{{Short description|Polish anthropologist}} {{EngvarB|date=November 2017}} {{Use dmy dates|date=November 2017}} {{Infobox person | name = Maria Antonina Czaplicka | image = Maria Czaplicka (96425723) (cropped).jpg | caption = Czaplicka in 1916 | birth_name = | birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1884|10|25}} | birth_place = [[Warsaw]], [[Congress Poland]], [[Russian Empire]] | death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1921|05|27|1884|10|25}} | death_place = [[Bristol]], England, United Kingdom<ref name="Kubica146"/> | resting_place_coordinates = | nationality = | known_for = | education = | occupation = [[Anthropologist]] }}
'''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]] who is best known for her ethnography of [[Siberian shamanism]]. 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). [[Routledge|Curzon Press]] republished all three volumes, plus a fourth volume of articles and letters, in 1999.
==Early life and studies== Czaplicka was born in the [[Praga|Stara Praga]] district of [[Warsaw]] on the 25th of October 1884<ref name="Kubica147">Kubica 2007, p. 147.</ref> to Feliks Czaplicki and Zofia Zawisza. Her father Feliks Czaplicki came from impoverished [[szlachta|Polish nobility]] and worked as a railway clerk and station master.<ref>{{cite book|author=Grazyna Kubica|title=Maria Czaplicka: Gender, Shamanism, Race|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jx78DwAAQBAJ|date=November 2020|publisher=U of Nebraska Press|isbn=978-1-4962-2261-9|page=62}}</ref> She was the third oldest of her parents' five children, Jadwiga Markowska (née Czaplicka), Stanisław Czaplicki, Gabriela Szaniawska (née Czaplicka), and Marian Czaplicki.<ref>{{cite book|author=Grazyna Kubica|title=Maria Czaplicka: Gender, Shamanism, Race|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jx78DwAAQBAJ|date=November 2020|publisher=U of Nebraska Press|isbn=978-1-4962-2261-9|page=64}}</ref> Feliks Czaplicki found employment in what is now [[Latvia]], 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.<ref>{{cite book|author=Grazyna Kubica|title=Maria Czaplicka: Gender, Shamanism, Race|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jx78DwAAQBAJ|date=November 2020|publisher=U of Nebraska Press|isbn=978-1-4962-2261-9|page=67}}</ref>
She began her studies at the Anna Jasieńska Girls' School and attended the school until 1902.<ref name=Kubica/> She began her studies in higher-education with the so-called [[Flying University]] (later ''Wyższe Kursy Naukowe''), an underground institution of higher education in [[Vistula Land|Russian-held]] Poland.<ref>Kubica 2007, p. 148.</ref> She supported herself with a number of poorly paid jobs, as a teacher at Łabusiewiczówna Girls' School,<ref name=Kubica/> a secretary, and [[lady's companion]].<ref name="Kubica149">Kubica 2007, p. 149.</ref> She was also known for her lectures at the University for Everyone (1905–1908), and the Society of Polish Culture.<ref name=Kubica/> She also wrote poetry, eventually being published in Warsaw's ''[[Odrodzenie]]'' magazine.<ref name=Kubica/> While battling an illness, she spent time in [[Zakopane]] where she went on to do work for the Pedological Society while writing ''Olek Niedziela,'' a novel for children centered around education.<ref name=Kubica/> In 1910 she became the first woman to receive a [[Mianowski Scholarship]], and was therefore able to continue her studies in the [[United Kingdom]].<ref name="Collectedintro">Collins 1999, Introduction.</ref>
She left Poland in 1910.<ref name="Kubica146">Kubica 2007, p. 146.</ref> Taken ill with appendicitis in late March 1911, she was admitted to [[St Bartholomew's Hospital|St Batholomew's Hospital]] in London.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Kubica|first=Grażyna|title=Maria Czaplicka Gender, Shamanism, Race.|date=2020|publisher=University of Nebraska Press|others=Koschalka, Ben.|isbn=978-1-4962-2319-7|location=Lincoln|oclc=1195470535}}</ref><ref>Some sources state that Czaplicka was operated on for appendicitis at St Bartholomew's Hospital by Józef Handelsman, but Handelsman was a psychiatrist, not a surgeon, and never worked at St Bartholomew's Hospital. The confusion appears to stem from the fact that Czaplicka was under the psychiatric care of Handelsman at the time she was admitted to St Bartholomew's. Her operation at the hospital was in fact carried out by Mr William Bruce Clarke, as noted in the hospital's Female Admission Register, 1908-1913 (see online catalogue entry for this item [https://www.calmview.co.uk/BartsHealth/CalmView/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&id=SBHB%2fMR%2f3%2f8&pos=1 here]).