of
    First published in “Jochelson, Bogoras and Shternberg: A Scientific Exploration of Northeastern Siberia and the Shaping of Soviet Ethnography”, edited by Erich Kasten, 2018: 207 – 264. Fürstenberg/Havel: Kulturstiftung Sibirien. — Electronic edition for www.siberien-studies.org LEV IAKOVLEVICH SHTERNBERG: 8 AT THE OUTSET OF SOVIET ETHNOGRAPHY1 Anna A. Sirina and Tat‘iana P. Roon Introduction The works of Lev Iakovlevich Shternberg, the eminent Russian and Soviet scientist, accomplished theoretical evolutionist, professor, and corresponding member of the Soviet Academy of Sciences (from 1924), are well known by present day historians, ethnographers and anthropologists. An active public figure, he was engaged in the ethnography of the peoples of the Russian Far East and in Jewish ethnography. His acquaintance through correspondence with Friedrich Engels played a not insignificant role in his prominence: Engels wrote to Shternberg, having become acquainted with his discovery of group marriages amongst the Gilyak (or Nivkh) people (Shternberg et al. 1933; Shternberg 1933b: xvii-xix; see also Marx and Engels 1962, vol. 22: 364–367). This “discovery,” as with his description of other features of the Nivkh (Gilyak) social order, made on the Island of Sakhalin, was the beginning of his scientific activities. Over the period of his eight-year administrative exile he gathered unique field mate- rial on the language, folklore and social and religious life of the Nivkh. The results of his research were published in Russia beginning as early as 1893 (Shternberg 1893a; 1895; 1896). A considerable amount has been written on Lev Shternberg: obituaries, including ones in foreign journals,2 articles by ethnographers, archeologists, museologists and historians of science.3 Of particular interest is an absorbing book by Nina Gagen-Torn who, on the basis of personal recollections and archival documents, gives a vivid and emotional account of her teacher — the revolutionary and founder of the Leningrad School of Ethnography (Gagen-Torn 1971; 1975).
    [Show full text]
  • The Agrarian Question in Tanzania?
    The Agrarian Question In Tanzania? CurrenT AfrICAn Issues 45 THe AGrArIAn QUESTIOn In TAnZAnIA? A state of the Art Paper sam Maghimbi razack B. Lokina Mathew A. senga nOrDIsKA AfrIKAInsTITuTeT, uPPsALA In coperation with THe unIVersITY Of DAr ES sALAAM 2 011 1 sam Maghimbi, razack B. Lokina, Mathew A. senga The Mwalimu Nyerere Professorial Chair in Pan-African Studies was established as a university chair at the University of Dar es Salaam in honour of the great nationalist and pan-Africanist leader of Africa and the first president of Tanzania, Mwalimu Julius Kambarage Nyerere. It was inaugurated on April 19, 2008 by the Prime Minister Honourable Mizengo Pinda in the presence of Mama Maria Nyerere. The main objective of the Chair is to reinvigorate intellectual debates on the Campus and stimulate basic research on burning issues facing the country and the continent from a pan-African perspective. The core activities of the Chair include publication of state of the art papers. As part of the latter, the Chair is pleased to publish the first paper The Agrarian Question in Tanzania. It is planned to publish at least one state of the art paper every year. first published by Mwalimu Nyerere Professorial Chair in Pan-African Studies University of Dar es Salaam P. O. Box 35091 Dar es Salaam Email: [email protected] Website: http://www.nyererechair.udsm.ac.tz INDExING TErMS: Agrarian policy Agrarian structure Peasantry Agricultural population Land tenure State Agrarian reform Land reform rural development Economic and social development Tanzania The opinions expressed in this volume are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of Nordiska Afrikainstitutet.
    [Show full text]
  • A Criteria-Based System for the Qualitative Assessment of Reading Proposals for the Deciphering of Classic Mayan Hieroglyphs
    Modelling vagueness – A criteria-based system for the qualitative assessment of reading proposals for the deciphering of Classic Mayan hieroglyphs Franziska Diehr1, Sven Gronemeyer2, 3, Elisabeth Wagner2, Christian Prager2, Katja Diederichs2, Uwe Sikora1, Maximilian Brodhun1, Nikolai Grube2 1 State and University Library Göttingen, Germany 2 Department for Anthropology of the Americas, University of Bonn, Germany 3 Department of Archaeology and History, La Trobe University, Australia [email protected] Abstract office, located at the Department for the Anthropo- logy of the Americas, University of Bonn,3 works The project ‘Text Database and Diction- in close collaboration with the State and University ary of Classic Mayan’ aims at creating a Library Göttingen.4 Since 2014, the hieroglyphic machine-readable corpus of all Maya texts texts have been prepared, evaluated, and interpreted and compiling a dictionary on this basis. in interdisciplinary cooperation using methods and The characteristics of this complex writ- tools from the humanities and information techno- ing system pose particular challenges to logy (Prager, 2014c). research, resulting in contradictory and am- One result of this collaboration, and at the same biguous deciphering hypotheses. In this time an important milestone of the project, is the paper, we present a system for the qualitat- digital Sign Catalogue which is the subject of this ive evaluation of reading proposals that is paper. For the creation of a text corpus and a dic- integrated into a digital Sign Catalogue for tionary of an only partially understood language Mayan hieroglyphs, establishing a novel and script, a Sign Catalogue, an inventory of all concept for sign systematisation and clas- used signs, is an indispensable instrument.
