The “visual turn” in the humanities, which began in the 1990s, is associated with technical innovations as well as with the revival of an ancient tradition, expressed, for example, in the Paleolithic visual arts. The word and image are different means of expression and communication, far from always adequately convertible; a text about an image is akin to retelling music in words. The theory of the initial visibility of human culture is supplemented by the hypothesis of the key role of image in the formation and development of the science on peoples. Russian ethnography appeared as a “grassroot” science in the 18th century; one of its sprouts was a cartography depicting peoples in space, the other - drawings of costumes and other features of identity, the third - ethnographic objects collected in the Kunstkamera. Johann Georgi's first ethnographic work grew out of costumes drawings made in expeditions and/or from the Kunstkamera exhibits, and the original science on peoples was essentially visual e
