Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 47 (2) 2019   DOI: 10.17746/1563-0110.2019.47.2.112-121

Annotation:  Late Middle and Early Upper Paleolithic of the Eastern Adriatic and the Problem of the Regional Midd Insight into Ceramic Technologies at the Maikop Site of Ust-Dzheguta, Karachay-Cherkessia Chalcolithic and Bronze Age (4th to 3rd Millennia BC) Burials with Gold Ornaments in the Caucasian M Archaeozoological Studies at Konoplyanka, the Southern Trans-Urals Burials in Anthropomorphic Jars in the Philippines The Tamga Signs of the Turkic Nomads in the Altai and Semirechye: Comparisons and Identifi cations Belt Sets of the “Redikar Type” in Medieval Cemeteries of the Volga Finns An Assemblage from a Medieval Burial at Lake Parisento, Gydan Peninsula, the Arctic Zone of Western Finds of Medieval Coins from Eski-Yurt, Crimea Children’s Games in the Sociocultural Space of a Siberian Town: Historical and Archaeological Contex On the Methodology of Studying Palimpsests in Rock Art: The Case of the Shalabolino Rock Art Site, The Use of Remote Sensing, Geophysical Methods and Soil Analysis in the Study of Sites Disturbed by Miklouho-Maclay’s Legacy in Russian- and English-Language Academic Research, 1992–2017 Remnants of the Snake Cult Among the Khakas (Late 19th to Mid 20th Century) “Taiga” and “River” Components in the Nanai Socio-Tribal Organization at Lake Bolon, the Lower Amur The Armenian Epic Poem “Daredevils of Sassoun” and the Mahabharata: Similarity of the Ethnographic S Antemortem Cranial Injuries in the Altai Mountains Pastoralists of the Scythian and Xiongnu-Sarmatia   

Miklouho-Maclay’s Legacy
in Russian- and English-Language Academic Research,
1992–2017

A.V. Tutorsky¹, E.V. Govor², and C. Ballard^{2, 3}

¹Lomonosov Moscow State University, Leninskie gory 1, Moscow, 119991, Russia

²Australian National University, Sir Roland Wilson Building, 120 McCoy Circuit, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia

³University of French Polynesia, Puna’auia, BP 6570, 98702 Faa’a, Tahiti, French Polynesia

This article provides an overview of recent research dedicated to the legacy of the Russian scientist and traveler Nikolai Miklouho-Maclay. The first part deals with the so-called “classic” approach of the second half of the 20th century, which tended towards a mythologized and idealized portrait of Miklouho-Maclay, as evidenced by the publications of D.D. Tumarkin and the second edition of the Complete Works of N.N. Miklouho-Maclay, published in the 1990s. The second part addresses articles published during the 1990s and 2000s that have sought to “demythologize” and reevaluate standard perspectives on Miklouho-Maclay. Some authors, rather than overestimating his achievements, tend to understate the impact of his work. The third part deals with English-language articles about Miklouho-Maclay’s legacy. These are mostly translations of Miklouho-Maclay’s archival texts from Russian, with scholarly commentary. However, an ongoing Australian research project conducted by Chris Ballard and Elena Govor has begun a sustained program of fieldwork with descendants of the Melanesian source communities with which Miklouho-Maclay worked, seeking new insights into his texts and especially his drawings as a form of dialogic approach to culture. We propose to study Miklouho-Maclay’s legacy using modern approaches to anthropological theory. This will hopefully result in a unified image of the scientist, rather than separate images of an anthropologist, an artist, a humanist, etc. Also, the use of Miklouho-Maclay’s drawings, in addition to his texts, will be an important step toward a dialogic study of Oceanic cultures.

Keywords: Miklouho-Maclay, mythology, ethnology, dialogic studies, Soviet ethnography