SUMMARY
The monograph which is focused on new objects for anthropological research was written by the collective of authors. The authors reveal different aspects of contemporary Africa’s cultures.
Three sections form the book. The first section is on the contemporary African social groups and identities connected with them. The first chapter by Professor Dmitri M. Bondarenko is
based on field evidence collected in summer 2017, deals with a very recent phenomenon – the Orthodox Old Believers in the Republic of Uganda in East Africa. This faith originated in Russia, but in Uganda all its adherents belong to the native ethnic groups and, except children, consciously converted to Old Believers from other religions in adulthood. The author describes the short by now history and current state of the Old-Believer communities in Uganda and then concentrates on their members’ motivation for converting to Old Believers vs. knowledge of this religion. Dr. Bondarenko shows that their knowledge of the Old-Believer doctrine is poor and they usually cannot tell how it differs from that of other Christian denominations. What brings them to Old Believers is the search of the true faith associated with the original and hence the only correct way of performing Christian rites. Basing on the study of Old Believers in Uganda, the author discusses in the closing section how globalist and anti-globalist trends manifest themselves in the spiritual (religious) context in contemporary Africa.
The second chapter by Dr. Rosa N. Ismagilova for the first times analyses the existence up to now  such phenomenon as castes in the Somali society in the countries of the Horn of Africa  and  their discrimination. It is based not only on the scholarly sources but also includes the results of the field research in Ethiopia and e-mail interviews with representatives of the studied minorities. Outcastes  aggravate the ethno-political situation. The future of the  Horn of Africa and its political stability  heavily depends on the  incorporation of all strata of the society including the castes and other discriminated  minorities in the  economic and social life.
The third chapter by Alexander V. Pakin is devoted to the problems of the actualization of the Yoruba historical tradition in the modern times. It represents an brief analysis of the tradition itself and focuses on its role in the politics and cultural processes. This research shows that Yoruba historical tradition play an important role in the modern political process. Under situation of modern post world war globalization it also plays an important role in the processes of the reafricanization or African revivalism as its exists in the USA today.
The fourth chapter by Oleg I. Kavykin (Ph.D) is on African religions in Americas. The traditional African religions have demonstrated their adaptability and ability to form different sorts of a syncretism with religions of other cultures. The presence of an oppositional hidden discourse strengthened the network community of adherents and strengthened the notion of a community of "we" opposing the commonality of "they" (i.e. slaveholders, whites, the republican and communist government). In subsequent stages, syncretic religions also symbolized belonging to the nation (Cubans, Haitians, citizens of  Trinidad and Tobago, etc.). The flexibility of traditional beliefs is manifested in their relationship with government policies. It also manifests itself in the organization of the lives of communities of Santerian adepts in the United States i.e. along with ethnocentric tendencies, there is a desire for openness of communities (accessibility for whites, adaptation of rituals, legalization).
The second section is focused on phenomena of contemporaneous educational processes in Africa. The first chapter by Dr. Irina G. Tatarovskaya is devoted to the analysis and research of one of the stages of the human life cycle: the childhood of Wolof people – West African ethnic group. Childhood is one of the poorly studied periods of human life. The author describes the main stages of the child's growing. Each stage has own system of upbringing and education. One of the most spread forms of primary education of Wolof’s children is a "question-answer" form. Traditional education of Wolof’s children has its own methods of transferring knowledge, experience, spiritual and cultural values, helps child adapt to the environment and teach him to live in the world of people and in the world of the supernatural. The system of upbringing and primary education in Wolof’s society has a vivid collective character, in which every single child is not only a child of their parents, but a child of the whole group or community.
The second chapter by Valentina V. Gribanova (Ph.D) is devoted to the actual problem of student and youth protest actions that took place in South Africa in 2015-2016. The author shows its influence on the political life of the country. The socio-economic and ideological reasons for the initiation of the student riots are analyzed. The connection of protests with the general crisis of higher education in South Africa was shown. The study is based on an analysis of the South African press in recent years. The author analyzes main stages, such as events and results of the protests that took place in the autumn of 2015 and the aggravation of the situation in the Higher education in connection with the student riots in the autumn of 2016. These events became the stages of the movement for the abolition of universities fees, which was called "Fees must fall". The chapter noted that youth and student protests are used by the left and radical elements of the South African political spectrum in the struggle for influence in the country.
The third section is on interaction between African cultures, mass-culture and mass-media. The first chapter by Veronica V. Usacheva (Ph.D.) proposes a wide panoramic view on mass media development in Africa after independence, or mass media in post-colonial period. The author notes that after long decades of neglect, the anthropological study of media is now booming. Veronica Usacheva argues that media anthropology nowadays has four main contributions to make to the interdisciplinary study of media and communication - ethnographic, geographical, theoretical and the media historical research. This chapter focuses on geographical and historical dimensions in media Anthropology of Africa. In this chapter author gives an overview of how the new media has developed in Africa and the role that new media technologies might play in facilitating the development of media in African countries. The chapter concludes that new technologies form and re-form social reality of Africans societies, and vice versa African societies shape the communication technologies.
The second chapter by Anastasia A. Banshchikova (Ph.D.) deals with city space, visual outdoor information, commercial advertisement, social advertisement in African countries, and the ways the latter reflects social disorders and conflicts. The main source is a compilation of photos of social advertisement on billboards, taken by the author and her colleagues during anthropological expeditions to Africa. Much attention is given to such problems as violence within family and against women, corruption, AIDS and Ebola pandemics, teenage pregnancy, "sugar daddies", etc. It is clear, that one and the same problem in different cultures is perceived differently and requires different attitudes toward people’s psychology; though social advertisement mirrors societal concern in African countries, quite often this reflection is based on Western point of view and from the perspective of Western moral and cultural values. In this regard the cases of fully local advertisement (sponsored neither by international humanitarian organizations nor by government) are of most interest: this is a private initiative of people wanting to draw attention of their fellow citizens on the most acute problems of social development and using means at their disposal such as billboards.
The third chapter by Denis A. Peskov reviews the ways in which world's leading search engine Google portrays Sub-Saharan African states with the use of its alternative logos – doodles. Occasions and heroes chosen for celebrations are discussed as well as company's agenda and promoted values in selecting them, both explicit and implicit. African situation is also put into perspective when compared with company's similar activity in some other parts of the world.
Коллективная монография посвящена выявлению и анализу новых объектов исследования в социальной (культурной) антропологии Африки, разработке новых подходов к антропологическому изучению африканского континента в связи с изменениями, происходящими в последние десятилетия. Объектом исследования становятся африканские диаспоры по всему миру, изменение принципов самоорганизации сообществ африканцев, новейшие явления, связанные с урбанизацией, информатизацией, трансформацией традиционных институтов и т.д. Обнаружение новых объектов исследования в значительной степени происходит в результате развития самой социальной (культурной) антропологии, а также общественных и естественных наук, ибо современные культурно-антропологические исследования носят междисциплинарный характер. Книга состоит из трех разделов. Первый посвящен современным социальным группам и связанным с ними идентичностям. Во втором разделе рассмотрены новые явления в процессах социализации − воспитания и образования − в современной Африке. В третьем анализируются место и роль средств массовой информации в современных африканских обществах. Коллективная монография может представлять интерес не только для ученых-африканистов и специалистов по взаимодействию со странами Африки, но и для всех, чье внимание привлекает развитие современных культур.

