Concepts of Economic and Cultural Types and Historical and Cultural Areas: Contribution of Soviet Ethnography to Cultural-Geographical Regionalisation
https://doi.org/10.18384/2712-7621-2023-2-19-46
Abstract
Aim. We analyze the emergence and development of interrelated concepts of economic and cultural types and historical and cultural areas in Soviet ethnography and related fields of American cultural anthropology of the 20th century. A review is presented of the development of interpretations of these terms. A number of regionalisation schemes based on these concepts are critically analyzed and some of the problems and prospects for the possible use of these concepts in historical and cultural geography are assessed.
Methodology. This work is historiographical in nature, and is based on the analysis of the most important publications in the studied fields of domestic ethnography and, in parts, American cultural anthropology.
Results. Some flaws in existing schemes of regionalisation of Eurasia, based on these concepts, are noted; the antecedents of the emergence of these concepts in Soviet ethnography and similarities or differences with the schools of “cultural ecology” and “culture areas” in American cultural anthropology are clarified.
Research implications. The prospects for applying the concepts of economic and cultural types and historical and cultural areas in cultural geography and regional studies are identified; proposals for modifying the terms used to denote these concepts are developed further.
About the Author
A. Yamskov
Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology Russian Academy of Sciences
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Anatoly N. Yamskov – Cand. Sci. (History), Leading researcher, Centre of Human Ecology,
Leninskiii prosp. 32a, Moscow 119334
References
1. Alekseev V. P. [Anthropogeocenoses – essence, typology, dynamics]. In: Priroda [The Nature], 1975, no. 7, pp. 18–23.
2. Alekseev V. P. [Formation of mankind]. Moscow, Politizdat Publ., 1984. 462 p.
3. Alekseev V. P. Chelovek: evolyutsiya i taksonomiya. Nekotorye teoreticheskie voprosy [Man: evolution and taxonomy. Some theoretical questions]. Moscow, Nauka Publ., 1985. 287 p.
4. Alekseeva T. I. Adaptivnye protsessy v populyatsiyakh cheloveka [Adaptive processes in human populations]. Moscow, Izdatelstvo MGU Publ., 1986. 216 p.
5. Alekseeva T. I., Arutyunov S. A. [Maxim Grigorievich Levin: scientist, teacher, person]. In: Tishkov V. A., Tumarkin D. D., eds. Vydayushchiesya otechestvennye etnologi i antropologi XX veka [Prominent domestic ethnologists and anthropologists of the 20th century. Moscow, Nauka Publ., 2004, pp. 331–357.
6. Andrianov B. V. Zemledelie nashikh predkov [Agriculture of our ancestors]. Moscow, Nauka Publ., 1978. 168 p.
7. Andrianov B. V. Neosedloe naselenie mira [The unsettled population of the world]. Moscow, Nauka Publ., 1985. 280 p.
8. Andrianov B. V., Cheboksarov N. N. [Economic and cultural types and problems of their mapping]. In: Sovetskaya etnografiya [Soviet ethnography], 1972, no. 2, pp. 3–16.
9. Andrianov B. V., Cheboksarov N. N. [Historical and ethnographic regions (Problems of historical and ethnographic regionalization)]. In: Sovetskaya etnografiya [Soviet ethnography], 1975, no. 3, pp. 15–25.
10. Bogoraz-Tan V. G. [Spread of culture on Earth. Fundamentals of ethnogeography]. Moscow, Leningrad, Gosudarstvennoye izd-vo Pub., 1928. 315 p.
11. Vampilova L. B., Manakov A. G. [Zoning of Russia: historical and geographical approach]. In: Pskovskii regionologicheskii zhurnal [Pskov regional journal], 2012, no. 13, pp. 26–36.
12. Kalutskov V. N. [About the types of districts in cultural geography]. In: Kulturnaya i gumanitarnaya geografiya [Cultural and humanitarian geography], 2013, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 3–9.
13. Kalutskov V. N. [Cultural and geographical regionalization of Russia: Geoconceptual approach]. In: Pskovskii regionologicheskii zhurnal [Pskov regional journal], 2015, no. 22, pp. 85–94.
