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Проблемы исторической географии и демографии России
The collection consists of articles, presented during two colloquia organized by the RAS Institute of russian history. The first one named “Historical geography in modern humanities” was hold in the fall of 2009, and another — “Geographical surroundings as a factor of urban development: modes of impact, forms to manifestate, ways to study” — in spring of 2010.
Primary Rusian Chronicle's notices on what is now called Western Europe and Catholic church can be divided into three groups. The first one (which can be traced back to the first half — middle of the 11th century) shows the awareness of the differences between two existing christian confessions, the second one (which most likely belongs to the so-called Načalnyj svod) is fiiled with hatred to the western neighbours, whlie the third one (corresponding to the Povest' Vremennykh Lět) shows that a kind of reconciliation was achieved and the christianity was understood by the chroniclers of the epoch as if it hadn´t ever divided.
The paper is an attempt of a new interpretation of the term saqaliba that Ahmad ibn Fadlan, who was a 10-century Arab traveler, used in his Kitab as a designation of the population of the Middle Volga region. The most likely is that saqaliba in this region in the beginning of 10th century was a demonym, ie designation of certain territory residents, regardless of their genealogy and characteristics of the material and spiritual culture.
Genesis of the demonym could be associated with Imenkovo archaeological culture of 4-7th centuries AD, which is similar to authentically Slavic cultures. From VIII this culture was replaced by Turkic and Finno-Ugric cultures.
Volga Bulgaria emerged in the late 9th – early 10th century as the union of different ethnopolitical groups led by the Bulgars. In the 920's Almış, the ruler of the Bulgars, followed by Ibn Fadlan designated by the term "Sakaliba" ethno-political group in aggregate subordinated to Almış.
In the process of consolidating power of Bulgar leaders demonym saqaliba was replaced by the term bulghar in the writings of Ibn Rustah, al-Mas‘udi, Estakhri etc.
The author reconstructs the scientific biography of one of the leading French naturalists of the XXth century, a prominent ethnologist, administrator and organizer of science, who was the president of the Malagasy Academy in the years 1948-1958.
Globalization is a process of not unification but rapprochement of cultures, formation of a global civilization as a «federation» of local civilizations. In connection with transformations of the phenomenon of nation in the post-colonial period, its tendency to transform from a «supraethnic» into «interethnic» phenomenon, a global transnational culture is forming. With respect to this process, it makes sense to speak about not degradation, but a change in the place of ethnic cultures and even an increase in their role in the time of intensive globalization.
Since early Antiquity, people have replaced traditional toponyms with more prestigious names that reflected the ideology of the time. Old Babylonian Upper Mesopotamia provides two new examples of this usage. The city of Hanzat was renamed into Šubat-Šamaš, “the dwelling of Šamaš”, during Samsi-Addu’s reign. The city of Tupham was for some time called Ṣubat-Eštar, “the possession of Eštar.”
L'auteur examine la biographie de Jacques Millot, arachnologiste français et président de l'Académie Malgache en 1948-1958.
The article is devoted to the analysis of the plot of “the first sermon” as represented in the “Sutra of the blessed appearance of the prince”, translated into Chinese by Zhi-qian (III AD) and not preserved as an Indian text. The story represented in this sutra is very original, it is unique in the Buddhist literature. The main difference is the unusual localization of events: there is no moving from Uruvilvā as the place of enlightenment, to Mr. gadāva worshipped as the place of the first sermon. Consideration of the variations of the story in different texts of early Buddhist literature reveals a gradual evolution of the plot; comparing these fragments with the version of Zhi-qian, we can see that the version like preserved in the Chinese sutra may be an initial one. Probably the reason of changes in the geography of Buddhism was the assignment of the sacred space of the pre-Buddhist India.