CURRICULUM VITAE
GERMAN V. DZIEBEL
Bldg. 110, Department of Cultural and Social Anthropology,
Stanford University, Stanford CA 94305, 650-8041983;
dziebelg@stanford.edu, dziebelg@gmail.com
EDUCATION
STANFORD UNIVERSITY, Stanford CA
1997-January 2006
Ph.D. Candidate, Cultural and Social Anthropology
Curriculum: Courses in Native American literature, European philosophy, anthropological theory and
methods, anthropology of religion, multiculturalism, theories of race and ethnicity, historical and
typological linguistics, population genetics, peopling of the Americas.
Dissertation: “Playing and Nothing: The Ideology of the Noble Savage and the Practices of
Indianism: European Appropriations of Native American Cultures in the 20th century”.
Field research: Among Indianist groups in Eastern and Western Europe (Russia, Ukraine, Belarus,
Bulgaria, Poland, Lithuania, Belgium, Holland), July 2000 through January 2002. Conducted
interviews, observed Indianist powwows, summer and winter camps, clubs, rural communes,
dance performances, collected archival materials.
M.A., Anthropology
1998
Thesis: “In a Search of Hyperreal: The Ideology of the Noble Savage and the Practices of Indianism”
UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO, Chicago, IL
1998-1999
Exchange student from Stanford.
Curriculum: Courses in South American archaeology, Iroquois and Kayapó (Brazil) ethnographies,
American Indian languages, historical linguistics, indigenous knowledge and globalization.
PETER THE GREAT MUEUM OF ANTHROPOLOGY AND ETHNOLOGY, RUSSIAN ACADEMY
OF SCIENCES, St. Petersburg, Russia
1997
Ph.D., (Kandidat Istoricheskih Nauk)
Curriculum: anthropological theory, philosophy, kinship theory, American Indian and African ethnology
Thesis “Generation, Age and Gender in Kinship Terminology Systems: A Historico-Typological Study”
CENTAL EUROPEAN UNIVERSITY, Warsaw, Poland
1997
M.A., Sociology
Curriculum: Courses in quantitative methods, East European economic and social transformation,
sociological theory, ethnicity and nationalism, new social movements, feminist theory.
Thesis: “On the Heterogeneity of Social Development: An Essay in Sociology of Time and Space”
Qualifying Paper: “A Peculiar Case of Double Self-Identity: The Indianist Community in Russia”
ST. PETERSBURG STATE UNIVERSITY, St.Petersburg, Russia
1993
M.A., Ethnography/Ethnology/Anthropology
Curriculum: Courses in ethnographic methods, African ethnology, Siberian ethnology, Australian
aboriginal ethnology, kinship theory, American Indian historiography, semiotics of culture.
Thesis “Kinship and social organization among the Northern Shoshone”
Ethnographic field research: Among the Moksha-Mordvinians of the Mordva Republic, Soviet Union
(1988), and the Karelians of the Leningrad Province (1990).
Archaeological excavation: Pit-and-Ridge Ceramics Culture, Mesolith, Vad River Basin, Mordva
Republic, Soviet Union (1988)
Sociological Interviewing: Among urban Jews and Tatars of St.Petersburg (1989)
B.A., History
Curriculum: Courses in Russian history, Soviet history, historical materialism, World History,
archaeology, history of art, ancient histories.
1992
Thesis: “Economic activities and social organization of the Northern Shoshone in the 18-19th centuries”
HONORS and AWARDS
Whiting Fellowship Write-Up Grant, Stanford University
Mellon Foundation Write-Up Grant, Stanford University
Wenner-Gren Foundation Field Research Grant
Russian Humanities (Rossiiskii Gumanitarnyi Nauchnyi Fond) Grant, Moscow, Russia
Center for Russian and East European Studies Summer Research Grant, Stanford University
Mellon Foundation Summer Research Grant
New Democracy Fellowship, Stanford University Institute for International Studies
George Soros Fellowship
George Soros Award for Excellence in Graduate Progress, St.Petersburg, Russia
2004-2005
2001-2002
2000-2001
2000-2001
1999
1998
1997-2000
1996-1997
1995
PUBLICATIONS
MONOGRAPHS
2001. The Phenomenon of Kinship: Prolegomena to Idenetic Theory. St.Petersburg: Peter the Great Museum of
Anthropology and Ethnology, Russian Academy of Sciences. 472p. (in Russian). Available for
download at www.kinshipstudies.org
2005-2006. The Global Diversity of Kinship Terminological Patterns: Implications for the “Peopling of the
Americas” and the “Out-of-Africa” Model of Human Dispersals (draft finished; ~ 250p.; in English)
2005-2006. A Comprehensive Bibliography of Kinship Studies (available for download at www.kinshipstudies.org).
