Anthropological Society in Vienna

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Anthropological Society in Vienna ( AG in Vienna for short , English Anthropological Society in Vienna ) is a non-profit association and one of the oldest scientific societies in Austria .

The society was founded by representatives of the following four disciplines: physical anthropology , prehistory and early history , folklore and ethnology . Today, the focus, which is strongly oriented towards transdisciplinarity and interdisciplinarity, has expanded to include the following cooperating subjects: prehistory and early history, archeology , prehistory , physical anthropology, ethnology (ethnology), social and cultural anthropology as well as folklore, whereby explicitly on close cooperation between the cultural, social and human sciences and the natural sciences is important.

Society sees its task in promoting studies on humans. The focus is on people at all times and in all places in their physical and psychological predispositions and as a culturally and socially acting subject. The company is presided over by a seven-person executive board, assisted by a 25-person committee. All functionaries are elected to their offices by the annual general meeting for three years.

The most important principle of the company's activity is the endeavor to promote cooperation between the sciences represented in it. When it was founded in 1870 and during the first decades of its existence, the society was to be the common roof over the gradually specializing anthropological disciplines. In addition to the work of the scientific institutes, it sees its task in disseminating and popularizing the latest research results. The company fulfills this task through regular meetings, the organization of public lectures and the publication of pamphlets.

history

The association was founded on February 13, 1870. The first president was Carl von Rokitansky , professor of pathological anatomy at the University of Vienna and from 1869 to 1878 president of the Imperial Academy of Sciences. At the founding meeting of the society, the establishment of an anthropological and prehistoric museum and a specialist library was also decided. The first custodians of this museum were the ethnographer Felix Philipp Kanitz and from 1874 Felix von Luschan , who was appointed director of the Africa and Oceania departments of the Berlin Ethnographic Museum in 1904 and professor of anthropology at the University of Berlin in 1909. Jakob Eduard Polak was appointed librarian .

The company was significantly involved in the preparations for the newly established anthropological-ethnographic department of the Natural History Court Museum , founded in 1876 . The museum's first director, Ferdinand von Hochstetter , was a founding member and a member of the committee until his death. His successor, Franz von Hauer, was also a committee member. Felix von Luschan held the post of accounting officer for the first time in 1873 and prepared collections for the World Exhibition in Vienna, before he worked as a demonstrator at the Vienna Chair for Physiology in 1874 and became curator of the Society's collections. The cooperation between the society and the Berlin Anthropological Society founded in 1869 (today: Berlin Society for Anthropology, Ethnology and Prehistory ) was particularly intensive in the first decades after its foundation and was expressed in joint meetings. In 1877 the society decided to hand over the holdings of its museum and library to the newly established department of the Natural History Court Museum, at the same time the seat of the Society was relocated to the Natural History Museum. Today's Anthropological Department, the Prehistoric Department and today's World Museum Vienna (formerly: Museum für Völkerkunde Wien) owe the foundation of their libraries to the Anthropological Society in Vienna.

One of the aims of the society was to pave the way for the sciences it represented on academic ground. It all started with prehistory, which was given a chair at the Philosophical Faculty of the University of Vienna in 1899. Moriz Hoernes was appointed as the first professor in 1899 . In 1913, Rudolf Pöch was appointed full professor at the newly founded chair for anthropology and ethnography. This chair was split in 1927. Josef Weninger became professor for physical anthropology and Wilhelm Koppers professor for ethnology in 1928.

During National Socialism, several members of society ( Eberhard Geyer et al.) Got entangled with the regime and its racial policy, as the anthropological disciplines in particular were called upon to provide a scientific foundation for ideologically-racially motivated objectives, which some specialist representatives willingly implemented. Due to absences due to the war, the society largely ceased its activities in 1942 until the end of the war and the presidency remained vacant.

After the end of the war, Josef Weninger became president. Although he had to reckon with repression from 1938 to 1945 due to his marriage to a Jewish woman, he was an “illegal National Socialist” before 1938. Some of the very critical personalities were able to continue their research in the post-war period and took over functionaries. For example, the company's vice-president Otto Reche , long-time president Victor Christian , but also followers like the future president Walter Hirschberg. This long repressed epoch was not dealt with until the 1990s by Karl Pusman, who wrote a dissertation on the history and development of the anthropological society and the anthropological disciplines in Austria.

In the 21st century, society sees its task in the continuation and further intensification of the cooperation between the subjects mentioned.

Chairman of the company

Publications

Communications from the Anthropological Society in Vienna , MAGW for short . 143 volumes have been published so far, the annual volumes each have a length of 250-360 pages and combine around 20 articles on archaeologists and history, anthropology, folklore and ethnology. Each annual band has a general theme. In addition, association news and meeting reports are printed. From the 2014 annual volume, there will again be a review section for new publications.

literature

  • Sonja Fatouretchi: The Berlin-Vienna axis in the beginnings of ethnology from 1869 to 1906. University of Vienna, Vienna 2009 ( diploma thesis , PDF download possible ).
  • Liselotte Knoll: Felix von Luschan . Supplements and contributions to the biographical data of a pioneer in ethnology. University of Vienna, Vienna 2004 (diploma thesis).
  • Peter Linimayr: Viennese ethnology in National Socialism. Lang, Vienna 1994, ISBN 3-631-46736-2 .
  • Karl Pusman: The “Human Sciences” on Vienna soil (1870-1959). Lit, Vienna 2008, ISBN 978-3-8258-0472-5 .
  • Irene Ranzmaier: The Anthropological Society in Vienna and the academic establishment of anthropological disciplines at the University of Vienna, 1870–1930. Böhlau, Vienna 2013, ISBN 978-3-205-78937-6 ( review ).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Homepage: Anthropological Society in Vienna. Retrieved July 30, 2014.
  2. ↑ Compare Sonja Fatouretchi: The Berlin-Vienna Axis in the Beginnings of Ethnology from 1869 to 1906. University of Vienna, Vienna 2009 (diploma thesis, PDF download possible ).
  3. ↑ a b c Karl Pusman: The "Human Sciences" in Vienna Land (1870-1959). Lit, Vienna 2008, ISBN 978-3-8258-0472-5 , pp. ??.