Socio-cultural anthropology much older than assumed

The multicultural background of German-speaking researchers in eighteenth century Russia forms the basis of social-cultural anthropology. Their ethnological style of thinking had already developed by the eighteenth century, states Han Vermeulen.  In his dissertation he places them in their historical and political context.

Ethnographic image of Siberian people from 1729.

One-sided

'In broad terms, there are two views of the history of anthropology,' explains Vermeulen.  'The first assumes that anthropology is a young science which only became 'scientific' around 1860 with Tylor, Bastian and other social evolutionists.  According to the other view, it is an old science which was practised in ancient times by historians such as Herodotus and Tacitus, in the Middle Ages by travellers such as Willem van Rubroeck and Marco Polo and during the major voyages of discovery made by Columbus to James Cook. The science was finally institutionalised in the nineteenth century.' According to Vermeulen neither of these views is wrong, but both are one-sided because they both ignore eighteenth-century developments in Russia and Germany.'  

Han Vermeulen: ‘Describing peoples was a separate scientific activity, which was certainly not practised by all scholars.'

Specifications

It is important to determine here what kind of anthropology and what particular object one has in mind.  Is it social or cultural anthropology (the term only came into being in the twentieth century) or the ethnography of the classical authors?  Vermeulen: ‘Such specifications are generally not taken into consideration and people simply talk about 'anthropology'.' He believes it is important for historical purposes to pay attention to the various types of anthropology. The main question here is how scientists defined these subjects in a particular period and how they determined their position within these domains.' Vermeulen intends to analyse the developments based on the then prevailing ideas and standards.

Anthropology

'There are many different assumptions about anthropology,' says Vermeulen.  Physical anthropology starts as early as the eighteenth century with physicians and biologists such as Linnaeus and Burron. This branch of science was equated with anthropology or human biology in the nineteenth century.  Philosophical anthropology originated with philosophers such as Immanuel Kant and Johann Gottfried Herder. The roots of social or cultural anthropology lie in Völkerkunde and folklore studies, which were developed by historians in Göttingen starting in 1771. Vermeulen: ‘In this list, ethnography is generally not termed an independent discipline because people assume that it is as old as mankind itself.' He takes issue with this assumption.  'Describing peoples was a separate scientific activity, which was certainly not carried out by every scholar.'

Image: Historian Gerhard Friedrich Müller (1705-1783).

Multicultural

The ethnological wayof thinking was systematised by German-speaking scholarsin the multicultural Russian, German and Austrian empire, and was adopted by scholars in other countries of Europe and the United States,' explains Vermeulen.  Ethnology originated from historiography, influenced by historic linguistics and as an addition to geography, social philosophy and anthropology. 'The ideas of philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz were very influential in this respect.  In his opinion, in the study of peoples, only the comparative study of languages can provide an answer to the questions of provenance and affinity of peoples.' This assumption was subsequently adopted by the German historian Gerhard Friedrich Müller.

Shamans

In Siberia Müller visited almost all the Siberian peoples, spoke with a great many shamans and other specialists, and studied the archives of all the Russian settlements in order to discover how old they were and what was known about the peoples who lived there.  Vermeulen: ‘Müller developed an ethnological programme.  In Russia in 1740 he was the first to shape the idea of developing a systematic description of all the peoples, with the aim of making a scientific comparison of them.  He encouraged other young scholars to carry out ethnological research. Müller's idea of a general description of peopleswas expanded by August Ludwig Schlözer in around 1770 to a general ethnology.' Schlözer was probably the first person to use the word Völkerkunde. The historian Adam Franz Kollár in Vienna generalised this study even further and defined ethnology as 'the study of peoples and nations.'

Image: Historian August Ludwig von Schlözer (1739-1809).

Not a romantic science

Vermeulen concludes that not only is social-cultural anthropology much older than is often assumed, but it also came into being in a different form than was previously thought. The origins of social-cultural anthropology do not lie in anthropology (the study of humankind) but in ethnology (the study of peoples and nations). This was not a romantic science, but an empirical, descriptive and comparative science which originated from the Enlightenment in the era of empiricism, absolutism, imperialism and universalism.  The object of ethnology was not 'the other person' or 'other peoples', but 'all peoples' of all times and all continents.  Limiting the object exclusively to 'non-Western peoples' came much later, probably as late as the twentieth century.

Cold War

Vermeulen: ‘It is probably a legacy of the Cold War that this is unknown in Western Europe.  Here people are completely focused on overseas expansion.  That there was a parallel expansion in Russia over land, is not fully appreciated. In Eastern Europe historians are aware that eighteenth century German scholars in the service of the Russians paid a great deal of attention to the study of peoples.  Historians such as Winter, Mühlpfordt, Donnert, Hoffmann and Hintzsche studied contemporary sources, some of which they published.  But they did not understand the history of socio-cultural anthropology and were unable to estimate the significance of the finds which they made.  It is a true case of West meets East that it has been possible to introduce this information into the international debate on the identity of anthropology.  It has now become possible to revive the discussion on the age and disciplinary identity of anthropology.'

Early History of Ethnography and Ethnology in the German Enlightenment:
Anthropological Discourse in Europe and Asia, 1710-1808
Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences
Supervisors: Prof. R. Schefold and Prof. J.G. Oosten
12 November 2008