    [Show full text]
  • And Colin Bundy's “African Peasantry”
    International Journal of Development and Sustainability ISSN: 2186-8662 – www.isdsnet.com/ijds Volume 3 Number 7 (2014): Pages 1410-1437 ISDS Article ID: IJDS14042304 Chayanov’s “development theory” and Colin Bundy’s “African peasantry”: Relevance to contemporary development and agricultural discourse Anis Mahomed Karodia* Regent Business School, Durban, South Africa Abstract of Part One This paper attempts to look at the work of Chayanov, in respect of contemporary development issues and reexamines his work (on the basis of the work of TeodorShanin and partly by HamzaAlavi). Chayanov was considered during his time as the new Marx. His discourse and thoughts were fashioned upon the political economy and based on intellectual criticism of the USSR. He was sidelined by the then USSR and put to pasture by the many forms of repression in the then Soviet Union. His work bears utmost relevance to contemporary dialogue in respect of agriculture and development issues, in the context of the modern world. On the other hand the second part of the paper will look at Colin Bundy’s book the Rise and Fall of the African Peasantry. It is probably the most influential account of rural history produced in the 1970’s, and is hailed as a major reinterpretation of South African history, in terms of African agriculture which was considered as inherently primitive or backward and capitalism was hostile to peasants. Both parts of the paper look at the preface of the books written by TeodorShanin and By Colin Bundy himself, in order to look at very important and vexing issues that permeate 21st century discourse on development and agriculture Keywords:Development; Agriculture; Peasantry; Reinterpretation; Political Economy; Contemporary Dialogue; Capitalism; Poverty; Legacy; Traditionalism.
    [Show full text]
  • BOOK REVIEWS/COMPTES RENDUS the History of Siberia: from Russian Conquest to Revolution. Edited and Introduced by Alan Wood
    BOOK REVIEWS/COMPTES RENDUS The History of Siberia: From Russian Conquest to Revolution. Edited and introduced by Alan Wood. London: Routledge, 1991. xiv, 192 pp. $49.95. This little book is the third volume of essays on Siberia emerging from the British Universities Siberian Studies Seminar founded at Lancaster University in 1981. Its title is something of a misnomer for it is not a history of Siberia continuously from conquest to revolution, but a collection of es- says devoted to particular aspects of the development of Siberia from the late sixteenth to the early twentieth century. No single-volume compre- hensive history of Siberia yet exists. Aware that Siberia is not just a land of a harsh and extremely cold climate and that its history is more than an ac- count of criminality generated by the exile system, the editor sees as the thrust of the essays the transformation of Siberia the colony into an integral partof the Russian state. The editor's "Introduction: Siberia's role in Russian history," is a well-informed statement setting the background for the essays which fol- low and challenging the negative view of Siberia held by many as an in- hospitable land peopled by political dissidents and criminals. Basil Dmytryshyn's essay, "The administrative apparatus of the Russian colony in Siberia and northern Asia, 1581-1700," provides a comprehensive description of that apparatus and at the same time notes the factors facili- tating the conquest of Siberia, which, he paints out, developed opportunisti - cally. David N. Collins' companion essay, "Subjugation and settlement in seventeenth and eighteenth century Siberia," describes the conquest of the native population, the factors facilitating it, and the beginnings of Russians settlement.
