Lorenz G. Loeffler
Lorenz Georg Löffler (born September 12, 1930 in Waltershausen , Germany ; † December 28, 2013 in Romanshorn , Switzerland ) was a Swiss ethnologist .
Life
From 1971 to 1995 Löffler was full professor for general ethnology at the ethnological seminar of the University of Zurich, which he set up and was head of for many years. From 1955 to 1957, as well as 1964 and 1990, he conducted research on the Mru and various neighboring groups in the Chittagong Hill Tracts in what is now Bangladesh . He was known for his precise ethnographic descriptions, his astute ethnological analyzes and his political commitment. In the 1960s he made a name for himself internationally in research and theorising of ethnology, especially in the field of kinship .
On September 12, 2014, a memorial ceremony for him took place at the Ethnographic Museum of the University of Zurich .
The study time in GDR and FRG
In 1949 Löffler graduated from high school in Waltershausen. Academic apprenticeship and wandering years followed. First he studied mathematics , physics and biology for one semester and two semesters in Romance studies , general culture and linguistics and sinology in Jena . Then he went to Halle , attended lectures in Chinese art history and became increasingly interested in Sinology. He then studied Sinology in Leipzig with Eduard Erkes and ethnology and comparative law with Eva Lips at the Julius Lips Institute there for ethnology and comparative legal sociology . In addition to Chinese , he also learned Japanese (with André Wedemeyer ) as well as Mongolian and Tibetan (with Johannes Schubert ) during this time .
After a total of five semesters studying at universities in the GDR, he decided in 1952 to go to Mainz . The offer in ethnology from Adolf Friedrich interested him particularly strongly there. He also hopes to be able to develop better scientifically at a West German university than in the German Democratic Republic . Professor Friedrich supported him in many matters. In 1954 he completed his studies with a dissertation on buffalo and cattle festivals in Southeast Asia with Adolf Friedrich.
The beginning as a researcher and lecturer
In October 1955 he set out to carry out extensive field research among the Mru and various neighboring groups such as the Khumi in East Pakistan (today: Bangladesh ). Before that he learned Bengali for a few months in Paris with a painter from Calcutta . The research took place as part of the "German Chittagong Hills Expedition" under the direction of Dr. HE Kauffmann instead. After half a year, Kauffmann had to return to Germany for political and health reasons. Together with an assistant, Löffler conducted research in the region of the southern Chittagong Hill Tracts for a total of about twenty months. In 1964 and 1990 he stayed again for a short time in the southern Chittagong Hill Tracts.
In 1957 he received a two-year scholarship from the German Research Foundation to work out his research results. It was important to him to capture the Mru's view of their own society and culture - a novelty for ethnological monographs of the time. He proceeded from their kinship system . The 400-page manuscript remained unfinished for the time being.
In 1960, Professor WE Mühlmann brought him to Heidelberg as secretary with coordination tasks for the newly established interdisciplinary institute for South and Southeast Asia (today the South Asia Institute ). In 1970 Löffler completed his habilitation in Heidelberg with a thesis on kinship. In the meantime he had become an assistant there. In the same year he was offered a new professorship for “general ethnology” in Zurich , which he accepted. He refused the call back to Heidelberg as Mühlmann's successor.
Development of the ethnological seminar in Zurich
Under Löffler's aegis, ethnology developed into a flourishing subject with a rich teaching program in Zurich from 1971 to 1995. Areas that he promoted in teaching and research were: kinship ethnology , gender relations, ecology and economics , political ethnology, legal ethnology , developmental ethnology , social movements , ethnicity and indigenousity, ethnology of one's own society or domestic ethnology, medical ethnology and ethnolinguistics . Löffler was ahead of his time with the introduction of many of these teaching and research fields in Zurich - although he was guided by developments in the subject in the USA.
During the youth riots in 1980, Löffler came under political fire from the Education Department of the Canton of Zurich. A video was made at his institute as part of domestic ethnology that documented the Zurich youth riots using the example of the opera house riots. The education director demanded the release of the video tape, but Löffler steadfastly refused for data protection reasons. In doing so, he jeopardized his position as a professor. The Zurich ethnology was in the spotlight for a short time. Löffler won the sympathy of many students and was able to keep his professorship in the end.
