Vere Gordon Childe

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Vere Gordon Childe, ca.1930s

Vere Gordon Childe (born April 14, 1892 in North Sydney , Australia , † October 19, 1957 in the Blue Mountains , New South Wales ) was an Australian-British Marxist archaeologist and archeology theorist who was one of the most important connoisseur of European prehistory.

Life

Childe was born on April 14, 1892, in the rectory of St. Thomas Church in Sydney, New South Wales . His parents were the pastor Stephen Henry Childe (1844-1928) and his second wife, Harriet Eliza (1853-1910), the daughter of the notary Alexander Gordon. Childe attended the Anglican high school in Sydney, where he learned Latin, among other things. From 1911 he studied at the University of Sydney , mainly ancient languages ​​and philosophy. He graduated with honors in 1914.

From the winter semester of 1915 he studied with a 'Cooper Graduate Scholarship in Classics' at Queens College at the University of Oxford . Under the influence of the historian John Linton Myres , he turned more and more from classical philology to archeology, where he took diffusionist positions with regard to the history of human culture and civilization . In 1916 he graduated from BLitt , his dissertation was entitled The influence of Indo-Europeans in prehistoric Greece ; The supervisors were Arthur Evans and John Myres. In 1917 he finished the literae humaniores (Greats) with distinction.

In addition, Childe had joined the labor movement and was temporarily a member of the Industrial Workers of the World . In 1919 he returned to Australia and was three years private secretary to the Labor -Ministerpräsidenten of New South Wales , which he criticizing his parliamentarism study How Labor Governs accounted 1,923th In 1925 he was appointed librarian at the Royal Archaeological Institute in London on the basis of his prehistoric studies . From 1927 to 1946 Gordon Childe held the Chair of Prehistoric Archeology at the University of Edinburgh , named after its founder John Abercromby (1841-1924) . Politically, he was active against National Socialism . After a visit in 1935, he criticized the Soviet Union as a totalitarian state and the scientific community there as a “perversion of Marxism”. In 1946 he was appointed professor at the Institute of Archeology in London (now part of University College London ). In 1957 he died while researching at Govetts Leap in the Blue Mountains (New South Wales, Australia), presumably by suicide.

Memberships

On March 7, 1932 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh . In 1940 he became a Fellow of the British Academy . In 1947 he was accepted as a foreign member of the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences . In 1956 he became a corresponding member of the German Academy of Sciences in Berlin .

Theories

Gordon Childe can be seen as a moderate exponent and one of the innovators of diffusionism. In contrast to the extreme ideas of many diffusionists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, he also accorded the internal development of early societies an important role in the process of civilization. For him, stages of development in human culture were not tangible realities, but spiritual contexts of meaning or order structures whose essentials must be grasped. Gordon Childe coined the term Kurgan culture and developed the theory that the Aryans were to be regarded as Proto-Indo-Europeans .

As part of his Marxist interpretation of history, he developed the concept of the Neolithic Revolution for the beginning of the peasant way of life in the Middle East based on the concept of the industrial revolution and the concept of “urban revolution” for the development of urban societies in the Bronze Age . With this choice of term he distinguished himself from Gustaf Kossinna's latent racist diffusion and evolution theory , which influenced him in the 1920s.

reception

After his death, Childe was described by his colleague Stuart Piggott as "the greatest prehistorian in Britain and probably the world".

Childes' interpretations of certain phases of development and phenomena in human history are criticized by various archaeologists because the term "revolution" suggests a brief period of upheaval. In fact, however, these are long-term developments and transition phases that took place at different times in different places.

In Germany, Childe was introduced primarily by Günter Smolla .