14. Kalutskov V. N. [Approaches to the cultural and geographical zoning of Russia]. In: Dyakonov K. N., ed. Landshaftovedenie: teoriya, metody, landshaftno-ekologicheskoe obespechenie prirodopolzovaniya i ustoychivogo razvitiya [Landscape science: theory, methods, landscape and ecological provision of nature management and sustainable development. Vol. 2]. Tyumen, Izd-vo TyumGU, 2017, pp. 253–257.
15. Kalutskov V. N. [Cultural-geographical zoning of the Near Abroad]. In: Bykov N. I., ed. Sovremennye problemy zanyatosti naseleniya i prioritety sotsial‘noi geografii. T. 1 [Modern trends in spatial development and priorities of social geography. Vol. 1]. Barnaul: ALTGU, 2018, pp. 71–76.
16. Klokov K. B. [The current situation of reindeer herders and reindeer breeding in Russia]. In: Novikova N. I., Funk D. A., eds. Sever i severyane. Sovremennoe yavleniye razvitiya malochislennykh narodov Severa, Sibiri i Dalnego Vostoka Rossii [North and northerners. The current situation of the indigenous peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East of Russia]. Moscow, IEA RAN Publ., 2012, pp. 38–50.
17. Kremnev E. V., Kuznetsova O. V., Lesnikovskaya E. V. Transdistsiplinarnaya regionologiya: teoriya i metodologiya [Transdisciplinary regional studies: theory and methodology]. Irkutsk, Izd-vo IGU Publ., 2020. 155 p.
18. Levin M. G. [On the problem of the historical correlation of economic and cultural types of North Asia]. In: Levin M.G., ed. Kratkie soobshcheniya Instituta etnografii. T. 2 [Brief reports of the Institute of Ethnography. Vol. 2]. Moscow, 1947, pp. 84–86.
19. Levin M. G., Cheboksarov N. N. [Economic and cultural types and historical and ethnographic areas (to the formulation of the problem)]. In: Sovetskaya etnografiya [Soviet ethnography], 1955, no. 4, pp. 3–17.
20. Manakov A. G. Osnovy kulturno-geograficheskoi regionalistiki [Fundamentals of cultural and geographical regional studies]. Pskov, Izd-vo PGPU Publ., 2006. 188 p.
21. Osmanov M. O. [Forms of cattle breeding of the Dargins in the 19th–20th centuries (in connection with the regions of species content of livestock and economic and cultural types)]. In: Gadzhiev S. Sh., ed. Khozyaystvo, materialnaya kultura i byt narodov Dagestana v XIX–XX vv. [Economy, material culture and life of the peoples of Dagestan in the 19th–20th centuries]. Makhachkala, Izd-vo DF AN SSSR Publ., 1977, pp. 39–55.
22. Rapoport Yu. A., Semyonov Yu. I. Sergey Pavlovich Tolstov: an outstanding ethnographer, archaeologist, organizer of science. In: Tishkov V. A., Tumarkin D. D., eds. Vydayushchiesya otechestvennye etnologi i antropologi XX veka [Outstanding domestic ethnologists and anthropologists of the 20th century]. Moscow, Nauka Publ., 2004, pp. 184–232.
23. Reshetov A. M. [Nikolai Nikolaevich Cheboksarov: a portrait of a scientist in the context of his time]. In: Tishkov V. A., Tumarkin D. D., eds. Vydayushchiesya otechestvennye etnologi i antropologi XX veka [Outstanding Russian ethnologists and anthropologists of the 20th century]. Moscow, Nauka Publ., 2004, pp. 358–396.
24. Tishkov V. A., ed. Rossiiskaya Arktika: korennye narody i promyshlennoe osvoenie [Russian Arctic: indigenous peoples and industrial development]. Moscow, St. Petersburg, NestorIstoriya Publ., 2016. 272 p.
25. Tolstov S. P. [Essays on the original Islam]. In: Sovetskaya etnografiya [Soviet ethnography], 1932, no. 2, pp. 24–82.
