Different specialists give a different interpretation of the concept of "ethnography". Some call it science or a scientific discipline, while others put unscientific meaning in this concept. So after all, what is ethnography? When did this term arise and how does it differ from "ethnology"? Translated from the Greek meaning of the word "ethnography" - "description of peoples." If a complete definition is made, then this includes a description of the origin, resettlement of peoples, its composition, its way of life and mores, material and spiritual culture. The combination of these factors is ethnography. Also called a science that studies the above symptoms.
Ethnography as a science covers many spheres of life and social processes, which is probably why the question of what ethnography is is still relevant. It includes such areas as paleoethnography, demography, ethnic history, ethnopsychology and ethnosociology, physical anthropology and many other disciplines.
Herodotus can be safely considered the “father” of ethnography, who left for posterity numerous valuable unique descriptions of neighboring peoples and tribes. Following him can be called the ancient Greek scholars Thucydides, Democritus, Hippocrates and some ancient Egyptian chroniclers. Of course, then none of them thought about what ethnography is, the term itself appeared only in the last century.
Sources of ethnography are information obtained through direct communication with the described population, observation over a certain time of their way of life, traditions, culture. It can be field expeditions or stationary accommodation among the observed people. Ethnographic sources are usually divided into several types:
1) material or material (clothing, household items, food, money, jewelry and other property);
2) written (any kind of notes, diaries, recipes, recorded legends and epics, etc.);
3) folklore (songs, ditties, oral epics and tales, moreover, not only their performance is important, but also the conditions in which it occurs);
4) linguistic (to which language branch belong, what dialects, pronunciation, etc.).
In addition to these four types of sources, physical and anthropological (skull structure, external characteristics) and audio-visual sources (photo, video, audio materials) can also be distinguished, although the latter are already a secondary source.
The richest ethnographic country is, of course, Russia. More than 150 peoples live on its territory, but many of them also divide themselves into ethnic groups. Ethnography of Russia took shape as an independent science by the end of the 19th century. Many Russian ethnographers became world famous - L. N. Gumilev, V. Ya. Propp, N. N. Miklukho-Maklai, S. A. Tokarev and others. In Russia, the question of what ethnography was, also took place, but the meaning contained a little different. The fact is that at that time the term "ethnology" was used in Western European countries, which did not take root in Russia. Only in the 1990s did Russian scientists begin to use both of these concepts, sometimes as synonyms, and sometimes with slight differences.