Karl of the Stones

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Karl von den Steinen (1855–1929)

Karl von den Steinen (born March 7, 1855 in Mülheim an der Ruhr , † November 4, 1929 in Kronberg im Taunus ) was a German physician (with a focus on psychiatry ), ethnologist , explorer , Americanist and writer of important ethnological works, who was particularly for the research of the Indian cultures of Central Brazil and the art of the Marquesans. He laid the permanent foundations for Brazilian ethnology .

Life

On July 31, 1872, he left the high school in Düsseldorf with Gen. Zgn. and studied medicine with a focus on psychiatry at the universities of Zurich , Bonn and Strasbourg . From 1878 to 1879 he was an assistant psychiatrist at the insane clinic of the Berlin Charité . He also conducted research in institutions in other European countries. From 1879 to 1881 Karl von den Steinen traveled around the world and carried out small ethnological research trips to various South Sea islands , during which he carried out ethnological studies on several groups. On the side he studied the insane being in the civilized states. After his return from this world tour, Karl von den Steinen took up his previous position at the Berlin Charité. From 1882 to 1883 he took part in the first German International Polar Year expedition to South Georgia as a doctor and naturalist, where he was able to observe the very rare Venus transit . On the return trip of the expedition in February 1884, he and Otto Clauss (1858-1891) parted ways and went on a research trip from Buenos Aires via Cuiabá with his cousin, the painter and graphic artist Wilhelm von den Steinen (1859-1934) the headwaters of Batovi -Flusses. The Society for Geography in Berlin awarded him and Clauss the silver Carl Ritter Medal for this in 1886 . In 1886 he wrote his work Through Central Brazil - Expedition to explore the Schingú . After this first Xingú expedition, he conducted a second Xingú expedition (1887 to 1888) with the Berlin anthropologist and ethnologist Paul Ehrenreich .

In the spring of 1890 he took over the editorial office of "Auslands". On October 29, 1890, Karl von den Steinen received his professorial qualification for ethnology at the University of Marburg and thus received the right to teach ethnology . A year later he was awarded the title of professor and was thus full professor at a university that was the second university in Germany to teach the new subject of ethnology with a professor. However, in 1892, two years after starting teaching , he left the University of Marburg again (like the ethnologist Theodor Koch-Grünberg later ) due to the lack of an ethnographic collection and returned to Berlin.

For this he wrote the following letter of motivation "Steinen to the Royal Curatorium of the Philipps University, March 3, 1892" (from the files of the Hessian State Archives in Marburg: files concerning the private lecturers at the University of Marburg, Vol. III 1884–1898 )

“I hereby have the honor to notify the Royal Curatorium of the University of Marburg that I am leaving the academic staff. I made a mistake by doing my habilitation. But as I gradually learned, fruitful ethnological work is not possible - at least not possible for me - without the material of a museum. Only at an ethnological institute, I believe, the lecturer could do something profitable; for without demonstration he can neither create a basis for real understanding in the student nor achieve the possibility of independent judgment, the goal of the lesson. I must therefore find it more useful at the moment to serve practical research than teaching. I recommend myself with the expression of grateful and admirable sentiments. Karl von den Steinen Marburg, March 3, 1892 "

In 1892 Karl von den Steinen wrote his book “The Bakairi Language” with a focus on parallelizing a central Karaíb basic language . In 1897 he wrote the book “Among the primitive peoples of Central Brazil”. From August 1897 to February 1898 he explored the Marquesas Islands in the Pacific. Through his notes and later volumes on the work "The Marquesans and their art", he was able, like Adam Johann von Krusenstern , to record part of the knowledge about the local art of tattooing , as Protestant missionaries carried out tattooing in the South Seas (Marquesas, Tahiti , ...) was prohibited. Despite his records on this expedition, the meanings of the patterns are no longer fully understood. From 1900 he was - through an approved associate professor for ethnology - despite his lack of experience of pre-Columbian antiquities, both as a professor at the Berlin University and as the director of the American Department of the Berlin Ethnological Museum .

During his journey to the previously unknown region of the source rivers of the Xingú, one of the great southern tributaries of the Amazon , Karl von den Steinen discovered a cultural area that was completely unknown and unique to whites at the time, with around twelve different Indian tribes . These tribes lived in identically constructed houses and villages, celebrated the same festivals, had the same myths and married across the borders of their own village, with clearly different languages.

