The article is devoted to analysis of values and functions of material elements in descriptions and definitions of hierarchy of ethnodifferential indications during the formation of the ethnography in Russia (XIX cent.). The description was considered to be the major research procedure, which must fixe distinctive features of external look, language, «the Spirit» (psychology, character) of people, theirs «obczestvennyj byt», moral and intellectual virtues. The principle of illustrativity dictated forms and methods of ethnos’s representations in the scientific literature since XVIII cent. At the beginning elements of «material culture» were secondary after so—called «spiritual culture», but played a dominating role in formation of ethnic phisiognomical conception (with it’s opposition external/internal). It defined tendency and canons of the visual and verbal images of Owners and Others in Russian ethnology throughout all XIX cent.