A Museum and a Linguist Linked by Material Collection

Why We Worked on the Koryak Collection Together

Abstract

The author of the present paper has been conducting linguistic fieldwork on Koryak in Severo-Evensk district, Magadan region, Russia, from 1994. In 2004, following the request from the Hokkaido Museum of Northern Peoples, she began collecting Koryak native material; mainly reindeer skin products such as cloth and tent. In the process of accumulating the native material, she collected detailed information about them and their Koryak names in order to clarify the folk taxonomic system of Koryak. Such multidirectional work not only enabled the author to conduct a more detailed linguistic anthropological analysis of Koryak material culture but also allowed the museum to gain deeper insights into and acquire richer information about Koryak native material. In this paper, the author aims to point out the significance of collaboration between museums and linguists and to suggest an appropriate and beneficial method of collecting native material, through her own experience of this Koryak Collection.