    [Show full text]
  • Sculptor Nina Slobodinskaya (1898-1984)
    1 de 2 SCULPTOR NINA SLOBODINSKAYA (1898-1984). LIFE AND SEARCH OF CREATIVE BOUNDARIES IN THE SOVIET EPOCH Anastasia GNEZDILOVA Dipòsit legal: Gi. 2081-2016 http://hdl.handle.net/10803/334701 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.ca Aquesta obra està subjecta a una llicència Creative Commons Reconeixement Esta obra está bajo una licencia Creative Commons Reconocimiento This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution licence TESI DOCTORAL Sculptor Nina Slobodinskaya (1898 -1984) Life and Search of Creative Boundaries in the Soviet Epoch Anastasia Gnezdilova 2015 TESI DOCTORAL Sculptor Nina Slobodinskaya (1898-1984) Life and Search of Creative Boundaries in the Soviet Epoch Anastasia Gnezdilova 2015 Programa de doctorat: Ciències humanes I de la cultura Dirigida per: Dra. Maria-Josep Balsach i Peig Memòria presentada per optar al títol de doctora per la Universitat de Girona 1 2 Acknowledgments First of all I would like to thank my scientific tutor Maria-Josep Balsach I Peig, who inspired and encouraged me to work on subject which truly interested me, but I did not dare considering to work on it, although it was most actual, despite all seeming difficulties. Her invaluable support and wise and unfailing guiadance throughthout all work periods were crucial as returned hope and belief in proper forces in moments of despair and finally to bring my study to a conclusion. My research would not be realized without constant sacrifices, enormous patience, encouragement and understanding, moral support, good advices, and faith in me of all my family: my husband Daniel, my parents Andrey and Tamara, my ount Liubov, my children Iaroslav and Maria, my parents-in-law Francesc and Maria –Antonia, and my sister-in-law Silvia.
    [Show full text]
  • Institutionalisation: an Historical Perspective
    Institutionalisation: an historical perspective By: Professor Jan Walmsley [From: Deinstitutionalization and People with Intellectual Disabilities: In and Out of Institutions (2008) by Rannveig Traustadottir (Editor), Kelley Johnson (Editor)] This book is about deinstitutionalisation. But to understand de-institutionalisation, we need also to appreciate what preceded it – institutionalisation. Why did our ancestors choose to place people with learning disabilities in institutions? More misguided and more evil than we are today? To assume that is ahistorical. It is to adopt a simplistic view of the past that sees human life as a progression from darkness to light, an inexorable march of ‘progress’ in which every age improves on its predecessors. That is clearly untenable. So why, when nowadays we see institutions as such a mistake, did apparently sensible well meaning people choose institutions as the answer? I seek to begin to answer these questions here. In this chapter I explore institutions as a social policy ‘solution’ to the problem of the ‘feeble minded’ in early twentieth century England, as a means of setting in context the memories in the book. Although England is not entirely representative in its institutional practices (for example, unlike some Scandinavian countries and US states, sterilisation was never legalised) the trend to institutionalisation there in many respects mirrored similar trends in the English speaking world (see for example Trent 1994 re the USA, Cocks, Fox, Brogan and Lee 1996 re Western Australia). We know from a number of sources, including some of the testimony in this book, that for many of those who lived in them institutions were unpleasant and restrictive at best, abusive at worst.
    [Show full text]
  • The Institutionalisation of the Treaty of Rome * Neil Fligstein and Alec Stone-Sweet
    The Institutionalisation of the Treaty of Rome * Neil Fligstein and Alec Stone-Sweet (First Draft, 31 October 1999) Neil Fligstein Department of Sociology University of California Berkeley, California Alec Stone Sweet Official Fellow Nuffield College Oxford, UK * Prepared for the workshop, The Institutionalisation of Europe, November 10-12, 1999, Laguna Beach, CA. NOTE: The paper will be substantially reworked as we solve some of the myriad problems associated with analysing time series data containing strong trends. We may decide to specify a main dependent variable (EC rules, i.e., the EC's formal institutional structure) in order to ground a first stage of analysis, before looking at the feedback effects of that dependent variable on activities (lobbying, trade, litigating) specified as independent variables. We will also elaborate further on our three integration "stories," and use the literature to help us sharpen our hypotheses. Introduction With the Treaty of Rome, European states designed a set of policy domains related to trade and the regulation of markets, a complex of governmental organisations, and a binding set of substantive and procedural rules to help them achieve the construction of a European Economic Community (Fligstein and McNichol, 1998). Although the Treaty traced the broad outlines of this new Community, it was the purposeful activities of representatives of national governments (Moravcsik 1999), of officials operating in the EC's organisations, like the Commission (Pollack 1998) and the Court (Burley and Mattli 1993; Stone Sweet and Caporaso 1998a; Weiler 1991, 1994), and of leaders of transnational interest groups (Mazey and Richardson, eds., 1993) that subsequently produced the extraordinarily dense web of political and social networks that now functions to generate and sustain supranational governance (Wallace and Young 1998; Héritier 1999; Sandholtz and Stone Sweet, eds., 1998).
