Student Expeditions to the Zaonezhye in the Early 1930s: Theory and Practice of the “Field”

Abstract

The article discusses student expeditions from the Department of Ethnography of Leningrad State University / Leningrad State Historical and Linguistic Institute to the Karelian ASSR, conducted in 1929–1931. Based on an analysis of documents, it concludes that the Karelian Research Institute (KRI) can be considered a temporary base for the practical training of ethnographers working in the field. The expeditions were led by S. A. Makaryev, a student of V. G. Bogoras, the author of the classic programme Field Ethnography, and deputy director of the KRI. The first part of the article examines theories of the “field” and their practical implementation using the example of student ethnographers’ expeditions to Karelia. The surviving field diaries and collected materials indicate that the methods of V. G. Bogoras and D. A. Zolotarev were combined in the work of the student expeditions. The second part is devoted to further joint folklore expeditions of the Institute for the Study of the Peoples of the USSR and the KRI in which the students M. B. Kaminskaya and N. N. Tyaponkina participated. These preserve the theoretical principles set out in Makaryev’s Field Ethnography. During the collection work carried out in Karelia there is a gradual transition from a comprehensive ethnographic (or anthropological-ethnographic) study, of which the folklore “field” was considered to be a part, to a more specialised one — folkloristics. The subject area and tasks of the collection work narrowed significantly, shifting towards the study of modern forms of life and folklore. The article introduces into scientific circulation numerous archival documents regarding the conduct of the Zaonezhye expeditions.