Anthropologie russe

The entry briefly summarises the historical development of anthropological research in the country since the 1730s. During the XXth c. Russian ethnology transformed from a geographical to the discipline belonging to social sciences and humanities. From mid-1960s to the 1990s it was characterised by debates over definitions of ethnic groups. Russian ethnology during this period was strongly influenced by conflicting ideologies: imperial stance seeking unification of the ethnically diverse population, on the one hand, and a local nationalisms ideology, on the other. The introduction of socio-cultural anthropology during the 1990s marked a new stage with the emergence of specialised sub-disciplines, the division between folklore, ethno-political, and regional comparative studies. The paper covers the history of the main anthropological institutions in the country, and traces the leading anthropological periodicals policy