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ABOUT THE HISTORY OF ETHNOGRAPHY
Boribaeva Rita Ametovna
Republic of Karakalpakstan.
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14056854
Abstract.
This article discusses the theory of the history of ethnography about people and
ethnic groups, ethnic processes in the past.
Keywords:
ethnography, folk science, people, past, anthropologist.
ОБ ИСТОРИИ ЭТНОГРАФИИ
Аннотация.
В статье рассматривается теория истории этнографии о людях и
этносах, этнических процессах в прошлом.
Ключевые слова:
этнография, фольклор, народ, прошлое, антрополог.
Ethnography (Greek: ethno- people and ... graphia - I write), ethnology, folk science - a
special field of science that studies all the peoples of the world, various types of ethnic unity, their
origin (ethnogenesis), lifestyle, customs, their differences or commonalities and similarities, their
specific characteristics, regardless of the level of material and spiritual development. Ethnography
studies the origin and formation, location and ethnic structure, customs, spiritual culture and
national characteristics of modern ethnic groups in connection with the historical process. It studies
the features of historically extinct peoples and ethnic groups, ethnic processes in the past, everyday
life and spiritual culture.
Although ethnography has its origins in ancient times, it was formed as an independent
science only in the middle of the 19th century. Initially, this term was used by the German writer
I. Zummer at the end of the 16th century, and then at the end of the 18th century and in 1808,
special journals began to appear with this name. The word ethnography was adopted as a separate
science at the Paris Congress of Anthropologists (1839) at the suggestion of the famous French
naturalist and physicist Jean-Jacques Ampère.
Ethnography initially collects factual knowledge, then, by analyzing it, understands its
essence and draws theoretical conclusions. The science of ethnography, like other sciences, has its
own special research methods and special terms. Its style is associated with a certain worldview
and theories (methodology), and it conducts its research in connection with certain scientific fields
such as anthropology, archeology, linguistics, sociology, and art history.
Due to the interdependence of these disciplines, in recent years, dual scientific fields have
also emerged, such as ethnic anthropology, paleoethnography, ethnolinguistics, etc.
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Sociological research conducted in recent years has been fruitful in deeply and widely
studying ethnic processes in the present era. As a result, the emergence of new scientific fields
such as ethnosociology and ethnopsychology is of great importance. In addition, new fields such
as ethnobotany and ethnozoology are working in collaboration with ethnography to determine the
economic characteristics of peoples with specific lifestyles, such as cultivating wild plants or
domesticating and breeding wild animals, depending on natural and geographical conditions.
In the study of peoples, ethnography uses an extremely wide and diverse range of sources
and methods. Famous ethnographers (L. Morgan, N.N. Miklukho-Maclay, V.G. Bogoraz) have
noted that research conducted by long-term observation in one place is the most effective. Research
work conducted in a short period of time, in certain seasons, is the expedition method, which is
now widespread and is called the seasonal method.
In fieldwork, methods such as collecting information through interviews with informants,
writing or recording, observing certain household and cultural events, family and marriage
relations and rituals, folk festivals and games, directly participating in them and studying them
seriously (writing, drawing, photographing) are mainly used. In the study of spiritual culture
(especially some customs and rituals, folk games, worship, national dances), modern technical
means (photo, video and film equipment) are widely used.
The science of ethnography in Uzbekistan. The most ancient ethnographic information
about the tribes and peoples living in the territory of Uzbekistan is found in the earliest written
sources, in the works of Greek and Roman authors Hecataeus, Strabo, Herodotus, Arrian, Ptolemy
and Ctesias, Diodorus Siculus, Pompey Trog, Tacitus.
Valuable information about the ancient ancestors of the peoples of Central Asia and their
way of life, customs and rituals can also be found in the sacred book of the Zoroastrian religion,
the Avesta. From the 6th to the 1st centuries BC until the Arab conquest, we find information
about the peoples of Central Asia in the rock inscriptions of the ancient Achaemenid era, in
Parthian, Sogdian, Khorezmian, Bakhtari written monuments, Chinese travelogues, in the Middle
Persian-Pahlavi monuments of Sassanid Iran, in Armenian sources, and in ancient Turkic written
monuments.
The early medieval (9th-12th centuries) authors, geographers and travelers Ibn
Khurdadbeh, al-Balkhy, Istakhri, Ibn Havkal, Masudi, and Yakut Hamavi wrote down valuable
information about the civilization of the peoples of the East in their travelogues.
The epics "Dada Korkut", "Alpomish", "Manas", and "Gorogly", which are examples of
folk oral art, are extremely important sources in historical and ethnological terms.
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The works of Muhammad Khorezmii's "Surat al-Aarz", Abu Rayhan Beruni's "Qanuni
Mas'udi", "History of the Amu Darya", Mahmud Kashgari's "Devonu lug'otit turk", and Narshahi's
"History of Bukhara" are of significant scientific importance as they contain unique information
about the cities of Central Asia, including Uzbekistan, their history, natural and geographical
conditions, ethnotoponymy, the linguistic and ethnic composition of the population of certain cities
and villages, socio-political life, some aspects of everyday life and culture, and religious beliefs.
In the works of court historians and chroniclers who lived during the reign of Amir Temur
and his successors, including Hafiz Abru's "Zubdat uttavorix" ("The Cream of Histories"),
Nizamiddin Shami, Abdurazzok Samarkandi, Husayn Kubraviy, Ali Kushchi and others,
ethnographic information about this period can be found.
