Moritz von Leonhardi
Encyclopedia
Moritz Freiherr von Leonhardi (* 9 March 1856 - 27 October 1910) was a German anthropologist.
.
He worked as a privat scholar in Groß Karben, from where he corresponded with scientists. Since 1899, encouraged by the novel publications of Walter Baldwin Spencer
and Francis Gillen on Australian cultures, he connected with missionaries in Australia
, especially to Carl Strehlow
, missionary conductor in Centralaustralian Hermannsburg. Since 1907 Leonhardi engaged in the lively anthropological scientific discussion with the publication of the first volume of the Arrernte
- and Loritja tribes. Amongst other things he was concerned with the acceptance and positive assessment of the existence of a high god of the Aranda. Leonhardi frankly opposed to Spencer and Gillen, who in his time were influential scientists.
The contemporary discussion around 1900 was affected by a severe lack of acceptance towards the, according to the European view, newly discovered cultures of the Aborigines
. Therefore Spencer and Gillen followed the evolutionistic cultural anthropology of Edward Tylor and James Frazer
. In contrast Leonhardi stood for a humanistic notion of anthropology in the tradition of Adolf Bastian
and Rudolf Virchow
. Leonhardi managed to confirm his claim for acceptance of the Aborigine-Cultures mainly in collaboration with Carl Strehlow and with a preciser handling of sources as the one of his scientific opponents. These texts constitute a possible base for political claims of the Aborigines in the 21. century. (Kenny, 65) Strehlows and Leonhardi's heavy critique of Gillen's and Spencer's absolutely wrong translations and interpretations, as for example translating the Aranda-word 'Alcheringa' into 'Dreamtime', still influencing today's popular literatur, is granted in latest researches. (Völker, Nicholls)
Due to his unsound health, Leonhardi never went to Australia. As an arm-chair-researcher, he was reliant on the collaboration with local partners. He had an agile correspondence with Carl Strehlow, in which he developed extensive questionnaires on topics like geography, language, social systems, marriage rules, totemism, initiation rites, monotheism, conceptions of soul, burial rites, clothing, adornment or ceremonial life. Monotheistic ideas were of special importance to him. Although Leonhardi published on Australian topics throughout his life, he acted out of a comprehensive anthopological interest, and worked on cultures in Europe, Northamerica and New-Guinea.
While making missionaries familiar with the technical terms and the doctrines of other scientists, sending them technical literature, commented by himself, Moritz von Leonhardi gradually dissolved the boundaries between informant and scientist. Thereby he allowed the missionaries to have their own scientific opinion. Also Leonhardi published the writings of the missionaries under their names, which was an unusual method for an armchair-researcher, to appear only as an editor and not as an author. Amongst discussions in terms of content, a controversy about methodological issues of data provision, field-research and scientific handling of sources was provoked.
In the course of the exchange, Moritz von Leonhardi had brought ethnographic, zoologic and botanic objects to Europe and gave them to several museums, especially the Museum for Ethnology in Frankfurt am Main (today the Museum of World Cultures
) as well as the Senckenberg Research Institute. Numerous Australian plants have been sown for the first time in Europe in a specially built green house in Groß Karben, the grown plants are brought to their destination at the Research Institute Senckenberg in Frankfurt.
(La Mythologie Primitive), Émile Durkheim
(Les formes élémentaires de la vie religieuse) und Elias Canetti
(Masse und Macht) and others. Lately a new reception begins.
He was honored for his research, by naming the vespidae Belonogaster leonhardii and the lizard Ctenotus leonardii after him. The ethnological museum in Frankfurt appointed him as a perpetual member.
Life and work
Leonhardi was the son of the Minister Plenipotentiary Ludwig (Louis) Freiherr von Leonhardi and Luise, née Bennigsen. He grew up in Karben and Darmstadt. He studied law in Heidelberg until he had to cancel due to sickness. Since then he lived in Karben. Moritz von Leonhardi is a nephew of the liberal politician Rudolf von BennigsenRudolf von Bennigsen
Rudolf von Bennigsen was a German politician descended from an old Hanoverian family. His father, Karl von Bennigsen, was an officer in the Hanoverian army who rose to the rank of general and also held diplomatic appointments...
.
He worked as a privat scholar in Groß Karben, from where he corresponded with scientists. Since 1899, encouraged by the novel publications of Walter Baldwin Spencer
Walter Baldwin Spencer
Sir Walter Baldwin Spencer KCMG was a British-Australian biologist and anthropologist.Baldwin was born in Stretford, Lancashire. His father, Reuben Spencer, who had come from Derbyshire in his youth, obtained a position with Rylands and Sons, cotton manufacturers, and rose to be chairman of its...
and Francis Gillen on Australian cultures, he connected with missionaries in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, especially to Carl Strehlow
Carl Strehlow
Carl Friedrich Strehlow was a German Lutheran missionary in outback Australia who headed the Finke River Mission in Hermannsburg, Northern Territory from 1894-1922. He learnt and documented the languages of the Arrernte and Luritja people, and published together with Moritz von Leonhardi a...
, missionary conductor in Centralaustralian Hermannsburg. Since 1907 Leonhardi engaged in the lively anthropological scientific discussion with the publication of the first volume of the Arrernte
Arrernte people
The Arrernte people , known in English as the Aranda or Arunta, are those Indigenous Australians who are the original custodians of Arrernte lands in the central area of Australia around Mparntwe or Alice Springs in the Northern Territory. The Arrernte tribe has lived there for more than 20,000 years...
- and Loritja tribes. Amongst other things he was concerned with the acceptance and positive assessment of the existence of a high god of the Aranda. Leonhardi frankly opposed to Spencer and Gillen, who in his time were influential scientists.