Works

  • How Labor governs: a study of workers' representation in Australia . The Labor Publishing Company limited, London 1923.
  • The dawn of European civilization . Kegan Paul, London 1925.
  • The Aryans: a study of Indo-European origins . Kegan Paul, London 1926.
  • The most ancient East . London, Kegan Paul, Trench Truber & Co, 1929.
  • The Danube in prehistory . Clarendon Press, Oxford 1929.
  • The Bronze Age. The Macmillan Company, New York 1930.
  • Skara Brae, a Pictish village in Orkney. Kegan Paul & Co, London 1931.
  • Ancient dwellings at Skara Brae , HMSO , Edinburgh 1933.
  • New light on the most ancient east: the oriental prelude to European prehistory , London, Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner, 1934
  • The prehistory of Scotland . Kegan Paul, London 1935.
  • The prehistory of Scotland . Kegan Paul, London 1935.
  • Man makes himself. Watts, London 1936, revised versions 1941 and 1951
  • German translation: Driving forces of the event: people make their own story . Globus, Vienna 1949.
  • German: Man creates himself , translated by Wolfgang Martini, Verlag der Kunst, Dresden 1959 ( Fundus series 2).
  • Prehistoric communities of the British Isles . W. & R. Chambers, London, Edinburgh, 1940.
  • What happened in History . Penguin Books, Harmondsworth 1942.
  • German: Levels of culture: from prehistoric times to antiquity , translated by FW Gutbrod, Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1952.
  • The story of tools . Penguin Books, Harmondsworth 1942.
  • German translation: A history of tools . Globus, Vienna 1948.
  • Progress and Archeology . Watts & Co., London 1944.
  • Scotland before the Scots, being the Rhind Lectures for 1944 . Methuen & Co., London 1946.
  • History . Cobbett Press, London 1947.
  • Social worlds of knowledge . Oxford University Press, London 1949.
  • Prehistoric migrations in Europe . H. Aschehoug & Co., Oslo 1950.
  • Magic craftsmanship and science . University Press, Liverpool 1950.
  • Social evolution . Watts, London 1951.
  • German: Social Evolution , translated by Hans-Werner Sass. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt a. M. 1968.
  • Scotland . Edinburgh 1952.
  • What is history? Henry Schuman, New York 1953.
  • Society and knowledge. Harper, New York 1956.
  • German translation: Society and Knowledge: Weltperspektiven , Ullstein, Frankfurt a. M., Berlin, Vienna, 1974, ISBN 3-548-03023-8 .
  • A short introduction to archeology . F. Muller, London 1956.
  • Piecing together the past; the interpretation of archaeological data . Praeger, New York 1956.
  • The prehistory of European society . Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, 1958.
  • Prehistory of European culture . Rowohlt, Hamburg 1960.
  • Skara Brae . HMSO, Edinburgh 1983, ISBN 0-11-491755-8 .
  • Bernard Wailes (Ed.): Craft specialization and social evolution: in memory of V. Gordon Childe . University Museum Monograph 93; University Museum symposium series 6. University of Pennsylvania, Museum of Archeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia 1996.
  • Thomas Carl Patterson; Charles E. Orser (Ed.): Foundations of social archeology: selected writings of V. Gordon Childe . AltaMira Press, Walnut Creek 2004. ISBN 0-7591-0592-8 .

As translator

  • Delaporte, Louis Joseph: Mesopotamia, etc. Kegan Paul & Co., London 1925.
  • Moret, Alexandre; Davy, Georges: From Tribe to Empire, etc. Kegan Paul & Co., London 1926.
  • Borovka, Grigory Iosifovich: Scythian Art . Ernest Benn, London 1928.

Digs

literature

  • Grahame Clark (Ed.): Contributions to prehistoric archeology, offered to Professor V. Gordon Childe in honor of his sixty-fifth birthday . Museum of archeology and erhnology, Cambridge 1956.
  • Peter Gathercole: Childe, (Vere) Gordon (1892–1957). Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004.
  • Peter Gathercole, Terence H. Irving, Gregory Melleuish (Eds.): Childe and Australia. Archeology, politics and ideas . University Press, London 1995, ISBN 0-7022-2613-0 .
  • Sally Green: Prehistorian. A biography of V. Gordon Childe . Moonraker Press, Bradford-on-Avon 1989, ISBN 0-239-00206-7 .
  • David R. Harris (Ed.): The archeology of V. Gordon Childe. Contemporary perspectives. Proceedings of the V. Gordon Childe Centennial Conference held at the Institute of Archeology, University College London, 8-9 May 1992 under the auspices of the Institute of Archeology and the Prehistoric Society . UCL Press, London 1994, ISBN 1-85728-220-5 .
  • Barbara McNairn: The method and theory of V. Gordon Childe. Economic, social and cultural interpretations of prehistory . University Press, Edinburgh 1989, ISBN 0-85224-389-8 .
  • Linda Manzanilla (Ed.): Estudios sobre las revoluciones neolítica y urbana . University Press, Mexico City 1988, ISBN 968-36-0693-8 .
  • Derek J. Mulvaney: VG Childe. 1892–1957 , pp. 93–94 (special print)
  • Bruce G. Trigger : Gordon Childe, revolutions in archeology . Thames & Hudson, London 1980, ISBN 0-500-05034-1 .
  • Ulrich Veit : Gustaf Kossina and V. Gordon Childe: Approaches to a theoretical foundation of the prehistory . In: Saeculum 45, 3/4, 1984, pp. 326-363.
  • Bernard Wailes (Ed.): Craft specialization and social evolution. In memory of V. Gordon Childe . University Press, Philadelphia 1996, ISBN 0-924171-43-X .

