Siberia

The museum’s Siberian materials deservedly rank among world’s best ethnographical collections representing traditional cultures of North Asia. The total number of collections is 747, totaling over 29 thousand specimens which reflect various aspects of life and generate images of each of the 42 indigenous Siberian cultures. The Siberian collection began to form at the earliest stage of St.-Petersburg Kunstkamera. From its first years on, separate Siberian artifacts were exhibited. By 1747, Siberian collections had already contained more than 200 items, mostly costumes, utensils, and articles of the shaman cult. Many of them were apparently received from the participants of the “Great Northern Expedition” (1732–42), primarily from Professor Gerhard Friedrich Miller, Stepan Petrovich Krashenninikov and Jacob Lindenau. Unfortunately, this earliest Siberian collection perished during the 1747 fire, but the appearance of separate specimens has been preserved in drawings, which at that time were made from nearly every artifact received by the museum (these drawings are housed at St.-Petersburg Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences Archives and have recently been published[9]). The destroyed Siberian specimens began to be replaced by new ones as early as 1748 when G.F. Miller returned from his expedition. Especially important among the things brought by him are archaeological finds (in situ and surface) from South Siberia, as well as Kalmyk and Mongolian household and ritual objects. By 1768 the Siberian collection of Kunstkamera was considerably replenished due to the requirement of the Academic Chancellery. This followed the Senate’s Order to Siberia Governor Count Samoilov dated September 3rd, 1761, concerning the acquisition of collections for the Museum. Most of these items were lost for some reason, likely because they were fur clothes, which rapidly perished under the storage conditions of that time. Other reasons, too, must have been involved. One was the poor documentation of museum exhibits in the 18th century. Possibly part of these collections (over 100 items) had been preserved and was later included among the so-called “collections of unknown provenance” or “old collections of the Kunstkamera”. A new stage of rapid growth of Siberian materials is related to Russian circumnavigations of the early 1800s, marking an epoch in Russian ethnography. Cultures of the Pacific coast of Siberia were poorly represented in 18th century collections. In the early 1830s the Kunstkamera acquired items related to the indigenous cultures of Chukotka and Kamchatka and were collected by members of the 1826–29 expedition on a military sloop “Senyavin” commanded of F.P. L50108tke – one of those expeditions whose primary task was to explore the entire Bering Sea coast and to study indigenous economy and culture. In the mid-1800s, the Siberian Pacific materials were augmented thanks to those assembled in Chukotka and Kamchatka by Lieutenant L.A. Zagoskin of the Russian-American company. At the same time the Museum received artifacts made by paleo-Asiatic natives, acquired by one of the best-known researchers of Russian America and the Far East I.G. Voznesenskii on his decade-long expeditions to these remote outskirts of the Russian Empire (1839–49). Specimens collected by these researchers, 256 in number, are distributed among four collections. At that time (1845–49), the Finnish linguist and ethnographer Matthias Alexander Castr50089n worked among Ugrian and Samoyed peoples of Western Siberia. While doing linguistic research, he purposefully acquired ethnographic collections related to Khants, Mansi, and Sel’kups. The Yakut collections were replenished by the naturalist Alexander Fedorovich Middendorf during his lengthy botanical expedition to Eastern Siberia (1843–44). The second half of the 19th century and the early 1900s were marked by an upsurge of Siberian ethnography. Goal-oriented collecting activities resulted in more than 20,000 new exhibits, turning the Siberian collection of MAE into world’s largest. Among the collectors was a brilliant constellation of Russian ethnographers whose research was largely based on field studies: Academician L.I. Schrenk, N.L. Gondatti, L.J. Sternberg, V.G. Bogoraz, D.A. Klementz, A.V. Adrianov, V.I. Anuchin, A.V. Anokhin, K.M. Rychkov, W.I. Jochelson, V.K. Arsen’ev, B.O. Pilsudskii, V.L. Sieroszewsky, E.K. Pekarskii, V.N. Vasiliev, S.M. Shirokogorov, B.E. Petrie and many others. Apart from having formed the bulk of the museum’s Siberian collections, they elaborated the methodology of collecting and registering ethnographic specimens. Materials assembled by them reflect various aspects of traditional culture and reveal the diversity of its forms. They often include whole series of artifacts of the same category belonging to different local subdivisions within the single ethnic group, which makes them a unique source for a comparative study of cultural phenomena and for the analysis of ethnic and cultural processes in Siberia. Besides, these exhibits are provided with documents which contain detailed data on their purpose and function in culture, and their attribution with regard to ethnic group, local group, and clan. During that period, the department’s first photographic collections were formed. The 1920s and 1930s were no less fruitful. In line with the tradition laid down by their teachers, ethnographers of the new generation began to acquire Siberian ethnographic collections, filling up numerous remaining gaps. Especially valuable are materials acquired by A.A. Popov, L.E. Karunovskaya and A.G. Danilin, N.P. Dyrenkova, E.D. and G.N. Prokof’ev, N.K. Karger and I.I. Koz’minskii, V.N. Chernetsov, G.M. Vasilevich, Yu.A. Kreinovich, and N.F. Prytkova, all of whom were associated with the Department of Siberia in various years. In the 1950s – 1980s new materials were received from department staff members such as L.P. Potapov, I.S. Vdovin, E.A. Alekseenko, V.P. D’yakonova, L.V. Khomich, G.N. Gracheva, Ch.M. Taksami, E.G. Fedorova, V.A. Kisel’, and L.R. Pavlinskaya. In the last decade, the growth rate of Siberian collections has slowed down dramatically, due, firstly, to the gradual disappearance of items of traditional culture, and secondly, to the emergence of local museums actively engaged in collecting activities. Consequently, the task before the present generation of staff members is to study the rich cultural heritage of Siberian natives using whatever has been collected by travelers and scholars in the past two centuries. The following catalogues of the department’s collections have been published: Klyueva N.I., Mikhailova E.A. Katalog s’emnykh ukrashenii narodov Sibiri [Catalogue of Siberian portable ornaments] // Material’naya i dukhovnaya kul’tura narodov Sibiri. Leningrad, 1988. P. 195–208. (Sbornik MAE, Vol. XLII). Malygina A.A. Katalog kukol-igrushek narodov Sibiri (po kollektsiyam MAE) [Catalogue of Siberian toy dolls in the collections of MAE)] // Material’naya i dukhovnaya kul’tura narodov Sibiri. Leningrad, 1988. P. 188–194. (Sbornik MAE, Vol. XLII). Taksami Ch.M., Ogikhara Sh. Ainskie kollektsii Museya antropologii i etnografii im. Petra Velikogo (Kunstkamera) Rossiiskoi Akademii nauk: Katalog [Ainu Collections of Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera): A Catalogue. Tokyo, 1998. 204 p. (in Japanese, Russian and English). Fedorova E.G. Mansi v fondakh MAE: Katalog kollektsii [A Catalogue of Mansi collections of MAE] // Kurier Petrovskoi Kunstkamery. SPb, 1995, Vol. 2–3. P. 252-264.