German ethnologist and explorer
Theodor Koch-Grunberg
(April 9, 1872, in
Grunberg, Hesse
,
German Empire
? October 8, 1924, in
Caracarai
,
Brazil
) was a German ethnologist and explorer who made a valuable contribution to the study of the
Indigenous peoples in South America
, in particular the
Pemon
of
Venezuela
and other indigenous peoples in the
Amazon
region extending South-Western Brazil and a large part of the Vaupes region in Colombia.
[1]
The 2015 film
El abrazo de la serpiente
(
Embrace of the Serpent
) fictionalizes his illness and final days based on his journals. He was played by actor
Jan Bijvoet
[
nl
]
.
Profiles
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]
Early life
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]
Following his studying
humanities
at the
University of Tubingen
, Koch-Grunberg obtained a doctorate in philosophy at
Wurzburg
with a thesis on the
Guaicuruan languages
. In 1896, he travelled to Brazil for the first time as a member of an expedition led by Hermann Meyer in search of the source of the
Xingu River
, a tributary of the
Amazon River
.
First expedition
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]
From 1903–1905, Koch-Grunberg explored the
Yapura River
and the
Rio Negro
up to the border of
Venezuela
. In 1906, he published photogravures of a number of natives he encountered on the expedition in his monumental "Indianertypen aus dem Amazonasgebiet nach eigenen Aufnahmen wahrend seiner Reise in Brasilien" (1906).
A written account of Koch-Grunberg's trip, which included his study of the
Baniwa
, was published in two volumes in 1910-11 under the title of
Zwei Jahre Unter Den Indianern. Reisen in Nord West Brasilien, 1903-1905
(
Two Years Among the Indians. Travels in North-West Brazil
). He illustrated his account with photographs and his descriptions of Brazilian tribes are still used by anthropologists and ethnologists to this day.
Second expedition and later career
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Koch-Grunberg's second major expedition started in 1911. It took him from
Manaus
, up the
Rio Branco
to
Mount Roraima
in
Venezuela
, where he documented the myths and legends of the
Pemon
and took many photographs. He incorrectly used the local names Arekuna and Taulipang to describe the indigenous groups he studied, but these are local names for the
Pemon
.
He then explored the
Sierra Parima
, the
Caura River
and the
Ventuari River
, before reaching the
Orinoco River
on January 1, 1913.
After spending a short time in
San Fernando de Atabapo
, at that time the capital of
Amazonas Federal Territory
, Koch-Grunberg continued his journey along the
Casiquiare
canal, which links the
Orinoco River
system with the Amazon, via the
Rio Negro
.
He then returned to Manaus, before returning to Germany to produce his most important work,
Vom Roraima Zum Orinoco
(
From Roraima to the Orinoco
), published in 1917.
Later career and death
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]
Koch-Grunberg does not, in his writing, often complain about privations regarding food and shelter. Based on his account
Two Years Among the Indians...
he appeared not to have taken precautions against
malaria
, but in
From Roraima to the Orinoco
(page 88, German edition), he describes how he protected himself with
quinine
, following a German tropical medicine handbook for non-doctors (A. Plehn:
Kurzgefasste Vorschriften zur Verhutung und Behandlung der wichtigsten tropischen Krankheiten bei Europaern und Eingeborenen fur Nichtarzt
e).
He was the director of
Berlin
's Ethnographic Museum, where many of the items he collected on his travels are stored.
Koch-Grunberg died suddenly in Brazil in 1924 after contracting malaria on an expedition with the American explorer, geographer, and physician
Alexander H. Rice Jr.
and the Portuguese-Brazilian cinematographer
Silvino Santos
to map the upper reaches of the Rio Branco. The film of the expedition was entitled
The Trail of El Dorado
.
References
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]
- ^
Kraus, M. (2010). De la teoria al indio. Experiencias de investigacion de Theodor Koch-Grunberg. Maguare, (24), 13.
Further reading
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]
- Theodor Koch-Grunberg 1906 - "Indianertypen aus dem Amazonasgebiet nach eigenen Aufnahmen wahrend seiner Reise in Brasilien" ("Indian Types of the Amazon Basin", Ernst Wasmuth, Berlin) An impressive collection of 141 photogravures of the people he visited on his 1903-1905 visit to Rio Negro.
- Theodor Koch-Grunberg 1909 - "Zwei Jahre unter den Indianern: Reisen in Nordwest-Brasilien 1903-1905" ("Two years among the Indians. Travels in North-West Brazil")
- Theodor Koch-Grunberg 1916 - "Vom Roraima zum Orinoco. Ergebnisse einer Reise in Nordbrasilien und Venezuela in den Jahren 1911?1913." 5 Bande. Strecker und Schroder, Stuttgart. (reissued by
Cambridge University Press
, 2009;
ISBN
978-1-108-00630-9
)
External links
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