Gadzhiev Gaidar Abdulvagidovich
18 October 1938, Usukhchai village, Dokhusparinsk District, Dagestan ASSR
Biography, education, career:
In 1977, at the Institute of Ethnography of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Gaidar Gadzhiev defended his Candidate Dissertation, titled Pre-Muslim Religious Beliefs and Rites of Lezgins (Based on the Materials Gathered in the Samur Valley). In 1993 he defended his Doctoral Dissertation, titled Pre-Monotheistic Beliefs and Rites of the Peoples of Highland Dagestan: The Vestiges of Paganism in the Traditional Spiritual Culture of Dagestanis. In 1968‑2001 he successively occupied the positions of junior researcher, researcher, senior researcher, and leading researcher at the Department of Ethnography of the Institute of Archaeology, Anthropology and Ethnography, Dagestan Scientific Centre of RAS.
Areas of expertise: History and ethnography of the peoples of the North and South Caucasus; Spiritual culture; Ethnic religious studies; beliefs and rituals of the peoples of Dagestan; historical and ethnographic research of low-numbered peoples of Dagestan; traditional spiritual culture of the peoples of Dagestan