Class: 7
The purpose of the lesson: to acquaint students with the life and work of the traveler N.N. Miklukho-Maclay; show the outstanding contribution of domestic researchers to world science.
Preparation for the lesson: a book exhibition dedicated to the life and work of the scientist, a portrait of Miklouho-Maclay, a map showing the traveler's path to the shores of New Guinea with arrows.
1st student reads a poem:
He was walking. They stood like trunks
With drawings on the naked body.
Silent, wary and angry,
But only the eyes under the cheekbones shone.
In vain were gestures or speech,
Thoughts lived, rushing in a shy swarm,
He did not dare to sit down
And don't lay down
Before this dense half-naked formation.
The cries of birds subsided, cicadas bows,
Saying goodbye, the sun looked out of the water,
Fireflies constellations lit up,
And the sky faded. Savage pupils
They pierced like poisoned arrows.
Against the background of the stars, the flapping of wings flickered,
At the top of the moon hung a semicircle...
But he conquered the warriors,
Go to sleep - alone and without a weapon.
V. Lanin
Teacher: Now you guys have listened to a poem dedicated to the wonderful scientist and traveler and our compatriot Nikolai Nikolaevich Miklukho-Maclay
Librarian
In the summer of 1869, the Otechestvennye zapiski magazine, edited by N.A. Nekrasov, published an unsigned article “Civilization and wild tribes”, informing Russian readers about scientific disputes in the anthropological societies of Paris and London. The magazine reported on the violence inflicted on peaceful peoples by the governments of countries that call themselves advanced. Travelers who visited the Pacific Islands in the sixties noted that "the native population of Polynesia is constantly dying out in those places where Europeans settled, even in small numbers." The author of the article cites the facts of the monstrous massacre of the Americans with the Indians, the British with the Australians, and ends the article with the exclamation: “This is a shame for the praised civilization.” What explains the inevitable death of native tribes when they clash with “civilized peoples”? And the fact that many of the Western European scientists believed that these tribes were incapable of civilization. That the “white race” is the dominant one, and “the colored people must obey. Of the scientists of that time, Academician Baer was a follower of the theory of the unity of the origin of the human race. He considered it necessary to comprehensively study people of various races - from civilized Europeans to uncultured inhabitants of tropical countries. Guinea and get him permission to go there on board one of the warships. He was 23 years old. He chose New Guinea as the site of his many years of research because this island was inhabited by a primitive tribe, the study of which could answer the central question. Maclay understood that it was necessary to hurry, if the European colonialists came to New Guinea, the Papuans would not do well. The scientist did not believe in an absurd tale about cruel savages.
Teacher
Miklukho Maclay- Russian traveler, biologist, ethnographer, brave explorer of Oceania and New Guinea
The traveler is a humanist scientist. These three words define all his activities and life credo, accurately and fully express the main content of his life. He visited all continents except Antarctica, made long thousand-mile voyages, landed on many islands, and often penetrated places where no European had ever set foot before him. Miklouho-Maclay was not just a traveler, but a traveler - a scientist, for whom any expedition, long or short, distant or close, was subject to some kind of scientific program and could be considered complete and successful only if the traveler managed to get answers to questions which seemed to him important from a scientific point of view. Among the many heroes of great travels who were always short of funds, Miklouho-Maclay must be the most unsecured: he had nothing but debts, and he could not count on the fact that travel would bring him anything material. He undertook all his expeditions alone: he had neither employees nor assistants, the only one he had to involve was the commanders of ships for swimming, porters and guides for walking excursions, servants for long landings. He possessed a rare quality - to endear himself to people on whom his fate often depended. He did not like big words, but when it came to science, he was not afraid to speak and write solemnly and even with pathos.
“The only goal of my life is the benefit and success of science and the good of mankind”
Nikolai Nikolaevich was born on July 17, 1846. In the estate of Rozhdestvenskoye, Novgorod province, in the family of a railway engineer. His father Nikolai Ilyich took part in the construction of the first railway in Russia, and then was appointed to the position of the first head of the Moscow railway station in St. Petersburg. He was soon fired because, wanting to alleviate the fate of Taras Shevchenko, he sent him money. He died at the age of 40, because. fell ill, having received an illness during the construction of the railway.
Origin of the surname:
A descendant of the kuren ataman of the Zaporizhia Army Okhrim Makukha, the prototype of Taras Bulba, a relative of Goethe and Mickiewicz.
Nikolai Nikolaevich wrote about his origin: “My face is a living example of how three hostile forces united from time immemorial - the hot blood of the Cossacks peacefully merged with the blood of their proud enemies, the Poles, and diluted with the blood of cold Germans.
Great-grandfather, Zaporozhye Cossack Stepan Miklukho received the title of nobility for heroism during the assault on Ochakov. Mother - daughter of the hero of the Patriotic War of 1812. Colonel Semyon Becker.
After the family moved to St. Petersburg, Nikolai studied at the second St. Petersburg gymnasium, and in 1863 he entered the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of St. Petersburg University, from where he was expelled for participating in student unrest without the right to enter Russian educational institutions.
2nd student
With the funds raised by the student community, he leaves for Germany. Therefore, he studies in 1864-1868 - in - Germany universities: Heidelberg, Leipzig, Jena., He received a brilliant education for those times in the field of philosophy, medicine, biology.
He graduated from the University of Jena, Faculty of Medicine, but did not become a doctor. In the first expeditions, he was engaged in zoological studies of marine fauna and even gained some fame in the field of sponge anatomy.
Persistent studies in the natural sciences, languages, lively social activity. A typical student-raznochinets. A sketch has been preserved “Several rules of life for N.N.
MM." For example: “Your rights end where the rights of another begin;. don't do to another what you don't want them to do to you. do not promise - once you promise, try to fulfill; do not take on a task without being sure that you will complete it; once you start a work, try to finish it as best you can - do not redo it several times. ...”
At the University of Jena, Nikolai became close to the famous zoologist E. Haeckel, under whose guidance he began to study the comparative anatomy of animals. In 1866-67, as an assistant to Haeckel, a 19-year-old student travels to the Canary Islands and Morocco, Gibraltar, and Spain. and in 1869 visited the coast of the Red Sea. Having shaved his head and disguised himself as an Arab, he reached the coral reefs of the Red Sea. He walked the land of Morocco, visited the islands of the Atlantic, lived in Turkey.
Nikolai Nikolaevich Miklukho-Maclay argued that people of all races have the same origin, that everything depends on living conditions and upbringing. To prove his case, he decides to go to one of the unexplored islands. About his intention to go to the tropical rainforests of New Guinea, the scientist wrote that “it is on this little-studied island that primitive people are least affected by the influence of civilization, and this opens up exceptional opportunities for anthropological and ethnographic research”
3rd student
It was a great feat in the name of science. Preparation for the voyage took a whole year.
In 1870 he went on the military corvette Vityaz to New Guinea. In 1871-1872 he lived on the north-eastern coast of the island (now the Miklukho-Maclay Coast), studying the country, establishing friendly relations with the Papuans. In 1873 he visited Indonesia and the Philippines, after which he again arrived in New Guinea. In 1874-75 he made 2 trips to the hinterland of the Mallaka Peninsula; in 1876 he went to Western Micronesia and Northern Melanesia, each time returning to New Guinea.
