Gerhardt Friedrich Müller

Gerhardt Friedrich Müller (1705-1783) was an ethnologist who studied Siberia, Mongolia and China in Leibzig, Germany. He was invited in 1725 to co-found the academy of sciences in St Petersburg, Russia. Müller participated in the second Kamtschatka expedition, which reported on life and nature of the other side of the Ural mountain range to the Moscow. From 1733 till 1743, nineteen scientists and artists traveled through Siberia to study people, cultures and collected data for the creation of maps. Müller who described and categorized clothing, religions and rituals of the Sibirian ethnic groups is considered to be the father of ethnography.

Sources

Kerstin Holm, Stuttgarter Zeitung, page 38, December 29, 2005, Nr. 303

Further reading

• G.-F. Müller and the Imperial Russian Academy, J. L. Black, 1986
• ·Ekspedicionnye materialy G. F. Millera kak istocnik po istorii Sibiri ( Reisebericht 1733-1743 Halbinsel Kamtschatka) von Aleksander Ch. Elert u. G. F. Müller, Neuauflage Novosibirsk 1990, ISBN 5020296279
• "Von Beschreibung der Sitten und Gebräuche der Völcker": Die Instruktionen Gerhard Friedrich Müllers und ihre Bedeutung für die Geschichte der Ethnologie und der Geschichtswissenschaft, von G. Bucher, Stuttgart 2002