ARTICLES
In Russian (selected).
1994. “On the nature of social groups among the Northern Shoshone”. In The Discovery of America Continues
2. Pp. 110-122. St.Petersburg.
1994. “Toward a typology of self-reciprocal kinship terminology”. In Africa: Problems of Transition to a Civil
Society. Pp. 46-48. Moscow: Russian Academy of Sciences.
1995. “‘Anomalous’ kinship systems: In search of structural parallels”. In Africa: Culture and Society (A
Historical Aspect). Pp. 48-57. Moscow: Russian Academy of Sciences.
1995. “A possible contribution to the cognitive culture of the Scythians” In The Kurgan: Historico-Cultural
Studies and Reconstructions. Pp. 36-39. St.Petersburg: St.Petersburg State University.
1995. “Toward a structural paradigm of the Mordvinian wedding ritual. I”. In Key Problems of the Finno-Ugric
Studies. Pp. 92-96. Yoshkar-Ola: Russian Academy of Sciences.
1995. “Toward a structural paradigm of the Mordvinian wedding ritual. II”. In The Komi-Permyaks and the
Finno-Ugrian World. Pp. 168-172. Syktyvkar: Russian Academy of Sciences.
1995. “Toward a systemic approach to the study of kinship”. In Kunstkammer 7. Pp. 89-102. St.Petersburg.
1995. “On the tetradic theory of Nick Allen”. In Kinship Algebra 1. Pp. 58-62. St.Petersburg.
1995. “The phenomenon of generational skewing in kinship systems”. In Kinship Algebra 1. Pp. 92-130.
St.Petersburg.
1996. “On the results of a field research among the Erzya Mordvinians of Samara Province in the summer of
1995”. In Samara Province: Ethnos and Culture 1. Pp. 23-26. Samara.
1996. “Prolegomena to a theory of ethnicity”. In Africa: Societies, Cultures, Languages (Problems of Theory
and Methodology). Pp. 13-22. Moscow: Russian Academy of Sciences.
1997. “The kinship systems of Siberian peoples and the problem of the Paleo-Siberian substrate”. In The
Culture of the Peoples of Siberia. Pp. 95-106. St. Petersburg: Museaum of Anthropology and
Ethnography.
1998. “An annotated bibliography of scholarly publications on kinship, kinship systems and kinship
terminological systems in the Russian language (with additional literature in the languages of the former
Soviet Union) published in 1845-1995”. In Kinship Algebra 2. Pp. 214-283. St.Petersburg.
1998. “A kin term and a kinship terminology system: Linguistic context in relation to ethnographic context”. In
Kinship Algebra 2. Pp. 89-134. St.Petersburg.
1998. “Russian Indianists: A Case of Double Identity?” In First Americans 2: 36-58.
1999. “Indians Declared a War Against Indianists (On the Lakota Declaration of War Against the Exploiters of
American Indian Spirituality)”. In First Americans 3: 22-24.
1999. “Unreciprocal terms, idenetics and the main types of kinship systems (in response to W. Wilder’s On
reciprocity in kinship systems)”. In Kinship Algebra 4. Pp. 66-69. St.Petersburg.
2000. “On the theory and methodology of the idenetic reconstruction of kinship terminology systems”. In
Kinship Algebra 5. Pp. 3-27. St.Petersburg.
2001. “On theory and practice in comparativist research”. In Kinship Algebra 7. Pp. 68-157. St.Petersburg.