The material collected by Miklukho-Maclay anticipated the later conclusions of theoretical scientists, production and consumption among the Papuans were collective in nature, they had no trade, the only division of labor known to them was division by sex and age, their society was primitive communist. What is striking in the diary is the respect that permeates all his judgments about the natives. In dealing with the natives, he demands from himself the same fairness and delicacy as in dealing with any other people. The Papuans of the Astrolabe Bay were people of the Stone Age, Miklouho-Maclay was one of the foremost scientists of modern civilization. But the scientist was not inclined to despise the Papuan on the grounds that he cuts wood with a clumsy stone axe, eats not with a spoon, but with some kind of shell, does not know a plow and a plow, and crushes the earth, almost with his bare hands. On the contrary: he admires their industriousness, etc. Chocolate-skinned, curly-haired Papuans lived in villages built among the impenetrable thickets of a lush tropical forest. They hunted, cultivated unusually fertile land, caught from large boats - pirogue - fish in rivers and the ocean. They did not imagine that there were other people in the world besides them, and even the inhabitants of the neighboring islands! They have their own plots in the forest, their trees, their animals. All Papuans respected each other's rights and observed them.
He studied everything around him. Compiling a dictionary of the language, I tried to understand their customs, walked along the paths laid by the Papuans, sometimes wandering for many kilometers deep into the wild forest. He studied birds, animals, fish, insects, made collections. It was not easy work, and his walking was a cakewalk. Clouds of mosquitoes, leeches crawling under clothes, snakes with terrible poison, treacherous ravines with steep slopes - there are countless dangers. But he constantly “carried” the greatest danger in himself: almost from the first day of his stay on the island, he was ill with tropical fever. Not for a minute did the illness of the scientist leave. On the hottest day, suddenly a cruel cold pierced, feverish the body, it seemed that even if you climbed in, you would not get warm even then. The cold replaced the unbearable heat, it dried the body, and it seemed that the head, arms, legs grow to incredible sizes, filling everything around. Such a terrible disease, but the scientist did not succumb to it .. Having settled in New Guinea, he slept little, ate poorly. ; it always seemed to him that he would not have time to properly fulfill his obligations. “I regret that I do not have a hundred eyes,” he wrote in his diary. At first, the inhabitants of the island did not trust this strange man, approached his house with weapons, hid women and children from him. Knowing about their fears, Miklukho-Maclay always warned of his arrival with a whistle. He gave them gifts and patiently waited for the Papuans to get used to him, in the meantime inquisitively exploring everything that surrounded him: he studied and compiled collections of birds, animals, insects that he found in the tropical wilds, and made meteorological observations of the ocean. He studied the physique of the Papuans, their way of life and customs. He had a medical education, and he always helped the natives to the best of his ability. He even got the opportunity to collect a collection of Papuan skulls, which the relatives of the dead scattered near the huts, hair samples in exchange for strands of their own.
Librarian
They first called him “tamo-rus” - a Russian man, and then “karaamtamo” - a man from the moon. Having learned a little the Papuan language, the scientist told the natives how the world works, about Russia. Where is she, this country Russia. Far, far away, over there. Miklukho - Maclay pointed somewhere far to the north, and it immediately became clear to the Papuans that their friend had arrived from the moon.
He was very worried and worried about their fate. The scientist himself, with his books and appeals to the heads of state, called for respect for the rights of the peoples of Oceania, demanded to stop the slave trade.
Along with delicacy and kindness, forcing Miklouho-Maclay, who is constantly ill, suffering both from fever and from wounds on his legs, to rush through the impenetrable forest to the village to help some of the native patients; next to the features of gentleness, kindness, delicacy, it reveals fearlessness in the literal sense of the word, i.e. complete absence of fear.
In his diaries, notes, the book “Journey to the Maclay Coast” information about the climate of New Guinea, its flora and fauna, and, most importantly: the physical type of the Papuans of New Guinea is described. Miklukho-Maclay refuted the opinion widespread in the science of that time that the Papuans had some special properties of “lower races”. It was customary to think that the hair of the Papuans grows somehow especially in “bunches”. No, they grow exactly like the Europeans.” It was said that their skin was particularly tough. His diary is a refutation of the slander erected against the black tribes
If science had not mastered all his thoughts, would he have been able, day after day, week after week, not giving himself rest even during illness and thereby shortening his life by twenty years, day after day walking through swamps and mountains, measuring , inspect, accumulate materials, record, compare. After completing anthropological and geological research, the scientist intended to return to Russia, but this was prevented by illness. In 1878-1882 he lived in Australia, where he founded a biological station near Sydney. In 1882 he came to his homeland. He took up the publication of his works, traveled to Berlin, Paris, London to give lectures. In 1883 MM. again came to New Guinea, from 1884. was in Sydney, married, and in 1886. finally returned to Russia. After the eastern part of New Guinea was divided by Germany and England, he offered Alexander III to establish a Russian settlement on the island, but was refused.
2nd student
237 days of life on new lands and 160 days in voyages on not always calm seas undermined the health of Miklouho-Maclay. On April 14, 1888, he died in the Willie clinic in St. Petersburg. He was buried at the Volkovsky cemetery. Scientist V.Modestov: “We are burying a man who glorified Russia in the far corners of the vast world. This man was one of the rarest people ever to appear in our old land.”
Librarian
Miklukho-Maclay made a huge contribution to anthropology and ethnography. He collected a lot of information about the peoples of Southeast Asia, he was the first to describe the Papuans as representatives of the anthropological type, the author of 160 scientific papers. He was the protector of the colonial peoples. He opposed racism and colonialism.
From a letter to L.N. Tolstoy to Miklukho-Maclay: “Suddenly one person, under the pretext of scientific research, appears among the most terrible wild ones, armed instead of bullets and bayonets with one mind, and proves that all that ugly violence by which our world lives is only old obsolete nonsense , from which it is high time to free people who want to live rationally .... I don’t know what contribution to science, the one you serve, your collections of discoveries will make, but your experience of communicating with wild animals will make up an era in the science that I serve, - in the science of how people live with each other.”
Miklukho-Maclay was forced to study abroad: he was expelled from St. Petersburg University with a ban on entering other universities in Russia. At home, he spent only his childhood and youth. For 2 decades, he visited Russia only on short visits. He finally moved to St. Petersburg only shortly before his death. For many years he maintained contact with his native country only by letters, and even then very rare: regular mail did not go where Miklukho-Maclay traveled on ships and on foot, on elephants and in pirogues. But no matter how far from Russia he found himself, he everywhere brought with him the air of his native country, the air of the time when he left it.
His life, full of wonderful deeds, great trials, dramatic events, retains for us even now, a century later, a burning interest. About people like Miklukho-Maclay,
A.P. Chekhov: “Their ideology, noble ambition, which is based on the honor of the motherland and science, their perseverance, no hardships, dangers and temptations of personal happiness, an invincible desire for a goal once set, the wealth of their knowledge and diligence, a habit of heat, to hunger, to homesickness, a fantastic faith in ... civilization and science make them in the eyes of the people as ascetics, personifying the highest moral force ... ”
3rd student
The natives never forgot the constants. Miklouho-Maclay's constant concern for them; no trees planted by him, no axes given, no medicines, no coconut oil, which he taught them to extract from nuts. Already at the beginning of the 20th century, ethnographers recorded the legend. Folded by the Papuans about Maclay:
“Maclay came and said to our ancestors: stone axes are not sharp. They are stupid. Throw them in the woods, they are no good, stupid.
