by Acad. Valery TISHKOV, Director of the RAS Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology; Yelena PIVNEVA, Cand. Sc. (History), Academic Secretary of the same institute

In 2013 the RAS Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology (IEA) marks its 80th anniversary. During this period the institute acquired an excellent reputation in the world scientific fellowship and has become a leading research center in the sphere of ethnology, sociocultural and physical anthropology in Russia. The bibliography of scientific works of the institute's staff members only in a period of 1992-2012 includes more than 1,000 titles and presents an impressive picture of research works both in subject range and concrete results. The basic and applied research covers traditional historico-ethnographical problems and also studies of the current situation, from the basic standards of conduct, ceremonial life and religious beliefs to interethnic relations, conflicts and ethnic policy of the state. Studies of this ethnocultural diversity of Russia and the world as a whole is of special value in the conditions of Russian transforming society, cultural interaction and globalization.

Let us note at once that IEA has one of the highest ratings among the country research institutes, immense popularity with the multinational Russian people and wide publicity in the world. Due to high scientific standards and permanence of scientific subjects, the works created by its staff members in the course of many decades have not lost their importance even today. The present jubilee has a wonderful history dating back to the times of the Cabinet of Curiosities established by Peter the Great. By the way, it gave birth to the institute together with the Russian Academy of Sciences.

On February 15, 1933, the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences ruled creation of the Institute of Anthropology, Archeology and Ethnography in Leningrad, which later served as a basis for the Moscow Institute of Ethnography, renamed subsequently into the RAS Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology. Today it is the RAS Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology named after Miklukho-Maklai, a federal state-financed scientific institution decorated with the Order of Peoples' Friendship.

Many outstanding scientists were connected with to this institute, first of all, its directors--the RAS Corresponding Member Sergei Tolstov (1942-1965) and Acad. Yulian Bromley (1965-1989). At different times the famous ethnographers and anthropologists Sergei Tokarev, Nikolai Cheboksarov, Mark Kosven, Pavel Kushner, Maxim Levin, Viktor Bunak, Georgy Debets, Valery Akekseev, Igor Ron and others worked at the institute. Today the institute's staff comprises more than 140 research fellows, including Acad. Valery Tishkov, Corresponding Members Sergei Arutyunov and Yurik Arutyunyan, above 120 Doctors and Candidates of Sciences. Our activity was always of a high scientific and public value. In 1983 the institute was granted government award--the Order of Peoples' Friendship, which testified to the outstanding contribution of our group.

The major lines of activities still are studies of the history and ethnography of the Russian people, small peoples of the Russian North, Far East and Siberia, peoples of Caucasia, ethnic minorities of Russia and the world and problems of the Russian speaking population abroad. The team work The Russians: History and Ethnography (Moscow, AST, Olymp, 2008) under the editorship of Irina Vlasova and Valery Tishkov, the most detailed historico-ethnographic description of the largest people of our country, ran into several editions. How did the Russian people arise and what it its essence? How do Russians differ from other peoples? What personal and life peculiarities helped the Russians master vast territories of the Eurasian continent and contribute greatly to the development of human civilization? These and many other urgent problems are a subject of a careful attention of scientists. They are interested in the mechanisms of formation of historical self-consciousness of the Russian people and cultural memory of major events and heroes of our national history. Large-scale studies of the national Orthodox culture are in progress. The work Russian Folk Clothes. Historico-Ethnographic Essays (Moscow, Indrik, 2011), presenting the richness and diversity of Rus-

sian folk clothes, was published for national designers and museum workers. Books on Russian ceremonial and holiday culture, bread, drinks and food traditions, as well as a phenomenon of Russian baths, also came off the press. The institute's publications on national skills, artistic trades and handicraft industries, on economic experience in different natural conditions are of considerable educational importance. The two-volume book on Russians of the Ryazan territory (Moscow, Indrik, 2009) studies of museums and archives, summarized multi-year expeditions, which is a worthy example of regional research.

The publications of the Ethnographic Album series contain valuable information on cultural diversity and wealth of the Russia peoples. In recent years books were published on traditional arts of Russians in the European North, peoples of Western and North-Eastern Siberia and other regions. In this series were also published photographs (from glass negatives of the 19th century) of materials of the ethnographic expeditions headed by Count Alexei Bobrinsky and photographer Nikolai Bogoyavlensky to Central Asia and Persia, which became a scientific sensation. This collection was lost and now is published for the first time.