Also, important information is collected in the works of the Spanish ambassador Rui
Gonzalez de Clavijo, in Russian chronicles, and in the travelogue of the famous traveler Marco
Polo.
Z.M. Babur's "Boburnoma" tells about the ethnic composition and history, customs and
rituals, culture and everyday life of the peoples living in Transoxiana and neighboring countries,
and Gulbadanbegim's historical-biographical work "Humoyunnoma" provides information about
the cities, regions from Tashkent and Andijan to Kashgar and the shores of the Indian Ocean, as
well as their population.
The scientific heritage of the Middle Ages, such as Hafiz Tanish al-Bukhari's "Abdulla-
noma" ("Sharaf-noma-i-shahiy"), Masud ibn Kohistani's "Tarihi Abul-Khairkhani", Kamoliddin
Binoi's "Shaybani-noma", Fazlullah Rozbekhan's "Mehmon-noma-i-Bukhara", Abul-Gazi
Bahodirkhan's "Shajarayi-turk", etc., contain valuable historical and ethnographic information.
As a result of the emergence of the Bukhara, Khiva and Kokand khanates in the 16th-17th
centuries and the establishment of regular trade and diplomatic relations with the Russian state,
the materials collected by Russian ambassadors during their trips to the Uzbek khanates also
contain ethnographic information, which has a certain scientific value. Turkestan region was
intensively developed. The study was associated with the goal of colonizing the country, and t he
period of collecting scientifically significant materials on the ethnography of the Uzbek people
began in the 19th century.
The "Turkiston Album" prepared in connection with the Polytechnic Exhibition opened in
Moscow in 1872, as well as the Turkestan branch of the Russian Geographical Society, the
Turkestan branch of the Society of Amateurs in Medicine, Anthropology and Ethnography, the
Turkestan Circle of Amateurs in Archeology, the Turkestan Agricultural Society, the Khomutov
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Circle, the Society of Central Asian Scientists, the Turkestan Branch of the Russian Technical
Society, and the Tashkent Branch of the Oriental Studies Society played a significant role in the
ethnographic study of the peoples of Central Asia, including the Uzbeks.
The development of ethnological knowledge in the late 19th and early 20th centuries is
associated with the names of Russian orientalists, historians, ethnographers, travelers, and
statesmen who worked in the country: V.V. Radlov, V.V. Bartold, M.S. Andreyev, A.A.
Divayev,ʼ.L. Vyatkin, N.P. Ostroumov, N.S. Likoshin, N.G. Mallitsky, the Nalivkins, I.I.
Umnyakov, A.A. Semyonov, Ye.}\. Polivanov. Although the work they carried out served
colonialism, the large ethnological materials they collected are of significant scientific importance
in describing the way of life in Turkestan in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In 1918, a
special course on Uzbek ethnography was introduced at the Turkestan People's University, and
lectures on this topic began to be given.
The 1920s-30s were a period of emergence, organizational and structural formation of
ethnography in Uzbekistan. At the end of the 1930s, specialists from among the local population,
such as G. Alimov, M. Bikzhanova, A. Boltayev, Ya. Gulomov, Sh. Inogomov, Turdi Mirgiyosov,
Muso Saidjonov, Kh. Husanboyev, K. Yusupov and others, carried out important work on the
establishment and development of museum work in Uzbekistan, and the preparation of
ethnographic collections for exhibition in museums. On November 4, 1943, the Institute of History
and Archeology was established on the basis of the Institute of Language, Literature and History
of the Academy of Sciences of Uzbekistan, which included 6 departments, including the
Department of Ethnography under the leadership of Academician M. Andreyev. The department
remained the leading center of ethnographic research in the republic.
The organization and operation of the Khorezm archaeological and ethnographic
expedition (led by S. Tolstov, T. Zhdanko) was an important stage in the development of
ethnographic science in Uzbekistan. The special study of the ethnography of the Karakalpaks
during the Khorezm expedition became the basis for the formation of ethnographic ideas in
Karakalpakstan. In the 1960s-80s, active research was conducted on the ethnogenesis and ethnic
history of the Uzbek and Karakalpak peoples (V.P. Alekseyev, A.A. Askarov, O. Sukhareva, T.K.
Khojayev, etc.). The study of the ethnic history of the Uzbeks is directly related to the name of
academician K. Shoniyozov.
The folklore of the peoples of Uzbekistan, various branches of decorative and applied art
of Uzbekistan, folk music, theater, dance art, clothing, traditional folk dishes, the study of the
spiritual and material life of the people were in the focus of attention of ethnographers as one of
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the sources of ethnography. The 1960s, especially the 1980s, were extremely productive for the
science of ethnography of Uzbekistan compared to the previous historical period, but at the same
time, contradictory. These contradictions were manifested in the definition and development of
topical issues of ethnography, in the strict and unconditional adherence to political conditions; in
the lack of their study from an analytical-critical point of view in monographic and generalizing
studies; in the inconsistency of large-scale scientific research with the tasks of ethno-economic
practice and cultural life.
REFERENCES
1.
Shoniyozov K., Oʻzbekxalqining shakllanish jarayoni, T., 2001;
2.
Doniyorov A. X., Oʻzbekiston etnografiyasi tarixidan ayrim lavhalar, T., 2003;
3.
Doniyorov A.X., Mustaqil Oʻzbekiston etnografiyasi tarixshunosligining ayrim masalalari,
T., 2003;
4.
Oʻzbekiston etnologiyasi: yangicha qarashlar va yondashuvlar, T., 2004.
