Karl W. Butzer

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Karl W. Butzer (2005)

Karl Wilhelm Butzer (born August 19, 1934 in Mülheim an der Ruhr ; † May 4, 2016 ) was a German-born American geographer and archaeologist .

Life

Karl Wilhelm Butzer was the brother of Paul Butzer . His Catholic family left National Socialist Germany. Years of emigration to England and Canada followed , during which the family did not find peace.

Butzer completed his master's degree in meteorology from McGill University in Canada and returned to Germany in the 1950s to do a doctorate in physical geography at the University of Bonn .

From 1959 to 1966 he taught at the University of Wisconsin and in 1981/82 during a guest semester at the ETH Zurich . Butzer was a lecturer at the University of Chicago until 1984 . His wide-ranging geoarchaeological research extended to Egypt, Ethiopia, South Africa, the USA and Spain, ranging from the Palaeolithic to historically documented times. He dealt with global climate change and environmental changes, the reconstruction of landscapes, geoarchaeology , the adaptation of humans to changed environmental conditions (cultural adaptation) as well as syncretism phenomena in religions.

In 1985 Butzer was appointed to the University of Texas at Austin . From then on he began research in northern Mexico , with a special interest in Spanish influence.

Butzer has received several awards for his scientific achievements ( Busk Medal of the Royal Geographical Society ; Fryxell Medal of the Society of American Archeology ; 1986: Archaeological Geology Award; 2002: Preston E. James Eminent Latin Americanist Career Award). In 1996 he became a member of the National Academy of Sciences . He was also a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences .

Butzer presented pioneering interdisciplinary work for archeology that placed the aspects of environment and ecology in the foreground. He shaped the American "environmental archeology", while his work in Germany went relatively unnoticed. Butzer died on May 4, 2016.

Publications

  • Archeology as Human Ecology , Cambridge 1982
  • Cattle and Sheep from Old to New Spain: Historical Antecedents . Annals of the Association of American Geographers 78, 1988, pp. 29-56
  • Environment and Archeology. An Ecological Approach to Prehistory (1st edition 1964)
  • The Classical Tradition of Agronomic Science. Perspectives on Carolingian Agriculture and Agronomy . In: Paul Leo Butzer, Dietrich Lohrmann (eds.): Science in Western and Eastern Civilization in Carolingian Times , Birkhäuser, Basel Boston Berlin 1993, pp. 539-596
  • Ed .: Dimensions of Human Geography: Essays on Some Familiar and Neglected Themes . Distributed for the Committee on Geographical Studies, 1978

Appreciations

  • Karl H. Offen: Dr. Karl W. Butzer: Recipient of 2002 Preston E. James Eminent Latin Americanist Career Award. Journal of Latin American Geography 2.1, 2003, pp. 125–127 (at Project MUSE: [1] )

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Memorials & Tributes: Karl W. Butzer ( en ) Association of American Geographers . Retrieved May 6, 2016.
personal data
SURNAME Butzer, Karl W.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Butzer, Karl Wilhelm (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American geoarchaeologist
DATE OF BIRTH August 19, 1934
PLACE OF BIRTH Mülheim an der Ruhr
DATE OF DEATH 4th May 2016