Maclay gave them iron knives and iron axes...”. ,
The nobility of Maclay turned out to be understandable to the natives. They fully appreciated the qualities of this extraordinary person. When the traveler's legs hurt, the natives made a stretcher and alternately wore it so that it would not hurt him to walk; about Maclay's veracity, they created a saying: "Maclay's word is one"; when he left, they took care of his things for years. And this was not a bow to the material power of the white man, to his lamp. Shotgun and matches. Ohlson - a servant - Maclay also knew how to shoot a gun, light matches, but Ohlson was a nonentity and a coward, and the Papuans did not put him in anything. Love for Maclay was caused not by admiration for the power of unknown objects, but by admiration for the strength and beauty of the human person.
Only in 1975 was the independent state of Papua New Guinea created.
In memory of the scientist, two institutes: ethnography and anthropology, bear the name of Miklouho-Maclay.
Miklouho-Maclay's birthday is a professional holiday for ethnographers.
Two films were shot: 1947 "Miklukho-Maclay" and 1985 "The Shore of His Life"
1996 - UNESCO named him a citizen of the world.
Streets of Miklukho-Maklay: Moscow, Papua New Guinea,
Bust - monuments: In Sydney at the University, in Sevastopol, the capital of Indonesia, Jakarta. In Ukraine. Museums, busts, a park with his name.
And now guys, let's sum up what we heard and what we remember.
Let's do it in the form of a quiz
Quiz questions .
1. Where did N.N. Miklukho Maclay?
2. On what ship and in what year did N.N. travel to New Guinea? Miklukho Maclay?
3. What principle did N.N. Miklouho-Maclay in the study of indigenous people?
4. What are the names of the original inhabitants of New Guinea?
5. What did N.N. Miklukho Maclay?
6. The main goal of N.N. Miklukho-Maclay?
7. What do you think, for what rights of people in modern times, would N.N. Miklukho Maclay?
Reflection of educational activity in the classroom.
I read, or rather listened to, notes of Miklukho-Maclay about his trip to New Guinea. I am under a strong impression and now, for any reason, I quote something from this book. At the same time, Maclay (he calls himself that) was neither a saint nor a madman, as one might get the impression from a school geography course. Since childhood, I thought that he landed on the island alone, without weapons, he built a house for himself. It wasn't all right, of course. The sailors built a house for him, cutting down coconut palms, priceless for the natives. He took two servants with him (a Scotsman and a Polynesian boy), and not only had weapons (several rifles and revolvers), but even at first surrounded his house with mines, heeding the advice of the ship's gunner. Another thing is that he had the wisdom and courage to use this weapon only for hunting, and to resolve all the showdowns with the natives due to a sensitive understanding of their psychology. As he himself writes: "What, it will be easier for me to die if before I die I have time to kill six natives?"(quoting roughly).
It was interesting to observe how during the year and a half of Maclay's first stay on this earth, his authority. At first, the inhabitants of all the neighboring villages wanted to kill him immediately after the departure of the Russian ship. Then they tolerated a stranger, but when approaching the village they hid all their women in the forests (the Papuans were diametrically different from the Polynesians in their attitude towards women). A few months later they began to hide them conditionally - in their own homes. After six months of his stay, he was introduced to women who immediately began to whine tobacco and jewelry from him. A little later, the men already asked Maclay to take their wives under his protection in the event of an attack by the highlanders. And when more than a year passed, they even began to offer 1-2 wives in each of the villages - just to stay.
It was amusing to read how Maclay mastered the local language. The easiest way was to give the names of objects - he pointed his finger and found out. But such words as "good" and "bad" were mastered only six months later, despite numerous attempts and rather sophisticated techniques. One of them tore a sheet of paper and showed the natives 2 sheets: a whole and a torn one. I did something similar with tobacco. As a result, for a whole month he mistook the local word "tobacco" for the word "good" and that is how he used it in conversations. In the course of such misunderstandings, the Papuan language was also enriched with unexpected words. So Maclay said "taboo", pointing to everything that the natives should not touch in his house. The word was Polynesian, unknown in these places. And so it happened that the Papuans began to use the word "taboo" to call any firearm.
Amazing are his descriptions of local life and its customs. Well, for example, women feeding pigs with their breasts. Or teaching young children to work. A one and a half year old child runs into the forest, collects branches for a fire. And after completing the work, he returns to his mother and continues to breastfeed. A strange ban on boys under the age of majority to hear music. Do not list everything.
I have already mentioned the rare combination wisdom and courage this person has. He was absolutely calm when the servant (a former whaler!) was shaking with fear. And it's not just about courage. The point is the ability to quickly and soberly assess a difficult situation, to make the right decision in a situation where neither "yes" nor "no" can be said, and immediately, without delay, to fulfill it, despite the mortal danger. More than once I was reminded of a phrase from the samurai code: "Of the two paths, choose the one that leads faster to death". Maclay often seemed to choose just such a path, but only because he understood: you can’t let a splinter fester, you need to pull it out immediately and decisively, even if it’s dangerous. As a result, it always turned out that the path chosen by Maclay was the shortest path to life. Let me give you a couple of examples. I’ll make a reservation right away that I’m conveying all this without text, from memory, not verbatim.
- Maclay wants to go to some remote village and tries to find a guide-translator among the inhabitants of the nearest and friendly village. But the natives bashfully turn away and only say that bad people live in that village and that there is no need to go there. Maclay manages to find out the reason. It turns out that some 2 inhabitants of that remote village offer to come to the tamo-rus, who is generous with gifts, as they called him, to kill him, and plunder the house. Why receive constant handouts in the form of knives, axes and jewelry when you can take it all in one fell swoop? It would even be strange if such thoughts did not occur to the natives at all. Maklai soberly reasoned that if they had not been afraid, this plan would have been carried out long ago, as we would now say, "without noise and dust." And the Papuans were afraid not only of the gunshot "taboo". They were afraid of the "man from the moon", who could burn the ocean, stop the rain, cause an earthquake, in a word, they saw him as a great sorcerer. The one who talks about his plans for the 10 nearest villages is not very dangerous. More dangerous is that, in modern terms, he "gives a license" to others, while he hopes to receive "author's" for himself. In general, Maclay understands that friendly natives living nearby can borrow this idea. Why share with strangers when we can take it all ourselves? That is, this is the very splinter that needs to be pulled out immediately. And so he goes alone, without guides (he cannot trust his friends!) And weapons (there is no sense in him!) And even without knowing the language to that very remote village. Residents are stunned and stupefied. First of all, Maklai (a subtle psychologist!) demands with gestures to give himself food and asks where he can get a lodging for the night. I immediately remembered how in Soviet times my father-in-law, wanting to line up the store manager, entering his office, immediately asked: "Perhaps you would suggest that I sit down first?" This immediately gave the conversation the right tone. I return to the topic. When an interpreter appeared in the village, Maclay demanded to convene the village council and call the 2 villains mentioned above. They came hiding their eyes. "Tell me, did I do something bad to you? Can someone here say that I'm a bad person? So. I'm going to bed now. If you want to kill me, hurry up, because I'm leaving your village early in the morning". All night the natives loudly discussed the situation, and in the morning this couple came to Maclay with an offering (a huge pig) and offered to take this pig to his house. Can you imagine the effect? After all, this happened in front of all the nearby villages, where everyone knew everything! Thus arose the myth of the invincibility and immortality of the traveler.
