Russian Cultural Anthropology after the Collapse of Communism

Description

In Soviet times, anthropologists in the Soviet Union were closely involved in the state's work of nation building. They helped define official nationalities, and gathered material about traditional customs and suitably heroic folklore, whilst at the same time refraining from work on the reality of contemporary Soviet life. Since the end of the Soviet Union anthropology in Russia has been transformed. International research standards have been adopted, and the focus of research has shifted to include urban culture and difficult subjects, such as xenophobia. However, this transformation has been, and continues to be, controversial, with, for example, strongly contested debates about the relevance of Western anthropology and cultural theory to post-Soviet reality. This book presents an overview of how anthropology in Russia has changed since Soviet times, and showcases examples of important Russian anthropological work. As such, the book will be of great interest not just to Russian specialists, but also to anthropologists more widely, and to all those interested in the way academic study is related to prevailing political and social conditions. Cover Title Copyright Contents List of illustrations List of contributors Acknowledgements Conventions Introduction: Soviet and post-Soviet anthropology 1 Writing the history of Russian anthropology 2 Female taboos and concepts of the unclean among the Nenets 3 ‘The wrong nationality’: ascribed identity in the 1930s Soviet Union 4 The queue as narrative: a Soviet case study 5 ‘I didn’t understand, but it was funny’: late Soviet festivals and their impact on children 6 The practices of ‘privacy’ in a South Russian village (a case study of Stepnoe, Krasnodar Region) 7 Believers’ letters as advertising: St Xenia of Petersburg’s ‘National Reception Centre’ 8 ‘The yellow peril’ as seen in contemporary church culture 9 ‘Don’t look at them, they’re nasty’: photographs of funerals in Russian culture 10 Historical Zaryadye as remembered by locals: cultural meanings of city spaces 11 Yerevan: memory and forgetting in the organisation of post-Soviet urban space Name index Subject index