The article is devoted to the unique field research carried out by the outstanding neuropsychologist (“father of neuropsychology”) and cultural-historical psychologist Alexander R. Luria (1902-77) and his team in the Soviet Central Asian republics, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan (1931-32), and to its place in world crosscultural studies. Long before the famous Western works on cultural psychology and anthropology were published in 1950-1970s (J. S. Bruner, M. Cole, P. M. Greenfield, J. Gay, C. Levi-Strauss, D. PriceWilliams, S. Scribner, etc.), the Luria research expedition anticipated the main directions and results of future world cross-cultural studies. Unlike the racist theories (widespread at that time) based on a biological interpretation of the cognitive processes of “backward” peoples, this research demonstrated the principal influence of sociohistorical factors, cultural systems, information-coding systems, and ways of intergenerational transmission of knowledge (education) on these processes in different types of societies.