- Somehow later, another situation arose when for the natives the easiest way out of the impasse could be the murder of Maclay. An old man approached him and in the presence of the council asked: "Maclay, tell me honestly, can you die like me, like him, like the inhabitants of the neighboring village?". Saying "yes" in such a situation was dangerous, saying "no" was also impossible. After all, Maclay has developed a reputation as a man who never lies. Expression "Maclay's word is one!" became a proverb. But you never know, tomorrow a tree could fall and nail it, having caught a lie (huge trees were undermined by tropical insects and fell often). As Maclay writes, all these thoughts flashed through his head in a split second. And at that very moment the decision came. He took a huge spear hanging in the room and offered his chest to the old man. Like, check it out! There were no more such questions.
Such a great wizard!
Born in the year of the Stork, the Russian traveler-ethnographer Miklukho-Maclay lived an interesting life. Like a migratory bird, he repeatedly went to the southern countries, returning to his native lands in order to leave them again soon. Typical qualities of a totem appeared in his character: nobility, “wingedness”, attachment to his beloved land. The stork is considered the guardian of the locality, national traditions, and the protector of family foundations. All these qualities were fully present in the character of Miklouho-Maclay, who devoted himself entirely to the study and protection of the culture of the small Polynesian peoples. He chose New Guinea as his homeland and behaved towards it as the guardian spirit of this island, in which he showed the best qualities of his totem.
Horoscope of Miklukho-Maclay N. N.
Rozhdestvenskoye Novgorod province 07/05/1846 (s. style) 16:15:29
Friday, 29 w.d., 24 w.d.
Time of birth N.N. Miklouho-Maclay is not known. The horoscope is rectified, but requires additional research.
Ethnography, anthropology and biology, the genesis of animal species and human races - all these branches of natural science, to which Miklouho-Maclay, who was born under the sign of Cancer, devoted himself entirely, are under the planetary jurisdiction of the mistress of this sign - the Moon, which also controls the year of the Stork. Perhaps because in the horoscope of the Russian explorer of the Indonesian islands, the Moon, which controls both the year and the month of his birth, was in exaltation (the strongest evolutionary position), he was given the opportunity to fully manifest the qualities of a heavenly totem.
A tireless explorer, a man who became a national hero of New Guinea, traveled the roads of Europe, Asia and Australia, studied a huge number of islands in the Atlantic, Southeast Asia and Oceania, was born in the modest Russian village of Rozhdestvenskoye, Novgorod province. Who could have imagined that a boy born in the family of an ordinary engineer would become a famous traveler-ethnographer, see almost the whole world and leave behind a huge collection that now forms the basis of the exposition of the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography in St. Petersburg? And this is the same person who was denied higher education in Russia for participating in student unrest.
At the beginning of his scientific career, the revolutionary-minded student Nikolai Miklukho (then not yet Maclay) was expelled from St. Petersburg University without the right to enter higher educational institutions of the Russian Empire. A young man suffering from knowledge was forced to leave his homeland to continue his education abroad. For two years he listened to lectures at the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Heidelberg in Germany, then studied medicine in Leipzig and Jena, which was very useful to him in the future. At the age of 19, as part of a group of German scientists, he went on his first long journey to the Canary Islands, which lasted almost a year, and a year later he made an independent trip to the Red Sea coast. At the age of 23, the future shone for anthropology, but for now, just an enthusiastic scientist returns to St. Petersburg, where he manages to achieve approval in the Russian Geographical Society of a travel program around the Pacific Islands in order to study the physical geography, meteorology, zoology and anthropology of this region of the planet. Only after 12 years (the cycle of Jupiter - the planet of education, long journeys and public recognition), the "prodigal son" Miklouho-Maclay returns to Russia and receives recognition.
The life path of a tireless researcher was tortuous and thorny. The hardy traveler was saved by innate patience (Saturn in the royal degree in the monastery in Aquarius) and indifference to the benefits of civilization. The spirit of adventurism pushed Miklouho-Maclay to constantly change places, his lively mind was constantly in need of new food. Countries, cities, fellow travelers and just acquaintances - everything changed with incredible speed, like in a magical kaleidoscope.
The eccentric young man showed originality in everything: he added the addition “Mak-lay” to his surname, painted his face, shaved his head and dressed in an Arab outfit, reached the coral reefs of the Red Sea, walked the lands of Morocco on foot.
With his strange behavior, he managed to impress even the Papuans. During his first trip to New Guinea, he was faced with the need to impress the inhabitants of the island, whose diet included human meat. At the moment of the first “cultural” contact between a European scientist and aborigines, Miklukho-Maclay, surrounded by aggressive inhabitants of the island, being between life and death, sat down on the ground, calmly untied his shoe laces, and ... lay down to sleep. Oddly enough, he managed to fall asleep under the curious glances of dozens of Papuans, who decided that since a white man is not afraid of death, then he is immortal.
Subsequently, the scientist wrote in his diary: "In a dream, it is not so scary to die." Not only did Miklukho-Maclay not die in his sleep, he even woke up famous. The news of him quickly spread around the island, the inhabitants of which mistook him for a demigod.
"Karaan Tamo" - "Man from the Moon" - this is how the natives called the strange alien, unconsciously guessing some of the features of his character, dictated by the astrological circumstances of his birth. The moon, the heavenly patroness of people born in the period from June 22 to July 21, when the Sun moves in the zodiac sign of Cancer, was the most important luminary in the horoscope of a naturalist.
Miklukho-Maclay, being a lunar (albeit not quite typical), was distinguished by dreaminess, a passion for sea travel, and an interest in the relics of nature and civilization. The astrological symbolism of lunar influence in a person’s character is manifested in the desire to find an inner connection with one’s true essence, to get to the bottom of the origins and root causes of events and phenomena, because in astrology the Moon is the foremother, the progenitor of all things, it controls the growth and growth of plants, the birth of people and animals. The strongest influence of the Moon on Miklouho-Maclay (and in his horoscope she, the ruler of the solar sign, was in an exalted position in Taurus) manifested itself in the fact that he chose primitive society as the subject of his scientific research. The moon, which has a tremendous impact on the inner emotional world of the individual, is most significant at the first stage of personality development, as well as at the earliest stages of the formation of social relations. In a primitive society, built on the principles of intra-clan relationships, devoid of commodity-money expression, various aspects of lunar influence are fully manifested: here, following natural cycles, and subordinating the younger to the principle of seniority, and the cult of the mother ancestor. In his article "Why did I choose New Guinea?" Miklouho-Maclay wrote that "it is on this little-studied island that primitive people are least of all affected by the influence of civilization, and this opens up exceptional opportunities for anthropological and ethnographic research."
Civilization and culture are not the same thing. Miklouho-Maclay was interested in living culture in its original form, but not in civilization, which is an ordered, ossified, dead culture.
The German philosopher Oswald Spengler drew a clear line between culture and civilization, stating that where civilization begins, culture ends.
