Enlightenment Germany and the Invention of Siberia

During the period of German Enlightenment, German scholars at service in the Russian state began scientific exploration of Siberia and organized the “Great northern expedition” (1733–1743) which was later completed by other researchers. Johann Georg Gmelin, Carl Heinrich Merck, Georg Wilhelm Steller...

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Main Author: Michel Espagne
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Russian Academy of Sciences, A.M. Gorky Institute of World Literature 2018-09-01
Series:Studia Litterarum
Subjects:
Online Access:http://studlit.ru/images/2018-3-3/Espagne.pdf
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author Michel Espagne
author_facet Michel Espagne
author_sort Michel Espagne
collection DOAJ
description During the period of German Enlightenment, German scholars at service in the Russian state began scientific exploration of Siberia and organized the “Great northern expedition” (1733–1743) which was later completed by other researchers. Johann Georg Gmelin, Carl Heinrich Merck, Georg Wilhelm Steller, Gerhard Friedrich Müller, and Peter Simon Pallas among others focused on the religious life, languages and everyday life of the Siberian ethnic groups they encountered. Their accounts remained for a long time unpublished as they were a “formal” property of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Not only are they a valuable contribution to the invention of Russian identity conceived as part of the Eurasian space, they also form the basis of new sciences such anthropology and linguistics resulting from the contact between German universities and the widely unexplored Siberian world.
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spelling doaj-art-a665eb1321f448d281bc2d49f827d8b42025-08-20T03:19:00ZengRussian Academy of Sciences, A.M. Gorky Institute of World LiteratureStudia Litterarum2500-42472541-85642018-09-013323225310.22455/2500-4247-2018-3-3-232-253Enlightenment Germany and the Invention of SiberiaMichel Espagne0UMR “Pays germaniques-Transferts culturels/Archives Husserl” (UMR 8547), Paris, France.During the period of German Enlightenment, German scholars at service in the Russian state began scientific exploration of Siberia and organized the “Great northern expedition” (1733–1743) which was later completed by other researchers. Johann Georg Gmelin, Carl Heinrich Merck, Georg Wilhelm Steller, Gerhard Friedrich Müller, and Peter Simon Pallas among others focused on the religious life, languages and everyday life of the Siberian ethnic groups they encountered. Their accounts remained for a long time unpublished as they were a “formal” property of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Not only are they a valuable contribution to the invention of Russian identity conceived as part of the Eurasian space, they also form the basis of new sciences such anthropology and linguistics resulting from the contact between German universities and the widely unexplored Siberian world.http://studlit.ru/images/2018-3-3/Espagne.pdfSiberiaAltaianthropologyshamanismlinguisticshistory of the humanitiesRussian Germans
spellingShingle Michel Espagne
Enlightenment Germany and the Invention of Siberia
Studia Litterarum
Siberia
Altai
anthropology
shamanism
linguistics
history of the humanities
Russian Germans
title Enlightenment Germany and the Invention of Siberia
title_full Enlightenment Germany and the Invention of Siberia
title_fullStr Enlightenment Germany and the Invention of Siberia
title_full_unstemmed Enlightenment Germany and the Invention of Siberia
title_short Enlightenment Germany and the Invention of Siberia
title_sort enlightenment germany and the invention of siberia
topic Siberia
Altai
anthropology
shamanism
linguistics
history of the humanities
Russian Germans
url http://studlit.ru/images/2018-3-3/Espagne.pdf
work_keys_str_mv AT michelespagne enlightenmentgermanyandtheinventionofsiberia