Walter Dostal

Walter Adolf Dostal (* 15. May 1928 in Grulich in Brno, Czechoslovakia ; † 6 / 7. August 2011 in Vienna ) was an Austrian ethnologist .

Dostal was from 1975 to 1996 university professor at the Institute for Ethnology at the University of Vienna and before that professor (1965–1975) and dean (1969/70) at the University of Bern . In addition, he had been associated with the Austrian Academy of Sciences since 1977, where he was elected a full member in 1993 .

His areas of specialization were the social anthropology of the Middle East, with a special focus on the Arabian Peninsula , the theoretical history and methods of social anthropology as well as cultural history and socio-cultural evolution .

Career and research

Studies and first field research (1948–1964)

At the end of the Second World War Dostal's family moved to Vienna , where he began his studies in ethnology , Arabic and Islamic studies at the University of Vienna in 1948 .

In his research approaches for the reconstruction of cultural history, Dostal pushed empirical methods with the help of archaeological evidence and textual evidence and was thus in contradiction to the culture group theory , which was then taught at the Vienna Institute and was based on speculation. In addition, Dostal was influenced in his early years by the diffusionists Robert von Heine-Geldern and Joseph Henninger .

After his dissertation on Semitic-speaking cultures (1952) he began his field research on the Arabian Peninsula . He also studied at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome in 1952 . From 1954 to 1965 he worked as a curator at the Vienna Museum of Ethnology for its Middle East department.

With his first field research in Kuwait and South Yemen (late 1950s to early 1960s) Dostal became the world's first professional social and cultural anthropologist to conduct ethnographic field research on the Arabian Peninsula .

In 1962/63 Dostal became a guest assistant at the Frobenius Institute at the Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main .

With his work on the Bedouins in southern Arabia, which he dealt with in his habilitation thesis (1964), and his theory on the techniques of camel riding and their importance for the evolution of camel husbandry in Arabia , Dostal gained international attention.

Teaching activities in Bern and Vienna (1965–1996)

In 1965 Dostal was appointed to the first professorship ( full professor ) of the newly founded seminar for ethnology at the University of Bern , which he helped build up with his work until 1975, where he was dean of the Philosophical Faculty in 1969/70 . During this time he conducted field research in North Yemen, the results of which were published in his book Market of San'a (1979) and in articles on tribal organization. At the same time he created an extensive body of ethnographic documentaries on South Arabia .

At this time Dostal turned to the new topics in anthropology, such as the rights of indigenous ethnic groups in North and South America . He was also one of the first male German-speaking anthropologists to publish papers on gender issues.

In 1975 Dostal took over the chair at the Institute for Ethnology at the University of Vienna , which he held until 1996. During this time he initiated the organizational as well as scientific expansion of the Ethnological Institute and pushed research into Muslim societies.

Activities at the Austrian Academy of Sciences

In 1977 he was elected a corresponding member of the philosophical-historical class of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW). During this time at the academy, by merging the ethnological and the Arab commission, he founded the commission for social anthropology , which formed the cornerstone for today's Institute for social anthropology and which he headed until 2003. Dostal campaigned for contemporary, empirical field research in the countries of the Himalayas , Tibet and Southeast Asia . In 1993 Dostal was elected a real member of the philosophical-historical class of the Austrian Academy of Sciences.

Reception in German-speaking countries

In the field of ethnology or social and cultural anthropology in German-speaking countries, Dostal was considered to be one of its most important representatives, which he made decisive in the last quarter of the 20th century through his activities at the Austrian Academy of Sciences and his teaching activities at the University of Bern and Vienna has shaped . Through his research and activities, he helped the discipline to reorient itself in the German-speaking area after the Second World War . He dealt with the questions of sociocultural evolution and combined the theoretical approaches of ethnology with empirical data collection.

Through his field studies in Arab and Middle Eastern societies , he gained international fame and was considered a leading expert on the Arabian Peninsula. He dealt with nomadic groups in Kuwait and southern Arabia, the northeast Ottoman and Yemeni farmers, the Hadramitic craftsmen and the urban and rural market structures of the region were the focus of his interest.

Walter Dostal's students include: a. Andre Gingrich .

Dostal was buried at the Vienna Central Cemetery .

Publications (selection)

• A contribution to the question of the religious worldview of the earliest soil builders in Asia. In: Archives for Ethnology. Volume 12, 1957, pp. 54-109.
• The San`a` market . 1979. Austrian Academy of Sciences, publications of the Arab Commission 1 = meeting reports of the phil.-hist. Class 354. Vienna.
• Towards an Ethnographic Atlas of Arabia . 1979. Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies vol. 9 : pp. 45-52.
• Ethnographic Atlas of `Asîr. Preliminary report . 1983. With contributions by A. Gingrich and J. Riedl. Austrian Academy of Sciences, phil.-hist. Kl., Meeting reports 406. Vienna.
• Equality and Class Society in South Arabia . A contribution to social evolution . 1985. Vienna Contributions to Cultural History and Linguistics XX .
• Eduard Glaser Research in Yemen . A source-critical investigation from an ethnological point of view . 1990. Austrian Academy of Sciences, publications of the Arab Commission No. 4, meeting reports of the phil.-hist. Class 545. Vienna.
• Silence in the Darkness. An Essay on German Ethnology during the National Socialist Period . (1994). Social Anthropology / Anthropologie Sociale, vol. 2, part 3 (Oct. 1994): pp. 251-262.
• L'univers du Mashreq. Essais d'anthropologie . 2001. Editions de la Maison des Sciences de l'Homme . Paris.
• From Mohammed to al-Qaida. Insights into the world of Islam . 2008. Passages, Vienna

Awards

• 1964 Cardinal Innitzer Prize
• 1978 Austrian Cross of Honor for Science and Art, 1st class
• Election as a full member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (1993)
• 1993 Gold Medal for Services to the State of Vienna
• 1998 Bent of Honor for Merits deserved on the Research on Culture and Art , Republic of Yemen

Web links

• Walter Dostal, University of Vienna
• Films by Walter Dostal in the Austrian media library

Individual evidence

Unless otherwise stated, the article is based on the obituary of the Institute for Social Anthropology of the Austrian Academy of Sciences and the obituary of the Institute for Cultural and Social Anthropology of the University of Vienna .

1. ^ ^{A b c d e f g h i} Institute for Social Anthropology (Austrian Academy of Sciences): Mourning for Walter Dostal. Retrieved March 23, 2013 . 
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Institute for Cultural and Social Anthropology: Institute page on Walter Dostal. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on January 15, 2011 ; Retrieved March 23, 2013 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
3. ↑ ^{a b c d} Institute for Cultural and Social Anthropology (University of Vienna): Walter_Dostal. (PDF; 63.3 kB) (No longer available online.) Formerly in the original ; Retrieved March 23, 2013 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.    
4. ↑ ^{a b c d} APA / Standard.at: Walter Dostal died. Retrieved March 23, 2013 . 
5. ↑ http://www.univie.ac.at/voelkerkunde/html/inh/pers/pers_files/DostalCV.pdf  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.