2005a. “The Northern Shoshone: The Cycles of Ethnosocial History, Kin Terminological Systems, and
Ecological Kinship.” In Kinship Algebra 9. Pp. 111-233. St.Petersburg.
2005b. “On the Distributional Analysis of Kin Terminologies.” In Kinship Algebra 9. Pp. 57-60. St. Petersburg.
2005c. “On Dybo’s and Kullanda’s Reconstruction of Nostratic Kinship Terminology.” (In preparation for
Kinship Algebra 10, 2006)
In English
1998. “On Anthony Giddens’s Concept of Ontological Security”. In Culture and Society 1. Warsaw: Central
European University.
2000. “Towards the testing of the null hypothesis for the origins of Amerindians”. In Current Research in the
Pleistocene. Vol. 17. Pp. 125-127. Corvallis, OR: Center for the Study of the First Americans.
2003. “How American Indians and Russian Indians Did Not Smoke the Peace Pipe: The Invention of Indian
Culture in the Late Socialist Soviet Union”. In European Review of Native American Studies (Vienna,
Austria) 17, no. 1: 1-6.
2006. “Proto-Indo-European *dHuĝHtēr and Its Illegitimate Children in Daughter Languages (On Phonetic
Laws and Ethnological Rules)” (submitted to The Journal of Indo-European Studies)
2006. “Indianists Without Indians” (Reflections on the Polish Movement of the Friends of the Indians)”. (In
preparation for Tawacin Magazine, Poland)
2006. “Playing and Nothing: The Phenomenon of European Indianism in Historical, Theoretical and Field
Perspectives” (in preparation)
PAPERS PRESENTED
“Prolegomena to a Theory of Ethnicity”, paper presented at the 1st Conference in Memoriam of Dmitry A.
Olderogge. February 22-24, 1995. St. Petersburg: Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and
Ethnography.
“Approaches to Ethnoaesthetics”, paper presented at the 1st Regional Conference of Young Scholars. Russian
Museum of Ethnography, April 1-4, 1995, St.Petersburg, Russia.
“The ‘Archaeology’ of Social Relations and Its Paradoxes: The Theory of the Historical Transformation
of Kinship Terminologies Updated”, paper presented at the plenary session of the 14th International
Congress of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences, July 26 – August 1, 1998, Williamsburg VA.
“Evidentiality as a Semantic Feature of Verbs for Knowing in Extant Indo-European Languages”, paper
presented at the workshop “Evidentiality”, Winter 1999, Department of Anthropology, University of
Chicago. Organizer: Michael Silverstein and John Lucy.
“We Are Indians: Totemic Groups in Modern Europe?”, paper accepted to the Central States
Anthropological Association Meetings, Chicago, April 11-14, 1999. Panel: “Representing American
Indians”. Chair: Michael Campion.
“The Problem of the Peopling of the Americas: A New Approach”, paper presented at the 3rd Congress of
Anthropologists and Ethnographers of Russia, June 8-11, 1999, Moscow, Russia. Chair: Alexander
Kozintsev.
“Archaeological and Genetic Evidence for the Peopling of the Americas”, paper presented at the workshop
“Genetics and Modern Human Origins”, Department of Anthropological Sciences, Stanford University.
Organizers: Joanna Mountain and Alec Knight.
“Playing Indian in Europe”, talk delivered at the Department of Cultural and Social Anthropology, Stanford
University, as part of the Brown Bag Lunch Series, April 7, 2002. Chair: Tristan Carter.
“How Russian Indians and American Indians Did Not Smoke the Peace Pipe: European Appropriations
of Native American Cultures in the Late 20th Century”, paper presented at the 101st American
Anthropological Association Meeting, November 20-24, 2002, New Orleans LA. Panel: “Ethnography,
Race, and Cultural Appropriation in Native North America”. Chair: Terry Castaneda.
“Anthropology as a Local Knowledge: Native Americans, American Anthropologists, European
Indianists and the Development of an Epistemic Diaspora”, paper accepted to the 5th Decennial
Conference of the Association of Social Anthropologists of the UK and Commonwealth “Anthropology
and Science”, July 14-18, 2003), Manchester, UK. Panel: “Beyond Science: Approaches to Local
Knowledge and Development”. Conveners: Alan Bicker, Paul Sillitoe.
