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Department of Africa
Contact Information Phone: (812) 328-41-52 Head of Department Valentin VYDRIN, D.Sc. History of the Department African artifacts were first acquired by the Kunstkamera in 1819. After the Ethnographic Museum was founded in 1836 on the basis of the Kunstkamera (in 1879 it was renamed Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography), the influx of African materials continued, but the separate African depository was only formed in 1911, and its first head was J.V. Chekanovsky. The Department of Africa as a research unit was established on November 2nd, 1929, and D.A. Olderogge (1903–88), who later became the founder of Russian school of African studies, was appointed its head. After World War II the staff members had to begin again virtually from the ground up. It was then that the famous Leningrad school of African studies was formed at MAE. Main Research Areas D.A. Olderogge indicated two directions to be taken by his staff and students: first, the study and publication of written sources on the history and ethnography of pre-colonial Africa south of the Sahara (Arab sources were studied by V.V. Matveev, L.E. Kubbel’ and M.A. Tolmacheva, Chinese ones by V.V. Vel’gus, Spanish and Portuguese ones by O.S. Tomanovskaya, Greek and Roman ones by Yu.K. Poplinskii, Ethiopian ones by S.B. Chernetsov); second, the compilation of dictionaries of extant African languages such as Swahili and Hausa as sources for the study of African peoples that were non-literate in the recent past. At present the work is underway: in 1999, the first volume of the Manden-Russian dictionary was published by V.F. Vydrine, in collaboration with S.I. Tomchina. On Olderogge’s initiative, The African Ethnographical Collection has been regularly published since 1959, and most its contributors are the department’s staff. In the 1970s, detailed studies of African ethno-social history began. They are mostly based on Olderogge’s theory of colonial society as a stage in the ethnic history of Tropical Africa (D.A. Olderogge, N.M. Girenko, V.M. Misyugin, V.R. Arsen’ev, V.A. Popov, and S.B. Chernetsov). The most important research projects that are being implemented at present include Anthropology of Kinship: State of the Art and Current Issues (V.A. Popov), Material culture of the Bambara (Republic of Mali) (V.R. Arsen’ev), and Lexicographic Description of the Southern Mande: Dictionary (V.F. Vydrine, A.V. Ehrman). N.M. Girenko, who, for the past several years, had been working on the project Ethnic Conflicts: General Principles and Regional Specificity (Based on Central and East African Data), was murdered in summer 2004. In 2004 the Department suffered another loss – as a result of a severe illness Yu.K. Poplinskii, senior researcher, PhD, died, who for several years had been working on the theme “Essays on the traditional African art in the light of cultural anthropology problems”. In 2005 died S.B. Chernetsov, D.Sc, head of the Department of Africa Department Staff Ehrman Anna, Chief Specialist (culture and languages of western Dan). Pugach Zoya, Chief Specialist (material culture of Africa, description, storage and exhibition of materials). Semenova Valerya, Chief Specialist (Ethiopian Christian painting) Uzunova Valentina, Senior Researcher, PhD (inter-ethnic relations, museology) Vydrin Valentin, Head of Department, D.Sc. (ethno-linguistics, lexicography, comparative study of Mande languages). Cornelia Giesing, Associated Scholar (ethno-history of the population of Senegambia and Guinea-Bissau)
Principal PublicationsThe most important recent books published by the department staff members include the following: - Chernetsov S.B. Efiopskaya feodal’naya monarkhiya v XIII–XVI vv. [Ethiopian Feudal Monarchy in the 13th – 16th centuries]. Moscow: Nauka, 1982. 309 p.
- Chernetsov S.B. Efiopskaya feodal’naya monarkhiya v XVII veke [Ethiopian Feudal Monarchy in the 17th century]. Moscow: Nauka, 1990. 325 p.
- Girenko N.M. Sotsiologiya plemeni. Stanovlenie sotsiologiecheskoi teorii i osnovnye komponenty sotsial’noi dinamiki [Sociology of the Tribe: Emergence of Sociological Theory and Principal Factors of Social Dynamics]. Leningrad: Nauka, 1991. 303 p.
