Researchers of the ICA

Gleb V. Aleksandrov – Deputy director. Ph.D.

Research interests: Native-colonial relations and cross-cultural contacts in early colonial North America, evolution of colonial ideas in the British Atlantic, sociopolitical evolution.

Main publications: Native Relations in Early British North America and the Emergence of Imperial Ideas. Social Evolution and History. Vol. 19, № 1. March 2019; Now Dragged Once More Beyond the Western Main: America, England and the British Empire in XVIIIth Century African Slave Narratives. Journal of the Institute for African Studies. 2020. №2 (51); «Saints» and «savages»: Native-Colonial Relations in XVIIth Century New England. Moscow: LENAND, 2021; To Save the Town Harmless: Social Evolution in Early New England. The Evolution of Social Institutions: Interdisciplinary Perspectives, Springer, 2020; «The Long-Lost Friend»: The witchcraft and healing among Pennsylvanian Germans in the 20th and 21st centuries. In Umbra. Demonology as a Semiotic System. Vol. 9. Moscow, 2020; A Civil Body Politick: Governance, Community, and Accountability in Early New England // Frontiers in Political Science. March 14, 2022. (https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpos.2022.804673/full); The Politics of Intercultural Education: Native-colonial Relations in the XVII century New England Language Manuals // Up Close and From Afar: New World Anthropology from Russian and American Perspectives. Moscow, IEA RAS, 2022.Black History vs. American History: Black Heritage and Memory Conflict in Contemporary USA // Black Heritage: Africans and Their Descendants in Historical Memory of the US. Moscow, Institute for African Studies of the RAS, 2024.King Philip’s War (1675–1676): Interactions Between Homoarchical and Heterarchical Societies in the Colonial Context// Principles and Forms of Sociocultural Organization: Historical Contexts of Interaction. Moscow, LRC Publishing house, 2024.

          E-mail:  galeksandrov@hse.ru
          

Gleb V. Aleksandrov at the Spaso House (residence of US Ambassador to Russia)

Anna K. Aleksandrova – Senior Research Fellow. Ph.D.

Research interests: Contemporary Greece, European Union political development, state sovereignty and national identity, restitution/repatriation of cultural property to countries of origin, 2010s financial and economic crisis in Greece, Greece-EU relations, Greek-Turkish relations, Greece’s policy in the Balkans.

Main publications: Russian-Greek economic relations in the second decade of the 21st century (Are there points of growth in a series of crises?). World Economy and International Relations. 2020. Vol. 64. No 8. P. 101–111 (In Russian). DOI: 10.20542/0131-2227-2020-64-8-101-111; Chapter 12. Greece: from a two-party system to political transformations of the 2010s.  Essays on the political history of the countries of Central and South-Eastern Europe. From the late Twentieth to the early Twenty-First centuries . Moscow; Saint Petersburg: Nestor-Istoria, 2020. P. 389–426 (In Russian). DOI: 10.31168/2712-8342.2020.1.13; Chapter 22. The integration role of Greece in the Balkans: politics and economics. Transformational revolutions in the countries of Central and South-Eastern Europe. On their Thirtieth anniversary. 1989–2019. Moscow: Institute of Slavic Studies of the RAS; Saint Petersburg: Nestor-Istoria, 2021. P. 360–373 (In Russian). DOI: 10.31168/2712-8342.2021.2.23; The Echo of War: The Issue of World War II Reparations and Occupation Loan in Contemporary Greece. Contemporary Europe. 2021. No 3. P. 167-180 (In Russian). DOI: 10.15211/soveurope32021167180; Chapter 21. Alexis Tsipras: formation of new political elites in Greece during the financial and economic crisis. The new elite in the countries of Central and South-Eastern Europe: political portraits. The late twentieth to early twenty-first centuries. Moscow: Institute of Slavic Studies of the RAS; Saint Petersburg: Nestor-Istoria, 2022. P. 504–520 (In Russian). DOI:  10.31168/2712-8342.2022.3.22; "Tighten our belts”: Anti-crisis policies of the G. Papandreou administration in Greece (October 2009 ‒ November 2011). Moscow: Nestor-Istoria, 2022. (In Russian); Disaster Diplomacy: The Influence of the 1999 and 2023 Earthquakes on Greek-Turkish Relations. Historical Expertise. 2023. No 3. P. 62–81. (In Russian). DOI: 10.31754/2410-1419-2023-3-62-81; National and European Components in the Concept of Sovereignty in the EU Countries: Political Discourse in Contemporary Greece. Central-European Studies. 2024. No 7. P. 383–422. (In Russian). DOI: 10.31168/2619-0877.2024.7.13; Foreign Policy of Greece in the Balkans: The European Integration Factor. Slavic Studies. Journal of Russian Academy of Sciences. = Slavyanovedenie. 2025. No 3. P. 72–92. (In Russian). DOI: 10.31857/S0869544X25030065.

