Butinova (Dolgonosova) Maria Sidorovna
19 November 1920, Millerovo, Donetsk Oblast, RSFSR
Biography, education, career:
In 1948, at the Institute of Ethnography of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Maria Butinova defended her Candidate Dissertation, titled E. Taylor’s Theory of Vestiges. In 1975 she defended her Doctoral Dissertation, titled Missionary Work and Colonialism (on the Example of the Peoples of Oceania). In 1968‑1983 she occupied the position of Head of The Origin of Religion Department, Museum of the History of Religion.
Areas of expertise: History and ethnography of the peoples of Australia and Oceania; Ethnic religious studies; Ethnic museology; origin of religion; missionary work and colonialism; contemporary religious situation in Oceania