- Poplinskii Yu.K. Iz istorii etnokul’turnykh kontaktov Afriki i Egeiskogo mira. Garamantnaya problema [From the History of Ethno-Cultural Contacts of Africa and the Aegean World: The Garamant problem]. Moscow: Nauka. 1978. 204 p.
- Vydrine V.F. Yazyk looma [The Looma Language]. Moscow: Nauka, 1987. 121 p.
- Vydrine V.F., Tomchina S.I. Manden-russkiy slovar’. T. 1 [Manden-Russian Dictionary. Vol. 1]. SPb: Dimitry Bulanin Publishing House, 1999. 342 p.
- Vydrine V.F. Manding-English Dictionary (Maninka, Bamana). Vol. 1. St.-Petersburg: Dimitry Bulanin Publishing House, 1999. 315 p.
- Giesing C., Vydrine V.F. Ta:rikh Mandinka de Bijini (Guinée-Bissau): La mémoire des Mandinka et des Sooninkee du Kaabu. Leiden & Boston: Brill, 2007, 398 p.
Expeditions Since October 2000, a standing multipurpose lexicographic expedition from St.-Petersburg has been functioning in Ivory Coast, where a group of St.-Petersburg Africanists is engaged in a joint project with Zurich University, financed by the Swiss National Foundation and aimed at the lexicographic description of southern Mande languages. Under this project, four trips of St.-Petersburg group to Ivory Coast have taken place, directed by Prof. V.F. Vydrine. During each trip, each participant stays in one of the towns or villages of the country for two months and works with informants, who speak one of the languages of the group: Tura, Guro, Uan, or Dan-guetavo. Apart from conducting his own research, V.F. Vydrine exercises general control and consultation by visiting all participants in turn. Conferences Each May, the Council for African Problems of the Academy of Sciences in St.-Petersburg holds a conference in memory of D.A. Olderogge. Traditionally, its historic and ethnographic sections are sponsored by MAE Department of Africa, whereas the linguistic and philological ones are sponsored by St.-Petersburg University Oriental Faculty Department of African Languages. The sessions are attended by scholars from St.-Petersburg, Moscow, other cities of Russia, and from abroad. Projects In 2003–05 the department staff are working on the joint project “Sources for the Study of Traditional African Culture (Material Culture, Art, Written Documents, Languages, Traditional Social and Political Institutes)”, and participating in inter-departmental projects such as “Anthropology of Kinship: Results of a 150-year-long Study”, “The Kunstkamera: History of the Museum and its Collections”, “Collections of MAE (Kunstkamera): Traditional and New Techniques of Storage, Exhibiting, Attribution, and Cataloging”, and “Textile as an Historical Source (Based on Archaeological and Ethnographic Collections of MAE)”. Collections The earliest African collection was registered at the museum in 1836. In the following years, only separate specimens were acquired, so the actual formation of the department’s depositories began in 1879, when a rich collection (1,950 items) assembled by a Russian traveler V.V. Junker in Central Africa was donated by him to the museum. In 1894 MAE received a portion of the South African collection acquired by the Czech traveler E. Golub. In late 1800s and early 1900s, the accretion of the department’s materials occurred in different ways, viz. through purchase, donation, and exchange with European ethnographic museums. The most important donations were made by Museum’s Trustee Board Members Hans and Hermann Meyers, who enriched the department with bronze artifacts and carved ivory from the ancient city-state of Benin, with artifacts from the Kilimanjaro region, and with a large collection from Cameroon, comprising over 500 items (by A. Mansfeld). The exchange with the ethnographic museums in Berlin and Leipzig resulted in the acquisition of things from the Lower Congo and from Guinea; also, two collections (archaeological and ethnographic) were received from Hamburg, where