To mark Lithuania’s centenary, this issue is dedicated to the genesis of anthropology,
ethnology, ethnography and folklore. This interdisciplinary issue
covers the history of ideas, or the science of ideas in the 19th and early
20th centuries and beyond. Lithuanian scientists who graduated from universities
in the Russian Empire and Europe developed theoretical concepts
of Enlightenment in the humanities and the social sciences. The emerging
study of Lithuania integrated and interpreted the concepts of ethnic research
that prevailed in Europe and Imperial Russia at that time. Using a
comparative approach, the thematic articles reveal the links between the
genesis of Lithuanian ethnology and anthropology, and the research into
ethnic groups in the Russian Empire, the Other, the study of people and nations
in the West, and the ideas of Völkerkunde. The focus is on the following
issues: the reception of ethnography and Lithuanian studies, the comparative
study of people and nations, and ideas of nationalism.
Key words: сultural nationalism, Lithuania, nation-building, nation, science societies.