Why do Anthropologists Study Disability?

DOI: 10.33876/2311-0546/2021-53-1/33-35

Abstract

Disability exists as a complex social and cultural phenomenon having biological and medical roots. This phenomenon is still marginal in the research of Russian ethnologists and social anthropologists. However, disability exists in a particular historical and cultural context. Many factors – among them ethnic and religious traditions, gender stereotypes, and specifics of social psychology in different groups – impact on its perception, reflection and attitudes towards people with various impairments. The author attempts to demonstrate some issues that may be of importance for ethnological and anthropological research in Russia. For instance, these are problems of Extraordinary Bodies in various cultures, proportion of beauty, ugliness and impairments in different epochs, different disability cultures or subcultures, lifestyles of people with different disabilities, ethnic traditions of help or distancing disabled persons, representation of disability in various religious systems, constructing stereotypes dealing with disabilities in different societies including contemporary Russia, and some other issues.

For Citation: Nosenko-Stein, E. 2021. Why do Anthropologists Study Disability? Herald of Anthropology (Vestnik Antropologii) 1 (53): 33–35.