Maria Antonina Czaplicka (25 October 1884 – 27 May 1921), also referred to as Marya Antonina Czaplicka and Marie Antoinette Czaplicka, was a Polish

cultural anthropologist Cultural anthropology is a branch of anthropology focused on the study of cultural variation among humans. It is in contrast to social anthropology, which perceives cultural variation as a subset of a posited anthropological constant. The term s ...

who is best known for her ethnography of

Siberian shamanism A large minority of people in North Asia, particularly in Siberia, follow the religio-cultural practices of shamanism. Some researchers regard Siberia as the heartland of shamanism. The people of Siberia comprise a variety of ethnic groups, m ...

. Czaplicka's research survives in three major works: her studies in ''Aboriginal Siberia'' (1914); a travelogue published as ''My Siberian Year'' (1916); and a set of lectures published as ''The Turks of Central Asia'' (1918).

Curzon Press Routledge ( ) is a British multinational publisher. It was founded in 1836 by George Routledge, and specialises in providing academic books, journals and online resources in the fields of the humanities, behavioural science, education, law, an ...

republished all three volumes, plus a fourth volume of articles and letters, in 1999.

Early life and studies

Czaplicka was born in the Stara Praga district of

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

on the 25th of October 1884Kubica 2007, p. 147. to Feliks Czaplicki and Zofia Zawisza. Her father Feliks Czaplicki came from impoverished

Polish nobility The ''szlachta'' (; ; ) were the nobility, noble estate of the realm in the Kingdom of Poland, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Depending on the definition, they were either a warrior "caste" or a social ...

and worked as a railway clerk and station master. She was the third oldest of her parents' five children, Jadwiga Markowska (née Czaplicka), Stanisław Czaplicki, Gabriela Szaniawska (née Czaplicka), and Marian Czaplicki. Feliks Czaplicki found employment in what is now

Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...

, where the family lived from 1904 to 1906 before returning to Warsaw. It was here that Maria Czaplicka was able to take the exam that would allow her to attend university later in life. She began her studies at the Anna Jasieńska Girls' School and attended the school until 1902. She began her studies in higher-education with the so-called

Flying University The Flying University (, less often translated as "Floating University") was an underground educational Betty Jean Lifton, ''The King of Children: The Life and Death of Janusz Korczak''p. 35 St. Martin's Press, 1997, enterprise Peter Brock, Joh ...

(later ''Wyższe Kursy Naukowe''), an underground institution of higher education in Russian-held Poland. She supported herself with a number of poorly paid jobs, as a teacher at Łabusiewiczówna Girls' School, a secretary, and

lady's companion A lady's companion was a woman of genteel birth who lived with a woman of rank or wealth as Affinity (medieval), retainer. The term was in use in the United Kingdom from at least the 18th century to the mid-20th century but it is now archaism, arc ...

.Kubica 2007, p. 149. She was also known for her lectures at the University for Everyone (1905–1908), and the Society of Polish Culture. She also wrote poetry, eventually being published in Warsaw's '' Odrodzenie'' magazine. While battling an illness, she spent time in

Zakopane Zakopane (Gorals#Language, Podhale Goral: ''Zokopane'') is a town in the south of Poland, in the southern part of the Podhale region at the foot of the Tatra Mountains. From 1975 to 1998, it was part of Nowy Sącz Voivodeship; since 1999, it has ...

where she went on to do work for the Pedological Society while writing ''Olek Niedziela,'' a novel for children centered around education. In 1910 she became the first woman to receive a Mianowski Scholarship, and was therefore able to continue her studies in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

.Collins 1999, Introduction. She left Poland in 1910.Kubica 2007, p. 146. Taken ill with appendicitis in late March 1911, she was admitted to St Batholomew's Hospital in London. She continued her studies at the Faculty of Anthropology of the

London School of Economics The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), established in 1895, is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the University of London. The school specialises in the social sciences. Founded ...

under Charles G. Seligman, and at

Somerville College, Oxford Somerville College is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It was founded in 1879 as Somerville Hall, one of its first two women's colleges. It began admitting men in 1994. The colle ...

under R.R. Marett,Collins & Urry 1997, p. 18. graduating from the School of Anthropology in 1912. Marett encouraged her to use her

Russian language Russian is an East Slavic languages, East Slavic language belonging to the Balto-Slavic languages, Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family. It is one of the four extant East Slavic languages, and is ...

skills in a review of literature on native tribes in

Siberia Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states ...

, which became her book ''Aboriginal Siberia'', published in 1914.Znamenski 2007, p. 67. In 1914, she became a member of the Royal Anthropological Society, and was also involved with the British Association for the Advancement of Science, presenting research centered around the connection between religion and the environment in Siberia. At this stage she had never visited Siberia, but the quality of her writing led to ''Aboriginal Siberia'' becoming the major reference work in its field.

