Paper short abstract:

The aim of my paper is to reevaluate Miklouho-Maclay's diaries of 1871-1872. These diaries are assumed to be the field notes. However other written texts of Maclay and the texts of his contemporaries show that ‘the Diaries’ are a literary text that highlights some facts and hides the others.

Paper long abstract:

My data from Russian archives and periodicals showcase how anthropological focus shifted from multispecies view on New Guinea to classic anthropological one-species in late 19th century. I will draw my data from diaries of early Russian anthropologist Nikolai Miklouho-Maclay. Maclay spent more than 30 months on the North-East coast (today Rai-coast) of New Guinea. In 1872 Maclay returned from the Rai (Maclay) coast. On board the clipper “Izoumroud” he wrote several reports on his first stay in New Guinea, he discussed his stay with ship officers who wrote down these conversations. Later in 1880s after his return to Russia he has spoken to his relatives and the relatives discussed Maclay journeys with their friends. One of the friends of Maclay relatives became later a Polish writer Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz. In his novel ‘Tales from the land of Papuans’ (Opowiadanie z krainy Papuasów) he depicts interesting facts that were not mentioned in ‘the Diary’. The aim of my paper is to compare these texts and showcase how ‘the Diaries’ were composed and what kind of facts distinguish then from a field diaries.