We will not be so categorical and say that from the point of view of astrological symbolism, the concept of culture as a kind of living, spontaneously developing process is associated with the Moon, embodying the universal generative principle, while civilization - the product of ordering, organization and canonization - corresponds to the solar masculine principle. The combination of the solar (paternal) and lunar (maternal) principles leads to the birth of a new life, both in the biological and cultural sense of the word. At the junction of a creative impulse and an artistic canon, a genuine work of art is born that can make up for the obvious lack of culture in modern civilization. Unfortunately, in recent times we see less and less true products of culture among the works of painting, literature, theater and cinema.
Civilization is increasingly pushing culture out of our daily lives, which makes many people turn their eyes to untouched corners of nature and run away from noisy cities in search of peace and inspiration. One of those who became disillusioned with the advantages of civilization was Miklouho-Maclay, who went to the ends of the world in search of primitive culture, namely culture, and not a conservative, once established way of life, regulated by the social and material relationships of European society. In the horoscope of the naturalist, the Moon prevailed over the Sun, as a result of which the craving for nature and solitude took precedence over the desire for a comfortable life in the capital.
Of course, in addition to an understandable scientific and cultural interest, Miklouho-Maclay was attracted to the distant islands by the desire, characteristic of every person under the strong influence of the moon, to be back in childhood. Life among people who are at the infant stage of development of social, material and intellectual relations suited the scientist, for whom the worldly benefits of an "enlightened" society were of no particular interest. "Karaan-tamo" - "Moon Man", or "Tamo-Rus" - "Russian Man", became his own among the undersized inhabitants of New Guinea, he treated the Papuans, gave them useful advice, was their intercessor in the civilized world, protecting their right for their own development. The unsuccessful attempt to introduce a Russian protectorate in New Guinea, which would actually mean joining Russia, was caused by the desire to keep the virgin nature of this island clean and protect its population from German and English colonial aggressors.
Miklukho-Maclay's relationship with this amazing land began on September 20, 1871, when the Russian corvette Vityaz reached the shores of New Guinea on the 346th day of sailing. The scientist, accompanied by two servants hired by him in the Samoan archipelago, landed on the shore of the Astrolabe Bay, near the village of Bonga. At the end of the topographic survey of the area, the team of the Vityaz corvette continued sailing, and the 25-year-old naturalist remained on the island to test his own nature (the Sun and Mars in the VIII house of the horoscope), and at the same time make a number of scientific discoveries. At the time of the landing of Miklouho-Maclay on New Guinea, transit Jupiter was exactly on the Sun of the scientist, which happens once every 12 years and, as a rule, opens up a number of opportunities, prompting a person to manifest individuality. Such a transit is especially important for representatives of the zodiacal signs, in which Jupiter actively manifests its qualities. In Cancer, where the Sun of Miklouho-Maclay was located, Jupiter is in exaltation (elevation), which tells the representatives of this sign the need for long trips, expanding horizons, and studying other cultures. Bright events that occur at the time of Jupiter's transit movement along the most important points of the horoscope, as a rule, become fundamental in a whole chain of events unfolding over the next twelve years. The landing of Miklukho-Maclay on the northeastern coast of New Guinea in September 1871 was just such a fateful event for the Russian explorer.
"The Last Hero" lived in a hut on the ocean for more than a year. Experiencing constant discomfort from the fact that matches, salt, sugar, ink ran out, and clothes turned into tatters, the scientist, nevertheless, did not stop his scientific research. Here, driven by hunger, he discovered a new kind of sugar banana, a number of valuable fruit and oil plants. Having come into contact with the local population, subdued by his courage and generosity, the scientist wrote Anthropological Notes on the Papuans of the Maclay Coast in New Guinea, mapped the vast strait and the archipelago of Contented People, who were really happy until the Germans and the British in 1884 took over the island. But before this sad event, which undermined the scientist's faith in "civilized humanity" and sharply shortened his life, another 13 fruitful years had to pass, full of active scientific activity, anthropological, ethnographic and cultural research and discoveries.
The period of the first stay of Miklouho-Maclay in New Guinea was relatively short - only a year and three months, but during this time, which he lived in a hut open to ocean winds and monsoons, the scientist managed to draw the most important conclusion for anthropology: the Papuans are not second-class people ( as it was customary to believe in the then science), and therefore cannot be subjected to merciless exploitation and slave trade by "civilized" nations. After a series of anthropometric measurements and studies, Miklouho-Maclay established that the hair of the Papuans is no different from the hair of Europeans. This researcher can be considered with full confidence the first European human rights activist of the indigenous population of Southeast Asia, who publicly declared the equality of the rights of highly developed peoples and those who, due to various historical and geographical circumstances, remained at the stage of primitive development.
In December 1872, the Russian clipper ship Izumrud entered the Astrolabe Bay, and Miklukho-Maclay boarded it to continue his wanderings. The Papuans arranged a solemn farewell to "Tamo-Rus", who promised to return to their new homeland soon. On the way back, the anthropologist managed to make another important discovery.
Taking advantage of the Emerald's entry into the Philippine port of Manila, he ascends to the Limay Mountains, where he finds a short black tribe of Negritos, the mystery of whose origin had not been solved until that time. “Negritos” in Spanish are “little blacks” and their height did not exceed 1 meter 44 centimeters, which significantly distinguished them from other black peoples. As a result of anthropometric research, as well as on the basis of the kinship of the languages and customs of the Guinean Papuans and Filipino Negritos, Miklukho-Maclay made a major scientific discovery: Negritos are not Negroes! The Russian scientist was the first human rights activist of black peoples who opposed the theory of racial superiority of whites over blacks with evidence of the biological identity of representatives of different races.
In a humid tropical climate, Nikolai Nikolayevich became seriously ill and was treated for a long time, but did not return to Russia. Having improved his health in Sydney, Miklouho-Maclay undertook a journey deep into the Malay Peninsula in order to find the "orangutans" - "people of the forest" - a short dark-skinned tribe of non-Malay origin. This mysterious people was at a primitive stage of development, led a wandering lifestyle, spending nights in trees, escaping from predators. The hardest expedition with twelve-hour crossings through impenetrable tropical forests, swampy swamps with toxic fumes and rivers overgrown with dense vegetation ended in success - "orangutans", as the locals called them, were found. Miklukho-Maclay spent several months among the "people of the forest", studied their language, described their way of life and customs, and made anthropological measurements. "Orangutans" resembled Filipino Negritos in height, and in appearance - the Papuans of New Guinea. An enthusiastic connoisseur of primitive culture with undisguised pleasure described the natural and free life of man in the natural environment, advocating a return to the origins, but foreseeing the imminent collapse of this fragile world under the onslaught of civilization. The internal contradictions of the Polynesian European were aggravated by his physical condition, which was adversely affected by the consequences of the tropical diseases he had suffered. Tormented by a fever, Miklouho-Maclay described in his diary everything that was of scientific interest: the dwellings and tools of the aborigines, their social relations, folk beliefs and etiological traditions, rituals, clothes, tattoos and household items, knowing full well that all this was in the very near future. may become history in the future.
To our deep regret, the custodian of the cultural and natural values of the peoples of Oceania did not live long, but not many people can do what he did during his lifetime. The life path of a seeker of scientific truth cannot be measured by ordinary human standards. The spatio-temporal criteria of the worlds in which the soul of a genuine scientist lives sometimes differ significantly from the unhurried course of time familiar to us in a familiar habitable space. In a relatively short period of time, these tireless ascetics in search of knowledge manage to go through so many roads and discover so many unknown pages of history and science that they would be enough for several human lives.