With his works "The Bakairi language" and "Among the primitive peoples" he laid important, secure and permanent foundations for a demanding and lively ethnological research in Brazil and solved through his linguistic research of the Bakairí language in the context of the Tupí-component-free Karaiben- Dialect and its redistribution of the Indian tribes into the four large groups Aruak , Gé , Karaíb and Tupí , as well as into several small groups the division that was valid up to then by the peep theory of Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius .

Karl von den Steinen developed from studying medicine and the professional background of the psychiatrist on his research trips to South America to become an ethnologist (the academic science of ethnology was only just emerging at this point). The focus of his research, shaped by his earlier activities, were thinking, intellectual life, appearance, cultural aspects (food, festivals, musical instruments, ornaments, weapons and tools) and the recording and interpretation of the customs of the inhabitants of the various tribes . Based on his experience, he preferred to travel to the villages alone or in a relatively small tour group (without soldiers), as he was afraid that the research results could be falsified by the appearance of soldiers and weapons.

Karl von den Steinen worked for many decades together with Adolf Bastian at the Museum of Ethnology in Berlin, which inspired him to undertake his ethnographic research trips. Karl von den Steinen was a practical and application-oriented scientist and devoted himself to a large extent to field research. His most important achievements were the findings of linguistic research and classification of the tribes in the Xingu headwaters. In addition, the analysis of the Bakairí idiom, with the created vocabulary and the associated conclusion that the Bakairí are a Karaib people . Through his two Xingu expeditions, he was able to collect around 2000 ethnographics for the Berlin Museum. In addition, he made a significant contribution to the geographic exploration of the Xingú headwaters through mapping and determining the course of the Xingú river.

Due to the two Xingu expeditions led by Karl von den Steinen and the resulting scientific results, four further research trips have been carried out in this area to date.

Karl von den Steinen was a member of the Berlin Society for Anthropology, Ethnology and Prehistory . In 1889 he became a member of the Leopoldina . In 1894 he received the Cothenius Medal of the Leopoldina.

Columbarium

On November 4, 1929 Karl von den Steinen died in Kronberg (Taunus) and was buried in the Central Friedhof Friedrichsfelde , behind the celebration hall in a family columbarium on the eastern border. His brother-in-law Ernst Vohsen is also buried in the tomb.

family

Karl von den Steinen married Lore Herzfeld, whose sister Marie was the wife of Ernst Vohsen . Karl von den Steinen was the father of Helmut von den Steinen (* December 6, 1890 in Marburg ; † 1956 in Rhodes , essayist and literary translator), Wolfram von den Steinen (* November 23, 1892 in Alsen am Wannsee ; † November 20, 1967 in Basel , Professor of Medieval Source Studies and General History of the Middle Ages ) and Marianne von den Steinen and thus father-in-law of Karl Schefold (born January 26, 1905 in Heilbronn ; † April 16, 1999 in Basel), Professor of Classical Archeology .

Research trips

1879–1881: A trip around the world

From 1879 to 1881 Karl von den Steinen went on a trip around the world. The journey took him via Mexico to California , Japan and Java , India and Egypt . On his crossing from North America to Australia in 1890, he crossed the island world of the South Seas and visited the Hawaiian Islands, Samoa , Tonga , Fiji and New Zealand . Here he studied the treatment of mental illnesses in the then civilized states . Later Karl von den Steinen cites this trip, during which he enjoyed the magic of the oceanic island world and its carefree population with all the receptivity of youth , as the reason for his wish to get to know parts of southeastern Polynesia .

1882–1883: First German International Polar Year Expedition to South Georgia

Christmas 1882 at Moltke port: Schrader, Vogel, von den Steinen, Zschau, Mosthaff, Will, Clauss (from left)

From August 1, 1882 to August 31, 1883, the First International Polar Year took place, which had been initiated on September 18, 1875 by Carl Weyprecht (1838–1881, former German naval officer in Austrian service). He received support from Georg von Neumayer (1826–1909, director of the Deutsche Seewarte and organizer and sponsor of national and international research trips). Germany set up two stations during the International Polar Year Expedition . The first was built on Kingua Fjord in Cumberland Sound ( Baffin Island , Canada), the second at Moltke Harbor in Royal Bay , South Georgia (Southwest Atlantic, Sub-Antarctica). In addition to Germany, eleven other nations took part with a total of twelve other expeditions. The general aim was to obtain climatic and geophysical data through simultaneous meteorological, magnetic and ground measurements. The same measuring devices were used in all stations. An additional goal of the research trip was to observe the very rare Venus transit in front of the sun on December 6, 1882.

