Researchers of the ICA

Gleb V. Aleksandrov – Senior Research Fellow. Ph.D.

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

Main publications: Native Relations in Early British North America and the Emergence of Imperial Ideas. Social Evolution and History. Volume 19, Number 1. March 2019 (In English); 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); On the Representation of the Indians of New England in Narrative and Official Sources of XVIIth Century. Modern and Contemporary History. 2020. №5; «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.

          E-mail:  glaleksandrov@gmail.com
          

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

Anastasia A. Banshchikova – Vice-Director. Ph.D. 

Research interests: culture and cultural anthropology of Ancient Egypt; Ancient Egyptian literature and its folklore components; perception of Ancient Egypt in medieval Arab sources; historical memory of the slave trade and colonialism in modern Tanzania; German Tanganyikan colonial postcards and photography; history of Bagamoyo.

Fieldwork: Nigeria, Tanzania, Benin, Rwanda.

Main publications: With Oxana V. Ivanchenko. Historical Memory of the 19th-Century Arab Slave Trade in Modern-Day Tanzania: Between Family Trauma and State-Planted Tolerance. In: The Omnipresent Past. Historical Anthropology of Africa and African Diaspora. Ed. by Dmitri M. Bondarenko and Marina L. Butovskaya. Moscow: LRC Publishing House, 2019. P. 23–45; With Oxana V. Ivanchenko. The End of Arab Slave Trade in the 19th Century in the View of Tanzanian Christians and Muslims. Stratum Plus. № 6. 2020. P. 349-359 (in Russian); Crucial Periods in Ancient Egyptian Historical Tradition and Consciousness.Moscow: LENAND (URSS), 2015 (in Russian); The Images of Women in Ancient Egyptian Literature. Moscow, LIBROKOM (URSS), 2009. 2nd ed.: Moscow: LENAND (URSS), 2014 (in Russian).

           E-mail: abanshchikova@hse.ru

          

Anastasia A. Banshchikova and Oxana V. Ivanchenko with friends and respondents in Bagamoyo, Tanzania

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, 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 over 500 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. Major co-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).

           E-mail: dbondarenko@hse.ru

           

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

Valentina N. Burkova – Senior Research Fellow. Ph.D.

Research interests: human behavior, evolution of human behavior, aggressive and peacemaking behavior, nonverbal communication, altruism and cooperation, spatial behavior, culture of Africa south of the Sahara, cultures of Caucusus; cross-cultural research; anthropology of pandemic.

Fieldwork: Russia, Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda, Zambia.

Main publications (about 100 in total): Digit ratio (2D:4D), aggression, and dominance in the Hadza and the Datoga of Tanzania. American Journal of Human Biology, 2015, 27 (5) (with Butovskaya M., Karelin D., Fink B.); Vameru of Tanzania: Historical origin and their role in the process of national integration. Social Evolution & History. 2016, 15 (2) (with Butovskaya M., Karelin D.); Association between 2D:4D ratio and aggression in children and adolescents: cross-cultural and gender differences. Early human development, 2019, 137 (with Butovskaya M., Karelin D., Filatova V.); Human ethology in Russia: scientific school of M.Butovskaya. Siberian Historical Research, 2019, 2 (with Fedenok J., in Russian); Empathy, anxiety and aggression among Moscow students. Etnograficheskoe obozrenie, 2019, 5 (with Butovskaya M., Dronova D., Apalkova J.; In Russian); You Can Never Have Enough of a Good Person?: Aggression and Its Correlation to Body Size. Etnograficheskoe obozrenie, 2020 (3), (in Russian); Does the friendship matters? Sharing, fairness and parochial altruism in African children and adolescents. Social Evolution & History. 2020, 19 (10) (with Butovskaya M., Karelin D.V.); Social distancing as altruism in the context of the coronavirus pandemic: a cross-cultural study. Siberian Historical Research, 2020, 2 (with Fedenok J., in Russian); Oxytocin receptor gene polymorphism (rs53576) and digit ratio associates with aggression: comparison in seven ethnic groups. Journal of Physiological Anthropology, 2020 (39) (with Butovskaya M., et al.); 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 Butovskaya M., et al.)

E-mail: vburkova@hse.ru

 
           Valentina N. Burkova with small Hadza and big Datoga friends, Tanzania

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

Albert I. Davletshin – Senior Research Fellow. Ph.D.

Research interests: typology of logo-syllabic writing systems, Mayan, Nahuatl, Epi-Olmec, Harappan and Zapotec scripts, Kohau Rongorongo of Easter Island, Mesoamerican historical linguistics, Polynesian languages and anthropology.

Fieldwork: Papua New Guinea, Easter Island, Mexico, Russia.

Main publications : Nukeria Creation Story. Anthropos 113, 2018; Socio-political organization of the pre-contact Nukuria according to the local oral tradition. Zeitschrift für Ethnologie 142, 2017; Allographs, Graphic Variants and Iconic Formulae in the Kohau Rongorongo Script of Rapa Nui (Easter Island). Journal of the Polynesian Society 126(1), 2017; Conditioned sound changes in the Rapanui language. Oceanic Linguistics 55(2), 2016; Surgimiento de la tradición histórica en Mesoamérica Sudeste: Texto e imagen en la estela 5 de Abaj Takalik. V. Vasquez, R. Valencia and E. Gutierrez (eds.), Socio-Political Strategies Among the Maya from the Classic Period to the Present, B.A.R. International Series 2619, Oxford, 2014; Davletshin A. Building Societies on Outer Islands: Sociopolitical Institutions and Their Names in Polynesian Outliers, in: The Evolution of Social Institutions: Interdisciplinary Perspectives D. M. Bondarenko, S. A. Kowalewski, and D. B. Small (eds.). Springer, 2020. Ch. 27. P. 627-656. 

