ESTABLISHING AN INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH METHODOLOGY IN RUSSIAN ANTHROPOLOGY AND ARCHAEOLOGY IN THE LATE XIX - EARLY XX CENTURIES (BASED ON V.N. KHARUZINA’S STUDIES ON THE FIRE PHENOMENON)
O.A. Mitko1, I.V. Oktyabrskaya2
1National research Novosibirsk state university, 630090, Novosibirsk, Pirogova str., 2
2Institute of archaeology and ethnography SB RAS, 630090, Novosibirsk, Lavrentieva, 17
Keywords: Eurasian cultures, interdisciplinary approach, veneration of fire, anthropology, archaeology, research program
Abstract
This objective of the article is to reconstruct the early period of development of ethnographic knowledge in Russia in order to demonstrate the origin of interdisciplinary approach to studying the ancient and traditional Eurasian cultures. The article’s problem field is shaped by the history of the Russian academic ethnography discourse in the late XIX - early XX centuries. Based on methodology and methods of historical scientific studies the authors analyze the scientific heritage of V.N. Haruzina, a leading figure in the Russian ethnography at the turn of the XX century. This research focuses on V.N. Haruzina’s articles on veneration of fire among various ethnic groups in Russia. The authors emphasize fundamental characteristics of V.N. Haruzina’s program, titled “For data collection about fire veneration among Russian peasants and outlanders” (1906), by analyzing its methodology and content. The research results lead to a conclusion that the structure and content of the Program provide in-depth description of different cultural elements related to fire. Methodology of such descriptions is determined by a complex approach based on ethnography, anthropology and archaeology as well as anthropogeography, which studies peoples and cultures in an inextricable relation to their environment. Such academic approach extended beyond the evolutional paradigm, which dominated the world ethnology at the turn of the XX century. In general V.N. Haruzina’s statements formed the concept close to a modern interpretation of the fire phenomenon in culture. These statements predetermined the establishment of an interdisciplinary approach, which remains of vital importance for modern research of Eurasian archaic and traditional cultures. Studying the fire phenomenon in culture is one of the most important problems of modern humanitarian sciences. The further investigations in this field should include the experience of interdisciplinary approach brilliantly implemented by V.N. Haruzina.
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