</ref> She continued her studies at the Faculty of Anthropology of the [[London School of Economics]] under [[Charles Gabriel Seligman|Charles G. Seligman]],<ref name="Kubica146"/> and at [[Somerville College, Oxford]] under [[R.R. Marett]],<ref name="flame">Collins & Urry 1997, p. 18.</ref> graduating from the School of Anthropology in 1912.<ref name=Kubica/> Marett encouraged her to use her [[Russian language]] skills in a review of literature on native tribes in [[Siberia]], which became her book ''Aboriginal Siberia'', published in 1914.<ref name="Znamenski67">Znamenski 2007, p. 67.</ref> In 1914, she became a member of the Royal Anthropological Society,<ref name=Kubica/> 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.<ref name=Kubica/> At this stage she had never visited Siberia,<ref name="Znamenski67"/> but the quality of her writing led to ''Aboriginal Siberia'' becoming the major reference work in its field.<ref name="Znamenski67"/>
==Yenisei Expedition== [[File:Maria Czaplicka.jpg|thumb|Czaplicka, 1919]] Marett had intended the work reported in Czaplicka's ''Aboriginal Siberia'' to be the basis for fieldwork in Siberia.<ref name="flame"/> In May 1914, she began such fieldwork, partly funded by the Mary Ewart Travelling Scholarship granted by Somerville College,<ref>{{cite web |last1=Vider |first1=Jaanika |title=Series 1: Maria Czaplicka (1884–1921) |url=https://womenofoxford.wordpress.com/2016/06/25/maria-czaplicka/ |website=Women in Oxford's History Podcast |date=25 June 2016 |publisher=Women in Oxford's History |access-date=20 November 2020}}</ref> leading a joint expedition of [[Oxford University]] and [[University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology]] staff.<ref name="flame"/> Together with English ornithologist [[Maud Doria Haviland]], English painter [[Dora Curtis]], and [[Henry Usher Hall]] of the Museum, she arrived in Russia shortly before [[World War I]] 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 [[Evenks|Tungus]] woman) spent the entire winter traveling along the shores of the [[Yenisei River]] via the ''Oryol'':<ref>{{cite book|author=Grazyna Kubica|title=Maria Czaplicka: Gender, Shamanism, Race|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jx78DwAAQBAJ|date=November 2020|publisher=U of Nebraska Press|isbn=978-1-4962-2261-9|page=270}}</ref> more than {{convert|3000|km|mi}} altogether.<ref>Nuttall 2005, p. 459.</ref>
Czaplicka prepared several hundreds of photographs of people of Siberia, as well as countless notes on [[anthropometry]] and their customs. Czaplicka also received funds from the Committee for Anthropology of the [[Pitt Rivers Museum]] in [[Oxford]] to collect specimens from Siberia;<ref>''[http://england.prm.ox.ac.uk/englishness-PRM-finances.html Twenty-seventh Annual Report of the Delegates of the University Museum]'' (1914). University of Oxford Gazette. '''XLV'''.</ref> 193 objects were donated by Czaplicka to the museum's Asian collection.<ref>Pitt Rivers Museum. (2006). [http://history.prm.ox.ac.uk/page_2.html Geographical Statistics PRM Asia collections statistics summary Asian countries and colonies]. University of Oxford. See for example: [http://webprojects.prm.ox.ac.uk/arms-and-armour/o/Defining-Gender/1915.50.40/ Quiver and arrows] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100110180522/http://webprojects.prm.ox.ac.uk/arms-and-armour/o/Defining-Gender/1915.50.40 |date=10 January 2010 }}</ref> In addition, she collected botanical specimens for the [[Department of Plant Sciences, University of Oxford|Fielding-Druce Herbarium]].<ref>[http://herbaria.plants.ox.ac.uk/herbaria_pages/OXF_collector.html Fielding-Druce Herbarium collectors list.]</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite book|author=Grażyna Kubica|title=Maria Czaplicka: Gender, Shamanism, Race|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jx78DwAAQBAJ|date=November 2020|publisher=U of Nebraska Press|isbn=978-1-4962-2261-9|page=292}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite book|author=Grażyna Kubica|title=Maria Czaplicka: Gender, Shamanism, Race|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jx78DwAAQBAJ|date=November 2020|publisher=U of Nebraska Press|isbn=978-1-4962-2261-9|page=293}}</ref>
