Valery Tishkov
Encyclopedia
Valery Tishkov is an ethnologist.

Born in Sverdlovsk
Yekaterinburg
Yekaterinburg is a major city in the central part of Russia, the administrative center of Sverdlovsk Oblast. Situated on the eastern side of the Ural mountain range, it is the main industrial and cultural center of the Urals Federal District with a population of 1,350,136 , making it Russia's...

, Tishkov attended Moscow State University
Moscow State University
Lomonosov Moscow State University , previously known as Lomonosov University or MSU , is the largest university in Russia. Founded in 1755, it also claims to be one of the oldest university in Russia and to have the tallest educational building in the world. Its current rector is Viktor Sadovnichiy...

, where he received a B.A.
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...

 in 1964. He earned an M.A.
Master's degree
A master's is an academic degree granted to individuals who have undergone study demonstrating a mastery or high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice...

 in 1969 from Moscow Pedagogical University, and a Ph.D.
Doctor of Philosophy
Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated as Ph.D., PhD, D.Phil., or DPhil , in English-speaking countries, is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities...

 degree in 1978 from the USSR Academy of Sciences. Since 2000, he has been Director of the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Russian Academy of Sciences
The Russian Academy of Sciences consists of the national academy of Russia and a network of scientific research institutes from across the Russian Federation as well as auxiliary scientific and social units like libraries, publishers and hospitals....

 (IEA).

Valery A. Tiskov started his academic career in Canadian ethnohistory with two books on pre-Confederation Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 and the first Russian version of the History of Canada (1982). His publications gave birth to Canadian studies within Russia. In the 1980s he studied indigenous peoples and published a general text on the contemporary Amerindian population of North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

. His primary interests were in political status, historic and comprehensive claims, Indian government and movements.

Since 1990 he has focused on the ethnic factor in Russian transformation as well as on the theory and political practice of ethnicity.

Valery A. Tishkov’s theoretical challenge came also from his formula ‘Forget the Nation’ (2000) where he suggested a post-nationalist understanding of nationalism. He argued that the nation
Nation
A nation may refer to a community of people who share a common language, culture, ethnicity, descent, and/or history. In this definition, a nation has no physical borders. However, it can also refer to people who share a common territory and government irrespective of their ethnic make-up...

 is a powerful metaphor which two forms of social groupings – polity and ethnic entity – are fighting to have as their exclusive property. There is no sense in defining states and ethnic groups by the category of nation. The latter is a ghost word, escalated to a level of meta-category through historical accident and the inertia of intellectual prescription. A suggested ‘hard scenario’ for breaking the methodological impasse is a ‘zero option’, when both major clients for being a nation will be deprived of a luxury called by that label.

He edited two fundamental encyclopedias on ethnic groups of Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

 (1994) and ethnic groups and religions of the world (1998) that present a comprehensive enterprise in ethnographic reference literature.

Tishkov is a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Russian Academy of Sciences
The Russian Academy of Sciences consists of the national academy of Russia and a network of scientific research institutes from across the Russian Federation as well as auxiliary scientific and social units like libraries, publishers and hospitals....

.

Since 2005 he is a member of the Public Chamber of Russia
Public Chamber of Russia
The Public Chamber is a state institution with 126 members created in 2005 in Russia to analyze draft legislation and monitor the activities of the parliament, government and other government bodies of Russia and its Federal Subjects. It has a role similar to an oversight committee and has...

.

Key Publications

  • (1990) Indigenous Peoples of North America. Moscow: Nauka.
  • (1996) Ethnic Conflicts in the Context of Social Science Theories // Ethnicity and Power in the Contemporary World. United Nations University Press. Tokyo, New York, Paris. 1996. P.52-68.
  • (1997) Ethnicity, Nationalism and Conflict in and after the Soviet Union. The Mind Aflame. London: Sage Publications.
  • (1997) Political Anthropology of the Chechen War // Security Dialogue, vol. 28, N 4, December 1997, p. 425-437.
  • (1998) U.S. and Russian Anthropology. Unequal Dialogue in a Time of Transition // Current Anthropology, vol. 39, N 1, February 1998, p. 1-17.
  • (1998) La Caucase du Nord: Problemes et politique// Nouveaux mondes, 1998, N 8, p. 147-156.
  • (2000) Political Anthropology. Lewiston-Queenston-Lampeter: The Edwin Mellen Press.

External links

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