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Anthropology in Central & Eastern Europe

Map of Central and Eastern Europe

Central and Eastern Europe includes the countries of Austria, Croatia, Slovenia, Switzerland, Belarus, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, and Hungary among many others. Anthropological study is active in many places Europe through research centers, academic societies, and universities on a range of topics. One of the biggest problems facing anthropologists in Central and Eastern Europe is the need to define themselves as a discipline separate from any other.

Central Europe

Anthropology in central European countries has its roots in Germany. The establishment of anthropology within central Europe has been a slow process that involved first understanding what the discipline was and then determining how it fit within each country's individual ideals.

Austria

Pater Wilhelm Schmidt

February 16, 1868 -

February 10, 1954

Austrian anthropology has close ties to Germany and is generally intertwined with German-speaking countries. As such, the history of anthropology in Austria is foggy until the marked institutionalization of the discipline. The Anthropological Society in Vienna (ASV) was the first anthropological institution in Austria. It was established on February 13, 1870 and is a non-profit organization. The “new anthropology” approach was the ASV’s foundation and Bernd Weiler’s term for anthropology that existed post-publication of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species. Anthropology within academia was postponed until 1919 when the Institute of Anthropology and Ethnography was created at the University of Vienna. The institute was divided into two later, making the Anthropological Institute and Institute for Ethnology. In 2005, the Anthropological Institute became the Department of Anthropology and is the only anthropology department that exists within the country.

A notable anthropologist is Richard Thurnwald who was an Austrian-born German anthropologist and sociologist. He was multilingual in Arabic, Turkish, Serbian, and Russian and a professor at universities in the United States and Germany during the early 1900s Thurnwald was also the editor of various journals, including the one he originated, called Journal of Popular Psychology and Sociology, which was later renamed Sociologus. His wife continued publishing the journal despite his death in 1954. His work included the study of kinship, social structure, superstratification, feudalism, kingship, cities, and states, and western colonial expansion.

Weltmuseum Wien "World Museum Vienna"

Another important figure was Pater Wilhelm Schmidt who was a German-born ordained Roman Catholic priest, anthropologist, and linguist. Anthropos is a journal he created in 1906 and the Anthropos Institute is an institution he founded in 1931. He relocated both to Switzerland in 1938 due to his distaste for Hitler's ideals. He was a professor at the Universities of Vienna and Freiburg, had published extensively, and his research topics included family, religion, language, and culture.

Karl Franzens University of Graz’s humanities department includes the Institute for Cultural Anthropology and European Ethnology which offers bachelors, masters, and doctoral degrees in Anthropology. The key topics of research the institution is involved in include “city, governmentality, limit and difference, mobilities, visual culture, material culture, museum, religiousness, and science research as well as subject-oriented methodologies.”

Weltmuseum Wien is an ethnographic museum located in Vienna that serves to display cultural diversity. Weltmuseum Wien, translated ‘World Museum Vienna’, opened in 1928 and houses worldwide artifacts, not including Europe, from as early as the 1500s. The museum’s previous title was the Museum of Ethnology and it recently reopened after closing for renovations in 2014.

Croatia

University of Zagreb est. 1669

Croatian anthropology started with a focus more on natural and medical topics because it wasn’t embraced as a human-centered scientific discipline. In 1973, various European anthropologists met for the first time to discuss the making of a European Association for Anthropology. It wasn’t until the fourth meeting in Zagreb, on October 7, 1976, that the board members established the European Anthropological Association. The initial meeting triggered a chain reaction development of anthropology within Croatia because, meanwhile, in 1974, the Croatian Physicians Assembly established the section for biological anthropology. Soon after, the Croatian Anthropological Society was created in 1977 along with its journal, titled Collegium Antropologicum. Finally, in 1992, the Institute for Anthropological Research was established at the University of Zagreb.

Slovenia

Anthropology in Slovenia has been greatly influenced by surrounding nations due to the country's small size. There was a shift in language after World War II that caused German language to be controversial so English began being taught to children which later resulted in students being more interested in an ethnographic college curriculum. The University of Ljubljana started offering anthropology courses in 1933 which were taught by Božo Škerlj as the first college professor to teach the subject in Slovenia. Later, he created a chair in anthropology at the University of Ljubljana in 1946 that was eventually placed within the biology department; but, within a few years of his death in 1961, the subject became questioned which resulted in its being terminated. However, social anthropology was already part of the sociology curriculum which was established earlier in the 1960s. It wasn't until the 1990s that this branch of anthropology became an official program offered to graduate students.

Niko Županić

December 1, 1876 - September 11, 1961

Božo Škerlj was an Austrian-born anthropologist who studied physical anthropology in Prague. He was initially interested in German physical anthropology but, at the time of World War II, decided to focus on cultural anthropology instead. His work reflected a combination of the two topics.

