German Ethnologists Research Articles

Au-delà du désordre

This article examines how laws (kalaka), the institution of the mediator, and a moral and social code (kundude) contribute, through a common ethics, to maintaining social cohesion in Tubu Teda society. It shows that the analytical concept of “disorder,” which has been used to characterize Teda society from colonial times to the present day, is not suitable for grasping the complex reality of this group living dispersed over a wide area. This article is the result of an innovative cooperation between a German ethnologist and a “local” Teda historian from Dirkou in Niger.

The Challenge of Representing Ethno-Literature: The Case of Macunaima's Decolonial Glossary

Among the challenges in organizing ethnoknowl­edge is adhering to the theoretical methodological principle of literary warrant. This paper seeks to build a terminological tool that meets both the principle of literary warrant and the decolonial perspective. In Mário de Andrade’s work Macunaíma, we identified the connection with an ethno- literature that served us as a literary warrant for constructing a notional system grounded in a decolonial perspective. The corpus was compiled from the glossary produced by M. Cavalcanti Proença. Proença’s research drew from Tupinologist sources, comprising records of an ethno-literature previously unknown to us. These records are rooted in narratives of the once-forgotten General Language of the Amazon, the Nheengatu. Proença's sources also include the Brazilian South Americanist Capistrano de Abreu, and the German ethnologist Theodor Koch-Grünberg. The research identified 2112 entries consisting of terms and synonyms. Each entry was accompanied by a definition that considered both the semantic aspect and the historical context. Collectively, these entries grant us with the depth and richness of Brazilian vocabulary at its roots. Despite encountering representation challenges akin to those in interdisciplinary spaces, the Macunaíma’s Decolonial Glossary will contribute to the documentation of the National Inventory of Linguistic Diversity.

A short biography of Fritz Krause

This brief biography of the German ethnologist Fritz Krause (1881–1963) sketches his life story, some of the intellectual influences that impacted his work, and elucidates the scholarly context in which the article “Maske und Ahnenfigur: Das Motiv der Hülle und das Prinzip der Form” (1931) was written and published.

Jack London's “Mauki” and the Colonial Pacific

Jack London's “Mauki” and the Colonial Pacific

THE “FEEDBACK EFFECT” IN MODERN DOGON CULTURE (MALI)

The ‘Feedback effect’ is a phenomenon of a ‘feedback’, repeatedly described for discussing the oral tradition: Back in 1982, German ethnologist David Henige noted that researchers of African traditional cultures more and more often encounter the practice when they are recounted the results of the field materials of their predecessors. In all such cases, informants reproduce the works of anthropologists, but the authenticity of recorded traditions in general is beyond doubt. That is not the case with Dogon. The example of this people shows that the phenomenon of ‘feedback’ can not only complicate the work of anthropologists, but also contribute to the growth of ethnic and national identity. Myths borrowed from anthropological literature began to penetrate rural folklore with the development of tourism in the 1990s– 2000s. But the purposeful imposition of a united mythology ‘according to Griaule’ began to play a very important role in the development of ethnic and national identity. The most important role belongs here to the festivals of Ogobagnia. Thus, using the example of the Dogon, one can see a kind of a ‘secondary’ mythology version based on the phenomenon of feedback. The imposition of this ideology is still opposed by local traditions and local folklore, which are very different from the “Dogon mirage” introduced by intellectuals, as well as local customs and rituals, sometimes having little in common with each other; so far, the linguistic and cultural diversity of the ethno-social organism of the Dogon has resisted the pressure of these myths, but perhaps the day is not far off when not only in the Sangha, but also in Semari and Tintan, visitors will be told about Nommo and Sirius names which do not exist (sigu tolo or pô tolo), and the mythology of the Dogon will really turn into a harmonious, but artificial system.

