The Turukhansk Polar Census Expedition of 1926–1927 at the Crossroads of Two Scientific Traditions

Abstract

This article gives an overview of the primary records of the 1926-1927 Turukhansk Polar Census Expedition. The author argues that rather than being an exercise in statistical surveillance, the expedition can be better characterized as a classical expedition of discovery. The article describes the structure of the expedition and the documents that were collected, places the expedition in a history of the surveillance of aboriginal peoples, and presents a research program for re-analyzing the data in light of the contemporary interests of Siberian indigenous peoples.

Size and Place in the Construction of Indigeneity in the Russian Federation

“…It is refreshing to read articles such as this one by Donahoe et al that see beyond the clumsy way in which these politicized identities are lumped together. As anthropologists have argued for decades, indigeneity is a social relation crafted regionally to express complex articulations of entitlement, power, and hope (Paine 1992;Li 2000;Saugestad 2001;Anderson 2004).…”

“…The Khariuchi quotation in Anderson's comment is tellingly characteristic of the language used by indigenous peoples themselves. The question of why exactly this is so gives rise to a number of palpably true but facile responses: internalization of paternalistic attitudes, recognition of the overwhelming economic dependence on the state and the need to frame claims in the terms dictated by the state, a history of a perceived lack of "civil society" as such (although see Anderson 1996 for a different take on civil society in the Soviet Union), an overwhelming sense of powerlessness in the face of the implacable state machine, and so on. All of these responses are true to some degree or another in some or all situations, but all nonetheless are overly simplistic, and it would be a great challenge to future researchers to try to address the question implicit in Niezen's statement.…”

“…Both approaches have been variously applied to studies of the Russian Empire and its successor state, the Soviet Union. Both states constructed and imposed distinct ethnic categories in order to effectively administer the multiethnic populations throughout their vast realms (Hirsch 1997(Hirsch , 2005Anderson 2000Anderson , 2006Sokolovski 2000Sokolovski , 2005Sokolovskii 2001;Garcelon 2001;Abramson 2002;Ssorin-Chaikov 2003). In the early years of the Soviet Union, this occurred with the participation of indigenous elites and "state ethnographers" who were often sensitive to the nuanced distinctions indigenous peoples made among themselves (Hirsch 1997(Hirsch , 2005Anderson 2000Anderson , 2006Kertzer and Arel 2002, 27).…”

The Concept of the “Field” in Early Soviet Ethnography: A Northern Perspective

“…Benedict Anderson described this process as "imagined communities" being constructed in colonies, not in Europe (Anderson 1991). David Anderson's studies provide a Siberian illustration of such a project that, referring to the Circumpolar Census, also shows an interaction between a census taker/ethnographer and the implemented system of census taking (Anderson 2006). The practice of censuses became a primary factor in the formation of the discursive grid, and of the idea of nationality as the basis of classifications (Cadiot 2007;Hirsch 1997).…”