Department of Ethnography and Anthropology, St. Petersburg State University

In the middle of the 19th century, a group of scientists involved in paleoethnology issues took shape at the University of St. Petersburg (I. S. Polyakov, K. S. Merezhkovsky, A. A. Foreigners). In 1887, the Department of Geography and Ethnography was formed at the Physics and Mathematics Faculty of the University. The head of the department, Professor E. Yu. Petri, began reading systematic lecture courses on anthropology, which he understood as a science of the development of human culture.

After the revolution, in addition to the department, the State Geographic Institute is created on the basis of the University Higher Geographical Courses, in the structure of which the geographical and ethnographic faculties were distinguished. In 1925, the Geographical Institute was transformed into the faculty of Leningrad State University , with the preservation of the geographical and ethnological departments. In 1930, the ethnographic department became part of the Leningrad Institute of History and Literature. In the 1930s, L. Ya. Sternberg , V. G. Bogoraz , D. K. Zelenin , E. G. Kagarov, N. P. Dyrenkova and others worked at the ethnography department ^[1] .

In 1937, the Institute was transformed into the philological faculty of Leningrad State University , and in 1938 an ethnography department was opened at it. He was led by an ethnographer, an orientalist-Arabist, professor I.N. Vinnikov. In 1941, the department was evacuated to Saratov , where V. N. Tsintsius, A. P. Riftin and V. Ya. Propp continue teaching.

In 1944, the department of ethnography was transferred to the Oriental faculty, but in 1949 the department of ethnography of the Oriental faculty again became subordinate to the historical faculty of Leningrad State University and merged with the department of archeology. All ethnography teachers in the 1950s and early 1960s were employees of the USSR Academy of Sciences : S. M. Abramzon, N. A. Butinov, D. K. Zelenin , V. R. Cabo and others ^[2] .

The first head of the department was R. F. Itz ^[3] . In 1990-2002, the department was headed by A.V. Gadlo . Since 2002, the head of the department was the candidate of historical sciences, associate professor V. A. Kozmin . Since November 9, 2012 the department is headed by A.G. Novozhilov .

Students of the department study a number of special cycles:

• The first cycle unites anthropological subdisciplines: a general introduction to anthropology, methods of special anthropological research, anthropogenesis, racial studies.

• The second cycle includes ethnographic disciplines proper, divided into two blocks. The block of disciplines in domestic ethnography includes ethnography courses for the Slavic peoples of Eastern Europe, including Russian ethnography, ethnography of non-Slavic peoples of European Russia, ethnography of Siberia, Central Asia, and the Caucasus. The block of disciplines in foreign ethnography includes ethnography courses in Australia and Oceania, America, Africa, Central and Western Europe.

• The third cycle consists of disciplines related to anthropology and ethnography, the materials of which the ethnographer is usually forced to use in his private and general studies. This is an introduction to ethnolinguistics, an introduction to folklore, ethnopsychology, ethnosociology, an introduction to folk art and applied forms of artistic creation.

• The fourth cycle - methodological disciplines: field research methods, combinatorial-statistical methods in ethnography, ethnographic museology, archival studies, bibliography, source study.

Since 2017, the master's program "Ethnological Expertise" has been operating on the basis of the department.

An integral part of the entire educational process at the department are practices - special museum, archival and ethnographic field studies, participation in the work of a scientific expedition. During the existence of the department, ethnographic students visited expeditionary forces in Kamchatka and Dagestan , Altai and the Middle Volga region, the lower reaches of the Ob and Central Asia , the Arkhangelsk and Tambov Regions, and the Stavropol Territory . The field detachments of the department in recent years have been conducting research in the Pskov , Novgorod and Leningrad regions, the Republic of Crimea, the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic, the Krasnodar Territory, and the Yamal Peninsula . The permanent base of museum and archival practices are the Russian Ethnographic Museum and the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography. Peter the Great RAS (Kunstkamera).

The staff of the department are V.S. Buzin, I.I. Vernyaev, V.A. Dmitriev, S.B. Egorov A.A. Kazarnitsky, S.B. Kiselev, A.G. Novozhilov, V.A. Popov, N.A. Popov, most of whom are her graduates.

Due to massive reductions in the teaching staff of the Institute of History of St. Petersburg State University in 2019, there are plans to merge the Department of Ethnography and Anthropology with the Department of Archeology.

• Department of Ethnology, Moscow State University

• Its R.F. Department of Ethnography and Anthropology // Questions of the History of Historical Science / Otv. ed. I. Ya. Froyanov . - L, 1984. - 150 p.
• Kozmin V.A. Department of Ethnography and Anthropology // History Department of St. Petersburg University. 1934-2004. Essay on the story. SPb., 2004.
• Chistov K.V. From the history of Soviet ethnography of the 30-80s of the XX century. On the fiftieth anniversary of Soviet ethnography // SE : Journal. - 1983. - No. 3 .

• Site of the Department of Ethnography and Anthropology
• A detailed description of the Department of Ethnography and Anthropology of St. Petersburg State University on the website of the St. Petersburg Business News Agency