Publications

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 investiga-
tions – 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account of the Itelmen (Kamchadal), heretofore existing only as an unpublished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 trans-
lation by Tjan Zaotschnaja, making Jochelson’s observations accessible to contem-
porary 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 sub-
stantial, yet relatively little known, body of work, his study originally published in
1928 is also included in this volume, accompanied by a commentary by archaeolo-
gist Katsunori Takase.