The expedition, in which Karl von den Steinen participated as a doctor and zoologist, also consisted of the members Carl Schrader (expedition leader), Peter Vogel (1856–1915), Otto Clauss (astronomer and physicist), Hermann Will (botanist and geological collector) , E. Mosthaff (engineer and painter), as well as a mechanic , cook , carpenter , sailmaker and boatman . The passenger ship left Hamburg on June 3, 1882 and reached Montevideo on July 4, 1882. In Montevideo, the expedition switched to the corvette S.MS Moltke under Captain Pirner and sighted South Georgia for the first time on August 12, 1882. After eight days of poor weather conditions, they reached a suitable spacious port in Royal Bay on the north-east coast of the island. When they arrived, they set up the material stores with the help of 100 seafarers and brought 40 tons of coal ashore. They also built wooden huts , the observatory for observing the transit of Venus, sheds for equipment and a stable for three cattle , 17 sheep , 6 goats and 3 kids. The construction of the station was completed on September 3rd. Then Captain Pirner left the island with the SMS Moltke . During the following year, regular meteorological observations, measurements of magnetism and astronomical observations were made. The shores of Royal Bay and the outer coast to the north were explored. There were also smaller mountain climbs and visits to two large glaciers that flow into Royal Bay. On September 1, 1883, the corvette SMS Marie entered the port in Royal Bay under Captain Krokisius. On September 6, 1883, the expedition on the Marie left the island in the direction of Montevideo.

1884: First expedition to the Xingú area (Brazil)

Karl von den Steinen (center) and traveling companions; first expedition to the Xingú area

On the return trip of the south polar expedition in February 1884, he separated from it and went to Asunción to join the painter, graphic artist and cousin Wilhelm von den Steinen and other people, mainly Brazilian soldiers, on the journey from Buenos Aires via Cuiabá to the headwaters of the Batovi River (a tributary of the Xingú on its upper reaches).

The primary goal of this research trip was initially in an economic context. The task was to find a possible navigable route over one of the many rivers in the then largely unknown area of ​​the Rio Xingú , the second largest river in Brazil with a length of approx. 2000 km, in order to transport goods between the resource-rich central province of Mato Grosso and the important one Pará trading center, today's Belém , becomes possible. However, this goal could not be achieved due to many diverse problems and above all the strong currents.

The researchers followed the course of the river to its confluence with the Xingú River and then to the Amazon on their dangerous, long-term journey of deprivation. There they were the first whites (caraibas) to encounter a unique culture in an area of ​​around twelve similar and yet different Indian tribes. It was here that Karl von den Steinen made his first contacts with the previously unknown Bakairi and Kustenau Indians. The Indians of the tribes lived in identical houses, celebrated the same festivals and myths, with languages ​​completely different from village to village. The women and men married across the borders of language and villages.

He published the experiences and results of this trip after returning from this research trip in 1886 in his work "Durch Zentralbrasilien".

1887–1888: Second expedition to the Xingú area (Brazil)

In January 1887, the second Xingú expedition began. On this trip he was accompanied by the Berlin anthropologist and ethnologist Paul Ehrenreich. However, this time the interest went to the residents of the Culiseu River. He was first stopped by the outbreak of cholera in Paraguay in 1887 . This gave him the opportunity to visit and research the Sambaquis in what is now the state of Santa Catarina . He arrived in Cuiabá on July 16 .

During this Xingú expedition he explored a large number of tribes in the eastern headwaters of the Xingú and had contact with the Awetí for the first time .

“The results of the second German Xingu expedition were significant. Not only was the geographical knowledge of the Mato Grosso province expanded considerably through the cartographic recordings, measurements and determinations, but extensive collections, texts, grammars and other materials could also be brought with them from the Indian population of the Xingu source area. Nine different tribes were visited. "

The material it contains on the mythology of the Bakairi , Paressí , Bororo and Trumai is extremely valuable .

The experiences and results of this, and with the experience of the first Xingú expedition, he later published in his 1892 work "The Bakaïrísprache" and 1897 work "Among the indigenous peoples of Central Brazil".

Karl von den Steinen returned to Europe in August 1888.

1897–1898: Expedition to the Marquesas

Karl v. d. Steinen: The Marquesans and their Art Vol. 1, Cover
Tattooed Warrior (Vol. 1, p. 142)

From August 1897 to February 1898 Karl von den Steinen traveled to the Marquesas Islands on behalf of the Ethnological Aid Committee under the chairmanship of Valentin Weisbach , in order to put together a collection as complete as possible for the Berlin Ethnographic Museum. His journey to the Marquesas took place by means of a sailing ship , starting from San Francisco . His journey home then led back there via Tahiti , Rarotonga , Auckland , Apia and Honolulu .