Another important figure in Slovene anthropology is Niko Županić who was born in 1876. He was the creator of the Slovene Ethnographic Museum, which opened in 1923, and the museum’s corresponding journal, Etnolog, that began in 1926. His educational background was in physical anthropology, archaeology, and history and, in 1940, he became a professor for the ethnology and ethnography department at the University of Ljubljana. Niko Županić died on September 11, 1961.

The Slovene Anthropological Society has been active since its founding in 1992 and arranges an international science conference every three years called Škerlj's days. The society's journal is named Anthropological Notebooks. The articles inside are preferred to be unique to the journal and they're published in English language.

Switzerland

J. J. Bachofen

December 22, 1815 -November 25, 1887

The discipline of anthropology in Switzerland, like Austria, is closely tied to Germany and German-speaking countries in general. Swiss anthropology originated with studying folklore, also known as volkskunde, and ethnology, or völkerkunde. Between 1912 and 1916, ethnographic museums held seminars in ethnology and folklore and were the beginning of anthropology being taught in Switzerland.

Johann Jakob Bachofen, born in 1815, was a professor at the University of Basel, criminal court judge, member of city legislative council, and an anthropological writer. He came from a wealthy family and was well educated in law, Philology, history and ancient history. A popular, influential publication of his, titled Das Mutterrecht, explored past societies with the idea that matriarchy came before patriarchy. Initially it was rejected but was later printed in 1861. Bachofen published many works but none were accepted until well after his death in 1887.

Eastern Europe

Anthropology in Eastern Europe varies in is roots, but many of the different anthropolgies share a common interest in folklore and human populations. Eastern European anthropologists, official and non official, tend to focus on studying local issues and staying out of international affairs. The anthropological trend in Eastern Europe is a turn toward the social sciences and anthropology after separation from the Soviet Union.

Belarus

The first Belarus postgraduate training program with anthropology was in February 1965 and was at the Institute of Art, Ethnography and Folklore of the Academy of Sciences of the BSSR.

Kazakh woman on a horse

After separating from the Soviet Union, Belarus went through a period of state development that lasted from about 1990 to 1994. During this time, the focus was on nation-building. This required both an institutional and ideological change from the time when Belarus was under Soviet rule. A policy of “Belarusisation” was implemented in order to bring back culture and language that was understood to be native to Belarus. In 1971, anthropological research focused on the characteristics of populations within Belarus, looking at perceived internal “others”. In the 1980s, anthropologists were looking at the genetic structure of human populations based on demographics and environment, along with a study of Belarus’s child population. Belarusian anthropologists also looked outside of Belarus through the Research Institute and Museum of Anthropology from Moscow State University in order to study the Chukchi, Eskimos, Kazakhs, and Khakas peoples.

One important figure in Belarusian anthropology was L.I. Tegako, who is cited as being one of its founders in the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus. She began research on ethnic health issues in the 1960s, which is one of the first instances of an official sort of anthropology in Belarus. Her teacher was V.P. Alekseev of Russia. From her research, she concluded that “Belarusians manage to stay within variations which are typical for Caucasian race.” Tegako took part in much of the work in the 1980s on both the genetic structure of human populations and the child studies. She also led twenty expeditions outside of Belarus.

Lidiya Ivanovana is also an important character in Belarusian anthropology. She obtained her PhD in Russia in 1990 with a dissertation that looked at populations in Belarus. Her work was the first to take a multi-dimensional approach involving different types of materials from several different populations within Belarus. Ivanovana is attributed as having contributed many of the anthropological methods used in Belarus.

Bulgaria

New Bulgarian University

Anthropology appeared in an official status in Bulgaria in late 1989 due to the fall of the communist regime and is thought to be a product of democratization of society. The first departments to include something like anthropology were departments of ethnology, which were concerned with ethnography and folklore, and were worked in to the departments of philology or history. Anthropology itself was introduced at New Bulgarian University (NBU) as a priority, but they had to combine with a discipline recognized by the state, which like in many other cases, was the department of sociology with the degree being a sociology one. It wasn’t until around 2004 that anthropology got its own department with its own degree in Bulgaria.

One of Bulgarian anthropology’s main focuses at first was to carve out their own niche as a discipline, especially considering that Bulgarian anthropologists come from a variety of backgrounds. They were also left with ideas from the socialist period and the fall of communism. There was also focus on the changing social conditions from the period of transition after the fall of communism. There was push for democratization in Bulgaria, and anthropology became something of a symbol for that change. Despite this, there was still polarization on methods and ideology within the new discipline based on debates about Soviet versus Western styles of education, which were understood to be ideological opposites. The shift was eventually toward Western ideas. Bulgarian anthropologists tend to focus on research within their own borders, but also research in Balkans. Despite the branching out of Bulgaria, there are a limited number of field-research sites, a limited number of subjects, and a limited number of methods taken advantage of by Bulgarian anthropologists. Much attention is paid to community formation, complex societies, power, polity, statehood, nationalism, myth, ritual, religion, marriage, kinship, ethnicity, nation-hood, magic, medicine, and multiculturality.

