Aron YA. Gurevich and history of mentalities

Abstract

The article is devoted to the memory of the remarkable Russian historian Aron Gurevich and reveals his study of mentality. As it is known, the works by the AnnalesSchoolhistorians initiated the beginning of the powerful historiographical school – history of mentality, or history of anthropology. Their ideas have been developed by the scholars from many countries. InRussiathe Annales ideas were developed in the works of Gurevich who offered his own interpretation of modern method of cognition and declared that the study of mentality gave a possibility to understand human consciousness and the meaning of his social behavior. In the study of mentality the scholar paid great attention to the reconstruction of the worldview of the past which acquires to understand the key mental categories, such as space, person, society, law and custom assessment, labor awareness, wealth, poverty, earthly and transcendent values, interpretation of space and time, forms of religiosity, history of holidays and customs, etc. Along with the study of  Romanesque Medieval history Gurevich introduced Scandinavian issues into the history of mentalities. Moreover, the term "anthropological turn" is associated with the name of Gurevich for many Russian scholars.