Oceanic Carvings and Germanic Cravings:

Abstract

The article examines German anthropologists’ engagement in the Pacific Islands to World War I. To stake their claims, anthropologists traced their intellectual genealogies to 18th-century voyages of ‘discovery’ and linked with their own country's belated imperial mission to Oceania. They envisioned a complex ‘ethnographic frontier’ of salvage that challenged the importance of the postulated Melanesia/Polynesia divide and its implied hierarchies of racial and cultural value. This ‘ethnographic frontier’ was intellectually contested and clashed with numerous colonial projects in German New Guinea up to 1914.

Acknowledgements

A version of this paper was first presented at the Narrating Colonial Encounters conference at the University of Washington. The author wishes to acknowledge the more than helpful comments from conference organisers Mimi Kahn and Sabine Wilke. The paper also benefited greatly from Christoph Giebel's comments and Céline Dauverd's keen editorial advice.

Notes

¹ On the comparative rights of possession in the Dutch, British, French, Portuguese and Spanish cases, consult Patricia Seed, Ceremonies of Possession in Europe’s Conquest of the New World, 1492–1640 (New York 1995).

² Felix von Luschan, ‘Zur geographischen Nomenclatur der Südsee’, Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, 30 (1898), 390–7; C.H. Reed, ‘Confusion in geographical names’, The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, N.S. 1 (1899), 330; Felix von Luschan to Karl von Linden, 29 Apr. 1901, Linden Museum Stuttgart (LiMSt), Luschan file.

³ Hans Seidel, ‘Review of Felix von Luschan's Beiträge zur Ethnographie der deutschen Schutzgebiete’, Deutsches Kolonialblatt, 11 (1898), 150–1.

⁴ James Urry, ‘Making sense of diversity and complexity: the ethnological context and consequences of the Torres Strait Expedition and the Oceanic phase in British anthropology, 1890–1935’, in Anita Herle and Sandra Rouse (eds), Cambridge and Torres Strait: centenary essays on 1898 Anthropological Expedition (New York 1998), 201–33.

⁵ See, for instance, Bronwen Douglas, ‘Seaborne ethnography and the natural history of man’, The Journal of Pacific History, 38 (2003), 3–27.

⁶ See Oskar H.K. Spate, The Spanish Lake (Minneapolis 1979).

⁷ Nicholas Thomas, Cook: the extraordinary voyages of Captain James Cook (New York 2003), 16–17. On the significance of this work see also Tom Ryan, ‘“Le Président des Terres Australes”: Charles de Brosses and the French Enlightenment beginnings of Oceanic anthropology’, The Journal of Pacific History, 37 (2002), 157–86. De Brosses's project would soon be pirated by John Collander for the British cause, see, for instance, Kathleen Wilson, The Island Race: Englishness, empire and gender in the eighteenth century (New York 2003), 170–1.

⁸ For a classic account, consult Bernard Smith's European Vision and the South Pacific (New York 1969). More recent accounts include Alan Frost's The Global Reach of Empire: Britain's maritime expansion in the Indian and the Pacific Oceans (Melbourne 2003); Brian W. Richardson, Longitude and Empire: how Captain Cook's voyages changed the world (Vancouver 2005); Glyndwr Williams, The Great South Sea: English voyages and encounters (New Haven 1997).

⁹ Correspondence of the Spanish Ambassador De Masserano 14 Jun. 1776, Archivo General de Simancas, Legajo 6994. All translations into English, unless otherwise stated, are my own.

¹⁰ For some important milestones, see Nicholas Thomas, In Oceania: visions, artifacts, histories (Durham 1997), ch. 5; see also Bronwen Douglas, Across the Great Divide: journeys in history and anthropology (Amsterdam 1998), 35–67. For an important set of articles on d’Urville's distinction, see Geoffrey Clark (ed.), ‘Dumont d’Urville's Divisions of Oceania: fundamental precincts or arbitrary constructs’, special issue, The Journal of Pacific History, 38: 2 (2003).

