Waldemar Jochelson

This volume presents the results of Waldemar Jochelson's anthropological research with Itelmen people, conducted during the Riabushinsky Expedition (1908-1910) in Kamchatka, and examines the subsequent history of the development of these materials. While some of Jochelson's work with Itelmen has already been published - including recorded Itelmen texts and the findings of his archaeological investigations - the primary focus of the present volume is publication of his ethnographic account of the Itelmen (Kamchadal), heretofore existing only as an unpublished typescript. In an introductory essay, David Koester and Erich Kasten explore the complex circumstances that prevented Jochelson from completing the publication of this manuscript during his lifetime. They also examine possible shortcomings and gaps in the material, particularly in comparison with Jochelson's earlier studies of the Yukaghirs and Koryaks. The edited text is also presented here in Russian translation by Tjan Zaotschnaja, making Jochelson's observations accessible to contemporary Itelmen communities and facilitating their incorporation into educational programmes, as Tatiana Zaeva emphasizes in her concluding remarks. Because Jochelson's archaeological research in Kamchatka constitutes an exceptionally substantial, yet relatively little known, body of work, his study originally published in 1928 is also included in this volume, accompanied by a commentary by archaeologist Katsunori Takase.