Maria Antonina Czaplicka (25 October 1884 – 27 May 1921), also referred to as Marya Antonina Czaplicka and Marie Antoinette Czaplicka, was a Polish cultural anthropologist who is best known for her ethnography of Siberian shamanism. Czaplicka's research survives in three major works: her studies in Aboriginal Siberia (1914); a travelogue published as My Siberian Year (1916); and a set of lectures published as The Turks of Central Asia (1918). Curzon Press republished all three volumes, plus a fourth volume of articles and letters, in 1999. Early life and studies Czaplicka was born in the Stara Praga district of Warsaw in 1884, into an impoverished Polish nobility family. Her parents, Zofia Czaplicka (née Zawisza) and Feliks Czaplicki, both came from historically wealthy and well-known families but were forced to move from their family homes into the city for work due to the growing political unrest in Poland. Feliks Czaplicki eventually went on to work for the railway department in Warsaw. She was the third oldest of her parents' five children, Jadwiga Markowska (née Czaplicka), Stanisław Czaplicki, Gabriela Szaniawska (née Czaplicka), and Marian Czaplicki. Feliks Czaplicki found employment in what is now Latvia, where the family lived from 1904–1906 before returning to Warsaw. It was here that Maria Czaplicka was able to take the exam that would allow her to attend university later in life. She began her studies at the Anna Jasieńska Girls' School and attended the school until 1902. She began her studies in higher-education with the so-called Flying University (later Wyższe Kursy Naukowe), an underground institution of higher education in Russian-held Poland. She supported herself with a number of poorly paid jobs, as a teacher at Łabusiewiczówna Girls' School, a secretary, and lady's companion. She was also known for her lectures at the University for Everyone (1905–1908), and the Society of Polish Culture. She also wrote poetry, eventually being published in Warsaw's Odrodzenie magazine. While battling an illness, she spent time in Zakopane where she went on to do work for the Pedological Society while writing Olek Niedziela, a novel for children centered around education. In 1910 she became the first woman to receive a Mianowski Scholarship, and was therefore able to continue her studies in the United Kingdom. She left Poland in 1910. Taken ill with appendicitis in late March 1911, she was admitted to St Batholomew's Hospital in London and operated on by Dr. Józef Handelsman.