¹¹ Serge Tcherkézoff, ‘A long and unfortunate voyage towards the “invention” of the Melanesia/Polynesia distinction 1595–1832’, The Journal of Pacific History, 38 (2003), 175–96.

¹² This is best explored in Wilson, The Island Race, especially chs 2 and 5.

¹³ See, for instance, John Dunmore, French Explorers in the Pacific, 2 vols (New York 1965–69).

¹⁴ Alejandro Malaspina's political and scientific expedition returned from the Pacific to a Spain in turmoil. Malaspina's attempt to utilise his insights for reform fell prey to court intrigues and ended with his arrest and failure of publication. See John Kendrick, Alexandro Malaspina: portrait of a visionary (Seattle 1999).

¹⁵ Susanne Zantop, Colonial Fantasies: conquests, family, and nation in precolonial Germany, 1770–1870 (Durham 1997), 33.

¹⁶ Thomas, Cook, 275–6.

¹⁷ Harry Liebersohn, ‘Coming of age in the Pacific: German ethnography from Chamisso to Krämer’, in H. Glenn Penny and Matti Bunzl (eds), Worldly Provincialism: German anthropology in the age of empire (Ann Arbor 2003), 34–5.

¹⁸ Stewart Firth, ‘German firms in the Pacific Islands’, in John Moses and Paul Kennedy (eds), Germany in the Pacific and Far East (St Lucia 1977), 3–25.

¹⁹ Liebersohn, ‘Coming of Age in the Pacific’.

²⁰ Georg Forster, A Voyage around the World, cited in K.R. Howe, Where the Waves Fall: a new South Sea Islands history from first settlement to colonial rule (Honolulu 1984), 348.

²¹ Renato Rosaldo, Culture and Truth: the remaking of social analysis (Boston 1989), ch. 3; see also James Clifford, ‘On ethnographic allegory’, in James Clifford and George Marcus (eds), Writing Culture: the poetics and politics of ethnography (Berkeley 1986) 113–17.

²² On Adolf Bastian's significance for the establishment of anthropology in Germany, see H. Glenn Penny, ‘Bastian's museum: on the limits of empiricism and the transformation of German ethnology’, in Penny and Bunzel, Worldly Provincialism, 86–126, and his Objects of Culture: ethnology and ethnographic museums in Imperial Germany (Chapel Hill 2002), 18–23; Andrew Zimmerman, Anthropology and Antihumanism in Imperial Germany (Chicago 2001), 45–8.

²³ Matti Bunzl, ‘Franz Boas and the Humboldian tradition: from Volksgeist and Nationalcharakter to an anthropological concept of culture’, in George Stocking Jr (ed.), Volksgeist as Method and Ethic: essays on Boasian Ethnography and the German anthropological tradition (Madison 1996), 17–78.

²⁴ An excellent discussion on the term ‘authenticity’ in the western context can be found in Christopher Steiner, African Art in Transit (Cambridge 1994), ch. 5. Steiner locates many of the views on ‘authenticity’ as emerging after World War I. The common denominator of such views, however, emerged earlier than that. Bastian's own view on material culture underscores this point.

²⁵ Bastian confidently ignored the fact that both Forsters were ultimately implicated in this process. See, for instance, Nicholas Thomas, ‘On the varieties of the human species: Foster's comparative ethnology’, in Nicholas Thomas, Harriet Guest and M. Dettelbach (eds), Observations Made During a Voyage Round the World: Johann Reinhold Forster (Honolulu 1996) XXIII-X.

²⁶ On the salvage agenda emerging out of Bastian's thought, consult Penny on the doctrine of scarcity, Objects of Culture, 30–4, 52–3, 79–94.

