Scientific life. Scientific business trip

In the period from April 11 to May 11, 2005, an expedition of Russian anthropologists worked in Tanzania, which was a joint initiative of the Center for Civilizational and Regional Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Africa of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Rosarubezhcenter, supported by the Russian State Science Foundation (grant 05 - 01 - 18010e), the University of Dar es Salaam and the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Tanzania. The second season of the expedition to Tanzania (the first took place in April-May 2003) was a continuation of the field research project in East Africa.

The expedition included employees of the Center for Civilizational and Regional Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Africa of the Russian Academy of Sciences D. M. Bondarenko (head), E. B. Demintseva, O. I. Kavykin, A.V. Korotaev, D. A. Khalturina, Head of the Department of African Studies of the Institute of Asian and African Studies at Moscow State University N. V. Gromova, ethnographer E. A. Stroganova, student of the Russian State Humanitarian University (RSUH) A.V. Gerasimov.

The subject of the study was interethnic relations in Tanzania. The choice of this topic is not accidental: Tanzania is a state whose population consists of representatives of various faiths from more than 120 ethnic groups. In addition to the autochthonous peoples, the Indian, Arab and Greek communities have long been firmly established in the country, which are now an integral part of the state's population; in recent years, there has been an influx of immigrants from China. With all the diversity of ethnic groups living on the territory of Tanzania, the state is characterized by enviable socio-political stability.

The purpose of the expedition was to identify models and mechanisms of relations between different ethnic groups. The central problem of the expedition was also directly related to the consideration of a number of factors that can affect the interethnic situation: gender, age and social stratification of the population, its educational level, family and marriage relations, etc. The study took into account data collected during the first field season, when interfaith relations in Tanzania were studied.

The research objectives determined its methodology. Three methods were chosen as the main ones: questionnaires, interviews, and observation.

A 37-question questionnaire was developed, the same for all ethnic groups, translated into English and Swahili. In particular, the questionnaire contained questions aimed at identifying the parameters of interethnic tolerance, studying ethnic aspects of the political consciousness of Tanzanians, as well as the influence of the ethnic factor on family relations. There were also questions that mark the attitude to a certain aggravation of relations between different ethnic groups on a geopolitical scale. Representatives of various ethnic groups were invited to fill out questionnaires. As a result, 1,112 questionnaires were collected. Despite the fact that, for a number of reasons, the work was carried out mainly in Dar es Salaam (along with the pilot study in Zanzibar), the results obtained can be considered indicative: the largest city, economic and political center of the country gave a representative cross-section of the ethnic, religious, social, gender and age composition of the country's population.

The participants of the expedition took about 70 semi-formal and informal interviews with both ordinary citizens and people who can influence the public-

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Public opinion: leaders of ethnic communities, representatives of the clergy, journalists, school and university teachers, etc. More than half of the interviews were conducted on a special questionnaire consisting of 18 questions; each interview took about 25-30 minutes. Other interviews were classified as expert interviews, they were conducted according to a different plan and lasted an average of 40-50 minutes. Finally, a series of interviews consisted of a conversation without a preliminary plan, which lasted from an hour to one and a half. The vast majority of interviews were recorded on a tape recorder. The interviews revealed holistic images of representatives of other ethnic groups in the minds of interviewees, various aspects of attitudes to other ethnic groups, as well as ideas about the nature of interaction between ethnic groups in Tanzania and the world in the past, present and future. It is of considerable interest to identify the dynamics of ethnic identity, which also becomes possible to identify during the interview.

A large part of the work was devoted to observing the daily and festive life of the peoples of Tanzania (if possible included), accompanied by photographs and audio recordings. Attending meetings and other events of ethnic communities allowed us to get a more complete picture of the life of representatives of various ethnic groups in Tanzania.

Of course, it is still premature to draw scientific conclusions based on the results of the expedition: the next few months will be devoted to processing the collected materials. Then it is planned to publish a collection of works of the expedition participants and a series of articles in scientific journals, including " Orient (Oriens)".

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