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Paper short abstract

19th-century ethnography in the Alps-Adriatic region emerged through a variety of genres and approaches. From the late 18th century, imperial discourses predominated until the mid-century, when Herder's ideas provoked a linguistic shift toward ethnic identification and cultural differentiation.

Paper long abstract

The 19th-century ethnography in the Alps-Adriatic region reveals two main approaches: one was rooted in Göttingen Staatswissenschaft with an imperial agenda, emphasizing observations and universal categories; the other was influenced by Herder's ideas, centered on identification and discovery of one’s own culture. .

Epistemological styles that were common in imperial reports displayed the diversity of the multiethnic empire and permitted fluid identifications and in-between spaces. This imperial, universal approach was also evident in more systematic and fact-based works, such as Karl von Czoernig’s Ethnographie der österreichischen Monarchie (1857). In contrast, identification discourses, that were provoked by linguistic shifts focused on ethnic (national) stories and particular evidence that sometimes erased pluricultural realities.

Both approaches had factual ambiguities: the imperial ones usually documented "THEM" broadly but loosely, while identification discourse ones presented "US" accurately, sometimes using exclusionary identity fictions. Genres amplified tensions, since imperial travelogues pushed universality, while articles can show some biased self-reflection. The result was a clash between imperial practicality and romantic idealism.

 At the end of the 19th century, both discourses merged with the realist-positivistic view, which continued to serve the same imperial or national agenda. In the 20th century, Angelo Vivante introduced transnational perspectives based on class theories; however, his voice was silenced by the impending First World War.