Yenisei Expedition

Marett had intended the work reported in Czaplicka's ''Aboriginal Siberia'' to be the basis for fieldwork in Siberia. In May 1914, she began such fieldwork, partly funded by the Mary Ewart Travelling Scholarship granted by Somerville College, leading a joint expedition of

Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...

and

University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology The Penn Museum is an archaeology and anthropology museum at the University of Pennsylvania. It is located on Penn's campus in the University City neighborhood of Philadelphia, at the intersection of 33rd and South Streets. Housing over 1.3 mi ...

staff. Together with English ornithologist Maud Doria Haviland, English painter Dora Curtis, and

Henry Usher Hall Henry Usher Hall (1876 – November 2, 1944) was an American anthropologist. He was Assistant Curator and Curator of the General Ethnology Section of the University of Pennsylvania Museum from 1915 to 1935. He was instrumental in guiding the Muse ...

of the Museum, she arrived in Russia shortly before

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

broke out. After the war started Czaplicka and Hall decided to continue their expedition while the others decided to go back to the United Kingdom. Czaplicka and Hall (accompanied by Michikha, a

Tungus Tungusic peoples are an ethnolinguistic group formed by the speakers of Tungusic languages (or Manchu–Tungus languages). They are native to Siberia, Mongolia and China. The Tungusic language family is divided into two main branches, Northern ...

woman) spent the entire winter traveling along the shores of the

Yenisei River The Yenisey or Yenisei ( ; , ) is the list of rivers by length, fifth-longest river system in the world, and the largest to drain into the Arctic Ocean. Rising in Mungaragiyn-gol in Mongolia, it follows a northerly course through Lake Baikal a ...

via the ''Oryol'': more than altogether. Czaplicka prepared several hundreds of photographs of people of Siberia, as well as countless notes on

anthropometry Anthropometry (, ) refers to the measurement of the human individual. An early tool of biological anthropology, physical anthropology, it has been used for identification, for the purposes of understanding human physical variation, in paleoanthr ...

and their customs. Czaplicka also received funds from the Committee for Anthropology of the

Pitt Rivers Museum Pitt Rivers Museum is a museum displaying the archaeological and anthropological collections of the University of Oxford in England. The museum is located to the east of the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, and can only be accessed ...

Oxford Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...

to collect specimens from Siberia; 193 objects were donated by Czaplicka to the museum's Asian collection. In addition, she collected botanical specimens for the Fielding-Druce Herbarium. It is speculated that recordings of the many languages that they encountered during their expedition were produced on wax cylinders, but this has not been proven and the recordings are not well-known and likely never made it through academic processing if they were brought back to the university. The overall results of the expedition were modest, something that historians have credited to the nature of the study and the many financial and political struggles faced by the team during the journey. She was also well known for her criticisms of the term "Arctic Hysteria" to refer to the Western perspective of the presentation of nervous diseases. She encourages

cultural relativism Cultural relativism is the view that concepts and moral values must be understood in their own cultural context and not judged according to the standards of a different culture. It asserts the equal validity of all points of view and the relati ...

, meaning that aspects of one culture should not be viewed and judged through the lens of a different culture when it comes to this situation. She describes that what Western academics called

hysteria Hysteria is a term used to mean ungovernable emotional excess and can refer to a temporary state of mind or emotion. In the nineteenth century, female hysteria was considered a diagnosable physical illness in women. It is assumed that the bas ...

was viewed through a much different lens in Siberian cultures. This was all a part of her works studying

Shamanism in Siberia A large minority of people in North Asia, particularly in Siberia, follow the religio-cultural practices of shamanism. Some researchers regard Siberia as the heartland of shamanism. The people of Siberia comprise a variety of ethnic groups, m ...

Return to England and death

Czaplicka returned to England in 1915. She wrote a diary of her travel entitled ''My Siberian Year'', which was published in 1916 by

Mills & Boon Mills & Boon is a romance imprint of British publisher Harlequin UK Ltd. It was founded in 1908 by Gerald Rusgrove Mills and Charles Boon as a general publisher. The company moved towards escapist fiction for women in the 1930s. In 1971, the ...

(in their non-fiction "My Year" series); the book became very popular. In 1916, she also became the first female lecturer in anthropology at Oxford University,Riviere 2009, p. 172. supported by the Mary Ewart Trust. She gave lectures on the nations of Central and Eastern Europe as well as on the habits of the

n tribes. She also spoke on Polish issues, including Danzig's

post-war A post-war or postwar period is the interval immediately following the end of a war. The term usually refers to a varying period of time after World War II, which ended in 1945. A post-war period can become an interwar period or interbellum, ...

disposition. In 1920, her work was honoured with a Murchison Grant from the

Royal Geographical Society The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), often shortened to RGS, is a learned society and professional body for geography based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical scien ...

, "for her ethnographical and geographical work in Northern Siberia." In spite of this triumph, her financial future was still insecure. Her three-year fellowship at Oxford having expired in 1919, she obtained a temporary teaching position in anthropology in the Department of

Anatomy Anatomy () is the branch of morphology concerned with the study of the internal structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old scien ...

at the

University of Bristol The University of Bristol is a public university, public research university in Bristol, England. It received its royal charter in 1909, although it can trace its roots to a Merchant Venturers' school founded in 1595 and University College, Br ...

