Construction of the ethnographic visual image of komi-zyrians in the "artistic ethnology" of the late 19th - 20th centuries

Abstract

The article discusses the history of construing and representing the ethnographic image of Komi-Zyrians in popular and academic literature of 19th and 20th centuries by analysing painted, porcelain and postcard images of Komi-Zyrians of the 19th - early 20th century. Special attention is paid to how Komi ethnicity was visualized on the basis of reproducing stereotypically the "Depicted Zyrian" images. On the basis of these images, the topic of the possible influence of retrospective ethnographic research on the popular beliefs of how a Komi-Zyrian should look like is raised and discussed. It is suggested that both Russian and Western scholars followed the ideology of "Finno-Ugric authenticity" in the ethnographic visual images of Komi they constructed: All the artefacts, which could be associated with Russian or other not Finno-Ugric cultures were literally or symbolically removed from the images or downgraded to "insignificant texts". Finally the possibility of a correct translation of the ethno-cultural heritage by the means of the modern media technologies - the ones that promote ethnic images into virtual images of the cyberspace - is critically discussed.