R RESULTS OF FIELD ETHNOGRAPHIC EXPEDITIONS OF THE MIDDLE 1950S – MIDDLE 1960S TO STUDY THE COLLECTIVE FARM PEASANTRY IN THE WORKS OF KH.A. ARGYNBAYEV

Abstract

The goal of this article is to summarize the significant and valuable ethnographic material collected by the prominent Kazakh ethnographer Kh.A. Argynbayev as part of the ethnographic expeditions of the Ethnography Department of the Institute of History, Archeology and Anthropology of the Academy of Sciences of the Kazakh SSR in the mid-1950s – early 1960s. The materials were the scholar's early research articles on the economy, culture and life of the rural population of Southern Kazakhstan and Zhetysu in the past and present, including those in the Kazakh language and translated into Russian as part of the grant project for the publication of selected works of Kh.A. Argynbayev. In the field of methodology, we relied on both general scientific principles of objectivity, systematicity, etc., and special methods – problem-chronological, comparative-historical methods, which made it possible to analyze the ethnographer's works as sources for the development of animal husbandry among the Kazakhs, the system of settlements and housing, traditional crafts, and the organization of labor and life of collective farmers. The introductory part of the article also traces the history of the development of field research in the academic department of ethnography in close cooperation with ethnographers from Moscow and Leningrad, who determined significant areas of research. The results of the study will be in demand by historians, ethnologists, teachers when conducting lectures and practical classes in the core specialties of bachelor's, master's and doctoral programs, when compiling educational and methodological complexes of elective disciplines, writing textbooks and teaching aids.