²⁷ Bastian was one of the first to advocate the ethnographic study of Melanesian cultures, but he would not be the last. On the significance of Melanesia for the development of the anthropological discipline, consult Bruce M. Knauft, From Primitive to Postcolonial in Melanesia and Anthropology (Ann Arbor 1999); and Doug Dalton, ‘Melanesian can(n)ons: paradoxes and prospects in Melanesian ethnography’, in Richard Handler (ed.), Excluded Ancestors, Inventible Traditions: essays towards a more inclusive history of anthropology (Madison 2000), 284–305.

²⁸ Nicholas Thomas, ‘The force of ethnology: origins and significance of the Melanesia/Polynesia division’, Current Anthropology, 30 (1989), 31.

²⁹ Adolf Bastian, Inselgruppen in Oceanien: Reiseerlebnisse und Studien (Berlin 1883), iv. Similar sentiments can also be found in his Der Papua des dunklen Inselreiches im Lichte psychologischer Forschung (Berlin 1885), 325–8.

³⁰ The information is drawn from the following letters: Adolf Bastian to General Prussian Museum Administration 8 May 1880, Staatliche Museen Berlin-Preussischer Kulturbesitz (SMB-PK), Museum für Völkerkunde (MV), IB Bastian/E 1285/80, and Adolf Bastian to General Prussian Museum Administration 1 Jun. 1881, Geheimes Staatsarchiv, PK, I. HA Rep 76 Kultusministerium, Sect 15 Abt XI, Bd. 2, as well as Adolf Bastian, Zur Kenntniss Hawaii’s: Nachträge und Ergänzungen in Oceanien (Berlin 1883), VII–XI, 112.

³¹ Adolf Bastian to General Prussian Museum Administration 16 Dec. 1884, Geheimes Staatsarchiv, PK, I. HA Rep 76 Kultusministerium, Sect 15 Abt XI, Bd. 4, my emphasis.

³² See, for instance, Woodruff Smith, Politics and the Sciences of Culture in Germany, 1840–1920 (New York 1991), 164–7.

³³ See for instance, SMB-PK, MV, IB 48 (Kaiserliche Marine) for the relationship between the Berlin Museum and the German Imperial Navy; for a similar endeavour emerging out of the Dresden Museum see A.B. Meyer's pamphlet, ‘Denkschrift über Desiderate des kgl. Ethnographischen Museums zu Dresden in Bezug auf Gegenden welche die Schiffe der Kaiserlichen Deutschen Marine berühren (1883), original in Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin-Preussischer Kulturbesitz (SB-PK), Luschan Papers (LuP), Box 6.

³⁴ The agreement between the Berlin Museum officials and the German Imperial Navy emerges out of Felix von Luschan's letter to Admiral Knorr, 7 Aug. 1897; on the reluctance of naval personnel to engage in ethnographic collection see Emil Stephan to Felix von Luschan, 14 Oct. 1904, both sources in SMB-PK, MV, IB 48.

³⁵ Other German museum officials increasingly protested what they regarded as a Berlin ‘monopoly’. See, for instance, Wolfgang Lustig, ‘“Außer ein paar zerbrochnen Pfeilen nichts zu verteilen …”: Ethnographische Sammlungen aus den Kolonien und ihre Verteilungen an Museen 1889 bis 1914’, Mitteilungen aus dem Museum für Völkerkunde Hamburg, 18 (1988), 157–78.

³⁶ Agreement New Guinea Company and General Museum Administration 3 Aug. 1886, SMB-PK, MV, IB Litt C/E 176/86.

³⁷ See, for instance, the introduction to his ‘Ethnographie der Südsee’, a set of lectures held in the summer semester of 1892 at the University of Berlin, SB-PK, LuP, case 23, 2.3 (Universität Berlin).

³⁸ See, for instance, Nicholas Thomas, Colonialism's Culture: anthropology, travel, and government (Princeton 1994).

³⁹ Felix von Luschan to Karl von Linden, director of the Stuttgart Ethnographic Museum, 18 Apr. 1899, LiMSt, Luschan file.

⁴⁰ British cartographic designation assigned Wuvulu and Aua the names Matty and Durour, names they carried until they became the subject of an intense ethnographic observation.