“Indo-European Kinship Terminology: A Critical Interface Between Phonology and Semantics (An
Anthropological Perspective on Historical Linguistics)”, talk delivered at the Stanford Phonology
Workshop, Department of Linguistics, Stanford University, November 20, 2003. Organizers: Paul
Kiparsky and Lev Blumenfeld.
“American Mediaspora: Understanding the Phenomenon of ‘Playing Indian’ in Europe and the United
States”, paper accepted to the Hawaii International Conference on Arts and Humanities January 8 – 11,
2004.
“Museums on Two Legs: Indian Hobbyists and the Complexities of Repatriation”, paper accepted to the
25th American Indian Workshop: Making It Explicit: Presentation and Representation of Native North
Americans, Leuven, Belgium, Spring 2004.
“Spearheading American Indian Cultures: Cultural Appropriation and Military Encounters in Eastern
Europe and the Middle East,” paper presented at the Fourth Annual International Conference on
Social Sciences, June 13-16, 2005, Honolulu, Hawaii.
“Human Origins and the Mystery of the Americas,” talk given at the conference “Unlocking Science” held
at the Monterey Institute of International Studies, February 27, 2006.
“Kinship Systems, Historical and Typological Linguistics: Contributing to the Human Origins Debate,”
paper submitted to the AAA Meetings (San Jose, 2006) as part of the panel “Kinship and Language: Per
Hage (1935-2004) Memorial Session.” Organizers: Bojka Milicic and Douglas Jones, University of Utah
TEACHING AND RELATED EXPERIENCE
STANFORD UNIVERSITY, Stanford, CA
Research Assistant. Project entitled “Conflict Resolution in Chechnya.” Project director: Christoph Zuercher,
Freie Universität Berlin.
2006
STANFORD UNIVERSITY, Stanford, CA
2003-2006
Osher Fellow. Hoover Institute. Processing of archival materials from the Radio Free Europe and the Radio
Liberty and construction of webpages. Project director: Anatol Shmelev.
STANFORD UNIVERSITY, Stanford CA
2003-2004
Research Assistant. Department of Cultural and Social Anthropology. Assistance in a comparative study of
Italian and Chinese family-based silk industries. (Principal Researcher: Sylvia Yanagisako.)
STANFORD UNIVERSITY, Stanford, CA
2002-2003
Teaching Affiliate. Department of Cultural and Social Anthropology. Taught “Playing Indian: European
Appropriations of Native American Cultures” (Fall Quarter 2002), a course that examines the history
and current practice of transculturation and appropriation of Native American culture by non-Natives,
ranging from captivity experiences on the North American frontier to New Age Wannabe Indians.
Prepared a course “Anthropology of Eastern Europe: Power, Nation, and Identity in the Transitional
Period” for Summer Quarter 2003 (cancelled for administrative reasons).
STANFORD UNIVERSITY, Stanford, CA
1999
Teaching and Research Assistant. Department of Cultural and Social Anthropology. Assisted in the teaching
of “Religion and Culture” and “Race and Ethnicity”, courses that focus on the diversity of religious and
cultural expressions in the United States.
FIRST AMERICANS: AMERICAN INDIANS’ PAST AND FUTURE, Historico-Ethnographic Almanac
St. Petersburg, Russia
1996-2000
Editorial Board Member. Advised the Editor-in-Chief on article selection, provided general information on
contemporary Native American issues, and assisted in artistic and thematic design.
RUSSIAN MUSEUM OF ETHNOGRAPHY, St. Petersburg, Russia
1993-1996
Researcher, Lecturer and Exhibition Designer. Solely designed and conducted two separate ethnographic
expeditions to the Erzya-Mordvinians of the Samara Province, Russia, sponsored by the Association for
the Preservation of Local Cultural Diversity “Povolzhie”, Samara (1995, 1996). Collected data on the
Erzya-Mordvinian dialects, local histories, anthropology of childhood, ethnoaesthetics, traditional
knowledge, and musical culture. Coordinated the design and construction of ethnographic exhibitions.
