Valery Pavlovich Alekseyev (sometimes spelled as Alexeev) (, 22 August 1929¨,

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...

– 7 November 1991) was a Russian anthropologist, director of the Institute of Archaeology in

(1987–1991) and member of the

Soviet Academy of Sciences The Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union was the highest scientific institution of the Soviet Union from 1925 to 1991, uniting the country's leading scientists, subordinated directly to the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union (until 1946 ...

, exceptionally without having been a member of the

Communist Party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. ...

. Alekseyev proposed ''

Homo rudolfensis ''Homo rudolfensis'' is an extinct species of archaic human from the Early Pleistocene of East Africa about 2 million years ago (mya). Because ''H. rudolfensis'' coexisted with several other hominins, it is debated what specimens can be confide ...

'' in 1986. In 2006 Russian Academy of Sciences established the Valery Alekseyev award for the outstanding achievements in anthropology and archaeology. Alekseyev died suddenly from thromboses in Moscow on 7 November 1991, aged 62. The award winning popular science book on human evolution ''

Who Asked the First Question? Joseph Jordania ( Georgian იოსებ ჟორდანია, born February 12, 1954 and also known under the misspelling of Joseph Zhordania) is an Australian– Georgian ethnomusicologist and evolutionary musicologist and professor. He is ...

Origins of Human Choral Singing, Intelligence, Language and Speech'' (2006) is dedicated to the memory of Alekseyev and his lifelong friend, Georgian anthropologist Malkhaz Abdushelishvili.Full text of the book on the internet
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Scientific activity

V.P. Alekseev (together with A.I. Pershits) is the author of the famous textbook for universities “The History of Primitive Society”, which has already passed 6 editions (the last one in 2007). Struggling with sociological theories, the scientist recognized the

race Race, RACE or "The Race" may refer to: * Race (biology), an informal taxonomic classification within a species, generally within a sub-species * Race (human categorization), classification of humans into groups based on physical traits, and/or s ...

existence and its connection with ethnicity. In the division of humans into races, he was traditional and distinguished Caucasians, Negroids and Mongoloids; moreover, he connected Caucasians with Negroids. In the characteristic of the first, V.P. Alekseev has seen the Neanderthal addition. The peculiarity of the Mongoloids was the influence by synanthropes. He divided the Caucasians into northern (Baltic) and southern (Mediterranean, Armenoid and Indo-Afghan). In addition to the "pure" races, Alekseev singled out "mixed" or "transitional" races, for example, the Ural race.

Bibliography

Alekseyev has published 20 books and some 500 articles. * ''Историческая антропология и этногенез'' (''Historical anthropology and ethnogenesis'') (1989) * ''География человеческих рас'' (''Geography of the human race'') (1974) *
The Origin of the Human Race
'.

Progress Publishers Progress Publishers was a Moscow-based Soviet publisher founded in 1931. Publishing program Progress Publishers published books in a variety of languages: Russian, English, and many other European and Asian languages. They issued many scientific b ...

(1986), . * ''Палеоантропология земного шара и формирование человеческих рас'' (''Global paleoanthropology and the formation of the human races'') * ''Происхождение народов Восточной Европы'' (''Origin of the peoples of Eastern Europe'') * ''Происхождение народов Кавказа'' (''Origin of the peoples of the Caucasus'') (1974)

External links

The Alexeev Manuscript
1991 lectures held in Harvard.

(ido.edu.ru) {{DEFAULTSORT:Alekseyev, Valery 1929 births 1991 deaths Academics from Moscow Paleoanthropologists Russian anthropologists Full Members of the USSR Academy of Sciences 20th-century anthropologists