Nicholai Miklouho-Maclay | |
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| Born | (1846-07-17)17 July 1846 Rozhdestvenskoye, Russia |
| Died | 14 April 1888(1888-04-14) (aged 41) St. Petersburg, Russia |
| Alma mater | Heidelberg University Leipzig University Jena University |
| Known for | Anthropological work in New Guinea and the Pacific |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Ethnology,anthropology,biology |
| Author abbrev. (botany) | Mikl.-Maclay |
| Author abbrev. (zoology) | Miklucho-Maclay |
Nicholas orNicholai Nikolaevich Miklouho-Maclay (Russian:Никола́й Никола́евич Миклу́хо-Макла́й;[a] 17 [O.S. 5] July 1846 – 14 [O.S. 2] April 1888) was a Russianexplorer and scientist.[1] He worked as anethnologist,anthropologist andbiologist. He became famous as one of the earliest scientists to settle among and studyindigenous people of New Guinea "who had never seen a European".[2]
Miklouho-Maclay spent the major part of his life travelling and conducted scientific research in the Middle East, Australia,New Guinea,Melanesia andPolynesia. Australia became his adopted country andSydney the hometown of his family.[3][4]
He became a prominent figure of nineteenth-century Australian science and became involved in significant issues of Australian and New Guinea history.[4] Writing letters to Australian papers, Miklouho-Maclay expressed his opposition to the labour and slave trade ("blackbirding") in Australia,New Caledonia and the Pacific, as well as his opposition to the British and German colonial expansion in New Guinea.[5] While in Australia, he built the first biologicalresearch station in the Southern Hemisphere, was elected to theLinnean Society of New South Wales, was instrumental in establishing the Australasian Biological Association, stayed at the eliteAustralian Club, became the intimate of the leading amateur scientist and political figure SirWilliam Macleay, and married Margaret-Emma Robertson, the daughter of thePremier of New South Wales.[5] His three grandsons have all contributed to the public life of Australia.[4]
One of the earliest followers ofCharles Darwin, Miklouho-Maclay is also remembered today as a scholar who, on the basis of his comparative anatomical research, was one of the first anthropologists to refute the prevailing view that the differentraces of mankind belonged to different species.
Miklouho-Maclay was born in a temporary workers' camp inBorovichsky Uyezd,Novgorod Governorate, Russia, the son of acivil engineer working on the construction of theSaint Petersburg–Moscow railway. Miklouho-Maclay was partly ofUkrainian Cossack descent.[6] HisUkrainian father,Nikolai Ilyich Myklukha,[7] was born in 1818,[7] inStarodub,[7]Chernigov Governorate, and descended from Stepan Myklukha, aZaporozhian Cossack who was awarded the title ofnoble byCatherine II for his military exploits during theRusso-Turkish War of 1787–1792,[8] which included the capture of theOchakov fortress.[9] HisCossack lineage was extensive and also included the Zaporizhianataman Okhrim Myklukha,[7] who later became the prototype ofNikolai Gogol's main characterTaras Bulba.[10] His paternal grandparents were friends of Gogol.[7] About his origins, Miklouho-Maclay wrote:[9]
My ancestors came originally from theUkraine, and wereZaporogg-cossacks of theDnieper. After the annexation of the Ukraine, Stepan, one of the family, served assotnik (a superior Cossack officer) under General CountRumianzoff, and having distinguished himself at the storming of the Turkish fortress ofOtshakoff, was by the order ofCatherine II made a noble...
Nicholai's father graduated from theNezhin Lyceum, after which he walked all the way toSaint Petersburg, where he enrolled in the Roadway Institute of Engineering Corps.[7] He graduated from the institute in 1840 and became an engineer assigned to work on the construction of theMoscow–Saint Petersburg Railway.[7] After becoming the first chief of theMoskovsky passenger railway station in Saint Petersburg, Myklukha moved his family there.[7] He died in December 1857 fromtuberculosis and was survived by his wife and five children.[7] Before his death, Myklukha was fired from his job for sending 150 rubles toTaras Shevchenko.[7]
Nicholai's mother, Ekaterina Semenovna (née Bekker), was ofGerman andPolish descent (her three brothers took part in theJanuary Uprising of 1863). After 1873, the Miklouho-Maclay family purchased and lived in a country estate inMalyn, 100 kilometres (62 mi) northwest ofKiev in thePolesia region.[7]
One of Nicholai's brothers, Sergei,[7] became a judge in Malyn where he eventually died. Another brother,Mikhail,[7] became a geologist. A third brother,Vladimir,[7] was a captain of theRussian coast defense shipAdmiral Ushakov and participated in theBattle of Tsushima where he perished. Both Mikhail and Vladimir were members of the Russian revolutionary organizationNarodnaya Volya.
