Viktoriya Anatolievna Lipinskaya and Altai: Features of the Field Work of Moscow Ethnographers in Siberia in the 1960–1990s

Abstract

The article considers field research of Russian population of Altai Krai (region), carried out in 1960–1991 by the Viktoriya Lipinskaya, in the context of history of expedition activity of Institute of Ethnography of Academy of Sciences of the USSR in Siberia. The research topicality is determined by the fragmentary study of Siberian academic expeditions, problems of formation of ethnographic personnel during the Soviet period, and methods and techniques of ethnographers' field work. The sources of this research are the scientific works by Viktoriya Lipinskaya, based on expeditions materials, as well as materials from the author's own personal archive. Among them there are epistolary sources, interview materials, and memoirs of Viktoriya Lipinskaya. The predominance of documents of personal origin determined the accentuation on under-investigated issues of anthropology of scientific life: the paths of research into ethnographic science, the influence of objective and subjective factors on scientific choice, the ratio of theory and practice in the formation of research competences of young ethnographers. The issues of the organization of expeditions, material and technical support, human and methodological resourcing of field research projects were also considered. The principles of choosing of the research areas and selecting respondents were analyzed, the expedition routing was reconstructed. As a result of the analysis of Viktoriya Lipinskaya biography, closely associated with the scientific life of the 1950–1980s, the contribution of the academic institute to the ethnographic study of the Altai population is assessed, and the influence of subjective and objective factors on the results of academic research is revealed. At the turn of the 1950s and 1960s the formation of research programs was determined by the change of research priorities from the study of “traditionalism” to “innovativeness”, interpreted as the influence of socialist modernization on mentality and utility culture of ethnic and social groups in Soviet society. In this context are considered the activities of the director of Institute of Ethnography AS USSR Sergei Tolstov and his deputy Ludmila Terentieva. At the end, conclusions are drawn about the contribution of Viktoriya Lipinskaya to the ethnographic study of the Russians in Siberia.