People of the Rainforest: The Villas Boas Brothers, Explorers and Humanitarians of the Amazon

People of the Rainforest: The Villas Boas Brothers, Explorers and Humanitarians of the Amazon

The leading ornamental motif koshkar muyiz in Kazakh ornamentation: in search of the primordial

The ornamental motif of Koshkar Muyiz – the legacy of the Ancient times – remains key in the traditional art of felt craft. The horn-shaped figures of the Kazakhs had been a centerpiece of scholarly discourses of Kazakh, Russian and Soviet science over the entire 20th century. The first attempts to find their meaning were made by the German ethnologist R. Karutz (1911), the Russian researchers S. Dudin (1928), B. Kuftin (1926), E. Schneider (1927), and others. The horn-shaped motif had been reviewed in the works of archaeologists, art historians and ethnographers since the second half of the 20th century. Scientists determined the time of its origin, its geography, and attempted to translate its semantic content. It was found that the curvilinear motif had not appeared earlier than the New Stone Age, but in the Bronze Age, it had developed in the form of various styled designs. This motif obviously played a key role in the ornamental complex of the Turkic-Mongol peoples.Based on the interdisciplinary approach, the author offers a number of reasons to explain its viability, including the internal form of the word - name of the ornamental motif, which is epic in nature since it can cause a special aesthetic reaction in viewers. The ornamental motif seems to play the role of a “figure of memories” and have the status of a “substantiative past”. It is preserved as a linguistic objectification (name) in an extra-linguistic format as well, in the form of an Iconic Model of a transcultural anagram that reproduces the ancient ideological content with symbolic and magical scope. Acting as a canon, the Koshkar Muyiz motif is a sort of a “Signature of the Era” with its artistic charm and is constructively based on the line called the “Line of Beauty” by William Hogarth

De la traducción a la adaptación el mito y la obra literaria de Macunaíma

La obra literaria de Mário de Andrade, Macunaíma. El héroe sin ningún carácter, publicada en 1928, está enmarcada en el modernismo brasileño que se originó durante los años veinte. En ella se muestra el multiculturalismo brasileño a través de la apropiación de las tradiciones orales de la amazonía y de la zona de São Paulo. Cabe destacar que el modernismo brasileño fue un movimiento crítico a las vanguardias europeas y que adaptó sólo algunos elementos que le sirvieron al contexto latinoamericano.
 El presente texto realiza un análisis de la traducción de los mitos amazónicos compilados por el etnólogo alemán Theodor Koch-Grünberg (1872-1924) a la obra Macunaíma. El héroe sin ningún carácter, y a su vez la adaptación de ésta a la película con el mismo nombre realizada en 1969 por Joaquim Pedro de Andrade, producida en un contexto de dictadura militar. Proponemos la categoría de traducción intersemiótica de Peeter Torop (entre sistemas semióticos de distintos lenguajes), la cual ayudará al estudio de las similitudes y diferencias de la naturaleza formal de la obra.

Russia: “No entry”!

Russia is in the habit of issuing travel bans. It is not publicly known how often such bans are imposed every year. They affect academics, journalists, human rights campaigners and leaders of religious communities. The FSB, the state secret service, plays a key role in the imposition of the travel bans. The official reason given is that the people affected pose a threat to Russia’s national security. In some cases, this risk must be of monstrous proportions. For example, the German ethnologist Johannes Rohr, who has been conducting research on indigenous peoples, has been prohibited from entering Russia until 2069.

Karl von den Steinen’s Ethnographic Research among Indigenous Peoples in Brazil, 1884-1888

This article analyses and contextualizes the life and work of the German ethnologist Karl von den Steinen (1855-1929), who conducted ethnographic research in Brazil in 1884 and 1887-88. With a solid education in sciences and the humanities, von den Steinen, a physician and psychiatrist, set out to study social institutions, material and spiritual culture among “stone age” tribal societies along the Amazon. Arriving in Brazil in 1884 he studied the Upper Xingu and the Bororo Indians in the Mato Grosso province. In the Upper Xingu area he obtained a rich ethnographic collection and gathered detailed ethnographic data that continue to be useful for modern-day anthropologists. From a theoretical point of view, von den Steinen endorsed the theory of multilineal development proposed by his mentor Adolf Bastian (1826-1905). Despite many difficulties during his stay among the Bororo Indians, he was able to acquire valuable data to be used by those interested in Bororo social institutions and ceremonial life.

