“This book is an invaluable source of information on the rise of Lithuanian cultural sciences and their impact on the re-emergence of the Lithuanians as a nation in the 20th century.“ • Anna Gomóła, University of Silesia in Katowice
“The book fills a notable gap in the history of European ethnology, ethnography, and anthropology by offering an in-depth, contextualized examination of Edgars Volters, an influential yet underexplored Latvian Lithuanian scholar who operated in the western borderlands of the Russian Empire.” • Tom Kencis, University of Latvia Institute of Literature, Folklore and Art
Eduards Volters was a Latvian linguist, renowned early ethnographer, and archeologist with the Russian Imperial Geographical Society. He studied the Lithuanians and Latvians in the Northwest Krai of the Russian Empire and Lithuania from 1882 to 1941. As Volters began his research at a time when the printing of Lithuanian and Latgalian publications in the Latin alphabet was forbidden, this book aims to uncover his role as one of the founders of literate Lithuanian and Latvian communities. This study compares various historical and theoretical contexts in anthropology and decolonization to reveal how Volters reconciled his ethnographic work within the political goals of the empire.
Vida Savoniakaitė is Head of Department of Ethnology and Anthropology and Senior Research Fellow at the Lithuanian Institute of History. Recent publications include the edited volume on the history of anthropology, Lietuvos etnologija (2022).
BISAC: SOC002010 SOCIAL SCIENCE/Anthropology/Cultural & Social; BIO021000 BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY/Social Scientists & Psychologists; POL045000 POLITICAL SCIENCE/Colonialism & Post-Colonialism