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]], 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]] was viewed through a much different lens in Siberian cultures. This was all a part of her works studying [[Shamanism in Siberia]].<ref name=Kubica>{{cite journal |last1=Kubica |first1=Grażyna Kubica |title=Maria Czaplicka and Her Siberian Expedition, 1914–1915: A Centenary Tribute |journal=Arctic Anthropology |date=2015 |volume=52 |issue=1 |page=325|doi=10.3368/aa.52.1.1 |s2cid=161918555 |url=https://doi.org/10.3368%2Faa.52.}}</ref>
==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]] (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,<ref name="Kubica146"/><ref name="Riviere172">Riviere 2009, p. 172.</ref> supported by the Mary Ewart Trust.<ref name="Collectedintro"/> She gave lectures on the nations of [[Central Europe|Central]] and Eastern Europe as well as on the habits of the [[Siberia]]n tribes. She also spoke on Polish issues, including [[Free City of Danzig|Danzig]]'s [[World War I|post-war]] disposition.<ref name="Collectedintro"/>
In 1920, her work was honoured with a [[Murchison Award|Murchison Grant]] from the [[Royal Geographical Society]],<ref>[https://www.jstor.org/pss/1780459 ''The Geographical Journal'', Vol. 55, No. 5 (May, 1920), p. 400.]</ref> "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]] at the [[University of Bristol]].<ref name="Collectedintro"/>
In 1921, she failed to obtain the Albert Kahn Travelling Fellowship which she had hoped for, and in May of that year she [[poison]]ed herself.<ref name="Kubica146"/> The University of Bristol Senate expressed its regret and "appreciation of the loss to the University of so distinguished a member of its staff".<ref>Minutes of the University's Senate 1920–21, p. 287.</ref> Czaplicka is buried in the [[Wolvercote Cemetery]] in Oxford.<ref name="Riviere172"/>
==Legacy== In a will written months before she died, Czaplicka left her notes and reports to her colleague [[Henry Usher Hall]]. 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.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kubica |first=Grażyna |title=Maria Czaplicka: Gender, Shamanism, Race. |publisher=Translated by Ben Koschalka. Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press. |year=2020 |pages=445}}</ref>
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.<ref name="Collins1997">Collins & Urry 1997, p. 20.</ref> Her primary papers are archived at [[Somerville College, Oxford]].<ref>CP-SCO Czaplicka Papers, Somerville College, Oxford.</ref> Polish museums hold a few private letters of Czaplicka to [[Bronisław Malinowski]] and [[Władysław Orkan]], 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.<ref name="Collins1997" /> In 2015, the [[Pitt Rivers Museum]] in Oxford held a small exhibition entitled "My Siberian Year, 1914–1915" to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Czaplicka's expedition to Siberia.<ref>[http://www.prm.ox.ac.uk/exhibitions.html Exhibitions and Case Displays] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150518105343/http://www.prm.ox.ac.uk/exhibitions.html |date=18 May 2015 }} at Pitt Rivers Museum (accessed 8 May 2015)</ref>
== Selected works == *[https://archive.org/stream/aboriginalsiberi00czap#page/n5/mode/2up ''Aboriginal Siberia'']: A Study in Social Anthropology. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1914. *[https://archive.org/stream/folklore25folkuoft#page/34/mode/2up ''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. *[https://archive.org/stream/journamanl32mancuoft#page/n43/mode/2up/search/czaplicka ''Siberia and some Siberians''] ''Journal of the Manchester Geographical Soc''. 32. pp. 27–42. 1916. *[https://archive.org/stream/soulofrussia00whaluoft#page/n19/mode/2up ''The Siberian Colonist or Sibiriak''] In W. Stephens ed. ''The Soul of Russia''. London: Macmillan. 1916 *[https://archive.org/stream/scottishgeograph33scotuoft#page/288/mode/2up ''On the track of the Tungus'']. ''Scottish Geographical Magazine''. 33. pp. 289–303. 1917. *[https://archive.org/stream/encyclopaediaofr09hast_0#page/574/mode/2up/search/Ostyaks ''"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. *[https://archive.org/stream/encyclopaediaofr11hast#page/172/mode/2up ''"Samoyed"'']. [[Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics]]. volume 11. pp. 172–177. 1920 *[https://archive.org/stream/encyclopaediaofr11hast#page/488/mode/2up ''"Siberia, Siberiaks, Siberians"'']. [[Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics]]. volume 11. pp. 488–496. 1920 *[https://archive.org/stream/scottishgeograph36scotuoft#page/n23/mode/2up/search/czaplicka ''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. *[https://archive.org/stream/encyclopaediaofr09hast#page/472/mode/2up ''"Tungus"'']. [[Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics]]. volume 12. pp. 473–476. 1921 *[https://archive.org/stream/encyclopaediaofr09hast#page/476/mode/2up ''"Turks"'']. [[Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics]]. volume 12. pp. 476–483. 1921
