From the section editor

Abstract

'Controversial issues in anthropology and ethnography' section, which opens this issue, includes four articles addressing problems related to the developmental stages of ethnography, ethnology, and social and cultural anthropology in Western and Russian traditions. The presented works explore debatable aspects of the ontological turn in Western social and cultural anthropology; issues of the genesis, evolution, and essence of the concept of 'mentality'; contentious questions regarding the scientific work of Russian ethnographers in the study of shamanism as an institution, as well as the writing systems of archaic ethnic groups.