Ethno-archaeological study of socio-cultural history (based on the work of Siberian scholars)

Abstract

The aim of this study is to characterize and evaluate the results of complex archaeological and ethnographic studies, including studies using methods of ethnoarchaeology, as well as a study of the sociocultural history of the population of Western Siberia in the middle ages and modern period in the works of scientists of Tomsk and Omsk. The sources for the present research are scientific studies published by archaeologists and ethnographers on socio-cultural history and anthropology of Western Siberia and ethnoarchaeology theory in the last 40 years, starting with the materials of the Fifth Western Siberian Archaeology and Ethnography Conference “Methodological aspects of archaeological and ethnographic research in Western Siberia” held in Tomsk in 1981. The present article investigates two topics: formation and functioning of ethnoarchaeology in Siberian science, and the work of Tomsk and Omsk scholars during the 1980s-2010s on the archaeological-ethnographic study of socio-cultural and ethnic history of Western Siberian peoples. The results of this research have been published in dozens of books and hundreds of articles, primarily in the proceedings of Western Siberian Archaeological-Ethnographic summits and conferences, held in Tomsk from 1970 to 2018, the proceedings of the International Symposium Integrating Archaeological and Ethnographic Research, organized by Omsk scholars in 1993-2018, and in volumes of scientific publication series Ethnographic-Archaeological Complexes: Issues of Culture and Society, published in Omsk. In the 1990s Tomsk scholars published a fundamental volume Essays on Culture Genesis of Western Siberian Peoples. In Omsk, a group of ethnoarchaeologists, formed in 1993, worked on developing ethnoarchaeology as scientific discipline and published volumes of Ethnographic-Archaeological Complexes of the Tara area of the Irtysh region. The main results of the research conducted by Tomsk and Omsk scholars in the last forty years include creating and developing ethnoarchaeology as a scientific discipline in Siberia; developing ethno-archaeological methodology in the framework of Russian science; developing a periodization system of the history of archaeological-ethnographic research in Russian science from the 17th century until the present day (three periods); developing methodology of ethno-archaeological research and issues of ethno-archaeological primary source studies. They also conducted empirical research on socio-cultural history of Western Siberian peoples, including their culture genesis processes; and applied experimental modeling in studying ethnographic-archaeological socio-cultural complexes of Russian and Tatar populations of the Tara area of the Irtysh region in the 17th-20th centuries.