==See also== *[[List of Polish people#Social sciences|List of Poles]]
==Notes== {{Reflist}}
==References== *{{cite journal |last=Anderson |first=David G. |date=October 2005 |title=Review |journal=[[The Slavonic and East European Review]] |volume=83 |issue=4 |pages=766–767 |publisher=University College London, School of Slavonic and East European Studies |issn= 0037-6795}} *{{cite journal |last=Collins |first=David Norman |author2=James Urry |author2-link=James Urry |date=December 1997 |title=A Flame Too Intense for Mortal Body to Support |journal=Anthropology Today |volume=13 |issue=6 |pages=18–20 |publisher=Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland}} [https://www.jstor.org/pss/2783378] *{{cite book |editor=Collins, David Norman |year=1999 |title=The Collected Works of M. A. Czaplicka. Vol. 1: Collected Articles and Letters; Vol. 2: Aboriginal Siberia; Vol. 3: My Siberian Year; Vol. 4: The Turks of Central Asia |publisher=Curzon Press |location=Richmond |isbn=978-0-7007-1001-0}} *{{cite book |last=Hultkrantz |first=Åke |orig-year=1987 |year=2005 |editor=Jones, Lindsay |edition=2 |volume=1 |location=Detroit |chapter=Arctic Religions: History of Study |title=Encyclopedia of Religion |pages=473–476 |isbn=0-02-865733-0 |publisher=Macmillan Reference USA |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofre0000unse_v8f2 }} *{{cite book |editor=Bryceson, Deborah Fahy |editor2=Judith Okely |editor3=Jonathan Webber |year=2007 |title=Identity and Networks: Fashioning Gender and Ethnicity Across Cultures |last=Kubica |first=Grazyna |chapter=A Good Lady, Androgynous Angel, and Intrepid Woman: Maria Czaplicka in Feminist Profile |publisher=Berghahn Books |pages=146–163 |isbn=978-1-84545-162-2}} [https://books.google.com/books?id=_cGT8dKm6e0C] *{{cite book |last=de la Rue |first=Hélène |editor=V. Amid |year=1996 |chapter=Maria Antonina Czaplicka |title=Collectors: Collecting for the Pitt Rivers Museum |location=Oxford |publisher=Pitt Rivers Museum}} *{{cite journal |last=Marett, R. R. |date=July 1921 |title=Obituary: Marie A. de Czaplicka: Died May 27th, 1921 |journal=[[Man (journal)|Man]] |publisher=Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland |pages=105–106 |volume=21 |issue=60 |issn=0025-1496}} *{{cite book |last=Nuttall |first=Mark |year=2005 |chapter=Czaplicka, Marie Antoinette |title=Encyclopedia of the Arctic |volume=1 |publisher=Routledge |pages=458–459 |isbn=1-57958-437-3}} *{{cite book |last=Riviere |first=Peter |year=2009 |title=A History of Oxford Anthropology |publisher=Berghahn Books |isbn=978-1-84545-699-3}} [https://books.google.com/books?id=WQnwqxrZg0YC] *Urry, James; David N. Collins: ''Maria Antonina Czaplicka. Życie i praca w Wielkiej Brytanii i na Syberii''; Warsaw, 1998. *{{cite book |last=Znamenski |first=Andrei A. |year=2007 |chapter=From Siberia to North America |title=The Beauty of the Primitive: Shamanism and Western Imagination |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-517231-7}} [https://books.google.com/books?id=6uF00yUt3dYC]
==External links== * [http://www.sacred-texts.com/sha/sis/index.htm Aboriginal Siberia] - Excerpts from the Sacred Texts archive * [https://web.archive.org/web/20081202060945/http://www.angelfire.com/on/czapla/macpa.html Photo Album of Maria Czaplicka] – Photo Album of Maria Czaplicka * [http://www.oxforddnb.com/index/101046557/ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography] David N. Collins, 'Czaplicka, Marya Antonina (1884–1921)', first published Sept 2004, 960 words, with portrait illustration
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Czaplicka, Maria}} [[Category:1921 suicides|Czaplicka, Maria Antonina]] [[Category:1921 deaths|Czaplicka, Maria Antonina]] [[Category:Alumni of Somerville College, Oxford|Czaplicka, Marie Antonina]] [[Category:Polish anthropologists|Czaplicka, Marie Antonina]] [[Category:Polish women anthropologists|Czaplicka, Marie Antonina]] [[Category:Alumni of the London School of Economics|Czaplicka, Marie Antonina]] [[Category:Polish emigrants to the United Kingdom|Czaplicka, Marie Antonina]] [[Category:Suicides by poison]] [[Category:1884 births|Czaplicka, Maria Antonina]] [[Category:Central Asian studies scholars]] [[Category:20th-century anthropologists]] [[Category:Suicides in Bristol]]