. In 1921, she failed to obtain the Albert Kahn Travelling Fellowship which she had hoped for, and in May of that year she

poison A poison is any chemical substance that is harmful or lethal to living organisms. The term is used in a wide range of scientific fields and industries, where it is often specifically defined. It may also be applied colloquially or figurati ...

ed herself. The University of Bristol Senate expressed its regret and "appreciation of the loss to the University of so distinguished a member of its staff". Czaplicka is buried in the

Wolvercote Cemetery Wolvercote Cemetery is a cemetery in the parish of Wolvercote and district of Cutteslowe in Oxford, England. Its main entrance is on Banbury Road and it has a side entrance in Five Mile Drive. It has a funeral chapel, public toilets and a small a ...

in Oxford.

Legacy

In a will written months before she died, Czaplicka left her notes and reports to her colleague

. Although she never married, questions have been raised about the relationship between Hall and Czaplicka. Hall married the artist Frances Devereux Jones about a month after Czaplicka's death. After Hall died in 1944, some of Czaplicka's early papers were donated to the University of Pennsylvania Museum, but at least one report and a partial manuscript may be lost.Collins & Urry 1997, p. 20. Her primary papers are archived at

. Polish museums hold a few private letters of Czaplicka to

Bronisław Malinowski Bronisław Kasper Malinowski (; 7 April 1884 – 16 May 1942) was a Polish anthropologist and ethnologist whose writings on ethnography, social theory, and field research have exerted a lasting influence on the discipline of anthropology. ...

and

Władysław Orkan Władysław Orkan (27 November 1875 – 14 May 1930) (born ''Franciszek Ksawery Smaciarz'', later changed to Smreczyński, also known under his pen name, ''Orkan'') was a Polish Goral writer and poet from the Young Poland period. He is kno ...

, one of the most prominent Polish poets of the time. Upon her death in 1971, Barbara Aitkin (née Barbara Freire-Marreco), a student of Marett and friend of Czaplicka's, memorialised Czaplicka with a fund at Somerville College. In 2015, the

in Oxford held a small exhibition entitled "My Siberian Year, 1914–1915" to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Czaplicka's expedition to Siberia.Exhibitions and Case Displays
at Pitt Rivers Museum (accessed 8 May 2015)

Selected works

''Aboriginal Siberia''
A Study in Social Anthropology. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1914.
''The Influence of Environment upon the Religious Ideas and Practices of the Aborigines of Northern Asia''
''Folklore''. 25. pp. 34–54. 1914. *"The Life and Work of N.N. Miklubo-Macklay". ''Man''. 14. pp. 198–203, 1914. * ''My Siberian Year''. London, Mills and Boon, 1916. *"Tribes of the Yenisei. The Oxford Expedition". ''Times Russian Supplement''. 13. p. 6. 18 September 1915.
''Siberia and some Siberians''
''Journal of the Manchester Geographical Soc''. 32. pp. 27–42. 1916.
''The Siberian Colonist or Sibiriak''
In W. Stephens ed. ''The Soul of Russia''. London: Macmillan. 1916
''On the track of the Tungus''
''Scottish Geographical Magazine''. 33. pp. 289–303. 1917.
''"Ostyaks"''
Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics. volume 9. pp. 289–303. 1917 *"The Evolution of the Cossack Communities". ''Journal of the Central Asian Society''. 5. pp. 42–58. 1918. *"A plea for Siberia". ''New European''. 6. pp. 339–344. 1918. * ''The Turks of Central Asia in History and at the Present Day'', An Ethnological Inquiry into the Pan-Turanian Problem, and Bibliographical Material Relating to the Early Turks and the Present Turks of Central Asia. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1918. *"Poland". ''The Geographical Journal''. 53:36. 1919.
''"Samoyed"''
Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics. volume 11. pp. 172–177. 1920
''"Siberia, Siberiaks, Siberians"''
Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics. volume 11. pp. 488–496. 1920
''The Ethnic versus the Economic Frontiers of Poland''
''Scottish Geographical Magazine''. 36. pp. 10–16. 1920. *"History and Ethnology in Central Asia". ''Man''. 21. pp. 19–24. 1921.
''"Tungus"''
Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics. volume 12. pp. 473–476. 1921
''"Turks"''
Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics. volume 12. pp. 476–483. 1921

Notes

References

*

* *

* * *

*Urry, James; David N. Collins: ''Maria Antonina Czaplicka. Życie i praca w Wielkiej Brytanii i na Syberii''; Warsaw, 1998.

External links

Aboriginal Siberia
- Excerpts from the Sacred Texts archive

– Photo Album of Maria Czaplicka
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
David N. Collins, 'Czaplicka, Marya Antonina (1884–1921)', first published Sept 2004, 960 words, with portrait illustration {{DEFAULTSORT:Czaplicka, Maria 1921 suicides, Czaplicka, Maria Antonina Czaplicka, Maria Antonina Czaplicka, Marie Antonina Czaplicka, Marie Antonina Czaplicka, Marie Antonina Czaplicka, Marie Antonina Czaplicka, Marie Antonina Suicides by poison Czaplicka, Maria Antonina Central Asian studies scholars 20th-century anthropologists Suicides in Bristol