Czech Republic

Location of Czech Republic on the map

The Czech Republic takes a constructivist approach to anthropology (closely connected to ethnology), which they take a positivist approach to. Ethnology is taken to be trying to get at objective truth, where anthropology is getting at social constructs and beliefs. Despite this split between ideas of ethnology and anthropology in the Czech Republic, anthropology is not yet a fully established discipline. After the split from communism in 1989, there was a turn to socio-cultural anthropology in the way of ideology, but it was inconsistent. Some academics saw it as the same thing as ethnology, while others thought of it as a different research field with different methods and traditions, which resulted in the difficulty of establishing anthropology as a discipline. Many argue for there being a real epistemological difference between the two approaches.

Hungary

Hungarian anthropology is a defined discipline with its own departments and methods, though there is still overlap between anthropology and other related departments, like history and sociology. Hungarian anthropology places a premium on verifying sociological and anthropological results with scientific data.

Gyula Ortutay 14 March 1947 – 25 February 1950

In 1963, the Ethnographic Research Group, which was attached to the Hungarian Academy of Sciences was founded. It was led by Gyula Ortutay and had twenty-two participating members. The research focused on Hungarian folklore, but the group also looked at peasant economy, social institutions, and Siberian tribal society. If a senior member had an interest outside of Hungary, then that was also a permissible research topic. Cultural Anthropological departments were established at the University of Budapest in 1990 and the University of Miskolc in 1993.

There are many places to publish anthropological works within Hungary. The majority of the work is published in languages other than Hungarian and appear mostly in European periodicals. Many of the works do not appear in American anthropological journals due to a gap in how things are understood between the two anthropological fields. Many Hungarian anthropologists believe that the methods and problems that they need to consider are within their own borders or within their own region. They tend to stay out of international problems and direct their funding toward internal concerns.

Bela C. Maday points out that communication is not a strong suit for Hungarian anthropologists, which makes communicating ideas with core anthropologists, like those from the U.S. or Western Europe, difficult, but there has been much dispute on this point.

Russia

Russian Academy of Sciences in Saint Petersburg

The beginnings of anthropology in Russia can be traced back to the establishment of the Russian Academy of Sciences under Peter the Great in 1725. Following the Academy of Sciences, many museums were also created with the impetus for studying culture, including the Ethnographic Bureau of the Russian Geographical Society in the mid-19^th century. The 1840s also saw the creation of physical anthropology and archaeology as sub-disciplines of anthropology. In 1864 the first university department for anthropology in Russia was created at Moscow University. The first specialized journal for Russian anthropology, (trans.) The Ethnographic Review (Etnograficheskoe obozrenie), was created in 1889. As Russia did not have state-supplemented funding in the 19^th century, much of the financial support came from aristocrats such as Count Aleksey Uvarov and Prince V. N. Tenishev.

Kunstkamera (Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography) in Saint Petersberg

In the early 20^th century, St. Petersburg and Moscow would be centers for the development of anthropology—focused on ethnology and ethnography—with the formation of the Department of Ethnology in Leningrad (1928), Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (1924), the publication of the journal Ethnography (1926), the Anuchin Institute of Anthropology at the University of Moscow (1922), etc. Anthropology in Russia was also influenced by Western anthropological perspectives, such as Franz Boas.

Following the Communist Party takeover, Russia began to favor ethnology over anthropology. Ethnology was the study of different ethnic groups within the state, which supported the push for homogenization and national unification of the Russian state. Marxist theory replaced Western anthropological theory, and various university departments were closed as Russia experienced an ideological reconstruction. In the mid-20^th century, with undercurrents of the Cold War, social and cultural anthropology were rejected from ethnographic study, but ethnography was re-institutionalized and strengthened in universities and institutions across Russia.

In the latter half of the 20^th century, Russian ethnography to other parts of the world in which Soviet influence was strong, such as Eastern Europe. The Perestroika in 1985 led to another bout of reconstruction for anthropology, and Russian science in general. Institutes were renamed and reconfigured to match this new trend. Social anthropology also began to make a comeback, leading to identity problems for social anthropology as a discipline in a country with such a strong ethnographic tradition that had excluded it for years.

The 1990s, a time of great social and political change for Russia with the end of the USSR, were a time for critical introspective views on the recent past. With this, Russian anthropology turned towards more contemporary interests, where it still is today. Even with these contemporary interests, Russian anthropology still finds itself heavily influenced by the ethnology of its past and attempting to reconcile what it means to be a “social” anthropologist in this environment.