Evgenia Yakovlevna Patsiya as a field researcher and author of ethnographic texts

The purpose of the article is to examine the activities of an outstanding researcher, Evgenia Yakovlevna Patsiya, within the context of current problems of the production and presentation of ethnographic knowledge. She was the head of the Museum and Archive of the Central Geographical Society of the Kola Science Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences, a field ethnographer, expert in and popularizer of the Sami culture, compiler and author of books of different purposes and genres based on folklore and ethnographic materials. When anthropologists popularize scientific knowledge or write texts on local history, they do not simply adapt the research results for mass and practical use, but create a new ethnographic source – and in doing so they enter into a dialogue with themselves due to the specific features of subjectivity in anthropology. It is emphasized that in addition to scientific socialization, the forms and methods of ethnographic work are influenced by the researcher’s personality. The article uses the example of Evgenia Yakovlevna Patsiya’s book Kolskoe zastole (Kola Feast) to show how the original information accumulated by the author over the years of their life is transformed into a target ethnographic source and a local history text intended for the general reader.