    [Show full text]
  • Economic and Social Changes: Facts, Trends, Forecast
    THE RUSSIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES INSTITUTE OF SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF TERRITORIES OF RAS ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL CHANGES: FACTS, TRENDS, FORECAST 6 (36) 2014 The journal is published according to the decision of RAS economic institutions’ administration in the Northwestern Federal District Institute of Economics of Karelian Scientific Centre of RAS (Karelia Republic) G.P. Luzin Institute of Economic Problems of Kola Scientific Centre of RAS (Murmansk Oblast) Institute of Socio-Economic Development of Territories of RAS (Vologda Oblast) and according to the decision of the administration of Saint Petersburg State University of Economics and Finance Cherepovets State University (Vologda Oblast) and RAS institutions of other RF regions Institute of Social and Economic Research of Ufa Science Centre of RAS (Bashkortostan Republic) Institute of Economics of the Ural RAS Department (Sverdlovsk Oblast) The decision of Presidium of the Higher Attestation Commission of the Russian MES (No.6/6, dated 19.02.2010) the journal is included in the list of leading scientific editions, recommended for publication of the main results of dissertations for the degree of Doctor and Candidate of Sciences. The journal is included into databases: VINITI RAS, Ulrich's Periodicals Directory, Index Copernicus International, EBSCOhost, Proquest, and also into the Russian Science Citation Index, and is presented in the open access on the platform of the Scientific e-Library (http://www. elibrary.ru). In 2014 the German National Library of Economics included the Journal into its fund. The journal is also sent to the Library of Congress, the USA. All research articles submitted to the Journal are subject to mandatory peer-review.
    [Show full text]
  • Life Histories of Etnos Theory in Russia and Beyond
    A Life Histories of Etnos Theory NDERSON in Russia and Beyond , A , Edited by David G. Anderson, Dmitry V. Arzyutov RZYUTOV and Sergei S. Alymov The idea of etnos came into being over a hundred years ago as a way of understanding the collecti ve identi ti es of people with a common language and shared traditi ons. In AND the twenti eth century, the concept came to be associated with Soviet state-building, and it fell sharply out of favour. Yet outside the academy, etnos-style arguments not A only persist, but are a vibrant part of regional anthropological traditi ons. LYMOV Life Histories of Etnos Theory in Russia and Beyond makes a powerful argument for etnos reconsidering the importance of in our understanding of ethnicity and nati onal ( identi ty across Eurasia. The collecti on brings to life a rich archive of previously EDS unpublished lett ers, fi eldnotes, and photographic collecti ons of the theory’s early proponents. Using contemporary fi eldwork and case studies, the volume shows .) Life Histories of Etnos Theory how the ideas of these ethnographers conti nue to impact and shape identi ti es in various regional theatres from Ukraine to the Russian North to the Manchurian Life Histories of steppes of what is now China. Through writi ng a life history of these collecti vist in Russia and Beyond concepts, the contributors to this volume unveil a world where the assumpti ons of liberal individualism do not hold. In doing so, they demonstrate how noti ons of belonging are not fl eeti ng but persistent, multi -generati onal, and bio-social.
    [Show full text]
  • Disharmony in Maya Hieroglyphic Writing
    FIVE Disharmony in Maya Hieroglyphic Writing Linguistic Change and Continuity in Classic Society Stephen Houston Brigham Young University David Stuart Peabody Museum, Harvard University John Robertson Brigham Young University Some forty-five years ago Yuri Knorozov discovered the existence of phonetic syllables in Maya writing (1952, 1958, 1965, 1967a). Despite strong opposition, Knorozov made an excellent case that Maya script recorded signs of consonant + vowel form. When com- bined in groupings of two or more glyphs these signs spelled words like ma + ma→ mam or ku + tzu→ kutz. In each instance the final vowel of the second syllable—a superfluous, “dead” vowel—could be safely detached once the two syllables were joined into a CVC (or CVCVC) root, the most common configuration in Mayan languages. Knorozov’s in- sight has been discussed elsewhere, either as an issue in intellectual history (Houston 1988; Coe 1992) or as a topic in decipherment (Justeson and Campbell, eds., 1984). To- day, few epigraphers question the singular importance of Knorozov’s contribution. Work- ing in near-total isolation from other Mayanists, he succeeded in achieving a break- through that fundamentally changed modern views of Maya writing. Yet Knorozov could not explain one feature of syllabic signs: What, precisely, deter- mined the final sign in such groupings? Knorozov detected a default arrangement, which he labeled “synharmony,” by which the vowel of the second sign duplicated that of the first (Knorozov 1965: 174–75). As Kelley pointed out, this pattern explained a large num- ber of spellings (Kelley 1976: 18). Lounsbury, too, found that synharmony accorded with morphophonemic processes in Mayan languages (1973: 100), especially the “echo” sylla- ble, a “voiceless .
    [Show full text]