Рецензия на книгу: Клейн Л. С. История антропологических учений / под ред. Л. Б. Вишняцкого. СПб. : Издательский дом СПбГУ, 2014. 744 с

For many decades, professor Leo Klein has been one of the highlights of Leningrad/St Petersburg archaeological/anthropological landscape and has directly or indirectly influenced most humanitarians in the city as well as many who live far beyond it. His History of Anthropological Thought is a monumental work that, though published only recently, was virtually ready in the late 1990s. It contains a great deal of information on hundreds of anthropologists. However, I cannot accept the basic idea of the history of thought selected from the history of practical research development in particular disciplines. Some ideas that look interesting and original have been mostly ignored by the researchers while the influence of some people whose theoretical views were simple, eclectic or contradictory (Franz Boas among them) is enormous. Practice and theory are not like a cart and horse but at the very best an engine and a car. There can be some use of a car without an engine but a car engine without a car is good for nothing. I also criticise Klein for his use of some terms (like “slavery formation” or “primitive society”) that were coined during Soviet times or earlier but are now just fossils.