Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences

Doctor of science on anthropology

Ethnical sociology as a direction of ethnography was developed in Azerbaijan in the first half of the 1980s in line with a splash of ethnical-sociological studies in the USSR. The Institute of Ethnography of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology of the Academy of Sciences of Russia since 1990) carried out wide-scale researches in various republics of the Soviet Union since the 1970s. No wide-scale ethnical-sociological research, like the one in Uzbekistan, Georgia or Estonia, was carried out in Azerbaijan, though preparatory works for such a research were done in the early 1980s. Taking part in these works were employees of the Department of Ethnical-Sociological Studies of the Archeology and Ethnography Sector of the Institute of History (later on, there was established the Institute of Archeology and Ethnography), the Institute of Philosophy and Law of the National Academy of Sciences, as well as the Institute of Ethnography of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR and the Chair of Ethnography of the University of Moscow. These works resulted in a questionnaire titled “Peculiarities of Ethnical-Social and Ethnical-Cultural Processes in Azerbaijan”, as well as a mockup of sampling. However, the very ethnical-sociological research was not carried out due to complex social-political processes of the late 1980s. Nevertheless, employees of the Department of Ethnical-Sociological Studies later used these developments to carry on research works on separate themes.

With the use of the example of historical and modern towns of Azerbaijan, there were studied issues of influence of production, social, cultural and everyday milieus upon the development of inter-ethnic links, influence of migrations upon change of the ethnical-cultural milieu of new towns, ethnical peculiarities of various social-professional groups of urban population. Apparently, the Soviet-era ideological dogmas could not help affecting these researches. Like an overwhelming majority of social studies in the USSR, these works postulated having nothing in common with reality the process of internationalization of practically all the sides of a human life, gradual loss of ethnicity, and formation of a new social community - the Soviet people. However, an extensive factual material collected as a result of these studies, as well as ethnical and ethnical-cultural peculiarities of different sides of the life of Azerbaijan’s urban population compensated, to a significant extent, these works’ losses originating from extreme ideologization.

Modern ethnical-sociological studies in Azerbaijan are in much substantiated by processes of social-economic and cultural development of the country and contribution of ethnical peculiarities of modern Azerbaijani society to this development. Researches in this field make it possible to conclude that the character of social-political changes, which have occurred in Azerbaijan over the recent years, is substantiated, to extent, by ethnical peculiarities in various fields of vital activities of the society. Particularly, these peculiarities are displayed through the establishment of political and state institutes, multi-party system, election process, etc. In addition, social and economic development of the country definitely depends on ethnical peculiarities in the labor and everyday life of family. Identification and study of these peculiarities can serve a solid scientific base to work out strategic directions of Azerbaijan’s long-term development.