NurtureIsNature

Lev Gumilev and the Ecology of Ethnicity

Bibliographic Data

ID4207010
AuthorsMark Bassin (0000-0001-5692-4171, Leibniz University Hannover, corresponding author)
Year2009
Volume68
Issue4
Pages872-897
Publication date2009-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSlavic Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0037-6779 • E-ISSN: 2325-7784
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0037677900024566
OpenAlexW4248156107
LanguageEN
Citations received9
References cited38

In this article, Mark Bassin explores Lev Gumilev's theory of ethnicity. Developing his ideas in the context of post-Stalinist debates about the relationship of society to the natural world, Gumilev maintained that theetnoswas a wholly natural, quasi-biological entity. Although this naturalism involved an important genetic dimension, Gumilev denied that ethnicity was determined by race and emphasized instead its ecological quality as an organic part of biogeocenoses or natural-landscape ecosystems. Although he remained marginalized in his day by the Soviet ethnographic establishment, his essentialist perspective is powerfully appealing for post-Soviet audiences, who find his "ecology of ethnicity" singularly useful for the purposes of ethnopolitical discourse

Archaeology · Biology · Context (archaeology · Environmental ethics · Epistemology · Essentialism · Ethnic group · Ethnography · Geography · Natural (archaeology · Naturalism · Nature versus nurture · Perspective (graphical · Sociology · Anthropology · Ecology · Eurasian Exchange Networks · Philosophy · Rangeland Management and Livestock Ecology · Soviet and Russian History