In the late 1980s he was also politically committed to the hill tribes in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, who were threatened by increasing economic and political pressure and the immigration of neighboring Bengali . He drew attention to this with an impressive photo exhibition in collaboration with the International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs (IWGIA) Zurich. The exhibition was shown in different places: in 1988 in the Ethnographic Museum of the University of Zurich , later in Freiburg i. Br., Kassel, Karlsruhe and Hamburg and for the last time in 1995 in the main building of the University of Zurich.
Works
He also dedicated his publications to most of the subject areas that Löffler represented in his teaching. There are also writings on material culture and play , on symbolic forms and rituals . His monograph "Mru. Mountain residents in the border area of Bangladesh" (1986) was published in 1990 in English. Löffler's text and the photographs by Claus-Dieter Brauns complement each other in these illustrated book monographs in a special way. He showed his scientific competence even more comprehensively and in more detail in the large monograph "Ethnographic Notes on the Mru and Khumi" (2012), published in the Harvard Oriental Series . The fragment that he wrote in the late 1950s found its conclusion in this work after his retirement.
In 1991, on Löffler's 60th birthday, a commemorative publication was published with the title "Ethnology in Controversy. Controversies about power, business, gender in foreign cultures. With contributions from twenty-five colleagues and students". This publication reflects Löffler's broad thematic interests and his distinctive fighting spirit in theoretical discussions. The text collection "Aussaaten" (2002) with twenty-four of his already published and some as yet unpublished works - divided into economy and ecology, kinship, gender relations, ethnicity and politics - gives an excellent insight into Löffler's diverse research activities.
In retrospect, it is striking that more than twenty of his writings have dealt with kinship since the 1960s. This is an example of how Löffler interfered in existing theoretical debates and, as a highly witty loner, developed his own astute theses.
Some of his important publications are:
- Ethnographic Notes on the Mru and Khumi of the Chittagong and Arakan Hill Tracts: A Contribution to our Knowledge of South and Southeast Asian Indigenous Peoples mainly based on field research in the Southern Chittagong Hill Tracts. Harvard Oriental Series, Vol. 74. Cambridge, Mass .: Harvard University Press, 2012.
- Sowing. Ethnological writings. Zurich Working Papers on Ethnology, Volume 13. Zurich: Argonaut, 2002.
- Mru: Mountain people in the border area of Bangladesh. Basel: Birkhäuser, 1986.
Others
The following commemorative publication was written for him:
- Berg, Eberhard; Lauth, Jutta; Wimmer, Andreas. (Ed.). Ethnology in conflict: controversies about power, business, gender in foreign cultures. Festschrift for Lorenz G. Löffler. Munich: Trickster, 1991.
Obituaries
- Sociologus 2014 ( Michael Oppitz )
- Journal of Ethnology 2014.
- Tsantsa 2014
Web links
- www.supras.biz/hosting/loeffler
- Benthall, Jonathan. The attack on Professor Loeffler. In: RAIN, No. 43, p. 1, 3-4.
- Freedom for Greenland. In: Der Spiegel, No. 25, 1980, p. 110-112.
- Huber, Hugo. Ethnology at the Swiss universities. In: Geographica Helvetica, 1979, No. 2, p. 58-63.
Individual evidence
- ^ ISEK - Ethnology
- ↑ http://www.isek.uzh.ch/de/ethnologie/Profil/geschichte/kondolenzbuchprofdrlorenzgloeffler/gedenkfeierproflorenzgloeffler.html
- ↑ https://www.unilu.ch/fakultaeten/ksf/institute/ethnologisches-seminar/mitarbeitende/prof-dr-juerg-helbling/
- ↑ http://www.isek.uzh.ch/de/ethnologie/Profil/geschichte/kondolenzbuchprofdrlorenzgloeffler.html
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Löffler, Lorenz G. |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Löffler, Lorenz Georg (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Swiss ethnologist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | September 12, 1930 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Waltershausen , Germany |
| DATE OF DEATH | December 28, 2013 |
| Place of death | Romanshorn , Switzerland |