Putilov Boris

Putilov Boris (1919—1997) – ethnographer and folklorist.

In 1936, after finishing school in Grozny, he entered the Leningrad Teachers-Training Institute named after A.I. Herzen; his supervisor was N.P. Andreev. After the graduation of the institute, he was sent to work in the town of Sortavala, then in Tikhvin. In 1942, he returned to Grozny.

His Candidate thesis was ‘The Historical Songs of the Sixteenth – Nineteenth Centuries at Terek’ (1948, Institute of Russian Literature of the Ac. of Sc. of the U.S.S.R. (Pushkinsky Dom), research consultant А.М. Astakhova. His Doctor thesis was ‘Russian Historical Musical Folklore of the Thirteenth – Sixteenth Centuries’ (1960, Leningrad State University).

Since 1954, he was Senior Researcher of the Institute of Russian Literature of the Ac. of Sc. of the U.S.S.R. (Pushkinsky Dom). In 1967, he transferred to the Institute of Ethnography of the Ac. of Sc. of the U.S.S.R. There he was able to broaden the geography of his interests, taking part in the expedition ‘On the Steps of Miklukho-Maklay’, in the course of which he made acquaintance with rites and myths of the peoples of Oceania. In the last years, he considered the theory of epos.

He used the comparative method of research, and he was longing for the complex studying of culture, he argued that myth, ritual, magic actions, music, song, and spells are shaped and exist in the syncretic unity only.

Compositions

Historical Songs at Terek / Comp., article and comm. by B.N. Putilov. Grozny, 1948. (in Rus.)
Slavic Historical Ballade. Moscow, 1965. (in Rus.)
Russian and South Slavic Heroic Epos: Comparative Typological Research. Moscow, 1971. (in Rus.)
Methodology of the Comparative Historical Studying of Folklore. Leningrad, 1976. (in Rus.)
Myth – Rite – Song of New Guinea. Moscow, 1980. (in Rus.)
Epic Tales: Typology and Ethnic Specifics. Moscow, 1997. (in Rus.)
Peter the Great in Tales, Legends, Anecdotes, Fairy0Tales, and Songs. St. Petersburg, 2000. (in Rus.)
Theoretical Problems of the Contemporary Folkloristic: The Lecture Course for Students of the Musical-Ethnographical Department of the St. Petersburg State Conservatoire (1995–1996). St. Petersburg, 2006. (in Rus.)

About him

Autobiography / Comp. Е.О. Putilova, А.N. Anfertieva, Е.А. Belousiva // Zhivaya starina. 1998. # 4. P. 5– 8. (in Rus.)
Folklore and Folk Culture. In memoriam. St. Petersburg, 2003. (in Rus.)
Revunenkova Е.V. The Culture of Oceania and N.N. Miklukho-Maklay in the Works by B.N. Putilov // Australia, Oceania, South-Eastern Asia: Peoples, Culture, History: Maklay Readings (1998–2000) / Edit. А.М. Reshetov; St. Petersburg: Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography of the Russian Ac. of Sc., 2001. P. 25–29. (in Rus.)
Ivanova Т.G. Boris Nikolaevich Putilov: the Beginning of His Way // Antropologichesky forum. Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography of the Russian Ac. of Sc., 2007. # 7. P. 423—440. (in Rus.)
Boris Nikolaevich Putilov. Bibliography. (1940—2008) / Russian Ac. of Sc., Institute of Russian Literature of the Ac. of Sc. of the U.S.S.R. (Pushkinsky Dom), Russian Institute of the Art History; [comp. Т.G. Ivanova]. St. Petersburg, 2009. 142 p. (in Rus.)

Putilov Boris

Compositions

About him

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