Shirokogorov Sergey

Shirokogorov Sergey (1887–1939) – anthropologist, ethnographer, historian of religion.

He studied at the Philological Faculty of Sorbonne, at the High School of Political Economy and Anthropological School (Paris, 1905-1907). Having returned to Russia in 1910, he studied at the Physical and Mathematical Faculty of the St. Petersburg University and at the same time at the Archeological Institute.

In 1910, he started to work at the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography of the Ac. of Sc., then he became Head of the Tungus Dep. Since 1910, he participated in expeditions to the Eastern Siberia and to the Far East. Since 1916, he was Curator of the Anthropological Department of the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography of the Ac. of Sc.

During the Civil War, he was at the Far East; he was one of the founders of the Far Eastern University of the Far Eastern Republic.

Coming of the Soviet power in 1922 took him in Shanghai; and he decided to stay in China, worked at educative institutions of Shanghai and Macao (Aomyn), and since 1930 – at the Catholic University in Beijing (Peiping).

He studied Shamanism of Northern peoples (Evenks), and built an original theory of ethnos.

Compositions

An Attempt of Research the Basic Principles of Shamanism of the Tungus // Uchenye zapiski of the Historical and Philological Faculty in Vladivostok. 1919, iss. 1, pp. 47‒108. (republ.: Shirokogorov S. M. Selected Works and Materials. Book 1. Vladivostok, Far Eastern University, 2001) (in Rus.)
The Place of Ethnography among Other Disciplines, and the Classification of Ethnos. Introduction into the Course of Ethnography of the Far East, made in 1921-1922 at the Far Eastern State University. Vladivostok, 1922. (in Rus.)
Ethnos: Research of Basic Principles of Changes in Ethnic and Ethnographical Phenomena. Shanghai, 1923. (in Rus.)
Christian Mission and Oriental Civilizations // Vestnik Asii. 1926, No 53, pp. 449‒460. (in Rus.)
General Theory of Shamanism among the Tungus // Journal of the North China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. 1923. Vol. 54. P. 246‒249.
Ethnological Investigations in Siberia, Mongolia and Northern China // The China Journal of Science and Art. 1923. Vol. 1. P. 513‒522, 611‒621.
What is Shamanism? // The China Journal of Science and Art. 1924. Vol. 2. P. 275‒279, 368‒371.
Social Organization of the Manchus. A Study of the Manchu Clan Organization, Shanghai: Royal Asiatic society. North China Branch, 1924.
Ethnical Unit and Milieu. Shanghai: Edward Evans and Sons, 1924.
Anthropology of Eastern China and Kwangtung Province. North China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1925. Vol. 4.
Process of Physical Growth among the Chinese. Vol. 1. The Chinese of Chekiang and Kiangsu: measured by Dr. V. Appleton. Shanghai: The Commercial Press, 1925.
Social Organization of the Northern Tungus, Shanghai: The Commercial Press Limited, 1933.
Ethnos: An Outline of Theory. Peiping: Catholic University Press, 1934.
Psychomental Complex of the Tungus. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co, 1935.
The Place of Ethnography among Other Disciplines, and the Classification of Ethnos // Personality. Culture. Society. 2000, vol. II, iss. 4. (in Rus.)
Selected Works and Materials. Book 1. Vladivostok, Far Eastern University, 2001. (in Rus.)

About him

Danchenko Е. М. On the Input of S. М. Shirokogorov into the Working Out the theory of Ethnos // Integration of Archeological and Ethnographical Research. Vladivostok – Omsk, 2000. (in Rus.)
Revunenkova Е. V., Reshetov А. М. Sergey Mikhailovich Shirokogorov as Researcherof Shamanism // Proceedings of the international Congress ‘Shamanism and other Traditional Beliefs and Practices. Ethnological Research on Shamanism and Other Traditional Beliefs and practices’. 1999. (in Rus.)

M. Sh.