Anthropology and History: Original Interconnectedness, Present-day Rupture, and (Hopefully) Future Reunification in the Study of Cultures and Societies

Abstract (English)

It is becoming increasingly obvious that postmodernism, the most recent powerful trend in Anthropology at the moment, is close to exhausting its potential, and therefore more and more anthropologists are asking the question: “What after postmodernism?” In our opinion, one of the most significant causes for the crisis of theoretical thought in Anthropology is the separation of Anthropology from History that has occurred long ago, the rupture, in the words of Robert Carneiro, of “the muse of history and the science of culture.” Accordingly, the possibility of a new impulse for anthropological theoretical thought is seen in the restoration of the connection between it and historical knowledge, in close logical connection with which Anthropology once appeared as a special scientific discipline. One of the most direct and promising ways of reuniting Anthropology and History is to study the relationship between the historical past, social memory, and contemporary cultural identities. However, the connection between Anthropology and History needs to be restored not simply at the level of studying specific scientific topics, but to the entire spectrum of issues covered by these disciplines, including the study of a wide range of social, economic, political, and cultural phenomena and processes of the past and present. It is necessary to restore the connection between Anthropology and History at the theoretical and methodological levels. This is possible if Anthropology is understood as a science that is fundamentally, essentially historical, which in turn presupposes the recognition of the existence of a socio-cultural process unfolding in historical time at the global, regional and local levels. The panel may feature general papers aimed at understanding the story of the relationship between Anthropology and History, the essence of the connection between them, the possibilities for the fruitful application of the historical approaches in Anthropology, as well as papers on specific topics in which the authors, using examples of their own research, will show how historical methods are used in Anthropology to study the cultures and societies of various regions and periods.