☛The term “ethnography” today refers to the kind of intensely participatory study practiced by Margaret Mead; the Wikipedia article on the subject is full of postmodernist wittering. In the nineteenth century, however, “ethnography” meant (we quote Worcester’s Dictionary) “a description of races of men; the science that treats of the different races of mankind, or of the peculiar characters, manners, customs, &c., of different races. Ethnography and ethnology bear the same relation almost to one another as geology and geography.” This is the sense in which we use the term here: a quaintly outdated term for quaintly outdated ideas.
This category overlaps with National Character and Geography, so see those pages also.
Joannes Boemus.
Omnium gentium mores leges et ritus ex multis clarissimis rerum scriptoribus, a Ioanne Boemo Aubano Sacerdote Teutonicæ Militiæ devoto nuper collectos: & in libros tris distinctos Aphricam, Asiam, Europam, Optime lector lege. Augustæ Vindelicorum excusa in officina Sigismundi Grimm medici, ac Marci Vuirsung. Anno virginei partus 1520, mense Iulio.
Repertorium librorum trium Ioannis Boemi de omnium gentium ritibus. Item index rerum scitu digniorum in eosdem. 1520.—The index, with its own title page, is scanned as a separate document.
The Fardle of facions conteining the aunciente maners, customes, and lawes, of the peoples enhabiting the two partes of the earth, called Affrike and Asie. Printed at London, by Jhon Kingstone, and Henry Sutton. 1555. —The names of the printers are spelled “John Kyngston and Henrie Sutton” in the colophon at the end. According to the librarian, this is a “Translation by William Waterman of books 1 and 2 of: Omnium gentium mores, leges et ritus / Johann Boemus. Augsburg : Sigmund Grimm, 1520.” This is a very good example of how publishers have always looked for a snappy title to sell a book.
The Manners, Lawes, and Customes of All Nations. Collected out of the best Writers by Ioannes Boemus Aubanus, a Dutch-man. With many other things of the same Argument, gathered out of the Historie of Nicholas Damascen. The like also, out of the History of America, or Brasill, written by Iohn Lerius. The faith, religion and manners of the Aethiopians, and the deploration of the people of Lappia, compiled by Damianus à Goes. With a short discourse of the Aethiopians, taken out of Ioseph Scaliger his seventh booke de Emendatione temporum. Written in Latin, and now newly translated into English. By Ed. Aston. At London, Printed by George Eld, 1611.
De Russorum Moscouitarum et Tartarorum religione, sacrificiis, nuptiarum ritu, funerum ritu. E' diuersis scriptoribus, quorum nomina versa pagina indicat. His in fine quaedam sunt adiecta, de Liuonia pacisque conditionibus, & pace confecta hoc anno inter serenissimum regem Poloniae & magnum ducem Moscouiae. Spirae libera Civitate Veterum Nemetum excudebat Barnardus D’albinus, Anno 1582.
Iohn Huighen van Linschoten his Discours of voyages into ye Easte & West Indies. Devided into foure bookes. Printed at London by Iohn Wolfe. [1598.] —A splendid blackletter folio.
The Naturall and Moral Historie of the East and West Indies. Intreating of the remarkeable things of heaven, of the elements, metalls, plants and beasts which are proper to that country: together with the manners, ceremonies, lawes, governements, and warres of the Indians. Written in Spanish by Ioseph Acosta, and translated into English by E. G. London: Printed by Val: Sims for Edward Blount and William Aspley. 1604. —“The translator, E.G., is supposed to be Edward Grimestone,” quoth the librarian.
Neu-polirter Geschicht-Kunst-und Sitten-Spiegel ausländischer Völcker, fürnemlich der Sineser, Japaner, Jndostaner, Javaner, Malabaren, Peguaner, Siammer, Peruaner, Mexicaner, Brasilianer, Abyssiner, Guineer, Congianer, Asiatischer Tartern, Perser, Armenier, Türcken, Russen, und Theils anderer Nationen mehr: welcher, in sechs Büchern, sechserly Gestalten weiset… von Erasmo Francisci. Nürnberg: In Verlegung Johann Andreae Endters, und Wolfgang deß Jüngern Seel. Erben, 1670. —More than 1500 pages of fraktur type enlivened by engravings showing the mythology and customs of exotic peoples, as filtered through a seventeenth-century European imagination.
Matrimonial Ceremonies Displayed: wherein are exhibited the various customs, odd pranks, whimsical tricks and surprising practices of near one hundred different kingdoms and people in the world, not used in the celebration and consummation of matrimony, collected from the papers of a Rambling Batchelor; with a variety of remarks by him, serious and humorous. To which is added the comical Adventures of Sir Harry Fitzgerald, who had seven wives, with the character of each,—a genuine story. Also an Epigram on Matrimony, in Latin and English. Published for the information and entertainment of the Ladies and Pretty Girls of Great Britain, not forgetting those of Dublin and Tipperary. London: Privately printed, 1880. —Attributed by the librarian to Louis de Gaya, author of a Treatise on Arms in French. A reprint of a book from the late seventeenth or early eighteenth century, but with no indication of the original date. A specimen of the style of the opening Remarks by the translator:
“We rail at the Church of Rome, and not without reason, for exacting implicit obedience from her sons; but alas! what signifies it to take a few articles upon the credit of the priest; but to take a wife as our author tells us they do in Muscovy and other places, without seeing her once, or knowing what defects she may have, is somewhat hard upon the subject. Heaven be praised, that here in England we are not forced to buy a pig in a poke; nay, there are some married men in the world, that were as intimately acquainted with their wives before marriage, as ever they were after. See now what it is to live under a free government, and to have Magna Charta on one’s side.”
Hymen: an accurate description of the ceremonies used in marriage, by every nation in the known world. Shewing, the Oddity of some, the Absurdity of others, the Drollery of many, and the real or intended Piety of all. London: Printed for I. Pottinger, at the Dunciad in Pater-noster Row. 1760.
A Physical View of Man and Woman in a State of Marriage. With anatomical engravings. Translated from the last French edition of M. de Lignac. London: Printed for Vernor and Hood, in the Poultry. 1798. —A curious work, part ethnography, part medicine, part marriage manual.
Streifzüge im Reiche der Frauenschönheit von Dr. Friedrich S. Krauss. Mit gegen dreihundert Abbildungen nach Originalphotographien. Leipzig. A. Schumann’s Verlag. 1903.
Das Weib im Leben der Völker. Von Albert Friedenthal. Berlin: Verlagsanstalt für Litteratur und Kunst, 1910.
Die Rassenschönheit des Weibes. Prof. Dr. C. H. Stratz. Mit vier Tafeln und 378 Textabbildungen. Stuttgart : Verlag von Ferdinand Enke, 1920.