Nomads and the Outside World

Цитата:

Anatoly Khazanov

Anatoly Khazanov (born December 13, 1937) is an anthropologist and historian.

Born in Moscow, Khazanov attended Moscow State University, where he received a B.A. and M.A.in 1960. He earned a Ph.D. degree in 1966 and Dr.Sc. in 1976 from the USSR Academy of Sciences. Since 1990, he has been Professor of the Anthropology Department in the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Anatoly M. Khazanov started his professional career as an archaeologist specializing in the nomadic cultures of the Early Iron Age. In the second half of the 1960s he shifted to socio-cultural anthropology. From 1966-1985, his main fields of research were pastoral nomads and the origins of complex societies. His main argument that the nomads were never autarkic and therefore in economic, cultural, and political respects were dependent on their relations with the sedentary world, is shared now by the majority of experts with regard to the emergence of complex societies. On the other hand, Khazanov was trying as much as was possible under Soviet censorship, to demonstrate the fallacy of the Soviet Marxist concept of historical process.

After his emigration in 1985 from the Soviet Union, Khazanov continued to study extensive and mobile pastoralists, paying particular attention to the deficiences and shortcomings of their modernization process. He argued that various modernization projects have failed because they did not provide room for the sustained self-development of the pastoralists and denied their participation in decision-making.

Since the beginning of the 1990s, Khazanov has also become known for his contribution to the study of ethnicity and nationalism, and transitions from communist rule. He was one of the first to argue that in many countries this transition does not guarantee an emergence of liberal democratic order. He also argued that, contrary to widespread opinion, globalization per se is unable to reduce nationalism and ethnic strife, which will remain a salient phenomenon in the foreseeable future.

In the last few years, Khazanov has turned to the anthropology of public monuments and symbols, being particularly interested in their role in defining and redefining national and ethnic identities.

Khazanov has written over 10 books and 200 articles dealing with his research interests, primarily in a Central Asian context. These include Animal Husbandry and Pastoralism in Post-Soviet Central Asia (University of Wisconsin Press, 2001), Nomads and the Outside World (Cambridge University Press, 1984), Soviet Nationality Policy During Perestroika (Delphic Associates, 1991), and After the U.S.S.R.: Ethnicity, Nationalism, and Politics in the Commonwealth of Independent States (University of Wisconsin Press, 1995). Together with Ofer Bar-Yosef, he also co-edited the volume Pastoralism in the Levant: Archaeological Materials in Anthropological Perspectives (Prehistory Press, 1992) Among his more important journal articles is "Muhammad and Jenghiz Khan Compared: The Religious Factor in World Empire-Building" in the 1993 Comparative Studies in Society and History.

Цитата:
Hailed by reviewers as “majestic and magisterial,” Nomads and the Outside World was first published in English in 1984. With the author's new introduction and an updated bibliography, this classic is now available in an edition accessible to students.

From reviews of the first edition:

“Magisterial. . . . Combining a phenomenal erudition, a candid judgment, and a subtle sense of irony, Khazanov sets out to challenge the orthodox view of nomadic feudalism and, in the process, has produced the first comparative survey of pastoral societies that can claim to be truly comprehensive, covering their history in Eurasia, the Middle East, and Africa from the origins of pastoralism to the dawn of the modern era.”—Tim Ingold,
Current Anthropology

“This is the best study on pastoral nomadism that the reviewer has ever read. At last we have a major attempt to present the whole phenomenon in historical, ecological, spatial and structural perspective. . . . Superb scholarship. It is the kind of work that can only be produced as a result of years of specific research, much deep thinking . . . and a determination to reject cant.”—John C. Wilkinson,
Geographical Journal

“Khazanov's book on pastoral nomadism is a heroic endeavor of a kind no one has seriously attempted before. . . . Particularly valuable to western readers are the materials on the numerous peoples of Central Asia and Siberia . . . and their integration with analysis of more familiar societies such as those of North and East Africa and the Middle East. . . . The insights provided by this book are too numerous to list.”—Caroline Humphrey,
Times Literary Supplement

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