Nicholai was baptised on 21 July 1846 by priest Ioann Smirnov at the Shegrinskaya Church of Nikolaos the Wonderworker. His godfather wasAlexander Ridiger, a Borovichi landowner who was a veteran of thePatriotic War of 1812 and a participant in theBattle of Borodino.
In 1858, Nicholai enrolled into the third grade of a German Lutheran school at the Saint Anna Kirche in Saint Petersburg. During his studies atthe Second Saint Petersburg Gymnasium (1859–1863) along with his brother Sergei, he was arrested and kept for several days in thePeter and Paul Fortress for participating in student protests. The young students were saved by the Russian writerAleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy who was a friend of Nicholai's father. In 1863, without finishing the gymnasium, Nicholai enrolled as a free listener at theSt. Petersburg University but only spent two months there before being expelled in February 1864 and debarred from tertiary education in Imperial Russia for "breaking therules".[2][7] In March of the same year, with a forged passport, he moved abroad to complete his studies in German universities, which provided an opportunity to study and work with leading European scientists. He studied humanities atHeidelberg, medicine atLeipzig, and zoology at theUniversity of Jena, where he came under the influence of the great German scholarErnst Haeckel, who had a profound influence on his future.[5]
Miklouho-Maclay's brilliant student records attracted the attention of Haeckel, who made him his assistant as part of a field expedition to theCanary Islands in 1866. There, Miklouho-Maclay took an interest in sharks andsponges and discovered a new sponge species, which he namedGuancha blanca, in tribute to theGuanches, the originalBerber inhabitants of theCanary Islands.[3] He also became a close friend of the biologistAnton Dohrn, with whom he helped conceive the idea ofresearch stations while staying with him atMessina, Italy.[2]
Miklouho-Maclay left St Petersburg for Australia on thesteam corvetteVityaz. He arrived inSydney on 18 July 1878. A few days after arriving, he approached theLinnean Society and offered to organise a zoological centre. In September 1878 his offer was approved. The centre, known as theMarine Biological Station, was constructed by prominent Sydney architect, John Kirkpatrick. This facility, located inWatsons Bay on the east side of Greater Sydney, was the first marine biological research institute in Australia.[11] He married Margaret-Emma, widowed daughter of thePremier of New South Wales,John Robertson.[12] His residence, namedWyoming, is in theSydney suburb ofBirchgrove, and is now heritage-listed due to its association with him.[13]
Miklouho-Maclay lived in northeasternNew Guinea for a two-year period in between 1871 and 1880, from which he also visited thePhilippines,Malay Peninsula and Australia on a number of occasions. He returned to New Guinea again in 1883.[14] Living amongst the native tribes, his comprehensive treatise on their way of life and customs was invaluable to later researchers.[12]
In scientific and anthropological circles during the 1850s and 1860s there was much discussion connected with the study ofhuman races and the interpretation of racial peculiarities. There were some anthropologists, such asSamuel Morton, who tried to prove that not all human races were of equal worth, and that "white people" were predestined by "natural selection" to rule over the "coloured" races.[15]
Some scientists, such as Ernst Haeckel, a teacher of the young Miklouho-Maclay, relegated what they regarded as culturally "backward" people likePapuans,Bushmen and others to the role of 'intermediate links' between Europeans and their animal ancestors. While adhering toDarwin's theory of evolution, Miklouho-Maclay diverged from these concepts, and it was this question that led him to gather scientific facts and to study the dark-skinned inhabitants of New Guinea. On the basis of hiscomparative anatomical research, Miklouho-Maclay was one of the first anthropologists to refutepolygenism, the view that the different races of mankind belonged to differentspecies.[4][15]
You were the first to demonstrate beyond question by your experience that man is man everywhere, that is, a kind, sociable being with whom communication can and should be established through kindness and truth, not guns and spirits. I do not know what contribution your collections and discoveries will make to the science for which you serve, but your experience of contacting the primitive peoples will make an epoch in the science for which I serve i.e. the science which teaches how human beings should live with one another.
— Leo Tolstoy, to N. N. Miklhouho-Maclay, September 1886[16]
The humanist views of Miklouho-Maclay led him to campaign actively against theslave trade and againstblackbirding – carried on between the islands of Melanesia and plantations inQueensland,Fiji,Samoa andNew Caledonia.[2] In November 1878 the Dutch government informed him that on his recommendations it was checking the slave traffic atTernate andTidore. From 1879 onwards he wrote a number of letters to Australian papers, and corresponded withSir Arthur Gordon,High Commissioner for the Western Pacific, on protecting theland rights of his friends on the Maclay Coast of north-eastern New Guinea, and on ending the traffic inarms andintoxicants in the South Pacific.[17]
In 1887 he left Australia, returned to St Petersburg to present his work to the ImperialRussian Geographical Society and took his young family with him. Miklouho-Maclay was in poor health[18] and, despite treatment fromSergei Botkin, Miklouho-Maclay died of an undiagnosedbrain tumour[citation needed] at 41 in St Petersburg. He was buried in theVolkovo Cemetery and left his skull to the St Petersburg Military and Medical Academy.
