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Prishchepova V. Cattle Breeding Practices of the Baloch, Jamshidi and Hazara of Turkmenistan in the 1920s (in the Collections of the MAE RAS)

Valeria Prishchepova
Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera) of the RAS
Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation
ORCID: 0000-0001-5945-6684
E-mail: vapr@kunstkamera.ru

 

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ABSTRACT. Turning to museum collections, archival and library sources allows recovering once forgotten pages of history of the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (MAE), learning new facts about its collections and initiatives of collectors. Between 1926 and 1929, the participants of the Central Asian Ethnological Expedition (CAEE) of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, E. G. Gafferberg, D. D. Bukinich, G. K. Shultz, A. P. Bulgakov, and G. G. Gulbin handed over to the museum a set of material, illustrative and photographic collections on the daily life of Iranian-speaking nomads of Turkmenistan, the Baloch, Jamshidi and Hazara. From the extensive block of field materials, a set of scientific sources on the cattle breeding practices of these communities stands out. In the 1920s, in Turkmenistan the economy of the Baloch, Jamshidi and Hazara was based on nomadic animal husbandry, which determined all aspects of their life. The reviewed materials on the work of the expedition indicate that Soviet orientalists and ethnographers of the 1920s continued the traditions of Russian researchers in studying the culture of the peoples of Central Asia, clarifying its originality and contribution to world culture. The introduction of museum objects and archival documents into scientific circulation allows us to recall the names of forgotten and unknown collectors, to open a new page of the history of the MAE and domestic Oriental studies and to continue to study the nomadic culture of the little-known Iranian-speaking peoples of Turkmenistan of the 1920s.

 

KEYWORDS: collections, MAE, Turkmenistan, expedition, photographs, Kushkinsky District, cattle breeding, Baloch, Jamshidi, Hazara

 

FOR CITATION: Prishchepova V. Cattle Breeding Practices of the Baloch, Jamshidi and Hazara of Turkmenistan in the  1920s  (in  the  Collections  of  the  MAE  RAS).  Kunstkamera.  2025.  2  (28):  84–101.  (In  Russian).  DOI: 10.31250/2618-8619-2025-2(28)-84-101

 

DOI 10.31250/2618-8619-2025-2(28)-84-101
UDC 069.4:39(575.4)

 

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