La société traditionnelle des aborigènes d'Australie dans l'anthropologie soviétique

Abstract

O. Iu. Artemova, Traditional society of Australian Aborigines in Soviet anthropology. Data on Australian traditional Aboriginal culture were and still are frequently used in Soviet anthropology as one of the main sources for reconstruction of early stages of human history (prehistory). In the early 1920's-carly 1950's, the research tradition traceable back to the nineteenth century centered mostly on such issues as systems of kinship, kin groups, family and marriage patterns. The 1930's and 1940's were the years of decline in the Soviet Australian Aboriginal studies mostly because of the dogmatic approach to L.H. Morgan's scheme of early social evolution. The early 1970's saw a renewal of scholarly interest in kinship systems and in uni lineal kin structures with the resultant discussion of the so-called Australian "controversy." In 1970's-1980's the themes of Soviet Australian Aboriginal studies grew more varied; they included Aboriginal religion, arts and folklore, as well as the role of personality, the correlation between individual behavior and traditional normative system. Today, the picture of traditional social life of Australian Aborigines as reflected in Soviet anthropology appears to be much more complicated than in the previous years. In particular the concept of primitive egalitarianism is replaced by the recognition of some forms of status differentiation (group and individual) and status hierarchy as well as certain forms of individual specialization.