The Collected Works of M. A. Czaplicka by David s> Collins M. A. Czaplicka (review)

Abstract

766 SEER, 83, 4, 2005 The various essays address a wide range of themes in Russian labour history,and do it well. The essaysarelucidlywrittenand well researched.The only slight surprise,given the period covered, was that no essay specifically addressedthe impact of the emancipation on Russianworkers.That said, this is a veryworthycollection of essays,which will be used by studentsof Russian labourhistoryto theirbenefit. Department ofHisto7y JOHN SWIFT StMartin'sCollege Collins, David (ed.). The Collected Works of M. A. Czaplicka.Vol.i: Collected Articles andLetters;Vol.2. AborginalSiberia,Vol.3: My Siberian rear; Vol.4. The Turksof CentralAsia. Curzon Press, Richmond, I999. i 6oo pp. Illustrations.Maps. Notes. Bibliography.?450.??. FORany student of Siberia, reading Marya Antonina Czaplicka'sAboriginal Siberia is a riteof passage. Publishedoriginallyin I9I4 (reprintedin I969), it is still one of the few best English language overviews of the region. However, therearefew scholarswho are awareof the breadthand qualityof Czaplicka's otherworksreprintedtogetherfor the firsttime in thisfourvolume collection. Dr Collins has provided both anthropologists, and all those interested in Eurasia,with a real servicein assemblingthispublication. The heart of this collection are facsimile copies of Czaplicka's classic Aboriginal Siberia(volume 2), her illustrated travel account My Siberian rear (volume 3, published I9 I6), and her regionaloverview T7he Turks ofCentral Asia (volume 4, published I9I9). With the exception of the first, they are difficult editions to find. Volume one of this collection is by farthe most interesting.It consists of series of reprinted journal and encyclopaedia articles, a rich introduction by Dr Collins, and a set of previously unpublishedletters from Czaplicka describing her fieldworkin Yenisei guberniia during the Russian civil war. Dr Collins helpfullydivides the articlesin the firstvolume into four sections. The first section provides the letters and a set of reprinted articles pertaining to her fieldworkin Central Siberia. The second section is devoted to social anthropology and presents Czaplicka's most important summary workson the indigenouspeoples of the region and hervery unique writingon Siberian Cossacks and sibiriaki.Section three are a series of ethnographic notes on Russian peasant folklore, originally published in the TimesRussian Supplement. The final section is entitled 'Political and Propaganda Works; Poland', providing a complete list of Czaplicka's public attempts to attract civic attentionto the rightsof smallnationsin both Europeand in Siberia. The introductionto the seriesis in volume one. It is richlyfootnoted giving not only fullreferencesto Czaplicka'spublishedwork,but alsoreferencingthe secondaryliteratureon the work of Czaplicka'scolleagues and on the history and geography of the places that she visited. The introduction is devoted to Czaplicka'sbiography, and in particularto her Siberian expedition in 1914, the intense period of her academic work in Oxford from I 915-I 9, and her untimely suicide in 1921 . Dr Collins postulatesthat her suicidewas triggered REVIEWS 767 by the news that her expedition companion Henry Hall had married that same year. It shouldbe noted thatthisis not a complete collection of Czaplicka'swork, althoughit is comprehensive.Aside fromomittinga few book reviews,the one disappointment is that Czaplicka's unpublished manuscript on her Yenisei district fieldwork is not included. This material lies in the Archives of the University of Pennsylvaniaand consistsof folktalesand a grammarin Evenki (Northern dialect) and materials towards an introduction (pp. xxv-xxvi). It warrants noting that although the edition is printed on high quality paper, and is extremely expensive, the vast majorityof the workshave been set from scans or photocopies. The quality of the printed text is not ideal for many of the republished articles in volume one, and the quality of Czaplicka's published photographs suffer substantially. It would be generous of the publisher to issue a lower-cost edition thus truly creating wide access to Czaplicka'swork. Re-reading thiswork I am struckwith how currentCzaplicka'sethnopolitical sympathies strike the contemporary reader interested in post-Soviet Siberia.The titleof her classicworksuggestsone of the earliercomparisonsof Siberianminoritiesto 'aboriginal'people worldwide.Czaplicka'sdescriptions of local yearnings to self-determination and of pan-Turkic movements describethe region well today. It is unfortunatethat she wrote initiallyduring such interestingbut unstable times. One of the reasonswhy Czaplicka'sopus is not betterknown is due to the fact that her originalresearchwas framedby two world wars and the Russian civil war. In addition, she wrote as an ethnologist at a time when...