Goddess of Turkmenian Ethnography

Еditor: Naumkin Vitaly
Author-compilator: Kadyrov Shokhrat

Москва, 2012, 255 p.

The book presents the field diaries of a leading ethnographer, a founder of the academic school of field ethnography of Turkmenistan, Professor G.P.Vasilyeva (1920 – 2005), that have been gathering dust on archive shelves for a long time. They contain a description of expeditions written by G.P.Vasilyeva day by day, and even hour by hour. The diaries tell about the daily life and concerns of researchers working in the field, and reflect the life of Turkmenistan, its hinterlands, in the post-war and partially in late-Soviet times. They include legends, folk exoticism by which G.P.Vasilyeva has en-riched the great Russian language, and show all the routes of expeditions, a lot of names of Turkmen people who helped the scientist to write her publications.
The book contains the introduction and preface, personalities, transformation and modernization of the traditional culture of the local population, as well as intra-ethnic processes. All this is explained in simple language, and the author’s diary style narrative draws the reader in, giving him understanding that he is dealing with the original, not compilations, so characteristic of modem publications.