Among these "pioneers" of modern natural science is the legendary personality of Miklouho-Maclay, who by the age of 42 (and that was how much fate had measured him) made a number of important scientific discoveries on distant sea expeditions. The vast distances repeatedly overcome by the Russian anthropologist in search of answers to his questions about the origin of human races are incommensurable with the scale of European countries and cities that have shaped our ideas about space. Nikolai Nikolayevich Miklukho-Maclay traveled four times to New Guinea, each time sailing more than 20,000 km in each direction.
Frequent change of climatic and time zones, repeated crossing of the equatorial region of the planet, long-term residence in a region that does not undergo seasonal climatic changes, which are so characteristic of Russia - all these factors contributed to a change in the internal biological rhythm of the scientist, which, perhaps, accelerated the course of his "internal clock" . The official medical report on the death of Miklouho-Maclay testifies to the devastating consequences of severe tropical diseases, but, most likely, in addition to diseases, there was something else that shortened the life of a talented scientist.
Astrology considers a person's life span as a period of time, which, in addition to lifestyle, genetic predisposition and planetary influence, is significantly influenced by additional factors, among which the "geography" of fate is not the last. Every year on his own birthday, a person symbolically experiences a new birth, laying down an individual program for the year and at the same time, making adjustments to the course of his entire subsequent life. From an astrological point of view, it is important where and how the annual winding of the internal biological clock is carried out, called "solar" in honor of the revolution of the Sun. Celebrating a birthday in a place other than permanent residence, a person really changes the picture of his future, since a change in the geographical coordinates of the meeting place of the annual revolution of the Sun leads to a different arrangement of celestial houses in the horoscope of the solarium. If a European meets his birthday in the southern hemisphere, then in the horoscope of solar circulation at sunrise (Ascendant) there is one of the signs of the opposite hemisphere of the zodiac from the one that would rise at the time of the solarium at the geographic latitude of his birthplace. As a result of such an inversion, events caused by the impact of transit planets on radical ones affect the problems of other horoscopic houses, and, as a result, unfold in completely different areas of life. The same planetary situation, depending on the background of which house of the horoscope it unfolds, can be realized in twelve different spheres of human life. By changing the geographic coordinates of the annual rotation of the Sun, which occurs on a birthday, a person moves the hands of the cosmic clock, speeding up or slowing down the course of events, directing the flow of time in a different, unknown direction. Such spatio-temporal experiments can lead to both positive and negative results, depending on which houses of the horoscope these or those planetary constellations fall into.
Miklukho-Maclay, without suspecting it, from the age of 19 (the time of the first circulation of the lunar nodes) turned on the mechanism for correcting his own fate. He met his nineteenth birthday on the first distant sea expedition aboard a ship, and his whole future life went according to a different scenario. During his first trip as an assistant to Haeckel, Miklouho-Maclay visited Madeira, Tenerife, Gran Canaria, Gibraltar, Spain and France. Since then, he did not even think about another life.
Having changed his surname (from Miklukho to Miklukho-Maclay), he became a different person - the true master of his own destiny, having lived a bright, unforgettable, but very short life. You have to pay for everything and everyone has their own accounts with fate. The Russian traveler paid for the happiness of choosing the path of life himself with the unlived years of his life. He did it consciously and, apparently, would hardly have refused the opportunity to go the path of the discoverer again. The scientist, who devoted his whole life to the study of the population of Indonesia and Polynesia, lived a life comparable in duration to that of a typical New Guinea native. The lifetime reincarnation of Miklukho in Maclay (and he took this addition to the surname for greater sonority among the Papuans) ultimately led to a complete change in the life program and a reduction in the life of a European to the average life of a Polynesian. The soul of a Russian person, having dissolved in the delightful nature of Indonesia and Oceania, merged with the souls of his beloved Papua New Guinea. In this amazing person, two entities merged together - a Russian by the name of Miklukho and the Polynesian "Maclay" created by him, after which he even named part of the northeastern coast of New Guinea the Maclay Coast. But in this case, we are not talking about a schizophrenic split personality, but rather about a doubling of personality, because Miklukho-Maclay lived twice as rich a life as the life of an ordinary armchair scientist.
But, unfortunately, a super eventful life is rarely long, an example of which can be the fate of Maclay. Perhaps Miklukho would have lived longer, but the Indonesian Maclay could not have been a long-liver. From the point of view of astrology, 42 years (the age at which the soul of the anthropologist left the mortal body and returned to Indonesia) is more than symbolic, since it represents only half of the “ideal” life expectancy of 84 years and is due to the movement of the point of life in 12 signs of the zodiac (7 years x 12 = 84 years). The first half of a person's life, as a rule, is engaged in solving personal problems (family, home, children, mastering a profession), devoting the second half of his life to other people, solving social problems, raising grandchildren, etc. The forty-two-year milestone limits the lower hemisphere of the zodiacal circle associated with the implementation of an individual personality program (minimum program). At 42, the point of life passes into the zodiacal sign of Libra, associated with social activity, then it follows into Scorpio - a sign of colossal collective energies (49-56), even further - into Sagittarius - a sign of social activity, recognition of authority, teaching, mentoring and transferring the accumulated experience for students. The problems of society, alien to the character of a lone scientist, remained outside the scope of his interests, since in the cosmogram of the researcher, the vast majority of the planets were located precisely in the lower (individual) hemisphere of the zodiac.
The road of life of Nikolai Nikolaevich Miklukho-Maclay ended at the very transition of the point of life from the sign of Virgo to Libra. This point of the zodiacal circle coincided with the zenith of the discoverer's horoscope. Passing away from life at the moment the point of life connects with the upper point of the horoscope is evidence of the fulfillment of the life program and the achievement of the desired goal. And the goal of Miklouho-Maclay was of a research nature (MS in Virgo), and could only be achieved in distant wanderings (Proserpina - almuten of the X house in the IX house). The house of wanderings and spiritual quests (IX house of the horoscope) was significant in Maclay's natal chart, since it had its own ruler - the planet of scientists and researchers Proserpine. The ominous conjunction of Lilith and Mercury reveals the border between the VIII and IX houses - distant wanderings were of an extreme nature. To establish contact with the natives of Oceania, the Russian researcher had to taste human meat. Ritual cannibalism, widespread among the Polynesians, is unnatural for a civilized person, but the Black Moon on the border of the VIII and IX houses forced Miklouho-Maclay to go through this monstrous initiation. Probably for this he was subsequently punished by death at a relatively early age.
Despite the severity of the IX house in the horoscope of the scientist, any of his attempts at social activity did not bring any positive results, Maclay was not destined to become a politician. But with scientific activity, everything was in the best possible way, since the exalted Moon, the ruler of the solar sign of Miklouho-Maclay, was in the VI house of the horoscope. His scientific works gained great popularity and riveted the attention of scientists around the world. The fame of a scientist was bestowed on him according to his deserts. The IX house, indicating authority and social position, fell into the sign of Virgo in his horoscope, which led to the recognition by the Russian Geographical Society of Miklouho-Maclay's merits to science in the last 7 years of his life (in the period from 35 to 42, the point of life moves along Virgo) . Public recognition, a lifelong pension, an apartment in St. Petersburg, the publication of the scientist’s works, numerous invitations to high society, fame, money, prestige - all this happened in the last years of Miklouho-Maclay’s life, but he himself was already a little worried. By the age of 40, he was already too sick to feel like a full member of society and participate in social events.