          E-mail: akaleksandrova@hse.ru
         

 Anna K. Aleksandrova in the Balkans (Topola, Serbia)

Dmitri D. Beliaev – Senior Research Fellow. Ph.D. 

Research interests: social theory, anthropological and historical theory, political anthropology, Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, Maya archaeology, Maya epigraphy.

Fieldwork: Mexico, Guatemala.

Main publications (most recent): The Litany of Runaway Kings: Another Look at Stela 12 of Naranjo, Guatemala // The PARI Journal. 2021. Vol. 21(2) (with C. Helmke and S. Vepretskii); New Glyphic Appellatives of the Rain God // Tiempo detenido, tiempo suficiente: Ensayos y narraciones mesoamericanistas en homenaje a Alfonso Lacadena García-Gallo / Ed. by Harri Kettunen et al. Brussels: European Association of Mayanists WAYEB, 2019 (with A. Davletshin, S. Vepretskii);  Uaxactun after the conquest by teotihuacanos as told by the mural from palace B-XIII // Contributions in New World Archaeology. 2019. No. 13 (with M. Kovac, J. Špoták, A. Safronov); Los monumentos de Itsimte (Petén, Guatemala): Nuevos datos e interpretaciones. Arqueología Iberoamericana. 2018. Vol. 38 (with S. Vepretskii); K’ahk’ Ti’ Ch’ich’: A New Snake King from the Early Classic Period. The PARI Journal. 2017. Vol. 17, No. 3 (with S. Martin); The Syllabic Sign we and an Apologia for Delayed Decipherment. The PARI Journal. 2016. Vol. 17, No. 2 (with M. Zender, A. Davletshin); Nuevo estudio del Templo VI (Templo de las Inscripciones) de Tikal, Guatemala. Arqueología Iberoamericana. 2016. No. 29 (with M. de Leon, P. Galeev et al); People of the Road: Traders and Travelers in Ancient Maya Words and Images // Merchants, Trade, and Exchange in the Pre-Columbian World. Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 2013 (with A. Tokovinine). 

            
            E-mail: dbelyaev@hse.ru

            

 Dmitri D. Beliaev in the Temple of the Inscriptions in Tikal, Peten, Guatemala

Dmitri M. Bondarenko – Director. Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Ph.D., Dr. Habil., Prof.

Research interests: anthropological, social, and historical theory, political anthropology, culture and history of Africa south of the Sahara, socio-cultural transformations and intercultural interaction (including ethnic, racial, national, and religious aspects) with special focus on Africa and people of African descent worldwide.

Fieldwork: Benin, Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Russia, USA.

