Different experts give different interpretation of the concept of "ethnography".Some call it a science or scientific discipline, others are investing in this concept unscientific sense.So after all, what is ethnography?When did the term and how it differs from the "ethnology"?Translated from the Greek meaning of the word "ethnography" - "Description of the peoples."If you make a complete definition, then here comes the description of the origin, the resettlement of peoples, its composition, its life and customs, material and spiritual culture.The combination of these factors is ethnography.It also refers to the science that studies the above symptoms.
Ethnography as a science encompasses many spheres of life and social processes possible, so the question of what ethnography, and relevant to this day.It includes areas such as paleoetnografiya, demography, ethnic history, ethnic psychology and ethno, physical anthropology, and many other disciplines.
"Father" of ethnography can safely assume that Herodotus, who left to posterity many valuable unique descriptions of neighboring nations and tribes.Behind him it can be called ancient Greek scientists Thucydides, Democritus, Hippocrates, and some ancient chroniclers.Of course, even if none of them thought about what ethnography, the term has appeared only in the last century.
sources of ethnography - is information obtained by direct contact with the population described, monitored for a certain period of their life, traditions and culture.It can be stationary or visiting expedition living among the people observed.Ethnographic sources are divided into several types:
1) material, or material (clothing, household items, food, money, jewelry and other property);
2) written (any kind of records, diaries, recipes, recorded legends and epics, etc.);
3) folklore (songs, ditties, oral epics and legends, and it is important not only to their very design, but also the context in which it occurs);
4) linguistic (to which language branch are, what are the dialects, pronunciation, etc.).
In addition to these four types of sources may also allocate physical anthropology (the structure of the skull, the external characteristics) and audiovisual resources (photos, video, audio), although the latter are already a secondary source.
richest ethnographic, the country - is, of course, Russia.On its territory is home to more than 150 people, but many of them are separated himself more and ethnic groups.Ethnography Russia took shape as an independent science at the end of the XIX century.Many Russian ethnographers became world famous - LN Gumilyov, Propp, N. Maclay, Tokarev and others.In Russia, the question of what ethnography, also took place, but the meaning is kept a little different.The fact is that at this time in Western European countries use the term "ethnology", which in Russia is not caught.Only from the 1990s, Russian scientists began to use both of these concepts, sometimes interchangeably, sometimes with slight differences.