26. Tishkov V. A. Rekviem po etnosu: Issledovaniya po sotsialno-kulturnoi antropologii [Requiem for ethnos: Studies in socio-cultural anthropology]. Moscow, Nauka Publ., 2003. 544 p.
27. Kalutskov V. N., ed. Toponimiya Blizhnego Zarubezh‘ya: 100 let pereimenovanii [Toponymy of the Near Abroad: 100 years of renaming] Moscow, RGO Publ., 2020. 255 p.
28. Turovsky R. F. [Cultural geography: theoretical foundations and ways of development]. In: Vedenin Yu. A., Turovsky R. F., eds. Kulturnaya geografiya [Cultural geography]. Moscow, Institut Naslediya Publ., 2001, pp. 10–94.
29. Huntington S. Stolknovenie tsivilizatsii [Clash of Civilizations]. Moscow, AST Publ., 2003. 603 p.
30. Cheboksarov N. N., Cheboksarova I. A. Narody, rasy, kultury [Peoples, races, cultures]. Moscow, Nauka Publ., 1985. 272 p.
31. Chesnov Ya. V. [On the theory of “cultural areas” in American ethnography]. In: Bromlei Yu. V., ed. Kontseptsii zarubezhnoi etnologii. Kriticheskie etyudy [Concepts of foreign ethnology. Critical studies]. Moscow, Nauka Publ., 1976, pp. 68–95.
32. Yamskov A. N. [History of development and main directions of ecological and anthropological research in US science]. In: Gumanitarnaya ekologiya i mir cheloveka [Humanitarian ecology and the world of man]. Kirov, Connectika Publ., 2011, pp. 39–51.
33. Yamskov A. N. [The history of the formation and development of domestic ethnoecology]. In: Etnograficheskoe obozrenie [Ethnographic Review], 2013, no. 4, pp. 49–64.
34. Yamskov A. N. [On the Caucasus and its borders]. In: Etnograficheskoe obozrenie [Ethnographic Review], 2013, no. 5, pp. 66–76.
35. Yamskov A. N. [Life support systems and economic and cultural types]. In: Dubova N. A., eds. Etnos i sreda obitaniya: sb. statei. Vyp. 5: Issledovaniya sistem zhizneobespecheniya [Ethnos and habitat: Sat. articles. Issue. 5: Research of life support systems. Moscow, Stary Sad Publ., 2017, pp. 36–46.
36. Yamskov A. N. [Cattle breeding]. In: Dubova N. A., Ubaidullo N. K., Madamidzhonova Z. M., eds. Tadzhiki [Tajiks] Moscow: Nauka, 2021, pp. 241–264.
37. Hahn E. Die Wirtschaftsformen der Erde. In: Petermanns Mitteilungen, 1892, bd. 38, pp. 8–12.
38. Kobychev V. P. The Caucasus as a historical and cultural region: The formation of the main economic and cultural types. In: Arutyunov S. A., ed. Problems of the European ethnography and folklore. Summaries by the Congress participants. Moscow, Institute of Ethnography, the USSR Academy of Sciences, 1982. P. 71–74.
39. Kroeber A. Cultural and Natural Areas of Native North America. Berkeley, University of California Press, 1939. 242 p.
40. Moran E. F. Human Adaptability: An Introduction to Ecological Anthropology. New York, Routledge, 2022. 442 p.
41. Netting R. McC. Cultural Ecology. Menlo Park, Cummings Publishing Company, 1977. 119 p.
42. Newman J. L. The Culture Area Concept in Anthropology. In: Journal of Geography, 1971, vol. 70, no. 1, pp. 8–15.
43. Steward J. Theory of Culture Change: The Methodology of Multilinear Evolution. Urbana, University of Illinois Press, 1955. 244 p.
44. Sutton M. Q., Anderson E. N. Introduction to Cultural Ecology. Lanham, AltaMira Press, 2010. 399 p.
45. Wissler C. The American Indian. An Introduction to the Anthropology of the New World. New York, Douglas C. McMurtrie, 1917. 435 p.
46. Wissler C. The Culture-Area Concept in Social Anthropology. In: American Journal of Sociology, 1927, vol. 32, no. 6, pp. 881–891.
Review
Views:
372
Email this article 