Empire and Eduards Volters - The Ethnography of Lithuanians and Latvians, 1882-1941

Eduards Volters was a Latvian linguist, renowned early ethnographer, and archeologist with the Russian Imperial Geographical Society. He studied the Lithuanians and Latvians in the Northwest Krai of the Russian Empire and Lithuania from 1882 to 1941. As Volters began his research at a time when the printing of Lithuanian and Latgalian publications in the Latin alphabet was forbidden, this book aims to uncover his role as one of the founders of literate Lithuanian and Latvian communities. This study compares various historical and theoretical contexts in anthropology and decolonization to reveal how Volters reconciled his ethnographic work within the political goals of the empire.

About the author

Vida Savoniakaitė is Head of Department of Ethnology and Anthropology and Senior Research Fellow at the Lithuanian Institute of History. Recent publications include the edited volume on the history of anthropology, Lietuvos etnologija (2022).

Product details

• Authors: Vida Savoniakaitė
• Publisher: Ingram Publishers Services
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Release: 01.04.2026
• EAN: 9781836954521
• ISBN: 978-1-83695-452-1
• No. of pages: 236
• Series: Methodology & History in Anthropology
• Subjects: Social sciences, law, business > Ethnology > Ethnology; Biography: general, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Anthropology / Cultural & Social, Social & cultural anthropology, ethnography, Lithuania, Social and cultural anthropology, Biography: philosophy and social sciences, Anthropology (General); Theory and Methodology