CFP - Hierarchy and Power

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
"HIERARCHY AND POWER IN THE HISTORY OF CIVILIZATIONS"
June 15 - 18, 2000, Moscow

SECOND ANNOUNCEMENT 
AND CALL FOR PAPERS AND PANEL PROPOSALS


The Center for Civilizational and Regional Studies of the Russian 
Academy of 
Sciences in co-operation with The Institute of Cultural Anthropology 
of the 
Russian State University for the Humanities is organizing in June 
2000 
International Conference "HIERARCHY AND POWER IN THE HISTORY OF 
CIVILIZATIONS".

The Conference objective is to discuss the processes of the 
politogenesis in 
their regional and temporary variation. This discussion, in its turn, 
could and 
should promote the advancement of the understanding of the general 
trends and 
mechanisms of sociocultural evolution, the interrelation and 
interaction of 
social, cultural and political dimensions in the society, and further 

development of general methodology for anthropology, cultural 
studies, 
sociology, political science &c.  

Until recently it was considered self-evident that just the formation 
of the 
state marked the end of the primitive epoch and alternatives to the 
state did 
not actually exist. All the stateless societies were considered pre-
state ones, standing on the single evolutionary staircase squarely 
below the 
states. Nowadays postulates about the state as the only possible form 
of 
political and sociocultural organization of the post-primitive 
society, about a 
priori higher level of development of a state society in comparison 
with any 
non-state one do not seem so undeniable as a few years ago. It has 
become 
evident that the non-state societies are not necessarily less complex 
and 
efficient. The problem of existence of non-state but not primitive 
(i.e. 
principally non- and not prestate) societies, alternatives to the 
state as the 
allegedly inevitable post-primitive form of the sociopolitical 
organization 
deserves attention. 

The example of alternatives to the state reveals that it is possible 
to achieve 
the same level of complexity allowing societies to solve similar 
problems, on 
essentially differing pathways of evolution which appeared 
simultaneously with 
human society and increased in quantity alongside with its 
social-and-cultural 
advancement. This fundamental alternativity of social evolution could 
be 
observed throughout the whole length of human history from 
non-egalitarian and 
egalitarian early primitive associations to the totalitarian and 
democratic 
polities of the 20th century and is already found in pre-human 
"egalitarian" or 
"despotic" primates groups.

The choice of an evolutionary direction which a society follows is to 
a 
considerable extent a result of its all-round adaptation to the 
environment, not 
only the natural but sociohistorical one as well. The "type of 
civilizational 
development" seems to be one of the key notions, capable to help to 
reveal 
essential backgrounds of societies and systems of them, 
civilizations. 

The following two main sections are suggested:
1) "Civilizational Models of the Complex Sociopolitical  
Organization". 
Convenors: Dr. Dmitri M. Bondarenko, 
Prof. Andrey V. Korotayev.
2) "Ethological Basis of Hierarchy and Power in Human Society". 
Convenor: Prof. 
Marina L. Butovskaya.

In addition to the two main sections, we are planning to organize a 
few panels 
("Hierarchy and Power in Pre-colonial Tropical Africa", "Hierarchy 
and Power 
among the Nomads", "Socio-Cultural Evolution: Factors and Models", 
"Power and 
Secrecy", "Hierarchy, Power, and Religion", "Mental Backgrounds and 
Models of 
Politogenesis", "Hierarchy and Power in the Highlands" &c). Any new 
panel 
proposals are strongly invited.

Deadline for panel proposals: September 1, 1999.

Deadline for paper proposals (with abstracts [within 300 words] 
enclosed): 
December 1, 1999.

If you would like to take part in the Conference, please, let us know 
your full 
name, title, institutional affiliation, full mail and e-mail 
addresses, and fax 
#. 

As soon as we receive your abstract, we will send you the list of 
documents 
necessary for applying for the Russian visa. Their fax copies will 
also be 
necessary for us, for, according to current Russian regulations, we 
must support 
your application for the visa at the Russian Ministry for Foreign 
Affairs. In 
order to ensure your getting the Russian visa in time, we will have 
to submit 
the application with all the copies of the respective documents about 
half a 
year before the beginning of the Conference. That is why we do ask 
you to 
contact us before the deadline (December 1, 1999) if you are 
interested in 
participating in the Conference. We hope this will not become an 
unsrmountable 
obstacle for you to come.

The registration fee ($100 which includes the culture program, 
Conference book 
of abstracts, reception, coffee-breaks, &c.) payment, is to be paid 
on the spot. 
Accommodation (at the Russian State University for the Humanities 
Hall of 
Residence) is $50/35 per night. Estimated meal and other daily 
expences are c. 
$10.


Prof. Igor V. Sledzevski, the Conference Co-Convenor
Dr. Dmitri M. Bondarenko, the Conference Vice-Convenor
Mr. Dmitri D. Beliaev, Ms. Veronika V. Usachyova, Ms. Galina I. 
Saprokhina, 
the Conference Secretaries
Center for Civilizational and Regional Studies of the Russian Academy 
of 
Sciences
30/1 Spiridonovka St.
Moscow 103001
RUSSIA
FAX: + 7 (095) 202 0786
EMAIL: dbondar@inafr.msk.su

Prof. Gregory A. Tkachenko, the Conference Co-Convenor
Prof. Andrey V. Korotayev, the Conference Vice-Convenor
Prof. Marina L. Butovskaya, the Conference Vice-Convenor
Institute of Cultural Anthropology of the Russian State University 
for the 
Humanities
6 Miusskaya Ploshchad (Korpus 2, Etazh 2)
Moscow 125267
RUSSIA
FAX: +7 (095) 250 5109 (for Institute of Cultural Anthropology)
EMAIL: andrei@rsuh.ru
(Dr) Andrey Vitalyevich Korotayev, Head
Laboratory of Social and Cultural Anthropology
Institute of Cultural Anthropology
Russian State University for Humanities
6 Miusskaya Ploshchad
Moscow 125267, RUSSIA
FAX: +7 (095) 250 5109 (c/o Institute
of Cultural Anthropology)
EMAIL: andrei@rsuh.ru

Seniour Research Fellow
Oriental Institute
of the Russian Academy of Sciences
12 Rozhdestvenka, Moscow 103753, Russia
FAX:  +7 (095)  975 2396