Dmitri Mikhailovich Bondarenko ( rus, Дми́трий Миха́йлович Бондаре́нко, p=ˈdmʲitrʲɪj mʲɪˈxajləvʲɪdʑ bəndɐˈrʲenkə, a=Ru-Dmitrii Mikhailovich Bondarenko.ogg; born June 9, 1968) is a Russian anthropologist, historian, and Africanist. He has conducted field research in a number of African countries (particularly,

Tanzania Tanzania (; ), officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( sw, Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; Comoro Islands ...

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

Benin Benin ( , ; french: Bénin , ff, Benen), officially the Republic of Benin (french: République du Bénin), and formerly Dahomey, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Togo to the west, Nigeria to the east, Burkina Faso to the nort ...

Rwanda Rwanda (; rw, u Rwanda ), officially the Republic of Rwanda, is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley of Central Africa, where the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa converge. Located a few degrees south of the Equator ...

Zambia Zambia (), officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central, Southern and East Africa, although it is typically referred to as being in Southern Africa at its most central point. Its neighbours are t ...

Uganda }), is a landlocked country in East Africa. The country is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the south by Tanzania. The ...

) and among Black people in

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-ei ...

and the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

. He is Principal Research Fellow and Vice-Director for Research with the Institute for African Studies of the

Russian Academy of Sciences The Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS; russian: Росси́йская акаде́мия нау́к (РАН) ''Rossíyskaya akadémiya naúk'') consists of the national academy of Russia; a network of scientific research institutes from across t ...

, Director of the International Center of Anthropology of the National Research University Higher School of Economics, and Full Professor in Ethnology with the Center of Social Anthropology of the Russian State University for the Humanities. He holds the titles of Professor in Ethnology from the Lomonosov Moscow State University, Professor of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Global Problems and International Relations, and Corresponding Member of the

in History. Bondarenko was a visiting scholar with the Northwestern University (

), Institut für Geschichte (

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwee ...

), and Maison des sciences de l'homme (

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

). He has delivered guest lectures at universities of

, the

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning the North Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via a land bridg ...

Slovenia Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, and ...

Angola , national_anthem = "Angola Avante"() , image_map = , map_caption = , capital = Luanda , religion = , religion_year = 2020 , religion_ref = , coordinat ...

, and

. Bondarenko is a member of the Executive Committee of the Africanist Network of the "

European Association of Social Anthropologists The European Association of Social Anthropologists (EASA) is an organization of scholars in the field of anthropology founded in 1989. EASA serves as a major professional organization for social anthropologists working in Europe. It is supported by ...

", for which he also served as the Committee Chairperson in 2006–2008. Dmitri Bondarenko is a co-founder and co-editor of "

Social Evolution & History ''Social Evolution & History'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal focused on the development of human societies in the past, present, and future. In addition to original research articles, ''Social Evolution & History'' includes critical notes a ...

journal "Social Evolution & History"
/ref>".

Education

Bondarenko graduated with the M.A. degree in 1990 from the

Moscow State University M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU; russian: Московский государственный университет имени М. В. Ломоносова) is a public research university in Moscow, Russia and the most prestigious ...

, Department of Ethnography, School of History. He completed his Ph.D. in 1993 at

. He also holds Doctor of Sciences degree (2000) from the

Research interests and major contributions

Social theory, anthropological and historical theory, political anthropology, pre-industrial societies, cultures and history of Africa, socio-cultural transformations and intercultural interaction in contemporary world (including ethnic, racial, and religious aspects, migration issues) with special focus on Africa and people of African descent worldwide Bondarenko has introduced (together with Andrey Korotayev) and started elaborating the notion of '' homoarchy'' to be coupled with the one of ''

heterarchy A heterarchy is a system of organization where the elements of the organization are unranked (non-hierarchical) or where they possess the potential to be ranked a number of different ways. Definitions of the term vary among the disciplines: in soci ...

