Topic: Russia
From The Margaret Mead Symposium: Whither the United States in the World?
Commemorating the centennial of the birth of Margaret Mead.
December 2 & 3, 2001
Sponsors: Library of Congress and The Smithsonian Institution
Changes in the Russian Mentality
Speaker: Sergei Alexandrovich Arutiunov
Chairman of the Department of Caucasian Studies, Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology, Russian Academy of Sciences
Whereas a deep feeling of guilt was typically part of the Russian mentality in the past, shame and fear are still present but guilt is no longer there, Arutiunov argues.
Quicktime (3.2MB)- Windows Media Player (3.83MB)
Russian Power Structure and Society Separation
Speaker: Sergei Alexandrovich Arutiunov
Chairman of the Department of Caucasian Studies, Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology, Russian Academy of Sciences
Power and society are isolated from each other in Russia, Arutiunov says.
- Quicktime (7.27MB)
- Windows Media Player (8.57MB)
The Russian Mind Parallels to Current America
Speaker: Sergei Alexandrovich Arutiunov
Chairman of the Department of Caucasian Studies, Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology, Russian Academy of Sciences
Arutiunov argues that many Russians support Putin because of nostalgia for authoritarian leadership. He touches on Mead’s relevance to this theory. He goes on to discuss the new Russian middle class.
- Quicktime (14.86MB)
- Windows Media Player (17.7MB)
Russia faces changes with little discourse of change
Speaker: Blair Ruble
Chairman of the Department of Caucasian Studies, Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology, Russian Academy of Sciences
Ruble argues that the intellectual concepts Russians use now have not kept pace with changes in society.
- Quicktime (3.59MB)
- Windows Media Player (4.33MB)
