Lothar Käser

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Lothar Käser in 2006

Lothar Käser (born April 23, 1938 in Freiburg im Breisgau ) is a German high school teacher and ethnologist .

Live and act

education

Käser is the first of three sons of Pastor Arnold Käser , who comes from Nördlinger Ries , and his wife Maria Käser, nee. Abuse. While the father was a soldier in the Second World War , the mother fled with the children to the safety of her hometown Validlingen (Wildberg) in the Nagold Valley, where Käser spent his primary school days, in November 1944 after a bomb attack on Freiburg . From 1948 he attended high school in Calw and from 1951 in Tuttlingen . After graduating from high school in 1957, he studied English , Romance studies and Latin at the universities of Freiburg , Munich and Tübingen . In 1962 and 1964 he passed the state examinations for teaching at grammar schools in the subjects of English and French. In 1963, as part of a Franco-German exchange program, he took on a position as "Assistant d'Allemand" at the Lycée d'Etat in Evreux for one year and then worked as a teacher at the Fürstenberg Gymnasium in Donaueschingen .

Work in Micronesia

From 1969 to 1974 he worked in church development cooperation with overseas services on Truk in Micronesia as a teacher at the "Philadelphia Junior High School" of the Evangelical Church of Chuuk on the main island of Tol . He later became the headmaster of this school, previously founded by the Liebenzeller Mission , and a member of its field committee. His work as a teacher of students who had been socialized under completely different social conditions and who understood their world in a completely different way than European-Western-oriented students soon made him realize that their Chuukesian language and its completely differently structured grammar were the only effective ones Key to understanding the islanders acting in characteristically different ways of thinking. With the help of a book by the American ethnolinguists Edward Sapir and Benjamin Lee Whorf found in the school library , he began to grapple with thinking and behavior in human societies. While learning the Chuuk language, which he made accessible with the help of an older grammar book by the missionary Richard Neumaier, he also began to deal with the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis about the linguistic relativity of human thought.

This prompted the leadership of the local church to commission him in 1972, together with the missionary Anneliese Stüber and a local team (pastors, chief, police and medium ) to translate the Old Testament into the Chuuk language. This also meant a revision of the existing New Testament . Both parts of the Bible were completed in 2000. In the course of working on this translation, a collection of linguistic data was created on the islanders' image of man, that is, on their ideas of body, soul and spirit and, in a wider sense, on the forms of animism as it manifests itself in their thinking. This collection was to form the basis for Käser's further career.

Studies, research and teaching

From 1974 onwards Käser worked again as a high school teacher at the Fürstenberg high school in Donaueschingen and at the same time began studying ethnology at the University of Freiburg. With a study of the ethnology of religion on the term “soul” among the islanders from Truk , Käser was awarded a Dr. rer. nat. PhD. In 1980 he and his family moved to Freiburg, where he was employed as director of studies at the Theodor-Heuss-Gymnasium. In 1987 his habilitation followed with a thesis on the settlement of Micronesia. An ethnological-linguistic investigation . From 1994 until his retirement in 2011 he was an adjunct professor for ethnology with a focus on ocean studies, Austronesian linguistics and religious ethnology at the Institute for Social Anthropology at the University of Freiburg.

In church organizations in particular, Käser is considered a thought leader in intercultural cooperation ("foreign cultures"). From 1976 he lectured in advanced training courses for missionaries of the Liebenzeller Mission. This work was continued from 1978 under the direction of George W. Peters in Monbachtal as a seminar for missionary training (SMF) of the later Academy for World Mission . Here he taught anthropology and ethnology as a freelancer for several decades, also with the Wycliff Bible translators, the Free Theological University of Giessen and the BFU distance-learning Theological School .

His travels for field research and teaching activities brought him to various countries in South America, Africa and Asia. The linguistic results of his philological research were incorporated into the new dictionary of the Chuuk language. a. the American cultural anthropologist Ward Goodenough published .

Käser's declared aim is to make a critical, constructive contribution to the issues of development cooperation and missiology . For ethnological reasons, he sees the activities of the missions not only as the destruction of cultures, but as the triggering and support of processes of appropriation that contribute to the success of not only measures in development cooperation but also processes of Christianization.

To this day he lectures at events such as the Regensburg Symposium for Science and the IHL Theological Days in Bad Liebenzell. He is a volunteer member of the board of trustees of the "Academy of the Elderly Generation", an ecumenical initiative of Freiburg's adult education.

Honors

In 1998 Käser received the George W. Peters Prize for his work Foreign Cultures .

Private

Lothar Käser married Gisela Nonnenberg from Gütersloh in 1964, who was born as a missionary child on Sumatra in Batakland. The couple live in Schallstadt and have two children.

