Welcome to this website!
The chair for Social Anthropology (Ruhr-University-Bochum) invites you to discover the lives, ideas and research activities of the anthropologists who participated in the video project on “The History of Federal German Anthropology”. The interviews on this platform were conducted in German, but have been subtitled in English. Since some German terminology is difficult to translate without altering meaning, we have provided a glossary.
There are two main ways of accessing the videos and information on this platform:
• Firstly, you can use the quick access situated on the bottom left hand-corner of your computer screen to enter via the interview summary, the institutions at which the interviewed anthropologists have been active, or the regions, in which they have conducted research; finally, the timeline informs you on central events in German anthropology.
• Secondly, you can use the tabs “video interviews” and “short portraits” located at the upper right hand-corner. Via “video interviews” you can enter and search the main video site; via “short portraits” you can access further information on anthropologists who worked in Germany before 1990 (and also before 1945). Some of them are foreign nationals, but did work in Germany for part of their life. (GDR-anthropologists are excluded until now, but will possibly be included in the future). Please alert me to mistakes and errors.
"Additional interviews" provide the text version of all interviews carried out during this project (in german language only).
This online portal was created as part of the research project on “The History of Federal German Anthropology from 1945 to 1990” (Fachgeschichte der bundesdeutschen Ethnologie von 1945 bis 1990) which was kindly supported by the Volkswagen Foundation and by the DFG (German Research Foundation). For more information see “project” and “sponsors”.
The video portal is only one of several research outputs of the research project on the history of the discipline. The interviews also form a basis for Die Suche nach dem Fremden, the monograph on the history of German anthropology (Haller 2012), published by Campus.
As this platform is a work in progress (esp. the short portraits), any recommendation, help and further information is welcome.
This internet platform is dedicated with gratitude to my cousin Eberhard Haussmann who taught me from early onwards to love anthropology, and to the scientists who have participated in the project.