Divine Maclay
On July 17, Nikolai Miklouho-Maclay's birthday, Russia celebrates Ethnographer's Day. He was, in fact, the first ethnographer in Russian history. But his scientific journey at times resembles a crazy action movie or a drug-induced hallucination. And perhaps it began in the world of literary heroes.
Author: Sergey Tashevsky.
In the 60s, “new people” appeared in RussiaFirst, on the pages of novelsWe remember their names from high school—Rakhmetov, Vera Pavlovna, Insarov, Bazarov… Turgenev, Pisarev, Chernyshevsky sincerely believed in a future created by selfless, free, and slightly cynical beings who would overthrow the “world of the fathers”—with its patriarchal and religious dogmas.And a few years after the novels were published, the characters they created quickly began to come to life.Hundreds of Rakhmetovs, Bazarovs, and Insarovs filled St. Petersburg and major Russian cities.They multiplied, reproduced, “went to the people,” studied (and almost always failed to complete their studies) at universities, emigrated abroad and returned to Russia again.They were amazingly active, but often didn't finish anything they started, so no particular evil came from them either.However, among them there also appeared truly outstanding people who managed to surpass their literary prototypes and leave not only their contemporaries, but also many generations of descendants, in admiring bewilderment..
One of such people, without a doubt, was the famous traveler and ethnographer Nikolai Miklouho-MaclayOr rather, at first just Nikolai MiklouhoA descendant of the ancient Miklukh Cossack family, he was born on July 17, 1846, in the village of Yazykovo-Rozhdestvenskoye near Novgorod, but the family soon moved to St. Petersburg, where his father received a position as head of a railway department.The work was honorable, but stressful and troublesome.Perhaps it was because of her that her father did not live a long life: he fell ill with consumption and died at the age of 42, leaving his widow and three young children with almost no means of support.Like all high-ranking civil servants, he had a noble title, but only for himself; the rest of the family was not legally entitled to noble privileges.However, after her husband's death, Nikolai's mother, citing his services to the state, somehow managed to secure the right to hereditary nobility for her sons, and this facilitated the children's enrollment in a state-run gymnasium.Later, Miklouho-Maclay, despite his disdain for the aristocracy, did not hesitate to call himself a hereditary nobleman and even try on various titles to impress foreign officials.He was sometimes a prince, sometimes a count, sometimes a baron, if circumstances required it.. Why not?
However, the future owner of all these titles did not have a good relationship with the gymnasium.He barely made it to the 6th grade, getting from a C to a D, where he repeated a year and eventually dropped out.And really, why does he need this gymnasium cramming if he can go straight to university as an auditor without exams? But he was also expelled from St. Petersburg University, where he tried to study mathematics and physiology, in 1864 for numerous violations of the university regulations (read: truancy) and participation in student gatherings.And yet, Nikolai managed to receive the main impetus for his further progress: his bedside book became Chernyshevsky's novel "What is to be done?", and his favorite hero was Rakhmetov.And this was the only book he took with him to Germany, where he went that same year to enroll in the famous Heidelberg University.There, Russians weren't required to have any educational documents.Anyone who wants to can apply!
But even in Heidelberg, where he tried to study mathematics and economics, he still remained the same half-educated Miklouho, like most other Russian students.There were plenty of freedom-loving Mikluks like him who had fled Russia, and their main occupation was gatherings and political discussions.Whatever you say, without police involvement these events are pretty boring.. Moreover, the money soon ran out, and the following year Nikolai moved to Leipzig University (rooms were cheaper there), where he briefly studied forestry and agriculture.Then he moved to Jena, where housing cost next to nothing.And there, having enrolled in the medical faculty, Nikolai von Miklouho (as he called himself at the time) suddenly met a man who managed to interest him in science for the rest of his life.It was the philosopher and natural scientist Ernst Haeckel, a figure who was, frankly speaking, extraordinary in many respects.Suffice it to say that it was he who invented such terms as “ontogenesis” and “ecology”Moreover, Haeckel was a convinced Darwinist and was one of the first to try to explain the origin of man within the framework of evolutionary theory.The truth is only for a European person.Yes! Haeckel (well, you can't take words out of a song) was a racist and considered all other races as intermediate links between apes and humans.But it was precisely for this reason that he paid a lot of attention to comparative anthropology, which he quickly captivated his student with..