Publications

  • ... and stay on the outermost sea. Micronesian diary , Verlag der Liebenzeller Mission , Bad Liebenzell, 1972, ISBN 978-3-921113-29-5 .
  • Pauti. With a missionary from the Swiss Indian Mission to the Campa Indians in Peru , Schwengeler Verlag, Berneck 1989.
  • Through the tunnel. The history of the translation of the Old Testament into the language of the Truk Islands in the South Seas , VLM, Bad Liebenzell 1990, ISBN 978-3-88002-431-1 .
  • Light in the South Seas: Wilhelm Friedrich & Elisabeth Kärcher , VLM, Bad Liebenzell 2006, ISBN 978-3-921113-88-2 .

Scientific

  • The term "soul" among the islanders von Truk (Diss.), Freiburg i.Br. 1977.
  • The settlement of Micronesia: An ethnological-linguistic investigation (also habilitation thesis), Dietrich Reimer Verlag, Berlin 1990, ISBN 978-3-496-00485-1 .
  • The concepts “sin” and “curse” on the Islands of Chuuk / Micronesia . NAOS (University of Pittsburgh, PA) 1994, Vol. 10 (1-3): 29-32.
  • Foreign cultures. An introduction to ethnology for development workers and church workers overseas , Erlangen and Bad Liebenzell 1997; VTR, Nuremberg 2014, ISBN 978-3-95776-114-9
  • Diferentes Culturas. Uma introdução á etnologia . (Descoberta Editora) Londrina PR. 2004; (Portuguese edition of Foreign Cultures 1997).
  • Animism: an introduction to the conceptual foundations of the world and human image of ethnic societies , VTR Nürnberg 2004; Edition 2014, ISBN 978-3-95776-112-5 .
  • Voyage en culture étrangère. Guide d'ethnologie appliquée . Charols (France) 2008. (French edition of Foreign Cultures 1997).
  • Animism. Introduction à la conception du monde et de l'homme dans les sociétés axées sur la tradition orale . Charols (Excelsis) 2010, (French edition of Animism 2004).
  • Double worlds. Forty years of ethnological-linguistic research in Micronesia , Verlag Wissenschaft & Demokratie, Freiburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-930369-36-2 .
  • Animism - A Cognitive Approach. An introduction to the basic notions underlying the concepts of the world and of man held by ethnic societies, for the benefit of those working overseas in development aid and in the church , VTR, Nürnberg 2014, (English edition of Animismus 2004).
  • Foreign Cultures. An Introduction to Ethnology for Development Aid Workers and Church Workers Abroad , VTR, Nürnberg 2014, (English edition of Fremde Kulturen 1997).

as a co-author

  • Mission today - arguments of an ethnologist , in: Ursula Wiesemann (ed.): Mission and Human Rights , R. Brockhaus Verlag, Wuppertal 1979, ISBN 978-3-417-12196-4 , pp. 101–111.
  • Ethnology , in: Helmut Burkhardt and Uwe Swarat (eds.): Evangelical Lexicon for Theology and Congregation, Wuppertal 1992, pp. 550–551.
  • Father Wilhelm Schmidt SVD , in: Helmut Burkhardt and Uwe Swarat (Ed.): Evangelical Lexicon for Theology and Congregation. Wuppertal 1994.
  • Anthropology and ethnology at the CBS study center Korntal , in: Jürgen Steinbach and Klaus W. Müller (eds.): Theology, Mission, Annunciation. Festschrift for the 60th birthday of Helmuth Egelkraut , Bonn 1998, pp. 58–62.
  • The term “heaven” as a Bible translation problem in the Austronesian languages ​​of Oceania and Southeast Asia , in: Stephan Holthaus and Klaus W. Müller (eds.): Die Mission der Theologie. Festschrift for Hans Kasdorf on his 70th birthday , mission academics vol. 5, Bonn 1998, pp. 152–161.
  • Does mission destroy culture? , in: Heinzpeter Hempelmann (Ed.): Why in all the world mission ?. Does mission destroy culture? , VLM, Bad Liebenzell 1999, pp. 77-87.
  • The positive and negative contribution of the mission to social and cultural development , in: Klaus W. Müller (Hrsg.): Mission im Kreuzfeuer. Papers at the 2001 annual conference of the Working Group for Evangelical Missiology (AfeM) in Wiedenest , VTR, Nuremberg 2001, pp. 17-29.
  • with Petra Steimle: Basic features of the worldview in Micronesian societies . In: Hermann Hiery (Ed.) 2001: Die deutsche Südsee 1848–1914. A manual. Paderborn (Schoening). Pp. 475-507.
  • Education and conscience , in: Cornelia Mack and Friedhilde Stricker (eds.): Educate to life. Preparing children for life , Hänssler Verlag, Holzgerlingen 2002, pp. 56–77.
  • Ethnological keywords , in: Der Brockhaus Religionen. Faith, rites, saints. Mannheim, Leipzig 2004.
  • Chuuk, his island wreath, the breadfruit and its magic , in: Ingrid Heermann and Katja Göbel, (Ed.): Südsee-Oasen. Life and Survival in the Western Pacific , [Book accompanying the special exhibition in the Linden Museum Stuttgart, December 5, 2009 - June 6, 2010]. With contribution by Katja Göbel… Stuttgart (Linden-Museum), pp. 138–149.
  • Animism as a world and human image, in: Hamit Reza Yousefi, Hans Waldenfels, Wolfgang Gantke (rsHg.): Ways to religion. Aspects - basic problems - supplementary perspectives , Nordhausen (Bautz) 2010, pp. 137–168.
  • “The natives cannot pronounce the letter h”. Father Laurentius Bollig and the language of Chuuk , in: Thomas Stolz, Christina Vossmann, Barbara Dewein (eds.): Colonial language research. The description of African and oceanic languages ​​at the time of German colonial rule , Akademie Verlag, Berlin 2011, pp. 263–283.
  • The language of Mapia in Micronesia. Comparative studies on a list of words by Johann Stanislaus Kubary from 1895 , in: Daniel Schmidt-Brücken and Susanne Schuster (Ed.): Colonial Linguistics. Language in colonial contexts , Verlag Walter de Gruyter , Berlin 2015, ISBN 978-3-11-042840-7 , pp. 247-316.