           E-mail: adavletshin@hse.ru

           

Albert I. Davletshin and Dmitri D. Beliaev at Knorosov Center of Maya Language and Epigraphy, Mexico

           

Farewell dance performed for Albert Davletshin on the Puhuria island (the Nukuria atoll), Papua New Guinea

Oxana V. Ivanchenko – Junior Research Fellow. MA. 

           Research interests: urban anthropology; Sub-Saharan Africa; social movements; informal settlements; rotating savings and credit associations; mutual help groups; ethnic identity; socio-cultural processes in Tanzania; uswahilini.

           Fieldwork: Tanzania, Zambia, Russia.

Main publications: Historical Memory of the 19th-Century Arab Slave Trade in Modern-Day Tanzania: Between Family Trauma and State-Planted Tolerance. In: The Omnipresent Past. Historical Anthropology of Africa and African Diaspora. Ed. by Dmitri M. Bondarenko and Marina L. Butovskaya. Moscow: LRC Publishing House, 2019. P. 23–45 (with A.A. Banshchikova); The End of Arab Slave Trade in the 19th Century in the View of Tanzanian Christians and Muslims. Stratum Plus. № 6. 2020. P. 349-359 (with A.A. Banshchikova; in Russian); Perception of geographical destinations of 19th century Arab slave trade in modern Tanzania: field research results // Vostok (Oriens). 2020. № 1. Pp. 82–93. (with A.A. Banshchikova, V.N. Bryndina; in Russian); Urbanization and Mutual Help Groups: Contribution to Nation-Building in Tanzania. Social Evolution & History. 2018. Vol. 17. No. 1 (with A. Banshchikova); Women's mutual help groups in the modern urban communities of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Women's Organizations in Africa as a Form of Political and Sociocultural Self-Expression. Moscow: Institute for African Studies Press, 2017 (in Russian); Formal and informal foundations of trust in mutual help groups of Dar es Salaam (Tanzania) residents. Vostok / Oriens. 2017, № 1 (in Russian); Tanzania. Mutual help groups in urban communities. Asia and Africa today. 2015, № 4 (with D. Zelenova and P. Popov; in Russian). 

           E-mail: oivanchenko@hse.ru

           

Oxana V. Ivanchenko during fieldwork in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

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.

Alina O. Lapushkina – Junior Research Fellow. MA. 

Research interests: Anthropology of Childhood, Rites of Passage, History of Education, Culture and History of Sub-Saharan Africa, Avatime people, Socio-cultural transformations.

Fieldwork: Ghana, Uganda, Russia.

Main publications: Transformation of Traditional Culture: The Role of the Avatime Initiation Rite in Modern Times. Social Evolution & History, V. 19, № 1, 2020; The History of Kusakokor (Ghana): from Avatime Tradition to Modern Practice XXI.Asia and Africa today, №2, 2020 (in Russian); Through the Prism of Avatime Tradition (Ghana): from Childhood to Adulthood. Stratum Plus, №6, 2019 (in Russian); Transformation of Traditional Culture: the Role of the Ganda Female Initiation Rite (Uganda). Vostok (ORIENS), №4, 2019 (in Russian);The Avatime People: Traditional Rituals and Christianity. Asia and Africa today, № 6, 2015 (in Russian).

           E-mail: alapushkina@hse.ru

          

Alina O. Lapushkina with Avatime schoolchildren, Ghana

Alexander A. Nemirovskiy – Leading Research Fellow. Ph.D. 

Research interests: Ancient Near East, ethno- and politogenesis, mentality and ethics of archaic societies, archaic and ancient epic and literary-historic traditions, Hurrians, Hyksos, Kassites and Kassite Babylonia; North-Eastern Asia, Yukaghirs.

Fieldwork: Russia.

Main publications (of over 200 in total): To the origins of ancient Hebrew ethnogenesis. The Patriarchal tradition of the Old Testament and the ethnopolitical history of the Near East. Moscow: Institute of World History. 2001 (in Russian); On the Sun, my father, I rely: IBoT I 34 and the history of Upper Mesopotamia in the 13th century. BC. Moscow: Institute of World History. 2007 (in Russian; with B. Alexandrov); Materials for the study of the Yukaghir epic of Halandin. Moscow: Buki-Vedi, 2017 (in Russian); Babylonian presence on the borders of Egyptian possessions in Asia throughout the Amarna Age. Moving Across Borders. Foreign Relations, Religion and Cultural Interactions in the Ancient Mediterranean (Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta, 159) Louvain, 2008 (with P. Prokopieva); Manetho and his work in a new study. Journal of Ancient History. 2018. 78. No. 4. C. 1-21 (in print, (n Russian; with I. Ladynin).

           E-mail: anemirovskiy@hse.ru
          

Alexander A. Nemirovskiy in the Zanzibar Museum of Natural History

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.

 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