Hermann Amborn

Hermann Amborn (born April 11, 1933 in Braubach ) is a German ethnologist .

After working as an engineer Hermann Amborn began in 1964 the study of anthropology , prehistory and early history and anthropology , graduating in 1973 with a doctorate with a thesis on the historical and socio-economic importance of the iron production in Africa. From 1965 he was a research assistant on a DFG- funded project for almost three years .

The habilitation took place in the winter semester 1986/87 on the social division of labor in acephalic / polycephalic societies of eastern Africa with comparisons to India.

In 1978/79 he accepted visiting professorships in Hamburg and in 1996 at Kansas State University (Manhattan / Kansas). From 1987 until his retirement in 1998 he was employed on a C-2 professorship at the Institute for Ethnology at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich .

From 1991 to 2001 he was the spokesman for the ethics working group of the German Society for Ethnology. During his time in Munich, he led several research projects. He carried out ethnological research in Ethiopia, Kenya and Bali (Indonesia). With representatives of Burji - Konso groups he used an intense working relationship.

Amborn has also published on the following topics: anthropology of action (discursive action research), ethics , ethnic identity, intensified agriculture, professional craftsmen, anthropology of the landscape and the importance of law in domination-free societies.

Works (selection)

• The importance of the cultures of the Nile Valley for iron production in sub-Saharan Africa. (Dissertation) Studies in cultural studies. Frobenius Institute, Frankfurt 1976, ISBN 3515024115
• Differentiation and integration. Comparative studies on specialists and craftsmen in southern Ethiopian agricultural societies. (Habilitation thesis) Trickster, Munich 1990
• Inconvenient ethics. Considerations for a responsible ethnology . Reimer, Berlin 1993, ISBN 3496025239
• Flexible from tradition / Burji in Ethiopia and Kenya: Using the notes from Helmut Straube / With explanation of some cultural items in English. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2009, ISBN 3447060832
• The law as a refuge of anarchy. Societies without rule and state. Matthes & Seitz, Berlin 2016, ISBN 978-3-95757-240-0 . Materials from the author on this online
• Law as Refuge of Anarchy. Societies without Hegemony or State. [= Untimely Meditations], MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2019

literature

• Annette Hornbacher (Ed.): Ethik, Ethos, Ethnos. transcript Verlag, 2006, ISBN 3-89942-490-5 , therein: Annette Hornbacher on Amborn
• Vademecum of the historical sciences. 4th edition, Steiner, 2000, ISBN 3515076727 , p. 272

Web links

• Literature by and about Hermann Amborn in the catalog of the German National Library
• Interview with Hermann Amborn from 2008 (PDF; 267 kB)