Besolova, Elena B.
Izvestia SOIGSI. 2024. IIS 54 (93). P.151-162.

Abstract:
On 21 December last year, at 6 p.m., an outstanding scientist, a friend of our Institute,
Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Sergey Alexandrovich Arutyunov, who
had a blood connection with the Caucasus, passed away. He was a man whose life was a model
of service to science; whose communication with him left an indelible impression; a senior friend
who was able to instill faith in himself, in decency in science and life, who taught never to betray
by word and deed, to follow his dream and realize it. Domestic science has suffered an irreparable
loss: one of the most eminent scientists not only in Russia, but also in the near and far abroad has
passed away. Brilliant command of the Word, highly professional and at the same time accessible
explanation of the most complex and intricate scientific problems; original creative approach to
everything; inimitable sense of humor combined with irony; inner concentration with constant
readiness for mobility; vitality combined with a wealth of life experience; careful attitude to everyone
and everything. A scientist unrivalled, nurtured by the 20th century... Sergey Alexandrovich was
also known for his versatility: a Caucasian scholar, a Japanese scholar, the world’s largest expert
on ancient Eskimo cultures. For everyone, Professor Arutyunov is “an outstanding theorist who
studies the problems of ethnicity among different peoples and social groups in different parts of
the world, in different historical epochs and social conditions, in their conjugation with the forms
of various regional and local civilisations” (A. Dolukhanov). The article deals with some ethnocultural
and ethnolinguistic problems in the works of S.A. Arutyunov, who constantly drew the
attention of researchers to the increasing processes of globalisation, which led to the disappearance
of many national traditions, rituals, customs, systems of national values, and this, in turn, to the
loss of not only important elements of the vocabulary, but also of the language itself. According
to S.A. Arutyunov, a scientific barrier to the disappearance of national languages and cultures
can be the study, preservation, development and popularisation of archetypal constants of national
cultures in the ethnolinguistic aspect (“On the Ethnolinguistic Approach to the Study of the South-
East Asia Languages”; “Language is a Ford Across the River of Time”; “Silhouettes of Ethnicity
on the Civilisation Background”, etc.). Several of his works are devoted to the traditions, rituals
and customs of Caucasian peoples (“On the Cult of the Bull and the Sheep in the Caucasus and
Related Regions”; “The Caucasian Feast as a Social Regulator”; “The Tradition of Sacrifice: General
and Particular”, etc.), in which he analyses the ritual complex from a historical and ideological
perspective. In others – the interdependence of ethnic processes and language; the role and place
of language in the ethno-cultural development of society, folk mechanisms of linguistic tradition.
Several works by the outstanding scholar (“Life as a Text”; “Peoples and Cultures”; “Silhouettes
of Ethnicity against a Civilisational Background”; materials of international anthropological and
ethnographic congresses; and many others) are devoted to the interrelation and interdependence of
cultural heritage and rituals depicted in the traditional forms of the culture of the North Caucasian
peoples. Impressions and feelings from the dialogue with the unrivalled Mater and his works cannot
be contained in one article. We hope for the continuation...

Keywords: Caucasian Studies; Japanese Studies; Sergey Alexandrovich Arutyunov, Theorist of Science; Caucasian Peoples, Cultural Heritage; Rituals; Archetypal Constants.

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