Anthropology and Antihumanism in Imperial Germany

376 Pages·2001·2.53 MB·English

by  Andrew Zimmerman

Anthropology and Antihumanism
in Imperial Germany

Anthropology and Antihumanism
in Imperial Germany
BA
By
Andrew Zimmerman
The University of Chicago Press
Chicago and London
Andrew Zimmerman is assistant professor of history at George Washington University.
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London
© 2001by The University of Chicago
All rights reserved. Published 2001
Printed in the United States of America
10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 1 2 3 4 5
ISBN: 0-226-98341-2(cloth)
ISBN: 0-226-98342-0(paper)
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Zimmerman, Andrew,
Anthropology and antihumanism in Imperial Germany / Andrew Zimmerman.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN0-226-98341-2(cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN0-226-98342-0(paper : alk. paper)
1. Anthropology—Germany—History—19th century. 2. Humanism—
Germany—History—19th century. 3. Science—Germany—History—19th
century. I. Title.
GN17.3.G3 Z54 2001
3069.0943909034—dc21 2001035163
V‘The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American
National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library
Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992.
c o n t e n t s
BA
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS vii
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ix
INTRODUCTION 1
PART I CHAPTER 1
Exotic Spectacles and the Global Context
of German Anthropology 15
CHAPTER 2
Kulturand Kulturkampf:The Studia Humanitas
and the People without History 38
CHAPTER 3
Nature and the Boundaries of the Human:
Monkeys, Monsters, and Natural Peoples 62
CHAPTER 4
Measuring Skulls: The Social Role of the Antihumanist 86
PART II CHAPTER 5
A German Republic of Science and a German Idea
of Truth: Empiricism and Sociability in Anthropology 111
CHAPTER 6
Anthropological Patriotism: The Schulstatistik
and the Racial Composition of Germany 135
PART III CHAPTER 7
The Secret of Primitive Accumulation:
The Political Economy of Anthropological Objects 149
v
vi contents
CHAPTER 8
Commodities, Curiosities, and the Display of
Anthropological Objects 172
PART IV CHAPTER 9
History without Humanism: Culture-Historical
Anthropology and the Triumph of the Museum 201
CHAPTER 10
Colonialism and the Limits of the Human:
The Failure of Fieldwork 217
CONCLUSION 239
NOTES 249
BIBLIOGRAPHY 329
INDEX 357
a c k n o w l e d g m e n t s
BA
W
hile writing this book I have been supported, provoked, and in-
spired by mentors, colleagues, family, friends, and institutions. I
am delighted to have the opportunity to express my gratitude. Judith
Hughes, David Luft, Tanya Luhrmann, John Marino, Martin Rudwick,
Steven Shapin, and Tracy Strong not only offered counsel on the disserta-
tion that formed the earliest version of this project but also helped me begin
the process of turning it into this book. Much of this book was written
while I was a member of the Society of Fellows in the Humanities at Co-
lumbia University, where my colleagues read drafts and helped me work
through conceptual and other issues. Volker Berghahn and John Toews
read and commented generously on earlier versions of the entire manu-
script. My colleagues in the History Department at the George Washing-
ton University have provided a stimulating and supportive environment in
which to complete the final stages of this project. I have been fortunate to
work with Susan Abrams of the University of Chicago Press, who has of-
fered invaluable encouragement and advice.
I enjoyed helpful discussions with Sierra Bruckner, Rainer Busch-
mann, Rob Gordon, Pascal Grosse, and Glenn Penny, who all are pursuing
research related to the history of German anthropology and who have in-
spired and informed my work. This book has also benefited from the gen-
erosity of four Berlin anthropologists who shared their own research,
collections, and recollections: Gustav Mahr, Peter Bolz, Ulrich Creutz, and
the late Hans Grimm. The development of this project has also been
shaped by conversations at conferences, colloquia, coffee shops, and other
vii
viii acknowledgments
venues. I cannot name everyone who has helped me, but I would like to sin-
gle out Adam Daniel, Nick Hopwood, and Jonathan Zatlin, who have con-
tributed much to this project.
The Fulbright Commission made it possible for me to spend two years
in Berlin, conducting research for this book. In Berlin I enjoyed the advice
and support of Rüdiger vom Bruch and the intellectual community of his
colloquium at the Humboldt University. I am grateful to the archives I used
in Germany, which are listed in my bibliography. My research has also been
facilitated by a number of libraries, especially the Staatsbibliothek in Berlin,
the library of the Berlin Museum of Ethnology, the library of the Museum
of Ethnography in Budapest, the libraries of the University of California
and Columbia University, the New York Public Library, and the Library
of Congress. I have published earlier versions of some of the material pre-
sented here in Central European History,the European Studies Journal, Jour-
nal of the Pacific Arts Association, Studies in History and Philosophy of Biolog-
ical and Biomedical Sciences,the Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaften, and
Wissenschaft und Öffentlichkeit in Berlin 1870–1930, edited by Constantin
Goschler (Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner, 2000). I would like to thank the edi-
tors and the readers for those publications for their perceptive suggestions.
My parents, Muriel and Everett Zimmerman, and my brother Daniel
read drafts of this book and discussed the project with me many times. I am
grateful for their insights and advice. In the acknowledgments to my dis-
sertation I thanked Johanna Bockman for her comments on the earliest
version of each of my chapters. I thank her here for reading and comment-
ing on the final version of this book and for the discussions of the interven-
ing years, which have fundamentally shaped what follows.
a b b r e v i a t i o n s
BA
AA Archiv für Anthropologie
ABGAEU Archiv der Berliner Gesellschaft für Anthropologie, Ethnolo-
gie und Urgeschichte, Schloß Charlottenberg, Berlin
Andree Christian Andree, Rudolf Virchow als Prähistoriker(Cologne:
Bohlau, 1976), vol. 2. Contains transcriptions of letters held in
NL Virchow.
BAP Bundesarchiv Potsdam. Records of the Imperial German
Government.
BGAEU Berliner Gesellschaft für Anthropologie, Ethnologie und
Urgeschichte
BLHA Brandenburgisches Landeshauptarchiv, Potsdam
CBDAG Correspondenz-Blatt der Deutschen Anthropologischen
Gesellschaft
GStA PK Geheimes Staatsarchiv Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin.
Records of the Prussian government.
HU Archiv der Humboldt-Universität, Berlin
LAB Landesarchiv Berlin (Stadtarchiv)
MfV Archiv des Museums für Völkerkunde, Berlin
NL Luschan Nachlaß Felix von Luschans, Handschriftenabteilung, Staats-
bibliothek Berlin (Haus II)
NL Virchow Nachlaß Rudolf Virchows, Akademie der Wissenschaften,
Berlin
VBGAEU Verhandlungen der Berliner Gesellschaft für Anthropologie, Eth-
nologie und Urgeschichte
ZfE Zeitschrift für Ethnologie
ix