Among the institute's traditions we would like to single out the historico-ethnographic and encyclopaedic publications The Peoples of Russia, Peoples and Religions of the World (a group of authors was granted RF State Award in the sphere of science and technology in 2001 for this cycle of works) and The Peoples of Russia. Atlas of Cultures and Religions. The work is in progress on a multivolume historico-ethnographic series Peoples and Cultures from the beginning of the 1990s. For the last five years the series was supplemented with ten volumes (Turkic Peoples of Eastern Siberia, 2008; The Kalmycks, 2010; The Moldavians, 2010; Peoples of North-Eastern Siberia, 2010; The Gagauzes, 2011; The Uzbeks, 2011; The Armenians, 2012; The Ossetians, 2012; The Chechen, 2012; The Yakuts, 2012). The publications present a complete collection of knowledge of a particular ethnic community and are authored by scientists representing each such community. This academic publication in its form is easily understood by all sections of the population. Therefore it enjoys enormous popularity among the

intelligentsia and students, especially in the Russian republics and among small peoples. Books of this series were winners of many book fairs and international prizes. Bulky monographs on different peoples are published out of the series too.

For the last two decades the institute is engaged not only in purely ethnographic problems. Today it is gender research, medical anthropology and audio-visual anthropology. The members of the cross-cultural psychology* sector are successfully devising a new line of evolutionary anthropology, i.e. human ethology dealing with a search for universals of human behavior. The institute is also developing physical (biological) anthropology, political and legal anthropology, and conflictology. The theoretical and methodological base of research has renewed appreciably. The theory of ethnos dominating in national social science and its political impact have been revised, a new interpretation of the ethnic phenomenon has been suggested as well as a number of basic conceptual provisions and theoretical innovations regarding the ethnic nature, the basics of multi-ethnic state structure, the Russian state system, strategy and mechanisms of national policy.

The phenomenon of nationalism, its political value and symbolic role in modern societies were analyzed in national science for the first time. Studies of physiological components of a post-conflict behavior was an inno-

* Psychology field, which studies regularities of development and functions of mentality in the context of its formation dependence on social, cultural and ecological factor.--Ed.

vative research trend. Cultural differences in the aggressive and post-conflict behavior was examined on a number of cultures (Russians, Ossetians, Armenians, Tatars, Hadza, Datoga). In the conditions of a high level of population migration activity, revelation of basic causes of ethnic intolerance and public conflicts based on xenophobia is not only of scientific but also of important public value.

One of the leading Russian schools of research in new methods and approaches in sociocultural anthropology headed by Valery Tishkov is now functioning at the institute. Revision and better comprehension of the identity phenomenon and transfer of new conceptual approaches to the sphere of political strategy and education are among the most important achievements of basic studies within this school. Practical implementation of research works related to the needs of Russian society and state is given a special attention. The works are carried out on the order of state ministries and departments, drafts of regulatory legal documents and ethnologic expert examination are worked out.

The institute's expert materials and scientific works provide assistance to the activities of the RF President Administration, the RF Federal Assembly, a number of federal ministries and departments, the RF Security Council, the Government of Moscow and other regional governments. Major studies are conducted for the Ministry of Regional Economic Development (Atlas of Cultures and Religions, the Ethnic Map of Russia), the Ministry of Culture (national draft report on preserva-

tion of historico-cultural heritage of the RF peoples), the Russian Committee on Statistics (preparation and conduct of population census in 2002 and 2010), the Government of Moscow (on youth subcultures, improvement of ethnic relations and xenophobia control). Our scientists participated in working out of school standards of the second generation and the course of "Basics of Religious Cultures and Secular Ethics".

Starting from 1993 the institute maintains a network of ethnologic monitoring, which deals with ethnoconfessional problems in 40 subjects of the Russian Federation. The institute has accelerated innovative activities in implementation of the results of ethnologic and anthropologic studies. It is a founder of a companion structure of ethnologic consulting and has worked out an informational package of probable services to control extremism and terrorism, to carry out ethnoconfessional monitoring, prevention of conflicts, support and use of popular traditions, ritual and ceremonial aspects of life, and mass media coverage of ethnic problems.