In the years before and after his trip to the Marquesas Islands, Europeans collected artifacts and works of art for export to all parts of the world. In this way, a large number of cultural objects such as spears, statues, wood carvings, etc. ended up in museums, but also in private collections.

Because of the ban imposed by the French occupation and the missionaries, tattooing, religious ceremonies, dances, chants and drums were forbidden for a long time.

Karl von den Steinen recorded the motifs of the body painting of the older residents, who were often tattooed from head to toe, and the meaning of the various motifs. Based on interviews with the older residents, he made a record of their legends, rituals and myths.

After his trip he worked for more than 20 years on the completion of his three-volume masterpiece The Marquesans and their art , the last volume of which was published in 1928.

After the rediscovery of the art of tattooing on the Marquesas Islands, Karl von den Steinen's notes serve as a template. It is largely thanks to him that a considerable part of the knowledge of the tattoo art of the Marquesas islanders has been preserved.

Honors

  • The Rio von den Steinen, one of the five source rivers of the Xingú, is named after Karl von den Steinen.
  • 1886: Carl Ritter Medal

reception

Von der Steinens' descriptions of the mythical abilities of animals were among other things of great influence on the views of the French philosopher Lucien Lévy-Bruhl ( La Mythologie Primitive ) about the relationship between humans and animals and the nature of transformation. Also Elias Canetti ( Crowds and Power ) was influenced by his work.

Quotes

  • “ By far the most important case of the lack of conceptual partitions, which is, as it were, the most difficult to access to our feelings and thoughts, concerns the relationship between humans and animals and the individual species of animals. "( Among the primitive peoples of Central Brazil , p. 351)
  • “ We have to completely ignore the boundaries between animals and humans. "(Ibid., P. 351)
  • “ The Bororó boast to themselves that they are red macaws. "(Ibid., P. 352)
  • “ The usual thing is that after his death, the Bororó, man or woman, becomes a red Arara, a bird like the soul in a dream. […] The deceased of other tribes become different birds. "(Ibid., P. 511 f.)
  • “ In truth, the Indian got the most important parts of his culture from the people we call animals, and he has to take them away from them today. "(Ibid., P. 354)
  • “ A large part of the Bakaïrí's explanation of nature is based on the premise of witchcraft. They have no development, only transformation. "(Ibid., P. 362, section" Metamorphosis ")
  • “ The Bakairi (Brazilian Indians) believe that the Trumai are also a type of predatory fish and sleep at night on the bottom of the water, while they themselves derive their ancestry from the jaguar. "(R. Hotz, quoted by Jacob Burckhardt, in: Greek cultural history , third section (religion and cult):" The Metamorphoses ")

Fonts

  • Through Central Brazil: Expedition to explore the Schingú in 1884. Brockhaus, Leipzig 1886; Reprint: Fines Mundi, Saarbrücken 2006 ( digitized version )
  • The Bakaïrí language: vocabulary, sentences, sagas, grammar; with contributions to a phonology of the Karaib basic language. Koehler, Leipzig 1892 ( digitized version )
  • Among the indigenous peoples of Central Brazil. Travel descriptions and results of the second Schingú expedition 1887–1888. Geographische Verlagbuchhandlung von Dietrich Reimer, Berlin 1894 ( digitized and full text in the German text archive )
Reprint: Fines Mundi, Saarbrücken 2006
  • Rudolf Virchow and the Anthropological Society. 1921
  • The Marquesans and their art: Studies on the development of primitive South Sea ornaments based on our own travel results and the material of the museums. 3 volumes, Reimer, Berlin 1925–1928; Reprint: NY 1969; Reprint: Fines Mundi, Saarbrücken 2006 ( digitized volumes 1 and 2 (Bodleian Libraries). ), Volume 2
    • Volume 1 tattooing: with a history of the archipelago and a comparative introduction about Polynesian custom . 1925
    • Volume 2 Plastic: with an introduction on “Material Culture” and an appendix “Ethnographic Additions” . 1928
    • Volume 3 The Collections . 1928

