ХРИСТИАНСТВО И СЕВЕР В ВОСПРИЯТИИ УЧЕНЫХ И ПУТЕШЕСТВЕННИКОВ XVIII - НАЧАЛА XX В.

Abstract

In this article I intend to explore the way in which early ethnographers, missionaries and travelers approached the relationship between Russian Orthodox faith and intellectual development among the indigenous peoples of Western Siberia and Russian North (the Nenets, Khanty and Mansi). My aim was to reveal the most characteristic topics of discussions concerning the influence of Christian ideas on the indigenous peoples that were proposed by the authors who published descriptions of the North between the 18 th and the early 20 th centuries. I studied travel notes and ethnographies of the period in order to map repeatedly expressed ideas about connection of Russian Orthodox and animist concepts, ritual practice and everyday moral conduct. I analyzed this evidence in the framework of theoretical and philosophical ideas of cultural evolutionism of the 19 th century, as well as of recent discussions in the domain of anthropology of Christianity. I examined available ethnographic evidence about the Russian North and Western Siberia regarding specific relationship between Eastern Christianity and modernization. I disclosed that in ethnographic descriptions of the period, the main tropes concerning connection between the northern indigenous peoples and Russian Orthodoxy encompassed ideas concerning limited influence of Christianity on the northern tribes, appropriation of selected Christian ideas by indigenous shamanistic groups and restricted prospects for development of the northern peoples who did not take Christianity seriously. The Russian North and Western Siberia were marginal regions of spreading the Russian Orthodox faith from the 18 th until the early 20 th century. Also, material modernity penetrated the region rather slowly. The Russian Orthodox Church and scholarly community both attempted to endorse social, material and mental development in the region during the early period of missionary work as well as ethnographic studies. Besides, ethnographers and missionaries both viewed animism as a prominent obstacle of development. But, differently from the Church, scholars regarded folk religion also as a valuable reserve of indigenous knowledge.