Field Diaries of the 1927-1928 Tungus Expedition of M. G. Levin and B. A. Kuftin: The Methodology of Collecting and Describing the Materials
The publication analyzes the methods of ethnographic work employed by the participants of the 1927-1928 Tungus expedition, including the methods of conducting field and museological work, which, according to B. A. Kuftin and his students, were essential components of an ethnographer’s work. The analysis is based on the records from the field diaries of the head of the Tungus expedition B. A. Kuftin and his student M. G. Levin dating back to 1927-28, as well as a transcript of a meeting of ethnographers from Moscow and Leningrad in 1929. B. A. Kuftin and M. G. Levin were prominent representatives of the so-called Moscow school in ethnography, and the vast geography of the Tungus expedition and the variety of issues studied by its members largely stem from the theoretical attitudes of this school. A significant part of the materials collected during the Tungus expedition is devoted to the topic of religion. In their work, the expedition participants used a wide range of methods that require a reflection in the context of academic history in the 1920s and modern problematization of fieldwork.