And Nikolai was literally transformedVery soon he became Haeckel's "zealous and helpful" assistant, preparing preparations, tables, and visual aids for him.At the same time, while studying at the medical faculty, he participated in the treatment of real patients, whom, however, the students most often perceived as a kind of living exhibitsAfter all, science should be above banal human feelings! But feelings, of course, arose, and in his first year of study in Jena, Miklouho unexpectedly fell in love with one of his patients.He never mentioned her first or last name.Doctor-patient confidentiality! The girl understood that her illness was fatal, and shortly before her death, she bequeathed her own skull to the young assistant who performed medical procedures on her, as a scientific aid.This is the gift of love.The scientist took it for granted.With a steady hand, he cleared the skull, removing his beloved's brain, and showed the specimen to his scientific supervisor.Haeckel found no scientific value in the skull and suggested throwing it away.He was averse to sentimentality and demanded the same from his student.However, the last will of the beloved could not be ignored.What to do? Nikolai ended up taking the skull home, sawing holes in it, and turning it into a lamp, which he used for many years.According to witnesses, "the skull was placed on the elbow bones, the wick was placed on the vault of the skull, and a green lampshade was erected above it."Yes, this is not a legend, but a true story: Miklouho-Maclay always carried the lamp made from the skull of his beloved with him; it accompanied him on all his expeditions until his death, and there is ample evidence of this.However, compared to other stories surrounding his life, this one seems quite innocent..
He was truly a "new man," and his acquaintance with Haeckel gave his obsession a clear and furious direction: evolutionary biology and anthropology! It was during these years that he actually became Miklouho-Maclay, taking on a scientific pseudonym that over time became completely “attached” to his personality.There are several theories regarding the origin of "Maclay" - either it is an arbitrary paraphrase of the name "Nikolai", or (as the scientist himself claimed) a tribute to the memory of one of his ancestors, the Scotsman Maclay, who was allegedly captured by the Cossacks in the 15th century during some long campaign and settled among them, giving rise to the Miklukh family.In any case, he signed all his scientific publications in German and English from the time he met Haeckel as "Miklouho-Maclay."And yes, perhaps there was a subconscious desire to escape their Slavic roots, since not all researchers at that time considered the Slavs to be pure Europeans.However, later, having begun his independent research, Miklouho-Maclay completely refuted Haeckel's "racial theory", proving that all races existing on earth equally deserve the title of Homo sapiens.But that's later.Meanwhile, he and his teacher made their first expeditions (in particular, to the Canary Islands, where he studied the species composition of sponges and radiolarians)It was only in 1868, after completing his course, that he set out on his own, first traveling through Italy and then to the Red Sea, in the area where the Suez Canal was being built.In Sicily, he managed to catch malaria (an incurable disease at the time, so he suffered from attacks for the rest of his life).And during his trip to Egypt, he almost died.To save money, Nicholas dressed up as a devout Muslim and sneaked onto a ship with pilgrims heading to Mecca.Of course, he was exposed on the way and was about to be thrown overboard, but he pulled out a microscope from his travel bag that the Arabs had never seen before and began waving it around like a weapon.That's how I was saved..
These solitary journeys, where he studied the simplest marine inhabitants at such a risk to his life, led Miklouho-Maclay to two important resultsFirst, he published half a dozen scientific papers, which were then unnoticed, in German and English scientific journals.And secondly, he spent the remaining money his mother had saved for his education and got deeply into debt.To raise money for new expeditions and to get some medical treatment, Miklouho-Maclay (that's how he now called himself in all documents) decided to go to Russia.For a couple of months, he gorged himself on quinine at his relatives' estate near Saratov and made new plans, although, judging by his letters to his German friends, Russia left a depressing impression on him.Moreover, it was not so much nature that irritated him, but people.Nevertheless, Nikolai demonstrated remarkable sociability and managed to secure funding from the Russian Geographical Society for his new expedition to study the aborigines of New Guinea.He was assigned a cabin on the corvette Vityaz, which was just heading from Kronstadt to the Pacific Ocean, and in October 1871, the ship entered Astrolabe Bay on the northeastern coast of New Guinea.Now this place is called "Miklouho-Maclay Coast".
Despite the captain's protests, the scientist landed on land and remained there virtually alone.Nicholas had only two servants with him, hired in Samoa: a young Polynesian nicknamed Boy and a Swede named Ohlsen, a sea vagabond who had escaped from a whaler.They built themselves a hut near the ocean, and Maclay began his explorations.There were several Papuan villages nearby (about whom nothing was known at the time, except that they had never had contact with the outside world), and in the first of them the scientist almost met his death.The alien was threatened with spears and arrows were flying in his direction.But, unarmed and peace-loving, he approached the huts step by step, and, having come close, he lay down on one of the mats, closed his eyes and fell asleep.This demonstration of one's vulnerability (which, of course, required incredible, truly "Rakhmetov-like" willpower!) proved to be very effective.By evening the Papuans had become accustomed to the white man, and soon Maclay even managed to make friends with one of them.However, “become friends” is too strong a word.Communication was extremely primitive, and even after several months, Maclay understood only a few words of the Bongu language.And soon he was surprised to discover that many villages had their own languages, and therefore the coastal inhabitants themselves had difficulty understanding each other.It was a kind of "reserve" where one could observe the development of primitive human culture.A real anthropologist's dream! And Miklouho-Maclay tried to treat the object of his research as carefully as possible.Very soon the Papuans began to treat him with admiration, and after seeing several simple tricks (for example, he “set fire to water” in front of their eyes, that is, alcohol poured from a bottle into a saucer), they began to deify him altogether.Each tribe rushed to offer him the most beautiful and young girl as a wife.But Maclay always refused this honor.It wasn't because "tamo Russ" ("man from Russia," as the Papuans called him) remained celibate.Later, on one of the islands, he finally found a lover - a Malay-Papuan mestizo named Bungaraya, who fully satisfied his anthropological interest.But on the Maclay Coast, the scientist decided to exercise restraint to avoid inadvertently becoming a father and affecting the gene pool of the natives.Of course, he still interfered in their lives, since, as a doctor, he could not leave the sick without help - and this further strengthened their respect for himself..
