The study of religion in the works of S.A. Ratner-Shternberg

The paper describes and analyzes several researches of Sarra Arkadyevna Ratner-Shternberg who is one of the first Russian scholars of religion. As a museum employee, S.A. Ratner-Shternberg published a number of museum guides and significant essays on shamanism among the Tlingits and other tribes of indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast of North America. A wide range of ethnographic and religious investigations, including foreign ones, allowed S.A. Ratner-Shternberg to serve as a promoter of science and facilitate the acquaintance of the Russian public with the latest achievements in the study of world religions. In the context of the new science of religion developed in the early 20th century, S.A. Ratner-Shternberg's works in view of the classification, systematization, and description of the collections of the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography of the Russian Academy of Sciences are considered as a valuable source for the study of shamanism.