‘He States That This is the Most Lovely Building He Has Ever Had the Pleasure of Seeing . . . ’

The travel journal, collecting, and exhibition of objects by museum founder, tea merchant and Member of Parliament Frederick Horniman (1835–1906) in the late nineteenth century demonstrate how material objects exemplify travel writing. Through an examination of objects he collected and later interpreted at the Horniman Free Museum, this article presents a case study of how collecting activities mirror and serve as a form of travel writing. This article presents a new model for understanding, beyond the written word, how travelers can capture the experience of a foreign expedition through the collecting and interpretation of objects.

The Others of the Ravine

In the society and culture of the Canary Islands, ravines (barrancos in Spanish) are spaces that contain a wealth of meanings and perceptions attached to a collective imagination. These natural scars that mark and characterize the island's geography represent scenes of dissidence, as will be shown through the spatial and geographic stories of various transsexuals and transvestites who lived in Tenerife between 1970 and 1990; the specific character of their testimonials is situated in a specific context: El Cabo, a barrio in Tenerife, as well as the Santos Ravine (Barranco de Santos in Spanish). The state repression, marginalization, and violence against sexually dissident people during this age will be the main context of analysis. In a brief journey through history, these aspects will be placed in relation to key events from the Francoist dictatorship on the islands, a travel journal of the nineteenth century, and passages from the conquest of the Canary Islands in which the ravines, among them the Santos Ravine itself, take on a relevant importance. Finally, this study will mention the existence of a chapel consecrated to the Virgin of Candelaria in this environment as possibly the most significant crystallization of the otherness of the ravine. This study thereby contemplates reviewing these spaces on the basis of their formation as media in which specific Canary Island subjectivities can be located.

Islamic Practices, Traditions and Beliefs in Egypt and the Eastern Mediterranean in the Early 16th Century: Georgius Gemnicensis’ Ephemeris

This article reports several excerpts of Georgius Gemnicensis’ Ephemeris, a travel journal in which the author recounted his experiences in Mamluk Egypt and the Eastern Mediterranean, and provided a number of details about customs, beliefs and Islamic practices in such territories at the beginning of the 16th century. Despite the fact that it does not outline a complete landscape, the Ephemeris provides many useful reports about Muslim daily practices (rituals, festivals, beliefs) and culture, in which mystical Islam played an undeniable role, intertwining with other religious traditions and various exogenous and endogenous narratives.

Brasile, terra del futuro

The short note represents a travel “journal”, prepared between the end of October 2020 and the end of January 2021, in the Brazilian state of Ceará and in Rio de Janeiro. It includes brief descriptions of glimpses of everyday life, in the vague search for an anthropological gaze; reflections or rather attempts to develop an embryonic analysis; confused evocations of feelings and memories. The pandemic cannot be ignored, but the note shows how social distancing cannot occur in Brazilian society. Despite this, Brazil does not have a higher number of deaths than European countries, but lower.

Бурятия 1920-х гг. в путевом дневнике немецкого врача Карла Вильманса

Introduction. The article is based on the travel diary of German doctor Karl Wilmanns reflecting his impressions of the trip to Buryat-Mongolia. K. Wilmanns, a psychiatrist from Heidelberg, and A. Stühmer, a venereologist from Münster, were members of the group to have organized the joint 1928 Soviet-German expedition for the study of syphilis in Buryat-Mongolia. In the summer of 1926, they undertook a reconnaissance trip to the BMASSR for an initial assessment of the situation. Their visit determined the course of further preparatory arrangements, scientific and practical agendas of the Soviet and German sides. Goals. The article is aimed at singling out of descriptions and characteristics of Buryat-Mongolia, its multinational population, and cultures from the general narrative of the document and analysis of this material in the political and cultural contexts of the Soviet-German medical cooperation of the 1920s. Results. The study reveals some previously unknown information about the city of Verkhneudinsk and Khorinsky Aimag of the BMASSR during the NEP era. In particular, the travel journal outlines the atmosphere of daily life in a small town in the periphery of the USSR, describes its residents and features of the region’s economic conditions, highlights its nature and objects of tangible and intangible culture. The document also provides insight into the healthcare system of the BMASSR, as well as new data on the physical condition of the republic’s population. The diary’s materials proved essential in further analysis of archival materials about the subsequent conflict between Soviet and German participants that arose after the Germans returned to their homeland. Conclusions. The investigation of materials contained in Wilmanns’ diary disprove the Soviet-era belief that his research was racist. On the contrary, Wilmanns’ reasoning demonstrates sympathy to the Buryat people, empathy for their problems, and a desire to help them. The rather meager medical content of the diary is compensated by Wilmanns and Stühmer’s reports on their trip to the BMASSR in the summer of 1926 which were discovered in the State Archive of the Russian Federation.

The mobility of Chinese Officials. I: Lan pei lu by Fan Cheng‑da

This article concerns a travel journal Lan pei lu (“An Account with Reins in Hands”) written by a famous poet and civil servant Fan Cheng‑da (1126—1193). This text is an important evidence of the Old Chinese bureaucracy mobility of the 10th—13th centuries. Fan Cheng‑da wrote this journal while he travelled to Jurchen state Jin as a member of an ambassade. He registered many details about the current situation of the state, its morals and customs and the influence of Jurchen culture on the local people. This unique information makes Lan pei lu a very important historical and ethnographical source.