Full Description
Anthropology is inseparable from writing, whether in field diaries, letters, articles, or books. Among these writings, letters form paper bridges—holding a special place as material artifacts uniquely capable of building scholarly communities and sustaining relationships with field collaborators long after the fieldwork is completed.
The story of Franz Boas, one of the founders of American anthropology, can be imagined as a res publica literaria, a network that, like its Renaissance prototype, shaped the contours of transnational anthropology. This two-part volume chronicles more than forty years of Boas's collaborations and friendships with Russian and Soviet anthropologists, following a small group of anthropologists as they built the house of Arctic and Siberian anthropology. Through these letters, readers are introduced to a lesser-known aspect of Boas's political life and his ambition to redefine anthropology as a transnational discipline, one that transcended national borders and political obstacles. Through meticulously gathered correspondence from more than thirty archives in the United States, Russia, France, and Norway, The Franz Boas Papers, Volume 3 reveals an untold chapter in the history of anthropology.
Contents
List of Illustrations
Preface
Acknowledgments
Editorial Method
List of Abbreviations
Introduction: Building Transnational Anthropologies Through Letters
Dmitry Arzyutov, Sergei Kan, and Laura Siragusa
Part 1. Bridges Across the Ocean
1. The Idea: Franz Boas at the Dawn of Transnational Arctic Anthropology
2. Unsuccessful Negotiations: Erwin von Zach and His Unrealized Siberian Trip
3. The Amur World and Anti-Semitism: Berthold Laufer and Gerard Fowke
4. Russian Scholars Needed! Boas Hires Revolutionaries
5. The Yukaghir World: Waldemar and Dina Jochelson
6. The Chukchi World: Waldemar and Sophie Bogoras
7. Double-Faced Janus: Russian Jews and Former Exiles in Siberia
8. A Gift to the Russian Emperor: The Diplomacy of Morris Jesup
9. Siberia as a Part of America: Public Reports in U.S. Newspapers
10. The Jesup North Pacific Expedition: Boas's Academic Report
Part 2. Bridges of Friendship
11. A Precarious Life in New York and the French Riviera: Waldemar and Dina Jochelson
12. Not Quite a Jesupian Anthropologist: Leo and Sarah Shternberg
13. Letters from Prison Cells and Professors' Offices: Waldemar and Sophie Bogoras
Part 3. Bridges to the Field
14. Roads Not Taken: The Kola Peninsula Expedition
15. Encounters at the Bridge: The 1928 International Congress of Americanists
16. You Are a True Indian: Papa Franz and Julia Averkieva (whāni,)
17. Learning from the Soviet Experiment: Comrade Archibald Phinney in Leningrad
18. Visual Dialogues: Julia Averkieva, Archibald Phinney, and Visual Anthropology
19. Constructing Circumpolar Theory: Franz Boas and Waldemar Bogoras
20. Dreaming On: Collaborative Projects in the Arctic
Part 4. The Rickety Bridge to Soviet Russia
21. In Two Minds: Sergei and Elizabeth Shirokogoroff and Aleksandr Forshtein
22. Russia from Afar: The Politics of Franz Boas
Epilogue: Idealism Against Empire
Igor Krupnik
Appendix: Archie Phinney's Wax Cylinder
Svetlana V. Podrezova, Translated by Dmitry Arzyutov
Bibliography
Index