Editing

  • The foreign country. Weekly for geography and ethnology (published by Karl von den Steinen from the 2nd quarter of 1890)

literature

  • Georg Neumayer: The international polar research. The German expeditions and their results. Volume 1: Kingua Fjord . Berlin 1890; Volume 2: South Georgia . Berlin 1891
  • Paul Ehrenreich: Anthropological studies on the indigenous people of Brazil, primarily the states of Matto Grosso, Goyaz and Amazonas <Purus area>: based on own recordings and observations in the years 1887 to 1889 . Vieweg, Braunschweig 1897
  • Georg Neumayer: Off to the South Pole . Berlin 1901
  • Peter Vogel: Instructions for scientific observations while traveling. In individual treatises by L. Ambronn, C. Apstein (etc.) ed. by G. von Neumayer. 3. completely redesigned. Edition, 2 volumes, Hanover 1906
  • H. Plischke in: German Biographical Yearbook . 1929
  • Historically significant personalities in the city of Mülheim ad Ruhr. Edited by the working group of local history associations in Mülheim an der Ruhr. Mülheim an der Ruhr, 1983, pp. 63-66.
  • Günther Hartmann (ed.): Comprehensive overview of the exploration of the Rio Xingú and its inhabitants (1750–1983). Xingú: Among Indians in central Brazil; on the centenary of the exploration of the Rio Xingú by Karl von den Steinen. Berlin, Staatliche Museen, 1986. [Catalog for the special exhibition "Xingú - Among Indians in Central Brazil" from May 14 to August 31, 1986] Reimer, Berlin 1986; ISBN 3-496-01033-9 , ISBN 3-496-01034-7
  • Vera Penteado Coelho (org.): Karl von den Steinen. To século de anthropologia no Xingu . Edusp, São Paulo 1993, ISBN 85-314-0111-9
  • A História Alemã do Brasil - the German history of Brazil (2002)
  • Ulrich von den Steinen: Expedition trips on the Amazon. The ethnologist Karl von den Steinen (1855–1929) . Böhlau, Cologne 2010, ISBN 978-3-412-20618-5 .

portrait

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Matriculation edition of the University of Zurich ( Memento from April 26, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ a b c d Brockhaus - Handbook of Knowledge in four volumes . Volume 4, p. 262
  3. ↑ Meeting of January 8, 1887 . In: Negotiations of the Society for Geography in Berlin . tape 14 , 1887, p. 43 ( online ).
  4. ↑ Steinen to the Royal Curatorium of the Philipps University, March 3, 1892. Hessisches Staatsarchiv Marburg "Files regarding the private lecturers at the University of Marburg, Vol. III 1884–1898" (inventory 310, acc. 1920/30 II, no. 139 ).
  5. ^ List of members Leopoldina, Karl von den Steinen
  6. ↑ Friedrichsfelde Socialist Cemetery
  7. ^ French translation of his preface to the 1925 edition ( Memento of June 16, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  8. ↑ a b c d e negotiations of the Society for Geography in Berlin . Volume XXV, 1898, No. 10, p. 498
  9. ^ EJ Godley: Botany of the Southern Zone - Exploration, 1847-1891 . In: Tuatara . Volume 18, No. 2, July 1970, p. 79, subheading: The International Polar Investigation 1882–1883 , [1]
  10. ^ A b E. J. Godley: Botany of the Southern Zone - Exploration, 1847-1891 . In: Tuatara . Volume 18, No. 2, July 1970, p. 82, [2]
  11. ↑ a b c E. J. Godley: Botany of the Southern Zone - Exploration, 1847-1891 . In: Tuatara . Volume 18, No. 2, July 1970, p. 83, [3]
  12. ↑ Karl von den Steinen: Through Central Brazil . 1886, foreword
  13. ↑ Hartmann (1986: 52)
  14. ↑ Mark Münzel : The ethnological research of the Alto Xingu . In: Theodor Koch-Grünberg: The Xingu Expedition (1898–1900). A research diary . Edited by Michael Kraus. Böhlau, Cologne 2004, ISBN 3-412-08204-X , pp. 435–452, here p. 435.
  15. ^ Gerhard Baer: Contributions to the knowledge of the Xingú source area . Diss., University of Basel 1960, p. 4 (chapter geography of the Xingú headwaters ).

Web links

Commons : Karl von den Steinen  - collection of images

French

personal data
SURNAME Steinen, Karl von den
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German physician, ethnologist, explorer, American scholar, writer
DATE OF BIRTH March 7, 1855
PLACE OF BIRTH Mülheim an der Ruhr
DATE OF DEATH November 4, 1929
Place of death Kronberg im Taunus