Vasyl D. Diachenko in the History of Ukrainian Anthropology (to the 100th Anniversary of His Birth)

Abstract

The article examines the main directions and results of scientific activity of Vasyl Diachenko (1924–1996) whose name is closely associated with the revival of physical anthropology and the creation of a centre of this scientific discipline in the post-war Ukraine. The results of the large-scale research of the Ukrainian anthropological expedition by the Institute of Art Studies, Folklore and Ethnography of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR (1956–1963) under the leadership of the scientist are presented. V. Diachenko with the scholars surveyed more than 120 local groups of Ukrainians, national minorities of Ukraine, ethno-territorial groups of Poland, Moldova, Russia and Belarus. The main provisions of the fundamental monograph by V. Diachenko are analysed, the general characteristics are given, local variants of the anthropological composition of the Ukrainians are outlined, and the role of individual components in its formation are highlighted. Changes in the scientific research orientations were traced after the transfer of the Anthropological Group to the Institute of Archaeology of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR. Vasyl Diachenko had been focused on anthropology of the medieval population of Eastern Europe. He identified areas of six anthropological types on the territory of Ukraine, which differ from each other in terms of main diameters of the skull, the width of the face, the structure of the nasal area, etc. The author traced the origins of these types, which go back to the Mesolithic, Neolithic, Eneolithic and Bronze Ages. According to him, a leading role in the formation of the physical features of the medieval population of Ukraine belonged to the carriers of the Corded Ware cultures, the Scythians, and the Illyrian tribes of the 1st millennium BC — 1st millennium AD, to the population of the Cherniakhiv culture, to the Alans, to separate medieval Finno-speaking groups. The article emphasises the role of V. Diachenko in fostering scientific change, and his works have not lost their importance to these days.