Maklaevskie Chteniya – 2025

On December 4th, the Maklaevskie Chteniya conference of 2025 was held at the Kuntskamera Library. This annual event has been taking place in our museum for almost half a century now. It is organized by the Department of Australia, Oceania, and Indonesia, which serves as the leading center for field research on Southeast Asia and Oceania in Russia. Most presentations were based on field materials collected by researchers who had traveled to expeditions in the Philippines, Cambodia, New Guinea, and Indonesia either this year or earlier years, while others focused on the works of their predecessors.

In spring 2025, two expeditions took place: one led by E. M. Belyakova to New Guinea and another by M. V. Stanyukovich to the Philippines. These expeditions primarily aimed to study transformations in both tangible and intangible cultural heritage under contemporary social and economic influences. Additionally, a new format of joint expeditions between the Russian Academy of Sciences Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (MAE RAS) and the Russian Geographical Society was tested, with a special report presented by N. Yu. Belyakova from the RGO. The presentation by S.Yu Dmitrenko and I.V Samarina utilized data gathered during joint MAE RAS, Institute of Linguistics RAS, and Institute of Asian Studies RAS expeditions to Cambodia.

Other reports delved into museum artifacts and archival documents, including musical instruments from New Zealand, legacies related to A.I. Mukhlinov and Y.I. Studenicnik's work on Vietnam and the Philippines, spurs and stirrups from N.N. Miklukho-Maklay’s collection, and recent advances in deciphering rongo-rongo talking tablets also brought back by N.N. Miklukho-Maklay to the Kunstkamera.