Anthropology by Other Names: The Impact of Sino-Soviet Friendship on the Anthropological Sciences

Abstract

The re-establishment ofcloser ties between the USSR and the People's Republic of China since Gorbachev's visit to Beijing in May of 1989 raises questions regarding the legacy of an earlier period of Sino-Soviet co-operation. In the social sciences the Soviet influence was considerable, for the Soviet 'model' served as a template for the reorganization of these disciplines in China. Even the breakup of the Sino-Soviet alliance in the late 1950s could not erase such influences, for by then the institutional, theoretical and personnel structures of Chinese academia had been transformed. In the anthropological sciences, certainly, the Soviet imprint is still clearly discernible over thirty ears later. The very definition of the field in China is itself testimony to such influence, for China's anthropology closely parallels the Soviet design. In the Soviet Union, anthropology has long been defined solely as physical anthropology, the study of human evolution and contemporary human biological variation. The study of contemporary cultures and societies was reserved for ethnography (if dealing with minority nationalities and peasant populations) and sociology (if dealing with 'modem' groups). Both ethnography and archaeology, moreover, were considered branches of history and accorded that placement in research institutes and universities. Linguistics led an independent academic life. One finds the