Main publications (of about 600 in total): Individual monographs: Benin on the Eve of the First Contacts with Europeans: Personality. Society. Authority. Moscow: Institute for African Studies Press, 1995 (in Russian); Pre-imperial Benin: Formation and Evolution of the Socio-political Institutions System. Moscow: Institute for African Studies Press, 2001 (in Russian); A Popular History of Benin. The Rise and Fall of a Mighty Forest Kingdom. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2003 (with P.M. Roese); Homoarchy: A Principle of Culture’s Organization. The 13^th – 19^th Centuries Benin Kingdom as a Non-State Supercomplex Society. Moscow: KomKniga, 2006; The Axial Ages of World History: Lessons for the 21st Century. Litchfield Park, AZ: Emergent Publications, 2014 (with K. Baskin); African Americans and American Africans: Migration, Histories, Race and Identities. Canon Pyon: Sean Kingston Publishing, 2019; Post-colonial Nations in Historical and Cultural Context. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2023. Major edited volumes: Civilizational Models of Politogenesis. Moscow: Institute for African Studies Press, 2000 (with A.V. Korotayev); Alternatives of Social Evolution. Vladivostok: FEB RAS, 2000 (with N.N. Kradin, A.V. Korotayev, V. de Munck, and P.K. Wason); Nomadic Pathways in Social Evolution. Moscow: Center for Civilizational and Regional Studies Press, 2003 (with N.N. Kradin and T.J. Barfield); The Early State, Its Alternatives and Analogues. Volgograd: Uchitel’, 2004 (with L.E. Grinin, R.L. Carneiro, N.N. Kradin, and A.V. Korotayev); The Omnipresent Past: Historical Anthropology of Africa and African Diaspora. Moscow: LRC Publishing House, 2019 (with M.L. Butovskaya); The Evolution of Social Institutions: Interdisciplinary Perspectives. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2020 (with S.A. Kowalewski and D.B. Small); Black Heritage: Africans and Their Descendants in Historical Memory of the USA. Moscow: Institute for African Studies Press, 2024; Principles of Sociocultural Organization: Historical Contexts of Interaction. London: Anthem Press, 2026 (with G.V. Aleksandrov).

           E-mail: dbondarenko@hse.ru

           

Dmitri M. Bondarenko doing fieldwork in the village of Nakabaale, Uganda

Marina L. Butovskaya – Principal Research Fellow. Ph.D., Dr. Habil., Prof.

           Research interests: nature-nurture interaction; evolution of human behavior, particularly aggression and conflict management, reproductive behavior, cooperation; culture of Africa south of the Sahara; socio-cultural transformations and intercultural interaction with special focus on nonindustrial societies; anthropology of pandemic.

           Fieldwork: Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda, Zambia, Armenia, Austria, Germany, Russia.

           Main publications (among most recent, of over 400 in total): Manipulations of the Corpus in the Context of Life Cycle Rites among the Datoga Cattle Breeders of Northern Tanzania. Social Evolution and History. 2015, 14 (1) (with V. Burkova and A. Mabulla); Polymorphisms of two loci at the oxytocin receptor gene in populations of Africa, Asia and South Europe. BMC genetics, 2016, 17 (with P. Butovskaya, O. Lazebny et al.); Waist-to-hip ratio, body-mass index, age and number of children in seven traditional societies. Scientific reports. 2017, 7(1) (with A. Sorokowska, M. Karwowski et al.); Visual Perception of British Women’s Skin Color Distribution in Two Nonindustrialized Societies, the Maasai and the Tsimane’. Evolutionary Psychology. 2017, 15(3) (with B. Fink, P. Sorokowski et al.); Associations of physical strength with facial shape in an African pastoralist society, the Maasai of Northern Tanzania. PloS one.2018, 13(5) (with S. Windhager, D. Karelin et al.); Association between 2D:4D ratio and aggression in children and adolescents: cross-cultural and gender differences. Early human development, 2019, 137 (with Burkova V. Karelin D., Filatova V.); Does the friendship matters? Sharing, fairness and parochial altruism in African children and adolescents. Social Evolution & History. 2020, 19 (10) (with Burkova V., Karelin D.V.); Fertility and infant survival in men and women from rural regions of Northern Tanzania: gene candidates and sex-specific genetic associations. Journal of Anthropological Sciences, 2020, 98 (with Burkova V., et al.); Subjective Happiness Among Polish and Hadza People. Frontiers in Psychology, 2020, 11 (with Frackowiak T., Sorokowski P. et al.); Universality of the Triangular Theory of Love: Adaptation and Psychometric Properties of the Triangular Love Scale in 25 Countries. The Journal of Sex Research, 2020, (with Sorokowski P. et al.); Sex Differences in Mate Preferences Across 45 Countries: A Large-Scale Replication, Psychological Science, 2020 (with Walter K. et al.); Oxytocin receptor gene polymorphism (rs53576) and digit ratio associates with aggression: comparison in seven ethnic groups. Journal of Physiological Anthropology, 2020 (39) (with Burkova V., et al.); Sex Differences in Spatial Activity and Anxiety Levels in the COVID-19 Pandemic from Evolutionary Perspective. Sustainability, 2021, 13 (with Semenova O., Apalkova J.).