However, the scientist himself and his companions very soon became victims of tropical fever, and this test turned out to be the most terrible for them.Maclay later wrote: “It is not the Papuans, nor the tropical heat, nor the impenetrable forests that guard the shores of New Guinea.. A powerful ally protecting her from foreign invasions is a pale, cold, trembling, then burning fever…"He managed to survive her attacks, but the 14-year-old servant, the Polynesian Boy, to whom Nikolai had become attached with all his heart, was rapidly fading away.Despite all medical efforts, he died a few weeks later.And then, to the horror of the Swede Ohlsen, Maclay (who himself could barely stand on his feet after the fever) immediately began to dissect the bodyHe remembered the promise he had given to Professor Gegenbauer to obtain a specimen of the larynx of a black man with the tongue and all the muscles – and he did so, and threw everything that remained from the body of his faithful servant into a boat and drowned it in the ocean.Of course, if the Papuans had found out about this, Maclay risked turning from a deity into a devil – and, most likely, he himself would have paid for it with his life.But science comes first..
Yes, Miklouho-Maclay was that very “new man” for whom prejudices do not exist.Perhaps this is what helped him survive.In Russia, he had long been considered dead, and in 1872, the clipper ship Izumrud entered Astrolabe Bay, most likely with the intention of collecting the scientist's remains.The fact that Maclay was not only alive, but had become “one of their own” for the natives and had collected a vast amount of scientific material, became a worldwide sensation.The farewell ceremony for Maclay lasted two days, and residents of all the surrounding villages gathered for it.On his way back, he stopped briefly in China, where he “studied the phenomenon of drug addiction,” specifically, he went to a drug den and, under the supervision of an assistant, indulged in opium smoking for a day.According to his diary, he smoked about seven grams of the drug (a gigantic dose!) and remained in a nearly unconscious state for two days, wandering through twilight worlds.What can you do? Science came first here too…
In reality, he returned twice more to the "Miklouho-Maclay Coast," where he was awaited each time like a deity. Nikolai himself probably gradually became more convinced of this. After all, in Europe he was now considered one of the most authoritative scholars, and in Russia (where he was the only professional ethnographer), his every journey was constantly reported in the capital's newspapers. He had barely turned 30, yet his articles were appearing in scientific journals worldwide, and his travel notes were being reprinted in huge print runs in many countries. However, he rarely appeared in Europe. Singapore, Australia, New Guinea again—and then, as they say, everywhere else. For almost ten years, he continued his solitary research, which was intended to culminate in a two-volume work, being prepared for publication in St. Petersburg.
The entire first volume was devoted to the "Miklouho-Maclay Coast," a unique ethnographic "reserve" that Nicholas had already come to regard as practically his own. To keep it out of the clutches of civilization, he even planned to establish an independent Papuan state on the islands under Russian protection (and, of course, to become its head). However, Alexander III and his ministers, with whom Miklouho-Maclay discussed this, were not particularly enthusiastic about the idea. He discussed it with representatives of the British government and the Germans. Everywhere he went, he was refused. However, several countries were willing to make this piece of New Guinea their colony (and Germany soon took possession of it). The world was changing, the "blank spots" and "no man's land" were becoming fewer, and no one cared about the Papuans. And Miklouho-Maclay himself had very little time left to live.
In 1887, he returned to Russia and began to decline before our eyes. Botkin himself attempted to treat him, but at the time, even he could not diagnose the illness. Only because, like his longtime lover, Maclay "bequeathed his skull to science" do we finally know what happened to him. As recent studies of the bones stored in the anthropology museum have shown, he died (before even reaching 42) from a cancerous tumor that rapidly destroyed his body. But on the "Miklouho-Maclay Coast," this "new man" from Russia forever found divine immortality—in the myths and songs of the Papuans.
“Maclay came and gave them—gave us—iron; now we work with knives and axesMaclay said: “Oh, people of Bili-Bili, go with my knives, with my axes that I gave you, to the plantations and cultivate the fields, work and eat, your stone axes are not sharp, they are dullThrow them into the forest, they are bad, no good, they are stupid.”“This is what Maclay said…”These songs are still sung today.But the unknown rhapsodists, without even realizing it, are echoing a motif from Miklouho-Maclay's favorite book, Chernyshevsky's novel "What Is to Be Done?", written a century and a half ago: "Rise from your slums, my friends, rise, it's not so difficult, go out into the free white light, it's glorious to live on it, and the path is easy and tempting, try it.".
