Challenges in empire: Eduards Volters’ ethnography on Lithuania, 1882–1918

This article argues that Eduards Volters (1856–1941), an important ethnographer working in the first part of his career with the Imperial Russian Geographical Society, helped demonstrate the value of first-hand observation, social connection, and social context to ethnography through his research in...

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Veröffentlicht in:Anthropological theory Jg. 24; H. 1; S. 45 - 66
1. Verfasser: Savoniakaitė, Vida
Format: Journal Article
Sprache:Englisch
Veröffentlicht: London, England SAGE Publications 01.03.2024
Sage Publications Ltd
Schlagworte:
Activism
Centralization
Ethnographers
Ethnography
Imperialism
Nationalism
Political participation
Research subjects
Researcher subject relations
Social environment
Sympathy
Lithuania
race
nation
social connections
Eduards Volters
participant observation
literate communities
Lithuania
ethnography
Russian Empire
ISSN:1463-4996, 1741-2641
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Zusammenfassung:This article argues that Eduards Volters (1856–1941), an important ethnographer working in the first part of his career with the Imperial Russian Geographical Society, helped demonstrate the value of first-hand observation, social connection, and social context to ethnography through his research in Lithuania from 1882 to 1918. He did so at a time few of his contemporaries embraced his methods. The article seeks to show Volters’ developing theoretical and political strategies during a period of developing Lithuanian nationalism in an emerging Lithuanian nation—a nationalism with which he was in deep sympathy. I focus on the following questions: the meaning of Volters’ travels to Lithuania Minor and Lithuania; his contributions to what are now called borderland identities studies and his critical methodological and theoretical approach to the ethnography of his day. That critical approach involved ethnography as a part of political activism on the part of both researcher and research subjects. The piece will contribute to the critique of centralization of imperialism studies and will explore by comparison Volters’ relationships with both intellectual predecessors and his contemporaries in Lithuania, Europe, and beyond.
Bibliographie:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
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ISSN:1463-4996
1741-2641
DOI:10.1177/14634996231159849