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Vladimir Plotkin, Dual models, totalizing ideology and Soviet ethnography.
Conceptual differences between Western and Soviet social sciences go far deeper than disagreement on any formal social theory. They arc rooted in two separate intellectual traditions. From the medieval times, Russian culture has been marked by the persistence of totalizing and monistic forms of ideology, and a strong polarity of values (dualism). The paper explores the impact of this ideology on Russian/Soviet Marxism, as well as on the character of social theory in Soviet ethnography.
It suggests that the current debate between the fundamentalists and the innovators will remain inconclusive without the critical reevaluation of the Russian intellectual tradition.