           E-mail: mbutovskaya@hse.ru

Marina L. Butovskaya with the Datooga friends, Tanzania

 Ruslan V. Dmitriev – Principal Research Fellow. Ph.D., Dr. Habil.

Research interests: Central place theory, urban geography, spatial expansion of Christianity in Africa

Main publications (most recent): Spatial Transformation of the Migration System During the Crisis. Vestnik of Saint Petersburg University. Earth Sciences, 2023, 68(1) (with Maksim Agafoshin and Stanislav Gorokhov); Migrant Crisis in the East Africa Region. Vostok (Oriens), 2023, 1 (with Stanislav Gorokhov and Maksim Agafoshin); Christianity, Islam and Traditional Religions: Cyclical Interaction in Africa. Vestnik Tomskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta – Tomsk State University Journal, 2023, 486 (with Stanislav Gorokhov and Ivan Zakharov); Central Place Theory: Stages of Development and New Challenges. Proceedings of Voronezh State University. Series: Geography. Geoecology, 2023, 1 (with Stanislav Gorokhov); Axiomatic Foundation of Central Place Theory: Revision from the Standpoint of the Russian School. Regional Research of Russia, 2023, 13(4) (with Vyacheslav Shuper); Intermittent Development of Central Place Systems: The Dynamics of Unification and Breakup. R-Economy, 2023, 9(2) (with Stanislav Gorokhov and Maksim Agafoshin); Religion and the State: Types of Relations in the Religious Market. The Journal of Political Theory, Political Philosophy and Sociology of Politics Politeia, 2022, 3 (with Maksim Agafoshin and Stanislav Gorokhov); Vatican in Modern Africa (On the 50th Anniversary of the Pope Paul VI’s Pilgrimage to Uganda). Tomsk State University Journal of History, 2022, 76 (with Ivan Zakharov and Stanislav Gorokhov); Formation of the Settlement Hierarchy: Zipf ’s Law vs Central Place Theory. Vestnik of Saint Petersburg University. Earth Sciences, 2022, 67(2); Central Place Systems: Early Stages of the Continual Development. Spatial Economics, 2022, 18(2) (with Stanislav Gorokhov); The Evolution of Settlement Systems in Classic Central Place Theory. Izvestiya RAN (Akad. Nauk SSSR). Seriya Geograficheskaya, 2021, 85(2); Communal Conflicts in the Context of the Religious Landscape Transformation (Case Study of Nigeria). Vestnik Moskovskogo Universiteta. Seria 5, Geografia, 2021, 5 (with Ivan Zakharov), Africa: Sanctions, Elites and Sovereign Development. Moscow: Institute for African Studies RAS, 2021 (with Leonid Fituni, Ivan Zakharov, Anna Sharova, and Kirill Aleshin).

          E-mail: rdmitriev@hse.ru

          Ruslan V. Dmitriev in the Citadel of Qaitbay (Alexandria, Egypt)

Sergey V. Kostelyanets – Senior Research Fellow. Ph.D. 

Research interests : armed political/ethnopolitical conflicts and conflict resolution in Africa, with a particular focus on North Africa and the Horn of Africa; political violence, including terrorism.

