Levon H. Abrahamian (; born January 2, 1947) is an Armenian anthropologist and historian.

Biography and career

Abrahamian was born in

Yerevan Yerevan ( , , ; ; sometimes spelled Erevan) is the capital and largest city of Armenia, as well as one of the world's List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest continuously inhabited cities. Situated along the Hrazdan River, Yerev ...

Soviet Armenia The Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic (ArSSR), also known as Soviet Armenia, or simply Armenia, was one of the Republics of the Soviet Union, constituent republics of the Soviet Union, located in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Soviet Armenia ...

on January 2, 1947. He graduated from Yerevan State University (YSU) with M.S. in

biophysics Biophysics is an interdisciplinary science that applies approaches and methods traditionally used in physics to study biological phenomena. Biophysics covers all scales of biological organization, from molecular to organismic and populations ...

in 1970 and from the Institute of Anthropology and Ethnography of the Soviet Academy of Sciences in 1978 as Candidate of Sciences in Cultural and Social Anthropology. He joined the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography at the Academy of Sciences of Soviet Armenia in 1978, initially working as a junior researcher until 1988 and then as senior researcher. In 2005 he headed the Institute's Department of Contemporary Anthropological Studies. Abrahamian has taught at YSU since 1990. He has also taught as a visiting professor at the

University of Pittsburgh The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The university is composed of seventeen undergraduate and graduate schools and colle ...

(1994),

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

(2001),

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school the ...

(2008), and

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

(1997 and 2015). In November 2018 Abrahamian was elected president of the Board of Trustees of the Matenadaran.

Recognition

Abrahamian is a corresponding member of the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia (2006). In 2009 Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan awarded him the title of an Honored Worker of Culture.

Research and publications

Abrahamian's anthropological research focuses on ancient and modern Armenia and Armenians, including Armenian identity, comparative mythology, rituals, urban anthropology and the cultures of Australia and Oceania. He has authored five books and numerous papers. His two English-language books, ''Armenian Folk Arts, Culture, and Identity'' (2001) and ''Armenian Identity in a Changing World'' (2006) received positive reviews.

Books

*Abrahamian, Levon. ''Primitive Festival and Mythology'' (1983). Yerevan: Academy of Sciences of Armenian SSR Press (in Russian) *Abrahamian, Levon, and Nancy Sweezy, eds. ''Armenian Folk Arts, Culture, and Identity'' (2001). Indiana University Press *''Conversations Near a Tree''. Moscow: Languages of Slavonic Cultures, 2005, in Russian *Abrahamian, Levon. ''Armenian Identity in a Changing World'' (2006). Mazda Publishers *Kharatyan, Hranush; Shagoyan, Gayane; Marutyan, Harutyun; Abrahamian, Levon. ''Stalinist Repressions in Armenia: History, Memory �տալինյան բռնաճնշումները Հայաստանում. պատմություն, հիշողություն, առօրյա' (2015). "Gitutyun" Publishing of the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia (in Armenian)

Articles

On Schneider's Symbolic Culture Theory
, ''Current Anthropology'', Vol. 21, No. 2 (Apr., 1980), pp. 255–256
The secret police as a secret society: fear and faith in the USSR
''Russian Social Science Review'' 35, no. 3 (1994), pp. 81–95.
Typology of Aggressiveness and National Violence in the Former USSR
, ''International Journal on Minority and Group Rights'', Vol. 4, No. 3/4, (1996/97), pp. 263–278
Lenin as a trickster
''Anthropology & archeology of Eurasia'' 38, no. 2 (1999), pp. 8–26.
The Chained Hero: The Cave and the Labyrinth
, '' Iran & the Caucasus'', Vol. 11, No. 1 (2007), pp. 89–99
From Carnival Civil Society Toward a Real Civil Society: Democracy Trends in Post-Soviet Armenia
''Anthropology & archeology of Eurasia'' 50, no. 3 (2012): pp. 11–50.
Velvet Revolution, Armenian Style
, '' Demokratizatsiya'', vol. 26, n. 4, Fall 2018

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Abrahamian, Levon 1947 births Living people Armenian anthropologists Armenian ethnographers