Nothing About Us Without Us: How an Anthropologist Can Keep His Place

DOI: 10.33876/2311-0546/2023-1/7-18

Abstract

Anthropologists and informants are seen as co-authors of new legal-­anthropological knowledge, using the example of work on the draft law “On State Support for Entrepreneurial Activity in the Arctic Zone of the Russian Federation. There are not yet a sufficient number of indigenous scientists in Russia who are engaged and particularly interested in such research, but is such cooperation with other anthropologists voluntary or forced? What is the „field“ in such work if it is based not only on ethnographic materials, but also on direct observation of the participants’ behavior in the lawmaking process? The lawmaking process requires a degree of temporal and factual detachment from ethnographic material, but who can determine the extent of this detachment? What is the basis of trust and solidarity in this case? It should be emphasized that such work involves “authorized representatives” of indigenous peoples, which requires attention to the principle of free prior and informed consent, other norms of international law and Russian law. The report hypothesizes that it is possible and necessary to combine methods of anthropology and jurisprudence for the success of lawmaking and to create a broader field of academic and applied research of the legal status of indigenous peoples.