Valery Tishkov
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520238879
- eISBN:
- 9780520930209
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520238879.003.0001
- Subject:
- Anthropology, European Cultural Anthropology
This chapter is an analysis of ethnographical and anthropological theories related to Chechnya. Classical notions of ethnography divide the world neatly into the home of the anthropologist and the ...
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This chapter is an analysis of ethnographical and anthropological theories related to Chechnya. Classical notions of ethnography divide the world neatly into the home of the anthropologist and the Weld, where the anthropologist studies the aborigines in their natural state. This understanding of the ethnographic Weld is less and less suitable for the analysis of nonterritorial cultural systems and their wider interactions, as in case of Chechnya. It is still less suitable when analyzing a society whose geographic and cultural identity has been ripped apart by intrinsic and external influences, and can be described only as a result and a continuation of these impacts. Social science literature has accumulated a great deal of research, undertaken from a variety of disciplinary approaches, to situations of armed separatist conflict, as well as on the more general issues of ethnic violence and war. But despite considerable progress in understanding the range of problems presented by culturally/ethnically motivated covert wars, it is not applicable in the Chechnya context.Less
This chapter is an analysis of ethnographical and anthropological theories related to Chechnya. Classical notions of ethnography divide the world neatly into the home of the anthropologist and the Weld, where the anthropologist studies the aborigines in their natural state. This understanding of the ethnographic Weld is less and less suitable for the analysis of nonterritorial cultural systems and their wider interactions, as in case of Chechnya. It is still less suitable when analyzing a society whose geographic and cultural identity has been ripped apart by intrinsic and external influences, and can be described only as a result and a continuation of these impacts. Social science literature has accumulated a great deal of research, undertaken from a variety of disciplinary approaches, to situations of armed separatist conflict, as well as on the more general issues of ethnic violence and war. But despite considerable progress in understanding the range of problems presented by culturally/ethnically motivated covert wars, it is not applicable in the Chechnya context.