'', noting that the heterarchy (defined as "the relation of elements to one another when they are unranked or when they possess the potential for being ranked in a number of different ways") is not the opposite of any hierarchy all together, but is rather the opposite of "homoarchy", defined as "the relation of elements to one another when they are rigidly ranked one way only, and thus possess no (or not more than very limited) potential for being unranked or ranked in another or a number of different ways at least without cardinal reshaping of the whole socio-political order". Basing primarily on the precolonial

Benin Kingdom The Kingdom of Benin, also known as the Edo Kingdom, or the Benin Empire ( Bini: ') was a kingdom within what is now southern Nigeria. It has no historical relation to the modern republic of Benin, which was known as Dahomey from the 17th c ...

evidence, Bondarenko has elaborated the conception of "megacommunity" as a specific type of the non-state supercomplex society, integration of a supercomplex (exceeding the complex chiefdom level) society on community (and hence non-state) basis being its main distinctive feature. He has contributed to the studies of the state origins and nature by dealing with such aspects of the problematics as the dynamics of kinship and territoriality as principles of socio-political organization, transformations in ideology, and others. In publications on contemporary issues Bondarenko argues, in particular, that globalization should be viewed as a primarily cultural, not economic and political, phenomenon which is by no means a recently appeared one but which embraces essentially the whole human history, and which can turn out a "successful historical project" in the shape of a "federation of local civilizations" only.

Publications

Bondarenko has authored over 500 publications including 8 individual monographs, 4 of which are in English:
African Americans and American Africans: Migration, Histories, Race and Identities
Canon Pyon: Sean Kingston Publishing, 2019.
The Axial Ages of World History: Lessons for the 21st Century
Litchfield Park, AZ: Emergent Publications, 2014 (with K. Baskin).
Homoarchy as a Principle of Culture's Organization. The 13th-19th Centuries Benin Kingdom as a Non-State Supercomplex Society
Moscow: URSS, 2006.
A Popular History of Benin. The Rise and Fall of a Mighty Forest Kingdom
Frankfurt am Main etc.: Peter Lang, 2003 (with P.M. Roese). Among the volumes and journal special issues co-edited by Bondarenko are:
''The Evolution of Social Institutions: Interdisciplinary Perspectives''
. Cham: Springer, 2020 (Ed. with S.A. Kowalewski and D.B. Small).
The Omnipresent Past. Historical Anthropology of Africa and African Diaspora
Moscow: LRC Publishing House, 2019.
Plural Trajectories: Introduction to African Futures
(Special Issue of Journal of the Institute for African Studies. 2019, № 2 7.
State Building, States, and State Transformation in Africa
(Special Issue of Social Evolution and History. 2018. Vol. 17, № 1).
Anthropology, History, and Memory in Sub-Saharan Africa. In Memoriam Michel Izard
(Special Issue of Social Evolution and History. 2014. Vol. 13, № 2).
Alternativeness in Cultural History: Heterarchy and Homoarchy as Evolutionary Trajectories
Moscow: Center for Civilizational and Regional Studies Press, 2007.
The Early State, Its Alternatives and Analogues
Volgograd: Uchitel’, 2004.
Nomadic Pathways in Social Evolution
Moscow: Center for Civilizational and Regional Studies Press, 2003.
Alternatives of Social Evolution
Vladivostok: FEB RAS, 2000.
Civilizational Models of Politogenesis
Moscow: Institute for African Studies Press, 2000.

Notes

External links

Bondarenko's web-page

Bondarenko's web-page

Bondarenko's web-page

Bondarenko's profile on Academia

Bondarenko's profile on Researchgate

Bondarenko's profile on Socionauki
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bondarenko, Dmitri 1968 births Living people Russian anthropologists Scholars of diaspora studies 21st-century Russian historians Russian Africanists Academic staff of the Russian State University for the Humanities Moscow State University alumni Russian ethnographers Ethnographers Scientists from Moscow African diaspora studies scholars