Butinov Nikolay Aleksandrovich
19 December 1914, Petrograd — 7 December 2000, Saint-Petersburg
Biography, education, career:
On 16 June 1946, at the Institute of Ethnography of the USSR Academy of Sciences in Moscow, Nikolay Butinov defended his Candidate Dissertation, titled The Theory of Fritz Grebner. On 21 April 1970 he defended his Doctoral Dissertation, titled The Papuans of New Guinea (ethnic composition, economic and social structure). From 1945 Butinov was a researcher at the Institute of Ethnography of the USSR Academy of Sciences in Leningrad; in 1972 he was appointed Head of the Department of Australia, Oceania, and Indonesia. He is one of the creators of the permanent exposition devoted to Indigenous Populations of Australia and Oceania in MAE. In 1948‑1953 Butinov participated in the editing of the five-volume and then, in 1990-1999, a six-volume Collection of Works by N.N. Miklukho-Maklay. He also contributed to the volume, titled The Peoples of Australia and Oceania (1956) from the Peoples of the World. Ethnograhic Sketches Series. In 1971 Butinov took part in the scientific expedition to Oceania aboard the ship Dmitry Mendeleev. He made a significant contribution to the decipherment of Rongorongo, the script of Easter Island.
Areas of expertise: History and ethnography of the peoples of Australia and Oceania; Folklore studies; History and ethnography of primitive peoples; anthropology of kinship