The contemporary discussion around 1900 was affected by a severe lack of acceptance towards the, according to the European view, newly discovered cultures of the Aborigines
Indigenous Australians
Indigenous Australians are the original inhabitants of the Australian continent and nearby islands. The Aboriginal Indigenous Australians migrated from the Indian continent around 75,000 to 100,000 years ago....
. Therefore Spencer and Gillen followed the evolutionistic cultural anthropology of Edward Tylor and James Frazer
James Frazer
Sir James George Frazer , was a Scottish social anthropologist influential in the early stages of the modern studies of mythology and comparative religion...
. In contrast Leonhardi stood for a humanistic notion of anthropology in the tradition of Adolf Bastian
Adolf Bastian
Adolf Bastian was a 19th century polymath best remembered for his contributions to the development of ethnography and the development of anthropology as a discipline...
and Rudolf Virchow
Rudolf Virchow
Rudolph Carl Virchow was a German doctor, anthropologist, pathologist, prehistorian, biologist and politician, known for his advancement of public health...
. Leonhardi managed to confirm his claim for acceptance of the Aborigine-Cultures mainly in collaboration with Carl Strehlow and with a preciser handling of sources as the one of his scientific opponents. These texts constitute a possible base for political claims of the Aborigines in the 21. century. (Kenny, 65) Strehlows and Leonhardi's heavy critique of Gillen's and Spencer's absolutely wrong translations and interpretations, as for example translating the Aranda-word 'Alcheringa' into 'Dreamtime', still influencing today's popular literatur, is granted in latest researches. (Völker, Nicholls)
Due to his unsound health, Leonhardi never went to Australia. As an arm-chair-researcher, he was reliant on the collaboration with local partners. He had an agile correspondence with Carl Strehlow, in which he developed extensive questionnaires on topics like geography, language, social systems, marriage rules, totemism, initiation rites, monotheism, conceptions of soul, burial rites, clothing, adornment or ceremonial life. Monotheistic ideas were of special importance to him. Although Leonhardi published on Australian topics throughout his life, he acted out of a comprehensive anthopological interest, and worked on cultures in Europe, Northamerica and New-Guinea.
While making missionaries familiar with the technical terms and the doctrines of other scientists, sending them technical literature, commented by himself, Moritz von Leonhardi gradually dissolved the boundaries between informant and scientist. Thereby he allowed the missionaries to have their own scientific opinion. Also Leonhardi published the writings of the missionaries under their names, which was an unusual method for an armchair-researcher, to appear only as an editor and not as an author. Amongst discussions in terms of content, a controversy about methodological issues of data provision, field-research and scientific handling of sources was provoked.
In the course of the exchange, Moritz von Leonhardi had brought ethnographic, zoologic and botanic objects to Europe and gave them to several museums, especially the Museum for Ethnology in Frankfurt am Main (today the Museum of World Cultures
Museum der Weltkulturen
The Museum of World Cultures is an ethnological museum in Frankfurt, Germany. Until 2001 it was called the Museum of Ethnology .-History:...
) as well as the Senckenberg Research Institute. Numerous Australian plants have been sown for the first time in Europe in a specially built green house in Groß Karben, the grown plants are brought to their destination at the Research Institute Senckenberg in Frankfurt.
Legacy and Honours
Up to his death, Leonhardi couldn't compete with the well organized networks of Spencer and Gillen. With his early death, the German-speaking anthropological research on Australia came to a stillstand for a longer period. His own network became anchorless because of his death and collapsed. Since then, especially Strehlow lost access to scientific discussions. The journal Leonhardi initiated and edited, containing the writings of Strehlow, was discussed by Lucien Lévy-BruhlLucien Lévy-Bruhl
Lucien Lévy-Brühl was a French scholar trained in philosophy, who made contributions to the budding fields of sociology and ethnology. His primary field of study involved primitive mentality....
(La Mythologie Primitive), Émile Durkheim
Émile Durkheim
David Émile Durkheim was a French sociologist. He formally established the academic discipline and, with Karl Marx and Max Weber, is commonly cited as the principal architect of modern social science and father of sociology.Much of Durkheim's work was concerned with how societies could maintain...
(Les formes élémentaires de la vie religieuse) und Elias Canetti
Elias Canetti
Elias Canetti was a Bulgarian-born modernist novelist, playwright, memoirist, and non-fiction writer. He wrote in German and won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1981, "for writings marked by a broad outlook, a wealth of ideas and artistic power".-Life:...
(Masse und Macht) and others. Lately a new reception begins.
He was honored for his research, by naming the vespidae Belonogaster leonhardii and the lizard Ctenotus leonardii after him. The ethnological museum in Frankfurt appointed him as a perpetual member.
Works
- Über einige religiöse und totemistische Vorstellungen der Aranda und Loritja in Zentralaustralien, in: Globus (1907) Bd. 91, 285-290
- Einige Sagen des Arandastammes in Zentral Australien, gesammelt von Missionar C. Strehlow, Hermannsburg, Südaustralien, in: Globus (1907) Bd. 92, 123-126
- Über einige Hundefiguren des Diristammes in Zentralaustralien, in: Globus (1908) Bd. 94, 378-380
- Der Mura und die Maramura der Dieri, in: Anthropos (1909) Bd. 4, 1065–1068
- Geschlechtstotemismus, in: Globus (1910) Bd. 97, 339
- Carl Strehlow: Die Aranda- und Loritja-Stämme in Zentral-Australien, Hg. Städtisches Völkerkunde-Museum Frankfurt am Main, 5 Bde., Bd. 1-4 bearbeitet v. Moritz Freiherr v. Leonhardi, Frankfurt