Back cover text: Real Social Science presents a new, hands-on approach to social inquiry. The theoretical and methodological ideas behind the book, inspired by Aristotelian phronesis, represent an original perspective within the social sciences, and this volume gives readers for the first time a set of studies exemplifying what applied phronesis looks like in practice. The reflexive analysis of values and power gives new meaning to the impact of research on policy and practice. Real Social Science is a major step forward in a novel and thriving field of research. This book will benefit scholars, researchers, and students who want to make a difference in practice, not just in the academy. Its message will make it essential reading for students and academics across the social sciences.

The mediatization thesis maintains that media technologies, beginning with print, have profoundly changed human experience. One of its major claims is that media have allowed a new "disembedding," or "distanciation," from the here and now, in a process which now culminates as a so-called deep mediatization. Relying on cultural history and anthropology, this article questions this claim. It contends that mediatization theory is premised on a modern/naturalist, human-centered view of the world as a homogeneous physical nature, dominated by human beings who must resort to technologies to communicate at a distance. This outlook disregards ancient and/or peripheral non-Western ontologies, and cultural practices such as correspondence, theater, religion, and human language itself, which have long enabled rich forms of distanciation. Such neglected ontologies and practices now combine with modern technology, and could be fruitfully incorporated into mediatization research, both historical and contemporary.

Media Anthropology is an emerging and evolving discipline which engages with the social and cultural aspects of Media and its inter-face with people. As an inter-disciplinary field of study Media anthropology is enriched by the contributions, innovations and practice of all cultural and human studies. It is an attempt for Anthropological understanding with the help of visuals and is popularly known as Visual Anthropology. This article, attempts to locate Media Anthropology as a legitimate effort in academic enterprise to understand Media and Media Studies from an anthropological perspective. The article attempts for an in-depth analysis of the interactions taking place between various academic and applied aspects of anthropology and multitude of media and underscores references from India. The study deals with the new directions to reconceptualize mass media relations to culture and society and their particular role in providing common arenas for constructing social relations. The article explores diverse concepts of media content consumption and their moral evaluation.

The article looks at Media Anthropology as an emerging discipline which offers a holistic approach to redress the problem of the integration of anthropological knowledge into the cultural lives of the people. The relevance of media anthropological studies discussed in this article is to understand the intricate connection of media production and consumption with the wider processes of commoditization and transnational culture and to analyze how media professionals are situating themselves and their work in relation to more global media trends.