Beyond the Mainstream

Analyzing the work of Max Schmidt (1874-1950), especially his 1917 book Die Aruaken. Ein Beitrag zum Problem der Kulturverbreitung [The Arawak: A Contribution to the Problem of Cultural Dissemination], this article deals with methodological and theoretical trends among German ethnologists carrying out expeditions in the Amazon region at the turn of the nineteenth century. The approaches outlined are placed in the context of the institutionalisation of ethnology as a separate academic discipline in Germany. The focus is on the development of modern fieldwork methods; the critique of diffusionism by Schmidt and other South America researchers; and the specific approaches of Max Schmidt who, in spite of the contemporary emphasis on "material" and "intellectual" culture, also considered sociological issues in his analysis.

Theodor Koch-Grünberg (1872-1924)

The German ethnologist Theodor Koch-Grünberg (1872-1924) became one of the world’s leading Americanists of his era after having successfully concluded two expeditions to Amazonia. Between 1903 and 1905 he studied indigenous peoples inhabiting the regions of the rivers Rio Negro, Vaupés, and Japurá in northwestern Brazil; between 1911 and 1913 he traveled through northern Brazil and Venezuela investigating local Amerindian communities. He contacted dozens of indigenous peoples, studied their mythology, material culture, and languages. Koch-Grünberg maintained a scientific correspondence with some of the best-informed anthropologists of his time, including Adolf Bastian, Franz Boas, Arnold van Gennep and Paul Rivet. He also exchanged letters with Brazilian colleagues such as João Capistrano de Abreu (1853-1927), Teodoro Sampaio (1855-1937), and Affonso d’Escragnolle Taunay (1876-1958). Through an analysis of primary sources – the correspondence held at the Theodor Koch-Grünberg Archive of the Philipps-Universität Marburg in Germany – this article aims at contributing both to the history of Brazilian social thought and the history of German ethnology by contextualizing these relations within the broader context of social exchanges. Therefore, the history of anthropology should be written in the same way as Koch-Grünberg imagined ethnology: as an international science, based on humanistic principles and grounded on social relations.

From Berlin to Belém: Theodor Koch-Grünberg’s Rio Negro collections

ABSTRACTDuring his expedition to the rivers Rio Negro and Japurá between 1903 and 1905, the German ethnologist Theodor Koch-Grünberg amassed an ethnographic collection. Part of it he sold to the Royal Museum of Ethnology in Berlin and a smaller part was purchased by the Swiss naturalist Emílio Goeldi for the Museu Paraense in Belém, in northern Brazil. A number of aspects arise from this singular transaction: research funding (including institutional and personal relations) at the beginning of the institutionalisation of anthropology; the importance of German speaking intellectuals to the development of natural sciences and ethnography of Brazil; the social and economic importance of collecting and the complexity of local political relations. The aim of this article is to analyze the social context in which this collection was formed, with special attention to the indigenous agency and social relations around material culture. It seeks to contribute to the history of collections, the history of science in Brazil and of the transatlantic relations between Brazilian museums and German ethnology.

An Episode from the Beginnings of Anthropology in the Amazon

The German ethnologist Curt Unckel Nimuendajú (1883-1945), who had immigrated to Brazil in 1903, moved his permanent residence to Belém in 1913, where he established professional contacts with the Goeldi Museum. Between 1915 and 1919, he survived by working precarious jobs, but also carried out fieldwork among the Xipaya Indians in quite adverse circumstances. This is an illuminating episode about the beginnings of anthropology in the Amazon, which allows relativizing some stereotypes about the history of anthropology, which are commonly reproduced in social science curricula. In addition, it sheds light upon an anthropology without universities where the influences of German ethnology still prevailed and where texts written by self-educated researchers were still accepted.

