Ilya Alexandrovich Shipilov,
Candidate of Historical Sciences Institute of History of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, Russia, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Works and Materials on Ethnography of the Peoples of Siberia by the Participants of the 18th Century Academic and Government Expeditions and the Dual Paradigm “Сivilization – Barbarism”: Pro et Contra
DOI: 10.31518/2618-9100-2023-2-17
The article provides a complex analysis of ethnographic works and materials of participants of Russian academic and government expeditions to Siberia under the leadership of D.G. Messerschmidt (1719–1727), and academician J.‑N. De L’Isle (1740), the Second Kamchatka (1733–1743), physical (1768–1774), North-Eastern Geographical and astronomical (1785–1795) expeditions and others in the perspective of the dual interpretive paradigm “civilization – barbarism”. The following conclusions are made. Russian travelers demonstrated in their works that the indigenous peoples of Siberia and their territorial groups were at different levels of civilizational development. In addition, Russian scientists, based on empirical data, confirmed the ability of the aborigines of Siberia to change their civilizational level if they have an opportunity to educate themselves, communicating and adopting cultural components from more developed ethnic groups, receiving education and getting acquainted with the sciences. The article reflects the introduction and circulation in the Russian civilizational discourse of the concept “noble savage”, which reflected the real status of the socio-cultural development of the aborigines without their “barbarization” and idealization characteristic of European enlighteners. The researcher shows that the works and materials of the participants of academic and government expeditions identify systemic factors that hindered the education of the indigenous peoples of Siberia and are historical determinants of the uneven development of the regions of the multinational, multi-confessional and multicultural Russian state. The author concludes that Russian travelers proved the inconsistency of the “civilization – barbarism” dichotomy and represented the relevance of developing a more variable evaluation paradigm for studying the peoples of Siberia, Russia and the world within the framework of a special scientific discipline – ethnography, which was postulated during and according to the results of the expeditions by G.F. Müller and P.S. Pallas.
Publishing: 28/02/2023
The article has been received by the editor on 05.02.2023
How to cite: Shipilov I.A. Works and Materials on Ethnography of the Peoples of Siberia by the Participants of the 18th Century Academic and Government Expeditions and the Dual Paradigm “Сivilization – Barbarism”: Pro et Contra // Historical Courier, 2023, No. 2 (28), pp. 208–223. [Available online: http://istkurier.ru/data/2023/ISTKURIER-2023-2-17.pdf]
The article was made on the topic of the state assignment “Memory of the Past in Written Sources of the 16th–20th Centuries: Updating Events, Broadcasting Cultural Traditions, Research Practices” (FWZM-2021-0005).
Links: Issue 2 2023
Keywords: the Age of Enlightenment; the history of the study of Siberia in the 18th century; academic and government expeditions; the paradigm of “civilization – barbarism”; the indigenous peoples of Siberia; the concept of “noble savage”; ethnography as a science