SUMMARY:

Michael Kunichika’s commentary on the four contributions to the forum “‘Marred’ Hybridity: Archaeology of the Language of Diversity” singles out the theme of hybridity as the key to understanding the phenomenon of Nikolai Marr in the Late Imperial and Early Soviet contexts. He points to the complex historical semantics of hybridity, the range of tropes it typified for imperial, multinational, and multiethnic entanglements of the imperial situation, and its political and scholarly implications. Kunichika also discusses why hybridity had such unique appeal (indeed, at times remarkable polemical potential) during this period and afterward. He sees among the main contributions of the articles of the forum their demonstration that hybridity emerges not only from imperial margins and also that it is not a marginal phenomenon of colonies or “contact zones.” Kunichika, however, warns against uncritical ethical valorization of hybridity as the ultimate redemption of the experiences of imperialism, and suggests ways to overcome this trap.