Lev Vasilievich Oshanin (

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

: Лев Васильевич Ошанин) (March 9, 1884 – January 9, 1962) was a

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...

professor, medical doctor, anthropologist, and founder of the department of anthropology at National University of Uzbekistan in

Tashkent Tashkent (, uz, Toshkent, Тошкент/, ) (from russian: Ташкент), or Toshkent (; ), also historically known as Chach is the capital and largest city of Uzbekistan. It is the most populous city in Central Asia, with a population of 2 ...

. Oshanin was most notable for his anthropological work in

Central Asia Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a subregion, region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes t ...

Life

Lev Oshanin was the son of Vasily Fedorovich Oshanin, a noted scientist and explorer of Central Asia. Oshanin was trained as a medical doctor and participated in the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. He later worked in hospitals in the city of Tashkent in what is now

Uzbekistan Uzbekistan (, ; uz, Ozbekiston, italic=yes / , ; russian: Узбекистан), officially the Republic of Uzbekistan ( uz, Ozbekiston Respublikasi, italic=yes / ; russian: Республика Узбекистан), is a doubly landlocked co ...

. Oshanin also practiced anthropology and was one of the few anthropologists in Central Asia. In 1930 he gained a position at Tashkent University and went on to found the university’s Department of Anthropology, which he chaired until his death in 1962. Oshanin was notable in the world of anthropology because of his extensive work in

Soviet Central Asia Soviet Central Asia (russian: link=no, Советская Средняя Азия, Sovetskaya Srednyaya Aziya) was the part of Central Asia administered by the Soviet Union between 1918 and 1991, when the Central Asian republics declared ind ...

. He traveled widely in the region and conducted numerous anthropological studies of various ethnic groups in the most remote corners of Central Asia. In 1926 Oshanin was commissioned by the Soviet government to prepare a study of the "daily life and anthropological type of Uzbek women." Oshanin's research team interviewed and physically examined several hundred Uzbek women from Tashkent. Oshanin died in Tashkent in 1962 and is buried in Botkin cemetery in Tashkent. Oshanin’s daughter, Helen Lvovna May, subsequently worked and taught at Tashkent University.

Published works

*Oshanin, L. V. Anthropological composition of the population of Central Asia and the ethnogenesis of its peoples. Cambridge, Mass: Peabody Museum, 1964 *Ошанин Л.В. Данные к географическому распространению главнейших антропологических признаков население Средней Азии и опыт выявления основных расовых типов Средней Азии. // Tp.IV. Всесоюзного съезда зоологов, анатомов и гистологов. Киев, 1931. (Oshanin L.V. Data about geographic spread of the main features of anthropological populations of Central Asia and experience in identifying the major racial types in Central Asia. / / All-Union Congress of Zoologists, anatomists and histologist. Kiev, 1931)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Oshanin, Lev V. 1884 births Central Asian studies scholars Soviet anthropologists Russian anthropologists 1962 deaths 20th-century anthropologists Soviet physicians Academic staff of National University of Uzbekistan