Main publications (of over 100 in total): Darfur: A History of the Conflict. Moscow: Institute for African Studies Press, 2014 (in Russian); The Conflict in Darfur Region: the Regional Dimension.Vostok, 2015, 1 (in Russian); Sudan’s Regional Policy in the Context of the Arab Crisis. Asia and Africa today, 2015, 7 (in Russian); Security Threats in Africa: Contemporary Tendencies. MGLU, 2018 (in Russian, with G. Sidorova and N. Zherlitsyna); Terrorism in Africa: Specifics, Trends and Prospects. Puti k miru i bezopasnosti, 2016, 2(51) (in Russian); Russia’s Peace Initiatives in the MENA Region: Evaluation and Prospects. Asian Journal of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies,2019.13; Russia's Peace Mediation in Africa: an Assessment. East. Afro-Asian societies: history and modernity. 2020, 6.

           E-mail: skostelyanec@hse.ru
        
        Sergey V. Kostelyanets in Bagamoyo Museum, Tanzania.

Andrey A. Matusovskiy – Senior Research Fellow. Ph.D. 

Research interests: ethnography and anthropology of the indigenous peoples of Amazonia and Orinoquia: sociocultural processes, everyday and ritual culture, mythology.

Fieldwork: in the Venezuelan, Colombian, Ecuadorian, Peruvian and Brazilian Amazon from 2001 to the present.

Main publications (most recent): Pets of Indigenous Groups of Amazonia and Orinocia: Relationships between Humans and Animals // Ethnographic Review. 2018. № 4. P. 26-43. https://doi.org/10.31857/S086954150000399-8 (in Russian); Bitter Manioc (Manihot esculenta cranz) in the context of the typololgy of cultures of indigenous groups of Amazonia and Orinicia // Siberian Historical Research. 2019. № 1. P. 102-123. https://doi.org/10.17223/2312461X/23/7 (in Russian); The Yukuna of the Miritiparana River: Aspects of Cultural Transbordering // Ethnographic Review. 2019. № 2. P. 167-184.https://doi.org/10.31857/S086954150004874-1 (in Russian); The Last maloca: transformation of the communal Dwelling’s sociocultural role among the matsés of Peru // Ethnographic Review. 2019. № 5. P. 151-168. https://doi.org/10.31857/S086954150007384-2 (in Russian); Sacred Places in the Vaupes–Apaporis Interfluve (Colombia, Amazonia) and the Sociocultural Space of Indigenous Peoples of the Region // Ethnographic Review. 2021. № 1. P. 179-195. https://doi.org/10.31857/S086954150013134-7 (in Russian); Matsés Mythology: A Comparative Ethnographic Analysis // Ethnography. 2021. № 4 (14). P. 75-93. https://doi.org.10.31250/2618-8600-2021-4(14)-75-93 (in Russian); Ritos del ciclo anual en la Amazonía colombiana: contexto sociocultural // Anthropos. Issue 117. 2022. P. 125-131. https://doi.org/10.5771/0257-9774-2022-1-125; A Cave with Rock Paintings in Cerro Ací (Colombia, Vaupes) as the Dwelling of the Master of Animals and Object of Ancient Rock Art // Ethnographic Review. 2024. №. 2. P. 111-132. https://doi.org/10.31857/S0869541524020068 (in Russian).

            E-mail: AndreyMatusovskiy@rambler.ru

           Andrey Matusovskiy next to rock paintings in the Colombian Amazon (Colombia, Vaupes, Cerro Morroco).

Aleksei S. Shchavelev – Leading Research Fellow. Ph.D. 

Research interests: Early Medieval History; History of Post-Roman Barbarians in Eurasia; Historical Anthropology; Political Anthropology; Early Medieval Archaeology; Early States; Chronology, Political Organization & Historical Geography of European Polities in the First Millennium A.D.

Fieldwork: Russia.