Сухим из воды? К 30-летию памяти Вильгельма Эмиля Мюльмана (01.10.1904 г. - 11.05.1988 г.)

The subject of the essay is the life trajectory and the contribution of German ethnologist Wilhelm Emil Mühlmann. His contradictive personality excels as an example of a life strategy of accommodation to different political regimes of Germany. The scholar's experience reflects the fate of human science in a totalitarian and post- totalitarian society. The article discusses the issues of research ethics, of integrated effects of political developments on researcher's personality and approach as well as of the roots of German ethnological tradition.

Selling Authenticity in the Bamum Kingdom in 1929–1930

In February 1930, Eugene Pittard, the director of the ethnological museum in Geneva, sought to expand his museum’s collections in an unusual manner. Instead of sponsoring an expedition to Africa or acquiring objects from former missionaries, instead of buying from established dealers in ethnographic specimens or the newer galleries that specialized in l’art negre, Pittard wrote to an African man in Africa, a Bamum man named Mose Yeyap (Pittard 1930) (Fig. 1).1 Yeyap was the head of the relatively new artisanat in Foumban, a school and artists’ cooperative founded in 1927, and he was known as a key figure for collectors seeking to acquire works of art from the Bamum kingdom. Pittard’s letter explained that he “would like to assemble ... as true a picture as possible of the population of which you are a part, that is to say of the material life of this population. I am sending you by the same post [a list of] the kinds of things that would be the most interesting to have” (Pittard 1930). Pittard explained pointedly, “I insist on one point: Our intent is to have the oldest objects; those which have not been subjected to European influence.” He then listed for Yeyap the kinds of objects he had in mind: “sculpted wood masks, statues, sculpted horns, etc. ... sculpted drums with carved animals or other designs. Miss Debarge [a physician known both to Pittard and Yeyap] showed me drawings on paper that you made of sculptures. Is it possible to have these sculptures themselves?” (Pittard 1930). Pittard’s letter, of course, epitomizes how European arrogance and fantasy informed the collection of African art in the first decades of the twentieth century. Pittard condescendingly and absurdly schooled Yeyap about Yeyap’s own culture and, by privileging his desire for “the oldest objects,” those supposedly untouched by “European influence,” Pittard revealed his adherence to the chimerical “ideal” of African cultures as isolated in time and space. In a fascinating twist, however, we also have Yeyap’s response to Pittard. Yeyap answered back:

Kongo: Power and Majesty

Kongo: Power and Majesty

The voice of a prisoner: recordings of Joseph Ntwanambi in the Ruhleben Prisoner of War Camp, Berlin, 1917

The Xhosa WWI prisoner of war, Joseph Ntwanambi, whose recordings form the basis of this article, was recorded by two German ethnologists, first on wax cylinder by George Schunemann and then on shellac discs by Wilhelm Doegen and the Odeon recording company. These recordings of Ntwanambi may be the earliest recordings of Xhosa music which are accessible and still in existence. Regarding the prisoner himself, he was clearly recruited into the South African Army after enlisting into the South African Native Labour Corps, and sent to Germany during World War I where he was captured by the Germans and ended up with other African prisoners in the Ruhleben camp.

