Department of Ethnology

Detailed information

Department Head: Professor A.A.Nikishenkov.

The Department incorporates the Teaching and Research Center for Applied Ethnology.

The main fields of research and specialization for students of the department are as follows:

  • Problems of Ethnology of Ancient Societies (History of Social Organization in Primitive Societies, Culture and Social Structure of Traditional Societies, Economic Ethnology)

  • Physical Anthropology

  • History of Ethnology (Historiography of Russian and Soviet and Foreign Ethnology, Problems of Cultural Anthropology)

  • Ethnography of the Peoples of Russia and Neighboring Countries (Ethnography of the Peoples of the Former USSR, Peoples of the Urals and Volga Region, Central Asia, Eastern Slavs, Siberia, South-East Baltic Region, the Caucasus)

  • Ethnography of the Peoples of Foreign Countries (Asia, Africa, Australia and Oceania, America, Central and Western Europe)

  • Ethnodemography

  • Ethnosociology

  • Ethnographic Museum Studies

  • Ethnopsychology

  • Ethnic Ecology

  • Religions of the Peoples of the World

  • Theoretical Ethnology (the Subject-matter and Methods of Ethnology, Categories, Concepts of Ethnos, Modern and Contemporary Ethnocultural Processes, Ethnology and Related Studies)

  • Economic and Cultural Types in Historic and Ethnographic Regions

  • Methods of Field Investigations (Mass Ethnological Investigations: Methodology and Techniques, Traditional Methods of Ethnology, Audio-Visual Ethnography, Methods of Processing Primary Ethnographic Information, Cartography)

Students of the Department of Ethnology are obliged to participate in field expeditions. The Department considers practical field experience to be a fundamental component of students' professional training.