Josef Franz Thiel

Josef Franz Thiel (* 1932 in Vojvodina ) is a German ethnologist.

Life

In 1953 he joined the Society of the Divine Word and began his novitiate in the St. Gabriel Mission House . Through Paul Schebesta's courses , Thiel developed a growing interest in ethnology and medicine. After completing his theological training, Thiel went to the Republic of Congo in 1961 . There he not only worked as a missionary and did local research, but also helped set up education and health programs. In 1964 Thiel moved to Paris, where he studied sociology. Georges Balandier and Paul Mercier were among his teachers. He worked at the Anthropos Institute . After his habilitation in 1974 in Bonn , he also taught at the University of Bonn . In 1985 he was appointed director of the Museum für Völkerkunde Frankfurt am Main. He retired in 1998.

Ancestors, spirits, highest beings. Religious ethnological studies in the Zaïre-Kasai area . Sankt Augustin 1977, ISBN 3-921389-55-0 .
Ethnology of Religion. Basic concepts of the religions of peoples without writing . Berlin 1984, ISBN 3-496-00784-2 .
Basic concepts of ethnology. Introductory lectures . Berlin 1992, ISBN 3-496-00433-9 .
Years in the Congo. Missionary and ethnologist with the Bayansi . Frankfurt am Main 2001, ISBN 3-87476-381-1 .

as editors Dieter Kramer, Mark Münzel, Eva Raabe, Achim Sibeth and Mona Suhrbier: Missio, Message and Museum. Festschrift for Josef Franz Thiel on his 70th birthday . Frankfurt am Main 2003, ISBN 3-87476-432-X .