Web links

Commons : V. Gordon Childe  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Single receipts

  1. ↑ Ruth Tringham : V. Gordon Childe 25 years after: His relevance for the archeology of the eighties. (pdf, 2.8 MB) In: Journal of Field Archeology. Volume 10, No. 1, 1983, pp. 85-100 , accessed on March 13, 2020 (English).
  2. ↑ Peter Gathercole, Childe, (Vere) Gordon (1892–1957), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/32400 .
  3. ↑ Peter Gathercole, Childe, (Vere) Gordon (1892–1957), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/32400 .
  4. ^ Bernhard Brosius: On the 50th anniversary of death: Vere Gordon Childe - archaeologist and Marxist. In: Inprekorr 434/435. Revolutionary Socialist League / IV. Internationale, October 1, 2007, pp. 29–32 , accessed March 12, 2020 .
  5. ↑ Peter Gathercole, Childe, (Vere) Gordon (1892–1957), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/32400 .
  6. ^ The tradition of archeology at Edinburgh. University of Edinburgh, October 22, 2018, accessed March 13, 2020 .
  7. ^ John Low: New Light on the Death of V. Gordon Childe. Australian Society for the Study of Labor History, accessed March 13, 2020 .
  8. ^ Fellows Directory. Biographical Index: Former RSE Fellows 1783–2002. (pdf, 487 kB) Royal Society of Edinburgh, June 29, 2006, p. 34 , accessed on October 17, 2019 (English).
  9. ^ Deceased Fellows. British Academy, accessed May 14, 2020 .
  10. ^ Past Members: V. Gordon Childe (1892-1957). Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences, accessed October 17, 2019 . Albert van Giffen : Herdenking van Vere Gordon Childe. (pdf, 329 kB) In: Jaarboek, 1959–1960. Amsterdam, June 15, 1959, pp. 373-382 , accessed March 13, 2020 (Dutch).
  11. ↑ Historical Academicians: Gordon Vere Childe. Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences, accessed on October 17, 2019 .
  12. ^ Ralf Gleser, On the idea of ​​prehistory and early history as a historical science. Research magazine of Saarland University, issue 2, 2007, p. 42 ff.
  13. ^ VG Childe: The Aryans: a study of Indo-European origins. Kegan Paul, London 1926.
    David W. Anthony: The “Kurgan Culture”, Indo-European origins, and the domestication of the horse: A reconsideration. (pdf, 5.6 MB) In: Current Anthropology . Volume 27, No. 4, August – October 1986, pp. 291–313 , accessed on March 13, 2020 (English).
  14. ^ Agathe Reingruber: Early Neolithic settlement patterns and exchange networks in the Aegean. (pdf, 1 MB) In: Documenta Praehistorica. Volume 38, 2011, pp. 291-305 , accessed on March 13, 2020 (English).
  15. ^ VG Childe, The Urban Revolution. Town Planning Review 21, 1950, 3-17.
  16. ^ W. Gordon East, Brian Frederick Windley: V. Gordon Childe. In: Encyclopaedia Britannica . Retrieved March 13, 2020 .
  17. ↑ Bruce Trigger: Gordon Childe: Revolutions in Archeology.
  18. ↑ Kenneth Maddock: Prehistory, Power and Pessimism . In: Peter Gathercole, TH Irving, Gregory Melleuish (Eds.): Childe and Australia: Archeology, Politics and Ideas. University of Queensland Press, St Lucia 1995, ISBN 978-0-7022-2613-7 , pages 107-117.
  19. ^ Günter Smolla, Neolithic cultural phenomena, studies on the question of their formation , Antiquitas series 2, treatises from the areas of prehistory and early history, volume 3, Bonn, Habelt 1960
personal data
SURNAME Childe, Vere Gordon
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Australian archaeologist
DATE OF BIRTH April 14, 1892
PLACE OF BIRTH Sydney , Australia
DATE OF DEATH October 19, 1957
Place of death Blue Mountains , Australia