Collaboration of N. I. Zatoplyaev and G. N. Potanin: on the materials Scientific Library of Tomsk State University
The paper deals with the editorial history of the folkloristic and ethnographic works of N. I. Zatoplyaev, an employee of the Eastern-Siberian department of Russian Geographical Society (RGS) of the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. He considered the beliefs of the Buryats of Alar district, the material and spiritual culture of shamanism of that time and region. A brief historical background is given about the region where the material to be analyzed was collected. Also, the author reviews the status of the Buryat language at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, being crucial for studying the context in which the texts were presented. The manuscripts of the works are currently stored in the archive of G. N. Potanin in the Scientific Library of Tomsk State University. One of the central aspects of cultural activity of the Siberian regionalists was studying and preserving the material and spiritual culture of the Siberian indigenous population. In their opinion, the development of world culture is the synthesis of Asian and European forms, with the mediating role in this process to be played by enlightened Siberia and its peoples. The papers written by N. I. Zatoplyaev, dedicated to the beliefs of Alar Buryats, are quite an interesting illustration, with which to consider the editorial strategies of the employees of the RGS of the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. One can identify the propensity to forenize and exogenize the realities of everyday life of the Western Buryats, as well as the incessant reflection on the phonetic recording of texts in the languages of the indigenous peoples of Siberia to be the characteristic features of these strategies. These strategies, in the generalized sense, are representative of the cultural activities of the region, and also express their position regarding the “alien” culture and folklore of Siberia.