they had been brought by Leo Frobenius from his expedition to West Africa. In 1913 a collection was acquired from Stockholm museum (it was assembled by J. Lindblom among the Akamba and Wapare of East Africa). In the same year, materials were received from persons dispatched to Africa by the Museum (S.B. Smogorzevsky, who purchased a Tuareg and Kabil collection in Algeria, and N.S. Gumilev, who acquired artifacts in Ethiopia and Somalia). After 1917, apart from occasional purchases and donations, the Department received separate specimens and collections from other museums of Russia. In 1946, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs handed to the museum a set of masks and household items of the Mpongwe, collected in Congo by a doctor N.V. Charbot d’Artois. From the 1950s the acquisition of African materials intensified. The Department staff, too, contributed to the accretion of the collections. In 1964 D.A. Olderogge brought a collections of agricultural tools, masks, and household items from his expedition to Mali. Five sets of Malian utensils and works of art were received from V.R. Arsen’ev, a collection of Guinean artifacts from E.N. Kal’shchikov, and that of Malian and Ivory Coast artifacts from V.F. Vydrine. The department depositories contain nearly 12 000 items reflecting material culture, art, and religious beliefs of the major peoples of Africa. Most are utensils and weapons, whereas ritual articles are much fewer. Nearly all regions of Africa are represented. In terms of the number of specimens, Ethiopia ranks first (nearly one third of the material) thanks to the efforts taken by Russian doctors of the Red Cross in 1896–1913 (A.I. Kokhanovskii, N.V. Brovtsyn, etc.), whereas the next largest collections come from West Africa, Congo, and East Africa. Gems of the department are specimens brought by V.V. Junker, Benin bronzes, and ritual clay figurines from Ethiopia. The MAE African collections are described in the following publications: - Arsen’ev V.R. Afrikanskie kollektsii MAE i kontseptual’nye problemy razvitiya Muzeya [African Collections of MAE and Issues in Museum Development] // Kurier Petrovskoi Kunstkamery. SPb., 1995. Vol. 1. P. 16–26.
- Chekanovsky J.V. Putevoditel’ po Muzeyu antropologii i etnografii. Afrika [A Guidebook to the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography: Africa]. SPb., 1912. 34 p.
- Chernetsov S.B. Ethiopian Traditional Paintings in the Collections of Peter the Great Kunstkammer // St.-Petersburg Journal of African Studies. 1998. No. 6. P. 128–155.
- Golovanova I.N. Figurki varega v kollektsiyakh MAE [Vareg Figurines in MAE Collections] // Africana Vol. VII. Moscow: Nauka, 1969. P. 221–227. (Trudy Instituta etnografii, nov. ser. Vol. 93).
- Gotsko G.N. Istoriya efiopskikh kollektsii otdela Afriki [History of the Ethiopian Collections of the Department of Africa] // Kratkoe soderzhanie dokladov sessii Instituta etnografii AN SSSR, posvyaschennykh stoletiyu sozdaniya pervogo akademicheskogo etnografo-antropologicheskogo tsentra. Leningrad, 1980. P. 59–60.
- Misyugin V.M., Pugach Z.L. Traditsionnoe proizvodstvo zheleznykh izdelii v Tropicheskoi Afrike (po materialam kollektsii MAE) [Traditional Smithery of Tropical Africa (Based on MAE collections)] // Africana. Leningrad, 1978. Vol. XI. P. 54–97. (Trudy Instituta etnografii, nov.ser. Vol. 105).
- Olderogge D.A. Vystavka abissinskikh kollektsii: Kratkii putevoditel’ [Abyssinian Exhibition: A Short Guidebook]. Moscow–Leningrad: Izd-vo Akademii nauk SSSR, 1935. 35 p.
- Olderogge D.A. Afrikanische Kunst. Aus den Afrika-Sammlungen des Museums f50108r Anthropologie und Ethnographie, Leningrad–Prague, 1969. 131 p.
- Sobchenko A.I. (Ed.) Afrika. Kratkii putevoditel’ po expositsii [Africa: A Brief Guidebook to the Exposition]. Moscow–Leningrad, 1964. 24 p.
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