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Colarusso John, Professor

photo of John Colarusso

John Colarusso

Professor

Faculty
Department of Anthropology

Area(s) of Interest:

Biography

Research & Supervisory Interests


My interests are in linguistics, historical linguistics, comparative mythology, the size of language, and international relations (culture and nationalism).  My geographic interests are centered on Inner Eurasia, especially the Caucasus, and cover both modern and ancient periods.  I have also, at times, served as an informal diplomat and advisor in matters concerning the Caucasus and its peoples.

Dr. Colarusso will not be taking graduate students for the 2020 program year.

Education

PhD Harvard, 1975

Teaching

Search course offerings in Anthropology

 

Courses (2022-2023)

Fall

  • ANTHROP 2G02 - Readings in Indo-European Myth

 

Winter

  • ANTHROP 3G03 - Comparative Mythology

 

Courses (2021-2022)

Fall

  • ANTHROP 2G02 - Readings in Indo-European Myth

 

Winter

  • ANTHROP 3G03 - Comparative Mythology 

 

 

 

Research

Publications

2021, Narts (Caucasian Myth and Its Sources). Cambridge Myth. Roger Woodard (editor). (17 pp)

2021, The Narts," in Gianluka Pardelli (editor), An Archaeological Guide to the Caucasus. (15 pages).

2021, Remarks on V. A. Chirikba, “From North to North West, How North West Caucasian Evolved from North Caucasian.” Mother Tongue, issue 22, 2017, Association for the Study of Language in Prehistory (ASLIP). (12 pages) (

2021, Bzhedukh West Circassian, in Riitta Valijarvi and Eszter Tarsoly, editors, Linguistic Diversity and Language Endangerment in Russia. UK, UCL Press. (33 pages)

2020, a) An Ancient Loan into Proto-Indo-European from the Caucasus. In Revisiting Dispersions, Celtic and Germanic, Journal of Indo-European Studies, monograph 67. T. L. Markey and Luka Repanšek (editors). Pp. 38-47.

(2020, b) Peoples, Langauges, and Lore in Galina M. Yemelianova and Laurence Broers, (editors), Routledge Handbook of the Caucasus. London and New York: Routledge. All of chapter 3, pp. 32-51.

(2019, a) The Legacy of the Berserker, Comparative Mythology, vol. 5, 2017. International Association for Comparative Mythology. Pp. 1-12.

(2019, b) Remarks on V. A. Chirikba, “From North to North West, How North West Caucasian Evolved from North Caucasian.” Mother Tongue, issue 22, 2017, Association for the Study of Language in Prehistory (ASLIP). (12 pages)

(2019, c). Thoughts on Bomhard’s Work. Journal of Indo‐Europesan Studies. 47, 125‐141.

(in press) An Ancient Loan into Proto‐Indo‐European from the Caucasus. Novo Mesto, Projecting Contingencies – Revisiting Dispersions. Conference volume, Tom Markey (ed.)(16 pages).

(2017) The Legacy of the Berserker, Comparative Mythology, vol. 3, 2017. International Association for Comparative Mythology. (17 pages)

(2017) A Brief Synopsis of Ubykh with Analyzed Text, in Archaeology of [the] Pontic and Caucasian Area, Igor V. Kuznetsov et alia (editors), Kubanskij Gosudarstvennyj Universitet, Kranodar, Russia. Pp. 89-112.

(2017) “A Platonic Paradox,” in Inference, International Review of Science, vol. 3, issue 1, Letters, (e-journal, no pagination).

(2016) “Vastness Revisited,” LACUS Forum 39, Linguistic Association of Canada and The United States. Pp. 208-214.

(2016) Review of Johanna Nichols, 2011, Ingush Grammar, Linguistics, vol. 143, Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. Xviii + 806. Anthropological Linguistics. (8 pages)

(2015) A Northwest Caucasian Linguistics Reader, Munich: LINCOM-Europa (288 pages)

(2016) Foreword to Hugh Spencer, Why I Hunt Flying Saucers and Other Fantasticals. Toronto: Brain Lag Press. (8 pages)

(2016) (with Walter May and Tamerlan Salbiev) Tales of the Narts, Mythology and Folklore of the Ossetian People, Princeton University Press. (lxxxiv + 340 pages)

(2016) Myths from the Caucasus: the Nart Sagas of the Circassians, Abazas, Abkhaz, and Ubykhs. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, series "Mythos." Paperback edition with a foreword by Adrienne Mayor, (423 pages)

(2014) The Northwest Caucaslian Languages, Routeldge Library Editions: Linguistics, vol. 54. Reissue of 1988, The Northwest Caucasian Languages, a Phonological Survey. New York: Garland Publishing, (xxxi +480).

