Daniel Garrison Brinton

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Daniel Garrison Brinton

Daniel Garrison Brinton (born May 13, 1837 in Thornbury Township , Chester County , Pennsylvania , † July 31, 1899 in Philadelphia ) was an American archaeologist and ethnologist .

Life

Brinton was born in Thornbury, Pennsylvania. After graduating with a bachelor's degree from Yale in 1858, he studied at Jefferson Medical College for two years and toured Europe the following year. His literary and bibliophile interests developed at Yale . He continued his studies in Paris and Heidelberg . From 1862 to 1865, during the Civil War , he was a surgeon in the Army of the Northern States , from 1864 to 1865 as the chief surgeon of the Army Clinic in Quincy, Illinois .

After the war, Brinton practiced as a doctor in West Chester, Pennsylvania for several years . From 1874 to 1887 he was the editor of a weekly magazine, the Medical and Surgical Reporter , in Philadelphia . Brinton became professor of ethnology and archeology at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia in 1884 and was professor of American linguistics and archeology at the University of Pennsylvania from 1886 until his death . In 1887 he resigned as editor of the medical journal to devote himself entirely to anthropology.

Brinton was a member of numerous learned societies in the United States and Europe. He has served at various times as president of the Numismatic and Antiquarian Society of Philadelphia , the American Folk-Lore Society , the American Philosophical Society, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science .

In the latter years of his life, Brinton was an anarchist . In April 1896 he gave a lecture on "What the Anarchists Want" to the Ethical Fellowship of Philadelphia . In October 1897, Brinton met Pyotr Kropotkin for dinner after the famous anarchist's only lecture appearance in Philadelphia. Kropotkin had declined invitations from city notables .

In an August 1895 address, Brinton advocated racial theories (biologically based racism ) that were common at the time. Charles A. Lofgren , in his book The Plessy Case, notes that Brinton accepted the "spiritual unity" of all mankind, but noted that "not all races are equally gifted," which disqualifies them from the atmosphere of modern Enlightenment.

Speaking at Brinton's memorial service on October 6, 1900, keynote speaker Albert H. Smyth said: “He sought the company of anarchists in Europe and America and sometimes made contact with the discontented of the world to understand their grievances and their suggestions for reforms To assess innovations. "

Brinton bequeathed his four thousand-year library to the University of Pennsylvania . In addition to monographs , pamphlets and offprints from scientific journals, it also includes handwritten materials. Today the collection of rare linguistic materials from Karl Hermann Berendt , which he sold to Brinton, is the most famous part of it.

Works

  • The Myths of the New World. Leypoldt & Holt, New York 1868. Digitized version (3rd A., 1896) (An attempt to scientifically analyze the mythology of the Indians and to bring them into context.)
  • The Religious Sentiment: its Sources and Aim. A Contribution to the Science and Philosophy of Religion. Holt, New York 1876.
  • American Hero Myths. A Study in the Native Religions of the Western Continent. HC Watts, Philadelphia 1882.
  • The Lenâpé and their Legends: With the Complete Text and Symbols of the Walam Olum. Self-published, Philadelphia 1885.
  • Essays of an Americanist. Porter & Coates, Philadelphia 1890.
  • Races and Peoples: lectures on the science of ethnography. Hodges, New York 1890.
  • The American Race. Hodges, New York 1891.
  • The Pursuit of Happiness. David McKay, Philadelphia 1894.
  • Religions of Primitive People. Putnam, New York and London 1897.

Brinton also published the Library of American Aboriginal Literature in eight volumes (1882-1890), an important contribution to anthropology in America. Of the eight volumes, six were edited by Brinton himself, one by Horatio Hale and one by Albert Samuel Gatschet . The 1885 work The Lenâpé and their Legends is notable for its role in the controversy surrounding the Walam Olum .

Web links

Commons : Daniel Garrison Brinton  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ John M. Weeks: The Library of Daniel Garrison Brinton (PDF; 2.6 MB). University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archeology and Anthropology, 2002. ISBN 1-931707-46-4 . P. 3.
  2. ↑ Weeks, p. 3
  3. ^ The Conservator , October 26, 1897
  4. ^ Letters from Brinton to Horace Traubel, April 26-27, 1896. Special Collections Dept., Temple University
  5. ^ Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society , Jan. 16, 1900, address by Albert H. Smyth.
  6. ↑ Weeks, p. 5
  7. ↑ Weeks, p. 7
personal data
SURNAME Brinton, Daniel Garrison
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American archaeologist and ethnologist
DATE OF BIRTH May 13, 1837
PLACE OF BIRTH Thornbury Township , Chester County , Pennsylvania
DATE OF DEATH July 31, 1899
Place of death Philadelphia