Miklouho-Maclay's widow returned to Sydney with their children. Until 1917 the scientist's family received an imperial Russian pension. The money was first allocated byAlexander III and then byNicholas II. One of his sons, Alexander, married a daughter ofR. E. O'Connor. His travel journals were not published until 1923, and an annotated five-volume collection of his works was published in 1953.[14]
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Nicholai Nikolaevich Miklouho-Maclay is commemorated in thescientific name of the New Guinea tree speciesPlanchonella maclayana,[19] in thebanana speciesMusa maclayi,[20] and in theland snail speciesCanefriula maclayiana[21] which were some of the species he discovered. The weevilRhinoscapha maclayi was first collected by Miklouho-Maclay and was then named after him by his friend William Macleay.[22]
Other species named after Nicholai Nikolaevich Miklouho-Maclay include:Colastomion maclayi (a wasp from New Guinea),[23] andDysmicoccus maclayi (a scale insect from New Guinea)[24]
The asteroid3196 Maklaj, discovered in 1978, was named in his honour.[25]
Maklaj is the basis of the main character in theEsperanto historical novel "Sed Nur Fragmento" by Trevor Steele.
The Marine Biological Station in Watson's Bay, built and used by Miklouho-Maclay, was commandeered by the Ministry of Defence in 1899 as abarracks forofficers. In the 1980s the Miklouho-Maclay Society unsuccessfully lobbied for the centre to be made into a historical landmark in memory of Miklouho-Maclay's scientific work. Today, although owned by theSydney Harbour Federation Trust, the building is used as a private residence and is only open to the public on special occasions.[26]
The Miklouho-Maclay Society succeeded in naming a park in his honour in Snails Bay (Birchgrove), not far from a house where he lived in Sydney for a time.[27][28][29][30][31][32]
A bust of Miklouho-Maclay was unveiled in front of theMacleay Museum at theUniversity of Sydney to commemorate the 150th anniversary of his birth.[4] TheMacleay Miklouho-Maclay Fellowship is available from the University of Sydney[16] each year.
A monument to Miklouho-Maclay was unveiled inJakarta,Indonesia, on 3 March 2011.
The termMaclay Coast has from time to time been used to refer the North-east coast ofPapua New Guinea.[33] Miklouho-Maclay began using the term, defining it as extending for 150 miles betweenCape Croisilles andCape King William, and 30–50 miles inland to the mountains of Mana-Boro-Boro (Finisterre Mountains).[17][34] However, this name is not in use today. The section of the coast from Cape Croisilles to Madang is referred to as part of the North Coast, the bay in which Madang is situated in calledAstrolabe Bay, while the coast fromAstrolabe Bay toSaidor is the Rai Coast, which in turn gives its name toRai Coast District, an electorate returning an MP to theNational Parliament of Papua New Guinea.
InMadang, Papua New Guinea – not far from where the explorer stayed in the 1870s – a street has been named after him.[35]
In 2000 a monument was erected in New Guinea byOleg Aliev.[citation needed] In 2013 a monument to celebrate the legacy of Miklouho-Maclay was erected near Bongu village in Madang Province, funded by "Valeria, Irma, and Valentina Sourin, Chief, Sir Peter Barter and volunteers from the Madang Resort and Friends of the Haus Tumbuna".
In Russia, there is anInstitute of Ethnology and Anthropology and a street in South-West Moscow (where thePeoples' Friendship University of Russia is situated)[36] named in his honour. The district museum inOkulovka,Novgorod Oblast, is named after him.[37]
AKhabarov class river passenger ship was named after him. Based atKhabarovsk, it was used on theAmur River between the 1960s and 1990s.
The city ofMalyn inZhytomyr Oblast,Ukraine, commemorates the scientist and traveler. The city's recreation park and one of the city's streets are named after Miklouho-Maclay. The Malyn Forestry College in the village ofHamarnya [uk], which is located in the house where Nicholas's brother Mykhailo lived, has a museum whose exhibits tell about the life of the scientist, his family, and the Malyn period of his life.[38] Malyn was visited twice, in 1980 and 1988, by the scientist's grandson Robert Micklouho-Maclay from Australia. In 1986, on the occasion of the 140th anniversary of the scientist's birth, a monument to him was unveiled in Malin.
Since 1946,Lviv has had aMiklouho-Maclay Street [uk]. There is also a bust of him inSevastopol on the Crimean Peninsula.
In 2011, the Ukrainian Geographical Society declared the year of Nickolai Nicklouho-Maclay in Ukraine in connection with the 165th anniversary of his birth.[39]
Text is licensed by State of New South Wales (Department of Planning and Environment) underCC BY 4.0licence.
"Миклуха-Маклай, Николай Николаевич" .Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary (in Russian). 1906.| International | |
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