Gerd Spittler

Gerd Spittler (born April 4, 1939 in Donaueschingen ) is a German ethnologist .

Spittler became known for his participation in the development of the Africa focus at the University of Bayreuth and for his research on the Tuareg nomads. While in his early years as a sociologist he still concentrated on the area of “power and rule”, as part of his professorship in Bayreuth as an ethnologist, he finally focused on other topics: the ethnology of work, the ethnology of material needs, local action in a global context as well as the methodology of research. He has written and edited several articles and books on these topics.

Life

Gerd Spittler grew up in Donaueschingen and graduated from the Fürstenberg-Gymnasium in 1958 . From 1959 to 1966 he studied sociology, ethnology, economics and history at the universities of Heidelberg, Hamburg, Bordeaux, Basel and Freiburg. He received his doctorate in 1966. His dissertation “Norm and Sanction” from 1967 comprises two empirical research projects on the subject of the sanction mechanism. While the first examination was carried out in a restaurant kitchen in which he worked on the side, the second examination is based on his experience in a psychosomatic clinic, in which he took part in an analysis group as a recorder and took part in most of the clinic events.

From 1968 to 1975 he worked as a research assistant at the Institute for Sociology at the University of Freiburg . In 1975 and 1976 he jumped in as a substitute professor for sociology at the University of Heidelberg . In 1977 he finally returned to the University of Freiburg as a university lecturer. Here he taught from 1980 to 1988 as a professor of sociology. In 1976 he traveled to Niger for the first time for research purposes to examine the Kel Ewey of Timia . His books “Droughts, War and Hunger Crises among the Kel Ewey 1980–1985” and “Acting in a Hunger Crisis” come from research in this region. In 1984 he gave several lectures for the first time in the course of a one-month visiting professorship at the University of Niamey in Niger.

From 1988 until his retirement in 2004 he held the first chair for ethnology at the University of Bayreuth. During his time in Bayreuth, from 1990 to 1999 Spittler was the spokesman for the graduate school “Intercultural Relations in Africa”. From 1994 to 1999 he was the managing director of the "Institute for African Studies", which coordinates Africa-related research and teaching at the University of Bayreuth and promotes cooperation with African universities and research institutions as well as national and international Africa institutes. In 1996/1997 he took over the position of dean of the cultural studies faculty, where he was also the spokesman for the cultural studies research college “Local Action in Africa in the Context of Global Influences” from 2000 to 2004. Since 2002 he has also been Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Board of “Point Sud. Center de Recherche sur le Savoir Local ”in Bamako , Mali . The project supports individual field research, promotes cooperation between scientists of different origins through joint seminars and research colloquia, and awards grants to young African researchers.

In the years after his retirement, Spittler taught at the universities in Basel, Bayreuth and Niamey (Niger), among others. From 2004 to 2007 he was also a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the “Center for the Modern Orient” project in Berlin. From October 2006 to February 2007 he was a visiting scientist at the Berlin Science Center. In 2007 he was made an honorary member of the German Society for Ethnology (DGV).

Research areas

Spittler began his research with questions of legal sociology / right ethnology, before examining mainly farming societies. The focus here has always been on the relationship between farmers and the state. This was followed by research with a focus on West Africa on nomads, among other things, on the subjects of droughts and hunger crises, pastoral work, caravans, material culture, needs and consumption. This area includes six years of field research with Tuareg and Hausa in Niger, Nigeria and Algeria .

As a professor of ethnology in Bayreuth, he focused thematically on four areas: work , material needs, local action in a global context, research trips and methods of ethnology. In addition to general reflections on the anthropology of work, a topic that has so far been largely neglected in ethnology, Spittler has primarily examined shepherd and peasant work in his own research. As part of the Collaborative Research Center “Identity in Africa” and the Graduate School “Intercultural Relations in Africa”, he dealt with the working conditions of farmers, nomads, slaves and artisans, among other things.

Spittler's second focus dealt with material needs, consumption and material culture. This mainly happened in the project of the SFB / FK 560 “Local Action in Africa in the Context of Global Influences”, which has existed since 2000. This is a comparison of traditional foods and goods and modern, imported consumer goods. Three West African villages (Hausa, Kasena, Tuareg) and the respective household inventories are examined and compared with German households. During the preparation and implementation of this project, issues of globalization, local action, local vitality and appropriation were mainly dealt with.

