Ethnocultural and Ethnogenetic Studies by Leonid Zalіzniak (1973—1991)

Abstract

The article analyzes ethnocultural and ethnogenetic issues in the scientific works of L. Zalizniak published in 1973–1991. It is discovered that studying the prehistory, Soviet archaeologists strictly adhered to the standardized canons of the stage-formational development of the mankind, thus favoring in their studies socioeconomic problems. However, they could not completely ignore the ethnocultural dimension, or, as it was called then, the cultural and historical periodization, since in the study of ancient artefacts it was the analysis of their similarities and differences that gave scientists an opportunity to discover new archaeological cultures and their local variations. It is proved that L. Zalizniak – firstly as an amateur (a member of the circle of young archaeologists) at the end of the 1950s and in the 1960s, and later as a professional archaeologist and graduate scholar in the late 1960s – early 1990s – processed a huge amount of archaeological materials and encampments of primitive people, most of which he discovered personally and independently introduced into scientific circulation. It is ascertained that L. Zalizniak carefully analyzed ethnocultural and ethnogenetic processes of the Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic in Polissya Lowlands and proved that they were an integral part of the then European development of homo sapiens. The scientist proved that long-term economic processes at the turn of the Pleistocene and Holocene led to the emergence of the first ethnocultural (proto-meta-ethnic) communities that inhabited the territory correlating with the natural-geographical boundaries of the landscape-climatic zone and were associated with a certain economic-cultural type. L. Zalizniak believes that such ethnic communities of primitive nature are characterized by cultural and linguistic unity, but the absence of clear boundaries and unified self-awareness does not allow considering them ethnic groups – only ethnic groups at the stage of formation.