Maria Czaplicka

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Maria Antonina Czaplicka (sometimes referred to as Marie Antoinette Czaplicka, 1886-1921) was a Polish cultural anthropologist who is best known for her ethnography of Siberian shamanism.

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[edit] Early life

She was born in Warsaw in 1886 in an impoverished Polish nobility family. She started her studies on the "Wyższe Kursy Naukowe" (a private-run university) and the so-called "Flying University", a secret institution of higher education in Russian-held Poland. She also taught children in various schools in Warsaw. In 1910 she received the Mianowski Scholarship and continued her studies in United Kingdom. She left Poland together with Bronisław Malinowski in 1910 and continued her studies at the Faculty of Anthropology of the London School of Economics. Her professor Charles G. Seligman suggested that she finish her studies at the Oxford University. There R.R. Marett, her tutor, decided to grant Czaplicka with a scholarship and finance her first expedition to Siberia. He believed that a Russian language speaking Czaplicka would be able to gather more information on the tribes of Siberia than an English-speaking scientist who would have to rely on translators.

[edit] Success

The result of her first trip was a book Aboriginal Siberia, published in 1914. Although dedicated to a small number of scientists, it was written in a simple yet explanative language and gained significant popularity outside of the academical society. In 1914 Czaplicka started her second expedition to Siberia. Together with ornithologist Maud Doria Haviland, painter Dora Curtis and Henry Usher Hall of the Pennsylvania University Museum she arrived to Russia shortly before World War I broke out. After the war started Czaplicka and Hall decided to continue their expedition while the others decided to go back to the United Kingdom. Czaplicka and Hall spent the entire winter travelling along the shores of Yenisey, more than 3000 miles altogether. She prepared several hundreds of photographs of people of Siberia, as well as countless notes on anthropometry and their customs. Most of items she brought from that trip are nowadays exhibited at the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford.

[edit] Return to England

Immediately after her return to England in 1915 she accepted a proposal of taking over the faculty of anthropology in Oxford. She gave lectures on the nations of Central and Eastern Europe as well as on the habits of the Siberian tribes. She was also active in supporting social organisations in Poland. She also wrote a diary of her travel entitled My Siberian year (published the following year). The book became very popular. After her return to England in 1915 Czaplicka became the only female lecturer at the Oxford University. She was also the second person in Europe (and one of the very first in the world) to gain doctorate in anthropology. In 1918 she became the first woman to be allowed into the Royal Geographic Society and she received the prestigious Murchiston Grant. However, soon afterwards the professor whose place she overtook in Oxford returned from the war and she was dismissed. She was proposed a seat at the Institute of Ethnography of the Columbia University. She accepted the proposal, but these plans were never realised. Finally, Czaplicka became the head of the Institute of Anatomy of the Bristol University. However, after one year contract ended she was fired. Facing financial difficulties, Czaplicka poisoned herself on May 26, 1921. She is buried in the Wolvercote Cemetery in Oxford.

[edit] Post-death

In her testament, Czaplicka gave all her notes and reports to her colleague Henry Usher Hall. However, the report of her 1914 voyage was never published and her personal diaries were never found. Because of that very little is known of her private life. In the Polish museums there are only several private letters of Czaplicka to Malinowski and Władysław Orkan, one of the most prominent Polish poets of the time. She was never married.

[edit] Bibliography

  • Aboriginal Siberia, a study in social anthropology. With a preface by R. R. Marett. Clarendon press, Oxford, 1914.
  • My Siberian year; with thirty-two illustrations from photographs. London, Mills and Boon, 1916.
  • The Turks of Central Asia
  • [The Collected Works of M. A. Czaplicka][1]. London, Curzon Press, 1999
  • James Urry, David N. Collins: Maria Antonina Czaplicka. Życie i praca w Wielkiej Brytanii i na Syberii; Warsaw, 1998.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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