as editor

Essays

  • Native church and culture. An example from the South Seas , in: Association of Evangelical Missions Conferences (ed.): Evangelical Mission , Yearbook 1985, Missionshilfe Verlag, Hamburg 1985, pp. 61–66.
  • What is culture , in: Porta 40, Verlag der SMD in Germany, Marburg 1987, pp. 18-19.
  • Die Campa-Indianer , in: Ethos, Schwengeler Verlag, Berneck 1988.3, ​​pp. 6-13.
  • The concept "The Sacred" in the islands of Truk . In: NAOS (University of Pittsburgh, PA) Vol. 7 (1-3): 33-36. 1991.
  • The animism. The religions of traditional cultures from a more recent perspective , in: Evangelical Missiology 1992.3, pp. 35–40.
  • The missionaries came late - almost too late , in: Association of Evangelical Missions Conferences (ed.): Evangelical Mission , Yearbook 1994, Missionshilfe Verlag, Hamburg 1994, pp. 166–176.
  • Cognitive aspects of the image of man among the Campa (Asheninca) , in: Asia Africa Latin America, 1995, Vol. 23: 29-50.
  • Outer Mission - Still Today? , in: Mitteilungen der Evangelische Stadtmission Freiburg 1994.2, pp. 6–9.
  • Creation stories among other peoples , in: Mitteilungen der Evangelischen Stadtmission Freiburg 1996.3, pp. 24-25.
  • Myths About Mission. Critical remarks by an ethnologist , Mission Weltweit, Bad Liebenzell 6.1999, pp. 17–22.
  • School under the big tree? , in: 25 years of Theodor-Heuss-Gymnasium Freiburg 1974–1999 , Freiburg i.Br. 1999, pp. 206-211.
  • Comment on Priest, Robert: Missionary Positions: Christian, Modernist, Postmodernist , in: American Anthropologist, 2001, Vol. 42 (1): 24-68.
  • A legend on Chuuk. Wilhelm Friedrich Kärcher: a German missionary in Micronesia , in: The age of colonialism. Published in cooperation with DAMALS - the magazine for history and culture. Darmstadt 2007. pp. 93-95.

literature

  • Klaus W. Müller (eds.) And Beate Engelen: Mission in foreign cultures. Contributions to mission ethnology. Festschrift for Lothar Käser on his 65th birthday , VTR, Nuremberg 2003, ISBN 978-3-933372-91-8 .
  • Furrier Scholars (2001)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Lothar Käser: Foreign Cultures , VTR, Nuremberg 2014, p. 174.
  2. ^ Until 2011 professor at the Institute for Ethnology / Ethnology, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg , ethno.uni-freiburg.de, accessed on March 30, 2015.
  3. On the person of Käser ( Memento from March 5, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  4. ^ BFU lecturers ( Memento from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
  5. Klaus W. Müller (ed.): Mission in foreign cultures: Contributions to mission ethnology. Festschrift for Lothar Käser on his 65th birthday , VTR, Nuremberg 2003, pp. 5–32.
  6. The positive and negative contribution of the mission to social and cultural development , in: Klaus W. Müller (ed.): Mission im Kreuzfeuer. Papers at the 2001 annual conference of the Working Group for Evangelical Missiology (AfeM) in Wiedenest , VTR, Nuremberg 2001, pp. 17-29.
  7. Myths About Mission. Critical remarks by an ethnologist , in: Magazine "Mission Worldwide", Bad Liebenzell 1999.6, pp. 17-22.
  8. How people perceive time - speaker at the Regensburg Symposium for Science ( Memento from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ), message from March 14, 2014.
  9. Speaker at the Theological Days of the IHL ( Memento from May 31, 2014 in the Internet Archive ), event from June 16 to 18, 2014.
  10. Lecturer at the "Academy of the Elder Generation" of Freiburg adult education , adult education-freiburg.de , accessed on August 10, 2015.