Zhukovskaya Natalia Lvovna
24 February 1939, Moscow
Biography, education, career:
On 19 February 1971 Natalia Zhukovskaya defended her Candidate’s Dissertation at the Institute of Ethnography; it was titled Lamaism and Early Forms of Religion. On 23 February 1990 she defended her Doctoral Dissertation at the Institute of Anthropology and Ethnography, titled The Basic Categories of the Traditional Culture of the Mongols. In 1982‑1992 she was a senior researcher, and in from 1992 – a leading researcher at the Institute of Ethnography of the USSR AS (presently – Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology of the RAS). Since 1996 she occupies the position of Head of the Centre for Asia-Pacific Studies, Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology, and the position of Full Professor (since 1998). N. Zhukovskaya lectured at some universities in Great Britain, the USA, and Japan. During the period of 1957‑2005 she spent 46 field seasons in Mongolia, Buryatia, Kalmykia, Tuva, The Mari El Republic, Krasnodar Krai, Kirgizia, and Kazakhstan.
Areas of expertise: History and ethnography of Mongolian peoples; Buddhist studies; Historiography, Source studies and Methodology of Ethnography; history of culture of Mongolian-speaking peoples (Mongols, Buryats, Kalmyks); evolution of religious tradition in the culture of the nomads of Central Asia (early forms of religion, shamanism, Buddhism)