Main publications (of over 150 in total): Slavic Legends about the First Princes. A Comparative Research of the Models of Power in Slavs. Moscow, 2007. (in Russian); Vikings. Between Scandinavia and Rus’. Moscow, 2009 (first edition), 2013 (second), 2017 (third), 2018 (forth) (with A. Fetisov, in Russian); Сhronotope of the Purikid Polity (911–987). Moscow : Akvilon, 2020. (in Russian); Basic Features of Political Organization and Social Structure of Rurikid Polity in the Tenth Century, The Evolution of Social Institutions: Interdisciplinary Perspectives / Ed. by D. M. Bondarenko, S. A. Kowalewski, & D. B. Small. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2020. (XVII, 661 pp.). P. 283–292. 

            E-mail: ashchavelev@hse.ru 
          

Aleksei S. Shchavelev in his personal library.

 Andrey V. Tutorski – Senior Research Fellow. Ph.D. 

Research interests: history of anthropology, North of European Russia, Melanesia, anthropology of equality 

Main publications: Drinking in the north of European Russia: From traditional to totalizing liminality // Journal of Ethnology and Folkloristics. 2016. Vol. 10. No. 2. P. 7-18; What does it mean “to lie” in an “honest village”? // Etudes Mongoles et Sibériennes, Centrasiatiques et Tibétaines. 2017. No. 48. Pp. 29-37; Miklouho-Maclay's legacy in Russian and English-language academic research, 1992-2017 // Archaeology, Ethnology and Anthropology of Eurasia. 2019. Vol. 47, No. 2. Pp. 112-121. (With E. Govor, C. Ballard); Conversion to Orthodox Christianity in Uganda: a hundred years of spiritual encounter with modernity, 1919-2019 // RELIGIONS. 2020. No 11(5), Pp. 223-241. (with D. Bondarenko); “The knife or the haft”: realizing equality of outcomes in hunting practices (preliminary field report) // Prehistoric archaeology. Jornal of interdisciplinary studies. 2020. No. 1. Pp. 92-101; Bears as pares: Some notes on bear stories in Zapinejie (Arkhangelskaya oblast, northern part of the Russian federation) and the tendency to equality in human-bear relations // Bear and Human. Facets of a Multi-Layered Relationship from Past to Recent Times, with Emphasis on Northern Europe. Vol. 3 of The Archaeology of Northern Europe. Belgium: Brepols Publishers, 2023. Pp. 887–899; Difference of Approaches to the Concept of Equality: Western Tradition and L.S. Senghor // Uchenie zapiski Instituta Afriki RAN. 2024. Vol. 69. No. 4. Pp. 61-73. (with I. Ponomarev).

           E-mail: atutorskii@hse.ru

              
.    

 Daria A. Zelenova – Senior Research Fellow. Ph.D. 

Research interests: Socio-Cultural anthropology, Post-colonial studies, Political and Social History of Southern Africa, Oral Histories of the African National-liberation movements and armies, Historical memory in contemporary South Africa and Russia.

Fieldwork: South Africa, Russia.

Main publications: Dismantling Apartheid. Oral Histories of the Popular Anti-Apartheid Struggles (1970s and 1980's). Edited by V.G. Shubin - Forthcoming in Russian; Miracle Economy and the Virtualization of Mutual Help in Contemporary South Africa. Rotating Savings and Credit Associations in the Townships of Johannesburg // Etnograficheskoye obozreniye (Ethnographic Review), vol. 2, 2019, pp. 79-97; Debates on Land Reform in South Africa. The Position of the Churches and Civil Society // Aziya i Afrika segodnya (Asia and Africa Today), no. 2, 2019, pp. 36-43 (co-authored with A. Khamatshin, N. Voronina); Local Memories of the Anti-Apartheid Struggles: Rediscovering the People’s Democracy // The Omnipresent Past. Historical Anthropology of Africa and African Diaspora, edited by D.M. Bondarenko and Marina Butovskaya, Moscow, 2019, pp. 66-85; African Entrepreneurs in Moscow: How They Did It Their Way // Urban Anthropology and Studies of Cultural Systems and World Economic Development, vol. 43, no. 1/2, 2014, pp. 205-255 (co-authored with D. Bondarenko, V. Usacheva and E. Demintseva).

           E-mail: dzelenova@hse.ru

Daria A. Zelenova in a transit camp in Cape Town, South Africa