INDIGENOUS ETHNIC PEOPLES OF THE TRANS-URAL AND STEPPE PERIPHERY IN THE TRAVELOGUE OF S. SOMMIER «UN’ESTATE IN SIBERIA» (1885)

Abstract

Drawing on the original Florentine edition of Stefano Sommier’s travelogue *Un’estate in Siberia...* (1885), this article examines the Italian reception of the indigenous populations of the Siberian, Ural, and steppe peripheries of the Russian Empire. The empirical basis of the study consists of a systematic analysis of 85 contact scenes, which makes it possible to reconstruct the differentiated structure of Sommier’s perception of various ethnic groups in the region, including the Khanty, Nenets, Komi-Zyrians, Tatars, Kazakhs, and Bashkirs. The study demonstrates that the ethnographic images represented in the travelogue were shaped by the pragmatic conditions of fieldwork, the nature of the research objectives, and the degree of imperial administrative involvement in the process of data collection. Imagological analysis reveals a gradation of cultural alienation in the author’s perspective, ranging from an instrumental attitude toward the Khanty during anthropometric measurements and sanitary-visual distancing from the Nenets to the fiscal evasiveness of the Kazakhs and recognition of the resilience of the Kazan Tatars’ cultural system. Particular attention is paid to the role of officials, Cossacks, and representatives of local elites in facilitating the traveller’s research activities. The article concludes that Sommier’s constructions of the “Other” were situational products of specific contact scenes and the institutional context of the journey rather than the result of a mechanical reproduction of stereotypical racial classifications.