He devoted his whole life to science, but when the time for scientific discoveries passed (the movement of the point of life according to the sign of Virgo) and the time came for social adaptation associated with the sign of Libra, Miklouho-Maclay passed away. His asocial inner essence could not find its place in secular life. Once torn away by his native country, while in voluntary exile in New Guinea, Miklouho-Maclay wrote in his diary: “I am so pleased in my loneliness! It seems to me that if it were not for the disease, I would not mind staying here forever, that is, never returning to Europe.
Love for loneliness is a manifestation in the character of Miklouho-Maclay of the conjunction of Saturn and Neptune in Aquarius. Saturn in astrology is a symbol of individualism, loneliness and trials, Neptune is the lord of the seas and natural elements, controls the XII house of the horoscope, associated with imprisonment and solitude (at best, in the bosom of nature). Both planets are extremely strong in Aquarius (Saturn in the sign, Neptune in exaltation), and Saturn is even in the royal degree. These astrological circumstances of the birth of N. N. Miklukho indicate that for his personality, solitude was of an evolutionary nature and contributed to the development of the best qualities of his personality. The symbol of the 30 degree of Aquarius, in which Saturn was located in Maclay's horoscope, is the "King on the Throne", an illustration of what the life of a Russian anthropologist can be, who, being in solitude in New Guinea, could really feel like the king of this island, because he was loved by the natives and recognized by them as a demigod.
But Saturn only contributes to the formation and formation of the personality, one might say, to the cutting of the precious stone of the human soul, but does not at all strengthen the position of a person in society. Unlike Jupiter, Saturn is the heavenly patron of single individualists who are able to spend a long time alone and temper their character, experiencing hunger and cold, enduring adversity and blows of fate. A true Saturnian is a flint man, a rock man. It is significant that in honor of the outstanding traveler-anthropologist, the Russian Geographical Society named a mountain on the island of New Guinea during his lifetime - a rare honor for a scientist. However, Mount Miklukho-Maclay, although it became an eternal memorial to his scientific feat, did not bring any benefits to the scientist himself. If in the horoscope of an outstanding naturalist, not Saturn, but Jupiter was in the royal 30 degrees of Aquarius, then, for sure, he would have had an excellent political career, and the scientist’s plans to annex New Guinea to the Russian Empire, to become the governor of this island, could get a real embodiment. But in the space passport of N. N. Miklukho-Maclay, Jupiter (the planet of society) was assigned a disadvantageous position for him in the sign of Gemini, which greatly complicated Miklukho-Maclay's relations with the authorities.
The asocial life position of the ethnographer-naturalist is a manifestation of the exiled Jupiter. In the strongest influence on the fate of N.N. Miklouho-Maclay of this particular planet lies the answer to the question of the reasons for the wandering life of a scientist-seeker, thirsty for knowledge and not accepting scientific dogmas and authorities. Exiled Jupiter in Gemini creates a skeptical attitude towards established once and for all scientific doctrines, and at best promotes constant self-study and the search for spiritual guidance on trips away from home.
It would seem that Nikolai Miklukho, born on July 17 (5), 1846, under the sign of Cancer, should have become the guardian of the traditions of his people, gain a spiritual connection with his native land, because Jupiter, the planet of authority and worldview, exalts in Cancer, and, therefore, is an evolutionary planet for representatives of this sign. But in the case of Maclay, this just did not happen. Jupiter in Gemini pushed him to search for scientific truth far from his native shores.
The vector of personality development was chosen by the young scientist quite correctly, because in his horoscope in Sagittarius (the sign of distant travels) there was the White Moon - the guardian angel, pushing him to search for spiritual guidelines and expand horizons. If Jupiter, which rules Sagittarius and Selena, which is in this sign, in the birth chart of N. N. Miklukho would not be in an exiled position in Gemini, then the social adaptation of the adventurer would bring much more benefit both to himself and to all of Russia. His plans to create an independent state in New Guinea - the Papuan Union and the organization on this island of a "free Russian colony" - a democratic autonomous region, were not destined to come true. The disadvantageous position of Jupiter in his horoscope did not allow him to become either the "governor of the island of Borneo" or the chairman of the Papuan Union of New Guinea. Tsar Alexander III, after several considerations of the project in 1886, imposed a final resolution: “Consider this matter over. Miklouho-Maclay to refuse. The refusal of the king broke the spirit of the scientist, who was already suffering from the consequences of tropical diseases.
It is unlikely that the 40-year-old ethnographer, a great friend of the peoples of Indonesia, could count on a different answer from the sovereign. 40 years is a critical age for every person, because at this time, according to a symbolic progression (1 year = 1 degree of the zodiac), all the planets become in relation to themselves in the aspect of "nonagon" (1/9 of the circle). Forty-degree aspects fetter any initiative more than forty-degree frost. It is no coincidence that the age of 40 is called the mid-life crisis, because the very word "forty" comes from the words "term", "rock" and means a test. “And the term was forty forties,” sang V. S. Vysotsky, who himself lived only 42 years (Maclay lived the same amount).
The number 40 is connected by invisible threads with the magic number "9", because the very word nonagon (aspect of 40 degrees) in Latin means "nine-angle". For nine months the fetus is in the mother's womb while the soul incarnates in a physical body before entering the material world. Nine days after death, the soul is next to the body of the deceased, and after forty days (the ninth part of the year), at the end of life, the soul finally disincarnates, leaving for the land of the ancestors, having previously appeared before God's Court. It is no coincidence that memorial meals are arranged by relatives of the newly introduced in 9 and 40 days.
In the fate of Miklouho-Maclay, this seemingly harmless game of numbers played a fatal role. At the age of 40, he “turned on” and began to act in full force nonagon (aspect of 40 degrees) from Pluto (the lord of the underworld) to Jupiter, the giver of life's blessings. In the orb of the action of this nonagon, Miklukho-Maclay meets his last 41st solarium, and exactly 9 months later he dies, and exactly at the moment the Sun moves along Pluto, which “turned on” the countdown at the forty-year mark. Active Pluto in Aries turned out to be much stronger than passive Jupiter in Gemini, and therefore the destructive effect of Pluto-Hades, the patron saint of the souls of the dead, can be considered dominant in this aspect.
The events of the fortieth hard times undermined the hopes of Miklouho-Maclay to create a Russian colony in New Guinea. After the refusal of Tsar Alexander III and the collapse of all plans, he had no more than a year and a half to live. The scientist, who devoted his whole life to the study of the indigenous population of Indonesia in general and New Guinea in particular, was unbearably aware that the natives of these islands, who had become native to him over the years, were subjected to cruel exploitation by the English and German colonialists and became victims of the slave trade. Particularly offensive was the fact that during the capture and division of New Guinea, the colonialists covered themselves with the name of Miklukho-Maclay.
In 1877, leaving the island, a Russian Polynesian called the Papuans from all the surrounding villages and warned them that the white people, who would soon sail on large ships, might turn out to be slave traders and pirates. True friends had to give a special “Maclay sign” so that the Papuans could trust the brothers of “Tamo-rus” (“Russian man”) in everything. Otto Finsch, who came to the island in the footsteps of Maclay, called himself the brother of the Russian scientist and gave the notorious special sign, which he had previously learned from the simple-minded Russian scientist, who saw the enterprising German as a colleague and like-minded person. But everything turned out differently - Finsh betrayed Maclay, using the authority of the "Tamo-Rus" among the Papuans to quickly colonize the island.