Publications

During his time as a sociologist, Spittler published works that suggested an ethnological interest. This is how his early books dealt with “Dominion over peasants. The spread of state rule and an Islamic urban culture in Gobir (Niger) ”from 1978 or“ Administration in an African peasant state ”(1981) rather ethnological topics and gave an idea of the path that the professor would take over the years. In total, Spittler has written over eight monographs, edited five works and published over 80 essays. Even after his retirement, Spittler continues to work as a journalist.

Monographs

Norm and sanction. Investigations into the sanction mechanism . Walter, Olten 1967.
Rule over peasants. The spread of state rule over an Islamic urban culture in Gobir (Niger) . Campus, Frankfurt 1978.
Administration in an African farming state. Colonial French West Africa 1919–1939 . Steiner, Wiesbaden 1982.
Founders of the Anthropology of Work. German Social Scientists of the 19th and Early 20th Centuries . Lit, Berlin 2008.
Anthropology of labor. An ethnographic comparison. Springer Fachmedien, Wiesbaden 2016, ISBN 978-3-658-10433-7 .

Editing

with Mamadou Diawara and Farias Paulo: Heinrich Barth et l'Afrique . Köppe, Cologne 2006
with Peter Probst: Between Resistance and Expansion. Explorations of Local Vitality in Africa (= contributions to Africa research , 18). Lit, Münster 2004.

with Hélène d'Almeida-Topor and Monique Lakroum: Le Travail en Afrique Noire. Représentations et pratiques à l'époque contemporaine . Karthala, Paris 2003.

Articles (selection)

Art. Work . In: Bohlken Eike, Christian Thies (Hrsg.): Handbuch Anthropologie. Man between nature, culture and technology . Metzler, Munich / Weimar 2009, pp. 300–304.
Beginnings of the Anthropology of Work: Nineteenth Century Social Scientists and their Influence on Ethnography . In: Jürgen Kocka (Ed.): Work in a Modern Society: The German Experience in European-American Perspective . Berghahn, Oxford 2009, pp. 37-53.
Rule in Gobir - sacred kingship or despotism? In: Katharina Inhetveen, Georg Klute (ed.): Encounters and disputes. Festschrift for Trutz von Trotha . Rüdiger Köppe, Cologne 2009, pp. 210–232.
Contesting The Great Transformation: Work in Comparative Perspective . In: Christopher Hann , Keith Harth (Eds.): Market and Society: The Great Transformation Today . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2009, pp. 160-174.
Caravaneers, Shopkeepers and Consumers - the Appropriation of Goods among the Kel Ewey Tuareg in Niger . In: Hans Peter Hahn (Ed.): Consumption in Africa. Anthropological Approaches . Lit, Berlin 2008, pp. 147-172.
with Hans Peter Hahn and Markus Vern: How Many Things Does Man Need? Material Possessions and Consumption in Three West African Villages (Hausa, Kasena and Tuareg) Compared to German Students . In: Hans Peter Hahn (Ed.): Consumption in Africa. Anthropological Approaches . Lit, Berlin 2008, pp. 173-200.
Science on the move. Dense participation and scientific habitus in Heinrich Barth's field research in Africa . In: Gabriele Cappai (Ed.): Research under conditions of cultural foreignness . Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden 2008, pp. 41–67.
Alexander Tschajanow . In: One - Development Policy . H. 18-19, 2006, pp. 52-54.
Administrative Despotism in Peasant Societies . In: Bill Jenkins, Edward C. Page (Eds.): The Foundations of Bureaucracy in Economic and Social Thought . Elgar, Cheltenham 2004, Vol. I, pp. 339-350.
Work - Transformation of Objects or Interaction with Subjects? In: Brigitta Benzing, Bernd Herrmann (Hrsg.): Exploitation and Overexploitation in Societies Past and Present . Münster / Hamburg 2003, pp. 327–338.
Savoir local et vitalité locale dans le context global . In: Mamadou Diawara (Ed.): L'interface entre les savoirs des paysans et le savoir universel . Bamako and Paris: Le Figuier (Bamako) and Présence Africaine, (Paris), 2003 pp. 34-55.
Why are the Kel Ewey Tuareg so black? in: Gerhard Göttler (Ed.): The Sahara. Man and nature in the largest desert on earth , DuMont, Cologne 1984, ISBN 3-7701-1422-1 , pp. 300–302.

literature

Kurt Beck, Till Förster, Hans Peter Hahn (eds.): Looking ahead. Celebration for Gerd Spittler on his 65th birthday . Köppe, Cologne 2004, ISBN 3-89645-403-X (p. 359ff. List of publications).

Web links

personal data
SURNAME	Spittler, Gerd
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German ethnologist
DATE OF BIRTH	April 4, 1939
PLACE OF BIRTH	Donaueschingen