Expressing, Communicating, Sharing and Representing Grief and Sorrow with Organised Sound (Musings in Eight Short Segments)

Section I. Marcus Cato and MeIn Ancient Rome Marcus Cato (234-149 BC), commonly surnamed the Censor, or the Wise, would often speak up in the Senate and, whatever the topic under discussion, he would unfailingly start with words such as 'the City of Carthage must be destroyed' ('Carthago delenda est'). He was obsessed with the idea that Carthage, the great power competing with Rome for dominance in the Mediterranean, should be annihilated. At some point, the Phoenician city was indeed destroyed by the Romans.It is impossible for me to feel strongly about power struggles that took place in antiquity, but I carry an obsession myself, somewhat like Marcus Cato did, and I know what it feels like having one; however, the one I have is, luckily, harmless. Whatever musical topic is put on the table, I cannot help taking it as an opportunity to observe and check whether it offers any good reasons to review, refine or possibly correct our general idea of what 'music' is. That is probably because, already at the beginning of my professional life, I had to completely revise my own concept of music.1 There was a lot of revising to do because my early training took place at the Milan conservatory, the atmosphere of which could not have been more exclusively rooted in the Western tradition, to the exclusion of all others.2 Moreover, in Milan I was indoctrinated to believe in that cluster of Romantic leftovers that still lingers in most conservatories: 'great art is immortal', 'its import is intrinsic to the work itself', 'produced by a genius', 'result of a single creative mind', and so on; they are all residual Romantic attitudes that later, during my doctoral training in sociology and ethnomusicology, I completely rejected. Now I am constantly on guard, ready for clues that may lead me to change my mind once again on concepts and ideas we may uncritically take for granted.3 After all, our understanding of reality is at best incomplete and, therefore, always provisional.The subject of 'laments'-chosen for the ICTM Colloquium that was held at The Australian National University in Canberra in 2011, for which this article was prepared-immediately appeared to me as a wonderful opportunity to cultivate my 'obsession', and venture a few considerations that go a bit beyond the subject itself.Section II. Laments and their Archaic FeaturesThe experience of sorrow is certainly universal. Forms of behaviour meant to express, communicate and share loss and bereavement-with or through organised sound-exist across most cultures, just like other practices where organised sound relates to the life cycle: lullabies, nursery rhymes, love songs, marriage songs, carols, and so on. Early twentieth-century German ethnologists of the Kulturkreislehre School believed forms of sonic behaviour expressing grief and sorrow, along with yodel, healing songs and cattle calls, represent an archaic surviving layer of European (and possibly universal) folklore.4 Kulturkreis theories-never adopted in France, Britain and North America- are today abandoned, given the more culture-specific and historically shorterrange interests of work done today.5 And yet no-one has proved the Kulturkreis approach to be wrong so far. Indeed, laments, yodel, healing songs and cattle calls frequently exhibit a characteristic 'tumbling strain profile' (a gradually descending melodic contour and a 'decrescendo', as the singer runs out of breath) that Curt Sachs, Marius Schneider and Walter Wiora-all of them influenced by the Kulturkreis approach-described as an archaic feature.6 Laments, yodel, healing songs and cattle calls are also usually-at least in the Mediterranean area-made up of few tones (less than five), and their frequent non-strophic character also seems to point to their antiquity. Whether we look at them from a diffusionist (that is, monogenetic) or, on the contrary, a polygenetic outlook, it does not ultimately make any substantial difference, as both would lead us to believe that such widespread cultural traits go back to a past, prior to recorded history. …

THE GROWTH OF RACE AND CULTURE IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY GERMANY: GUSTAV KLEMM AND THE UNIVERSAL HISTORY OF HUMANITY

The German ethnologist Gustav Klemm (1802–67) occupies a rather problematic position in the history of ideas, alternately hailed as a seminal figure in the development of concepts of race and culture, or belittled as a rather derivative marginal thinker. This article seeks to clarify Klemm's significance by rooting his theories in their contemporary intellectual and social context. It argues that his system, a linear model of human development driven by the interworkings of race and culture, grew from an attempt to synthesize Enlightenment notions of universal progress with major shifts of the mid-nineteenth century, including experiences of dramatic social, political and technological change, commitments to constitutional liberalism, and changes in contemporary ethnology and museology. His works therefore illustrate the complex manners in which ideas of heredity, environment, civilization, development and gender could be blended in this often neglected period, and how their meanings and implications altered as syntheses were built.