Target-oriented research programs and large-scale projects are of paramount importance in the organization of research activities of the last decades. Thus, the institute participated as a coordinator in the basic research programs of the RAS Presidium "Ethnocultural Cooperation in Eurasia" (2003-2005), "Adaptation of Peoples and Cultures to Changes in Natural Environment, Social and Technogenic Transformations" (2006-2008), "Historico-Cultural Heritage and Spiritual Values of Russia" (2009-2011) and also "Traditions and Innovations in History and Culture" (2012-2014). We acted as initiators of scientific synthesis and socially significant generalizations in summary fundamental publications on these programs.

The comperative studies undertaken by the IEA, as compared with Russia, of modern tendencies in line with dynamics of the ethnocultural aspect of population in different parts of the world under the influence of integration processes, globalization and population migration and also consideration of ethnocultural diversity of the world, which allows structuring anew of a mass of knowledge on world literature and revealing of specifics and tendencies in the development of various regions. The three-volume collection European Integration and Cultural Diversity represents one of the important results of field works of the social-anthropological nature in different regions of Europe, numerous interviews and an analysis of legal acts and statistical data.

The fundamental base for scientific works of the institute make up materials collected during field works carried out in many regions of Russia and abroad (our scientists make about 70 such field expeditions collectively and individually every year). The ethnographic method of field research supplements the studies of archeological, anthropological and historical materials, and modern sources of information. The advanced methods of scientific analysis are applied in physical anthropology, ethnology, visual and medical anthropology.

Scientists of the whole world acknowledge the superiority of the Russian school of anthropological recon-

struction suggested by Mikhail Gerasimov. At present the program of craniofacial compatibility* is used by staff members of the anthropological reconstruction laboratory for creation of graphic and sculptural portraits used for personal identification and replenishment of the unique exposition of the laboratory museum. Research and expert examination is carried on to reconstruct habitus on the basis of the skull. The unique program "Verbal Portrait Based on the Skull" provides life-time characteristics of a face based on the skull for representatives of different anthropological types. Application of this program in investigative practice improves identification data of unidentified persons based on osseous remains.

The institute has a good resource base: scientific archives, a photo- and video-library. The archives include collections of the Natural Science, Anthropology and Ethnography Society attached to the Moscow University of the 1870s-1920s, collection of materials of Nikolai Miklukho-Maklai, collections of Nikolai Cheboksarov, Sergei Tokarev, Maxim Levin, Yulia Petrova-Averkiyeva and others. Unique ethnographic, archeological and anthropological collections are kept in museum subdivisions. The institute possesses an extensive collection of

*Craniofacial compatibility is compatibility between sizes and features of a face and those of a skull substructures.--Ed.

reconstructed portraits, which provide a visual presentation of the anthropological type of people of the past historic epochs, and also other materials on anthropology of the ancient and modern population of Russia and the world.

The collections of the museum and archives are used also in the exposition work. In 2012 they were displayed at the exhibition "Cognition of the Past is Understanding of the Future: Contribution of the Academy of Sciences", devoted to the Year of Russian History. The institute's exposition included collections from the Nikolai Cheboksarov Ethnographic Museum, illustrating the culture of the population of Russian regions (late 19th-early 21st cent.); specimens of potter's art of ancient craftsmen of the Eastern Aral Area collected during the Khorezm archeological and ethnographic expedition; exhibits of the anthropological reconstruction laboratory and also photos and drawings from the photoarchives of the institute (Pamir, North-Russian, Central Asian and Mordovian ethnographicexpeditions).

The institute is taking part in organization of the Moscow international festival of visual anthropology "Camera as Intermediary" to show cultural diversity of peoples of the world and to acquaint visitors with everyday life of people in the most distant corners of the earth. Thus, the ethnographic film directed by Alexei Vakhrushev "The

Book of Tundra" was granted the Nike prize in 2012, one of the highest Russian cinematographic awards. The institute participates in many international scientific events. The international congress "Twenty Years After (1991-2011): Reorganization of Space and Identity" is one of the most grandiose events. This congress was of paramount importance for strengthening and consolidation of the ethnographic fellowship to the benefit of development of social sciences, studies of the problems of nationalities, interethnic relations and prevention of ethnic conflicts. Noteworthy are festivities on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of foundation of Fort Ross, the first Russian settlement in California. The collection of documents from the archive on the history of Russian colonization in America prepared by the institute staff members was presented at the congress.

Biennial congresses of Russian ethnologists and anthropologists are peculiar reviews of the state of our science on the national scale. Today's scientific life of the institute received recognition and support of the scientific fellowship at the 10th congress held in Moscow in the summer of 2013, the jubilee year for the institute.

Illustrations supplied by the authors