(2014) with Adrienne Mayor, and David Saunders, Making Sense of Nonsense Inscriptions Associated with Amazons and Scythians on Athenian Vases, Hesperia, The Journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, 83, pp. 447-93.

(2014) Review of Tamio Yanagisawa 2006, Analysis of Texts and a basic Lexicon of the Abkhaz Language. Nagoya, Japan: Department of Multicultural Studies, Graduate School of Languages and Cutures, Nagoya University. In Anthropological Linguistics, vol. 56.

(2013) The Typology of the Gutturals. In Jean Léo Léonard and Samia Naïm (editors). Base articulatoire arriere – Backing and Backness, Munich: LINCOM. Pp. 93-109.

(2013) Vastness Revisited. LACUS Forum 37, Linguistic Association of Canada and the United States.

(2013) Thoughts on May 21st, 2010. In Reflections on the Caucasus, pp. 15-17. Metin Sonmez, editor,https://circassianworld.wordpress.com/2013/09/06/reflections-on-the-caucasus-21-may-1864-2010/

(2011) The Storehouse of History, Ancient Ethnonyms and other Names from the Caucasus, Slavonic and East European Review.

(2011) Interview in Otkrytaja, 26 July- 3 August, no. 29. Izuchite opyt Shotlandii, eto vam pomozhet, Learn from the experience in Scotland, it will help you.

(2010) review of Count Nikolai Tolstoy (2009). The Oldest British Prose Literature, The Compilation of the Four Branches of the Mabinogi. Edwin Mellin Press, Journal of Indo-European Studies, 50. (vii + 569 pages).

(2010) What Could have Happened in the Caucasus, in John Colarusso (editor), Abkhazia. Istanbul: Friends of Abkhazia (pp. 53-7).

(2010) (editor) Independence of Abkhazia and Prospects for the Caucasus. Istanbul: Friends of Abkhazia.

(2010) Russia: The Circassians and the Sochi Olympics, Oxford Analytica.

(2009) Review of the Elizabeth Wayland Barber and Paul T. Barber (2004) When They Severed Earth from Sky, How the Human Mind Shapes Myth. Princeton University Press. Journal of Indo-European Studies, 37: 233-46. (xv+290+44 illustrations, plus an appendix).

(2009) Regional Realities in the South Caucasus. In Ergun Özgur (editor), Independence of Abkhazia and Prospects for the Caucasus. (10 pages).

(2009) with Walter Comins-Richmond (2008). The Conquest and Deportation of the Circassians, in Stephen D. Shenfield (ed).Johnson’s Russia List, Research and Analytical Supplement, Special Issue: The Circassians, Issue No. 43-May 2008.

(2008) The Hunters, Journal of Indo-European Studies, 36: 442-63.

(2006) The Functions revisited, a Nart God of War and Three Nart Heroes. Journal of Indo-European Studies, 34, 1-2: 27-54.

(2006) Kabardian (East Circassian), Munich: LINCOM-Europa, series “Languages of the World/Materials 200” (122 pages).

(2006) Counter Examples in Linguistics, the Case of Circassian as a Split Anaphor Language, Linguistica Atlantica 25. (33 pages).

(2005) Review of Armen Y. Petrosyan (2002) The Indo-European and Ancient Near Eastern Sources of the Armenian Epic, Myth and History. Journal of Indo-European Studies, Monograph No. 42. 236 pages. Journal of the Society of Armenian Studies, (7 pages).

(2004) Georgian and Other Caucasian Languages. Encyclopedia of Linguistics. London: Taylor and Francis, New York: Routledge (6 pages).

(2004) Review of Armen Y. Petrosyan (2002). The Indo-European and Ancient Near Eastern Sources of the Armenian Epic, Myth and History. Journal of Indo-European Studies, Monograph No. 42. In Journal for the Society for Armenian Studies.

(2003) More Pontic, Further Etymologies between indo-European and Northwest Caucasian, in Dee Ann Holisky and Kevin Tuite (eds.), Current Trends in Caucasian, East European and Inner Asian Linguistics, papers in Honor of Howard Aronson, Amsterdam: E.J. Brill, Pp. 41-60.

(2002) Myths from the Caucasus: the Nart Sagas of the Circassians, Abazas, Abkhaz, and Ubykhs. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, series "Mythos". (790 pages).

(2002) Remarks on the Anau and Niyä Seals, Sino-Platnoic Papers, no. 124: 35-47.

(2001) More Pontic, Further Etymologies between Indo-European and Northwest Caucasian, in Dee Ann Holisky and Kevin Tuite (eds.) A Festschrift for Howard Aronson, Leiden: A.J. Brill, (30 pages).