Guided ethnographic tours on Finno-Ugrian peoples, Siberian peoples, and the peoples of the Caucasus.
PROJECT “MAGNA HUNGARIA”, St.Petersburg, Russia.
1995
Researcher. Prepared a commentary on the Mordvinians in medieval Slavic, Arabic and Turkic historical
sources. Project Director: Alexander Yurchenko.
HERZEN STATE UNIVERSITY INTERNATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL
1994-1996
Lecturer in General History. Taught classes in Russian history, American history, and Modern History to
English-speaking students.
CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF AMERICAN INDIANS, Moscow-St.Petersburg, Russia
1987-1991
Translator, Interpreter and Lecturer. Lectured on the history and culture of American Indians (Woodland,
Southwest, Plains, Southeast, Plato, California, Great Basin) in high schools. Official interpreter for the
1990 Eurasia Run for Land and Life. Translated classical ethnographic monographs on American
Indians, Indian autobiographies, critical Native American scholarship into Russian:
Deloria, Vine. Behind the Trail of Broken Treaties: An Indian Declaration of Independence. Austin: University
of New Mexico Press, 1985.
Matthiessen, Peter. In the Spirit of Crazy Horse. New York: Viking Press, 1983.
Standing Bear, Luther. My People, the Sioux. Boston, New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1928.
Wooden Leg, a Warrior Who Fought Custer. Interpreted by Thomas B. Marquis. Lincoln: University of
Nebraska Press, 1957.
Mooney, James. The Ghost-Dance Religion and the Sioux Outbreak of 1890. Chicago: University of Chicago
Press, 1965.
Wissler, Clark. Material Culture of the Blackfoot Indians. New York: The Trustees. (Anthropological Papers of
the American Museum of Natural History 5, pt. 1, 1910).
Ewers, John C. The Blackfeet: Raiders of the Northwestern Plains. Norman: University of Oklahoma, 1958.
Powell, Peter J. Sweet Medicine: The Continuing Role of the Sacred Arrows, the Sun Dance, and the Sacred
Buffalo Hat in Northern Cheyenne History. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1969.
Trenholm, Virginia C., and Maurine Carley. The Shoshonis, Sentinels of the Rockies. Norman: University of
Oklahoma Press, 1964.
Trenholm, Virginia C. The Arapahoes: Our People. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1970.
Koch, Ronald P. Dress Clothing of the Plains Indians. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1979.
Tomkins, William. Universal Indian Sign Language of the Plains Indians of North America. San Diego, CA.:
W. Tomkins, 1941.
LEONARD PELTIER DEFENSE COMMITTEE, St.Petersburg, Russia
1987-1990
Active member. Collected signatures for the freedom of Leonard Peltier, lectured in schools about Peltier’s
case, translated materials on Peltier and contemporary struggle of indigenous people into the Russian
language.
PROFESSIONAL SERVICE
STANFORD UNIVERSITY, Department of Cultural and Social Anthropology
Editor of the CASA Department Newsletter.
STANFORD UNIVERSITY, Department of Cultural and Social Anthropology
Graduate Admission Committee Member.
2006
2003-2004
PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS
AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION.
Member.
2002-2006
PUBLIC APPEARANCES
Interviewed for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s program “Enterprise” (Times Seven channel) (aired
June 10, 2005) on the issue of European reenactments of Native American cultures. See
http://www.times7tv.com/episode2/enterprise.html
SKILLS AND INTERESTS
Born into an artistic family, mother is an opera theater musician, so spent much of my childhood in rehearsals,
hence, a penchant for operas and dramas. Competed in collegiate sports boxing and soccer. Award-winning in
chess, ping-pong, and Russian billiards. Performed in amateur theaters and in the arts, including minor screen
appearances in films. Sailing, rock-climbing, camping, swimming and music listening are casual hobbies.
LANGUAGES
Russian (native language), English (adopted language), French and Polish (conversational, reading skills),
German (reading skills). Familiar with Latin, Lithuanian, Bulgarian, Erzya-Mordvinian, Shoshone.