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5. The Last Decade before the Storm
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161 5. The Last Decade before the Storm In the decade prior to World War I, Lev Shternberg continued building up the mae collection.1 Given his own scholarly inclinations, it is not surprising that ethnographic objects from Siberia were of special interest to him. While the mae continued to rely heavily on local amateur collectors, it was finally able to sponsor large-scale expeditions. Amateurs led some of them, but others involved Shternberg’s museum colleagues and students. In 1910 he conducted his own collecting expedition to the Amur-Sakhalin region. Most collectors received Shternberg’s detailed instructions, which emphasized the importance of obtaining ethnographic information along with the artifacts themselves (Instruktsiia dlia sobiraniia . . . 1912; Shternberg 1914a, 1933a:715–735). Shternberg pushed collectors to solicit native terms for the objects they acquired as well as detailed information on their uses. He emphasized the importance of gathering data on social organization and religion and encouraged collectors to attend native religious ceremonies. He especially favored shamanic objects, and during his tenure the mae acquired a very large number of them. Many of the mae’s collectors followed these instructions and sent back information that went far beyond the material culture. Shternberg also insisted that collectors record ethnographic information accurately and systematically. He even explained to his collectors what sort of notebooks to use and how to fill them out. The mae’s most successful domestic collectors included Vasilii Anuchin and Viktor Vasil’ev, who brought back a large and valuable assemblage of Ket artifacts ; Berngard Petri, who worked among the Buryat in 1912–16; and Sergei 162 Shirokogorov, who gathered ethnographic data and artifacts in the Transbaikal and Amur regions in 1912–13 as well as during World War I (see chapter 6). Another very successful collector was Andrei Zhuravskii, the head of a natural science station on the Pechora River in northern Russia. Over many years he managed to collect and give the museum over eight hundred objects belonging to the Old Russian settlers (starozhily) as well as the indigenous Nenets and Komi peoples (Teriukov 1993). Konstantin Rychkov, another tireless collector and amateur ethnographer, spent many years in the Turukhansk region, where he not only acquired a large number of Nenets and Evenk artifacts but, inspired by Shternberg, conducted a census of the natives and recorded linguistic information (mae Collection, spfa ran, 142/1/137). Rychkov and several other mae collectors also reported to Shternberg on the abuses suffered by the local indigenous population at the hands of the Russian administration and traders. Shternberg tried to publicize this information (see Rychkov to Shternberg, mae Collection, spfa ran, 142/1/137:23–24). Shternberg cared deeply about his collectors and spent a good deal of time helping them overcome various administrative and financial problems. A number of them supplied Shternberg with 8. Lev and his wife, Sarra, with their son, Arkadii (all front right) among family and friends at a summer resort in Kuokkala (Repino), early 1900s. Shternberg Collection, spfa ran, 280/2/194:5. [3.80.129.195] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 21:12 GMT) 163 special ethnographic data that he requested while he was working on a particular research topic. Rychkov, for example, collected information on the use of reindeer fur in clothing decoration among the Turukhansk region natives (Rychkov to Shternberg, mae Collection, spfa ran, 142/1/137:37). One amateur collector who corresponded regularly with Shternberg and becameaseriousethnographerwithhishelpwasthecelebratedexploreroftheAmur River region and novelist Vladimir Klavdievich Arsen’ev (1872–1930) (Arsen’ev 1957; Polevoi and Reshetov 1972, 1977). Born in St. Petersburg in 1872, Arsen’ev pursued a military career but became very interested in geography and ethnology very early in his life. At his military school he attended the lectures of the prominent anthropologist Eduard Petri. Assigned to serve in the Amur River region , Arsen’ev immediately turned to the study of the local fauna as well as the culture of its indigenous inhabitants. A passionate traveler, Arsen’ev explored the region, visiting many places that had not been previously known to the Russians . Having familiarized himself with the works of local ethnographers on the Oroch and the Udege and having visited their settlements, he concluded that the existing information was incomplete and inaccurate. He turned for advice to the mae and received a response from Shternberg himself. In addition 9. Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (mae), St. Petersburg. Shternberg Collection, spfa ran, 280/2/194:5. 164 to giving him advice on fieldwork methods, the St...