Maria Antonina Czaplicka

Maria Antonina Czaplicka

Maria Antonina Czaplicka (also Marie Antoinette Czaplicka ) (* 1886 in Warsaw ; † May 26, 1921 ) was a Polish-British cultural anthropologist who is best known for her ethnography of Siberian shamanism .

Early life

She was born in Warsaw in 1886 into an impoverished aristocratic family. She began her studies at the "Wyższe Kursy Naukowe" (a privately operated university) and the so-called "Flying University", a secret institution of higher education in Russian Poland . She was also a teacher at various schools in Warsaw. In 1910 she received the Mianowski Scholarship and continued her studies in the United Kingdom . She left Poland with Bronisław Malinowski in 1910 and continued her studies at the Faculty of Anthropology at the London School of Economics . Her professor Charles G. Seligman suggested that she finish her studies at Oxford University . There, RR Marett , her tutor, decided to grant Czaplicka a scholarship and to finance her first expedition to Siberia . He believed that the Russian- speaking Czaplicka would be able to gather more information about the tribes of Siberia than an English-speaking scientist who would rely on translators.

success

The result of their first trip was a book called Aboriginal Siberia , published in 1914. Although addressed to a small number of scholars, it was written in a simple but understandable language and became very popular outside of the academic community. In 1914, Czaplicka started her second expedition to Siberia. Together with the ornithologist Maud Haviland , the artist Dora Curtis and Henry Usher Hall from the University of Pennsylvania Museum she came just before the outbreak of World War I in Russia at. After the war began, Czaplicka and Hall decided to continue their expedition, while the ladies decided to return to the United Kingdom . Czaplicka and Hall spent all winter traveling along the banks of the Yenisei , more than 3,000 miles together. She took hundreds of photographs of the people of Siberia , made countless records on anthropometry and their customs. Most of the items she brought back from that trip are now on display in the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford .

Return to England

Immediately after her return to England in 1915, she accepted the proposal to take over the faculty of anthropology at Oxford. She gave lectures on the nations of Central and Eastern Europe as well as on the customs of the Siberian tribes . She was also actively involved in supporting social organizations in Poland. She also wrote a diary of her journey entitled My Siberian year (published the following year). The book became very popular. Upon her return to England in 1915, Czaplicka became the only female lecturer at Oxford University . She was also the second person in Europe (and one of the first in the world) to earn a PhD in anthropology. In 1918 she became the first woman to be admitted to the Royal Geographical Society and received the prestigious Murchiston Grant . Soon after, the professor whose place she had taken at Oxford returned from the war and she was dismissed. She was offered a place in the Department of Ethnography at Columbia University . She accepted the offer, but the plans never came to fruition. Eventually Czaplicka became the director of the Institute of Anatomy at Bristol University . However, after a year she was released. She faced financial difficulties and poisoned herself on May 26, 1921. She is buried in Wolverote Cemetery in Oxford.

Afterlife

In her will, Czaplicka gave all of her records and reports to her colleague Henry Usher Hall . The account of her 1914 trip was never published, and her personal diaries were never found. Because of this, little is known about her personal life. In Polish museums there are several private letters from Czaplicka to Malinowski and Władysław Orkan , one of the most prominent Polish poets of the time. She was never married.

Works

• Aboriginal Siberia, a study in social anthropology . With a preface by RR Marett. Clarendon Press, Oxford 1914.
• My Siberian year; with thirty-two illustrations from photographs . London, Mills and Boon, 1916.
• The Turks of Central Asia in history and at the present day. An inquiry into the Pan-Turanian Problem and Bibliographical Material Relating to the Early Turks and the Present Turks of Central Asia . Oxford Clarendon Press 1918. Reprint 1973.
• Collected Works . London, Curzon Press 1999.

literature

• James Urry, David N. Collins: Maria Antonina Czaplicka. Życie i praca w Wielkiej Brytanii i na Syberii ; Warsaw, 1998.

See also

• Bronislaw Malinowski

Web links

• Aboriginal Siberia - Excerpts from Sacred Texts