The Ethnography museumJul 24, 2009
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The Ethnography Museum
fishing gear
A troika. These were attached to horses (3 traditionally) and could be...
| Back to going in order. On Wednesday the 15th Dmitry took us to the Ethnography museum in the morning. I got the impression that he has been to this museum several times because he gave us the tour himself and was able to answer all of our questions. I really liked this museum because it separated artifacts by region and time period. It was interesting to get a visual idea of how people lived, because before this trip I had read some Russian literature and was a little confused about the descriptions of the home. In Chekhov's short story Peasants, for example, the main character falls ill and moves back to the country and sleeps on the stove. That spot was apparently reserved for the elderly and invalids. That sounded so strange to me until I actually saw up close what part of the stove they meant. One major theme that keeps coming up in this trip is that the United States and Russia are really quite similar. Some specific examples are that slavery and serfdom were abolished within 12 months of each other, and both leaders (Abraham Lincoln and Alexander II) were assassinated for it. I learned those facts before this trip, but from just talking to people here and visiting museums I've learned that there are more fundamental similarities. Both countries cover enormous pieces of land which several different geographies and peoples, and have faced many problems because of it. The exhibit at this museum for the people of the far north was strikingly similar to any exhibit for North American Inuits one could see in America. Even farther south, in the Eastern part of Russia, the indigenous people had tools and houses and customs very much like Native Americans in the North East. In both countries, many of these customs are preserved only in museums. - AM |
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