In the horoscope of Miklouho-Maclay, Mercury (the planet of contacts and information exchange) was in exact conjunction with the Black Moon (Lilith, Druj), whose name is translated from the Avestan language as “lie”. With such a connection, a person either becomes a liar himself, or suffers from slander, deceit and betrayal. This is exactly what happened in the case of Miklouho-Maclay, who became a victim of his own gullibility, naivety and too good attitude towards people. All his life, driven by the humanistic ideas of the equality of races and the protection of small peoples from the arbitrariness of civilized colonialists, Miklouho-Maclay, unwittingly, contributed to facilitating the conquest of 11th Guinea by Germany, which took place in 1884.
Realizing the consequences of his own mistake, Maclay wanted to return to the islands in order to at least somehow alleviate the fate of the natives with his own presence. But he was not destined to go to New Guinea again during his lifetime - he was already too sick. The sun of the life of a talented researcher and just a good person was inexorably sinking towards sunset. At the last stage of the earthly journey, each person mentally returns to the most precious thing, to that without which he cannot imagine his further afterlife existence. Bright memories can brighten up the long years of waiting for a new incarnation.
Prone to a solitary pastime far from civilization, the naturalist took a liking to the Philippines, Indonesia and Oceania with all his heart. Even while on his deathbed in a St. Petersburg hospital ward, Miklukho-Maclay dreamed of returning to the distant islands, which had become the work of his whole life and the cause of such an early death. The island is a beautiful pearl of the ocean, alluring with the virgin purity of nature - the delightful dream of every naturalist and naturalist. In various mythological traditions, the islands were associated with the resting place of the souls of the righteous and heroes. The Greek "islands of the blessed", the Celtic Avallon, the island of Buyan of Russian folklore are beautiful poetic images illustrating the eternal human craving for something illusory, magical, unreal. Miklukho-Maclay is one of the few people who managed to find during his lifetime that magical island where dreams come true and hopes come true. Undoubtedly, the true resting place of the researcher's soul is not Volkov about the cemetery in St. Petersburg, but the Miklukho-Maclay coast on the northeast coast of New Guinea, named after the researcher who made a huge contribution to the study of the Indonesian archipelago.
Social knowledge includes not only the social sciences and everyday ideas, but also a huge area of humanitarian knowledge. The social sciences include all types of scientific knowledge of society that follow the rules of the scientific method. This, as you know, is sociology, economics, political science, jurisprudence, ethnography, and others. The social sciences produce knowledge about relatively stable and systematically reproduced connections and relations between peoples, classes, and professional groups. The social sciences study their subject with the help of ideal types, which allow fixing stable and repetitive in human actions, in society and culture.
Humanitarian knowledge is addressed to the spiritual world of man. Keepers of humanitarian knowledge are diaries, reviews, biographies of famous people, public speeches, policy statements, art criticism, epistolary heritage. They are studied by psychology, linguistics, art history, and literary criticism. The boundary between the social sciences and the humanities is not a rigid one. The social sciences, while maintaining a connection with the life world of man, include elements of humanitarian knowledge. When the historian investigates historical patterns and ideal-typical characteristics, he acts as a social scientist. Turning to the motives of the characters and studying the diaries, letters and texts of speeches, he acts as a scholar in the humanities. But humanitarian knowledge also borrows elements of the social. Scholars talk about the rules for compiling biographies and describing individual cases, which are increasingly used in modern social sciences. The evaluation of works of art, in turn, is also not an expression of the subjective opinion of the critic, but is based on an analysis of the composition of the work, artistic images, means of artistic expression, etc.
Addressed to the spiritual world of a person, his experiences, fears and hopes, humanitarian knowledge requires understanding. To understand the text means to give it meaning. But it may not be exactly what its creator had in mind. We cannot have reliable knowledge of his thoughts and feelings, and we judge them only with varying degrees of probability. But we always interpret text, that is, we attribute to it the meaning that we think the author had in mind. And in order to get closer to the origins of the author's intention, it is useful to know who and under what circumstances wrote the work, what is the circle of contacts of its author, what tasks he set for himself. A person endows the text with meaning in accordance with the personal stock of social knowledge. Therefore, great works of art resonate in different ways in the hearts of millions of people and retain their significance for many generations.
Lacking the rigor and universality of natural science knowledge, humanitarian knowledge performs important functions in culture. Addressed to the spiritual world of a person, humanitarian knowledge awakens in him a desire for the sublime and beautiful, ennobles his aspirations, and encourages moral and worldview quests. In the most developed form, such searches are embodied in philosophy, but every person is also a bit of a philosopher to the extent that he asks questions of being and cognition, moral perfection and a reasonable structure of society. Entering the world of humanitarian knowledge, a person expands the horizons of knowledge, learns to comprehend someone else's - and his own - inner world with such a degree of depth that is unattainable in the closest personal communication. In humanitarian culture, a person acquires the gift of social imagination, comprehends the art of empathy, the ability to understand another, giving the very possibility of living together in society.
Basic concepts: scientific social knowledge, everyday knowledge, methods of social cognition, social fact, meaning, values, interpretation, understanding.
Terms: cultural context, concrete historical approach, ideal type.
| Test yourself |
1) What is the peculiarity of social knowledge in comparison with natural science? What is the difference between the objectivity of natural science, social and humanitarian knowledge? 2) Is it possible to identify a fact of social science with an event, with what happened in life? 3) What is the problem of interpreting a text, an act, a historical document? What is right understanding? Is it possible to achieve the only correct understanding? 4) What is the difference between an ideal type and an artistic image? Can the ideal type be considered a scientific description of a particular person? 5) Do you agree with the statement that ordinary knowledge is wrong and scientific knowledge is true? Why study public opinion?
1. The modern philosopher P. Berger, referring to the dependence of the press on the alignment of social forces, wrote: "Whoever has a longer stick, he has more chances to impose his ideas on society." Do you agree with this view?
2. There is an opinion that history does not have a subjunctive mood. Is it worth discussing what might have been if this had not happened? Are missed chances and missed opportunities social facts? Explain your answer.
3. Social knowledge is usually divided into social sciences and humanitarian knowledge. Which of these parts can be attributed to the thesis of Protagoras "Man is the measure of all things"?
4. There is a parable about two workers. When asked what they were doing, one answered: “I am carrying stones,” and the other: “I am building a temple.” Is it possible to say that one of the statements is true and the other is false? Justify your answer.
5. The German philosopher W. Dilthey believed that to understand - "means to experience personally." Do you agree with this? Can a person understand what he himself has not experienced? And is the personal experience always understandable?
6. The chronicler Pimen from the tragedy of A.S. Pushkin “Boris Godunov” teaches Grigory Otrepyev: “Describe, without further ado, everything that you will be a witness in life.” Is it possible in principle to describe historical events free from interpretation? Concretize your conclusion using knowledge from the history course.
7. Imagine that you, like Miklouho-Maclay, went to study the life of native tribes. What will you pay attention to first of all:
- what catches the eye the most;
- on what distinguishes the life of the natives from ours;
- sustainable and repetitive forms of practice?