⁴¹ Felix von Luschan, ‘Zur Ethnographie der Matty Insel’, Internationales Archiv für Ethnographie, 8 (1895), 41–56; Augustin Krämer [‘Vuvulu und Aua (Maty und Durour Insel)’, Globus, 93 (1908), 254–7] argued for the term ‘Para-Micronesia’ to designate what he called Micronesian outliers in Melanesia. Another term seems to be ‘Western Islands’ (of the Bismarck Archipelago), which include besides Wuvulu and Aua, the island of Manu, the Ninigo group, as well as the Kaniet, Sae and Luf islands. The term ‘Para-Micronesia’ is still very much in use for these islands, although recent research suggests that earlier literature overemphasised Micronesian affinity. Henning Hohnschopp [‘Untersuchung zum Para-Mikronesien-Problem unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Wuvulu- und Aua-Kultur’, Arbeiten aus dem Institut für Völkerkunde der Universität zu Göttingen, 7 (1973), 1–170] argues against the term ‘Para-Micronesia’ suggesting instead a ‘Wuvulu–Aua cultural complex’.

⁴² Felix von Luschan, Beiträge zur Ethnographie der Deutschen Schutzgebiete (Berlin 1897), 71.

⁴³ Albert Hahl to Karl von Linden, 23 Jun. 1904, LiMSt, Hahl file; Emil Stephan to Felix von Luschan 14 Nov. 1907, Staatsbibliothek-Preussisches Kulturgut (SB-PK), Felix von Luschan Papers (LuP), Emil Stephan file.

⁴⁴ A more detailed account of the ‘discovery’ and exploitation of Para-Micronesia can be found in Rainer Buschmann, ‘Exploring tensions in material culture: commercialising ethnography in German New Guinea’, in Michael O’ Hanlon and Robert L. Welsch (eds), Hunting the Gatherers: ethnographic collectors, agents and agency in Melanesia (New York 2000), 67–73.

⁴⁵ Bernhard Ankermann, ‘Kulturkreise und Kulturschichten in Afrika’, Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, 37 (1905), 54–84; Fritz Graebner, ‘Kulturkreise und Kulturschichten in Ozeanien’, Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, 37 (1905), 28–53; Woodruff Smith, Politics and The Science of Culture, 140–61; Penny, Objects of Culture; Zimmerman, Anthropology and Antihumanism.

⁴⁶ Felix von Luschan to General Museum Administration, 9 Dec. 1906, SB-PK, LuP, Graebner file. Graebner's attacks on Luschan's African/Oceanic Division can be found in Fritz Graebner to General Museum Administration SB-PK, LuP, Graebner file; Fritz Graebner to Wilhelm Bode, 8 Oct. and 21 Nov. 1908, SMB-PK, Zentralarchiv, Bode papers, Graebner file. See also Fritz Graebner, ‘Der Neubau des Berliner Museums für Völkerkunde’, Globus, XCIV (1908), and his Methode der Ethnologie (Heidelberg 1911).

⁴⁷ Lothar Pützstück, ‘Synphonie in Moll’: Julius Lips und die Kölner Völkerkunde (Pfaffenweiler 1995).

⁴⁸ A recent paper suggests that Forster drew some of his ideas not from observation but from De Brosses's compendium of Pacific voyages delineated earlier, see Rye, ‘“Le Président des Terres Australes”’, 181–4.

⁴⁹ His theoretical outlook is best described in Georg Thilenius, Das Hamburgische Museum für Völkerkunde (Berlin 1916).

⁵⁰ Heinrich Schnee (ed.), Deutsches Kolonial-Lexikon (Leipzig 1920) s.v., Deutsch Neuguinea.

⁵¹ William Churchill, The Polynesian Wanderings, Carnegie Institution of Washington Publication 134 (Washington DC 1911). Recent studies reveal, much like the case of Para-Micronesia, a much more complex settlement history. Archaeological studies have thoroughly discredited earlier models of ‘insular isolates’, demonstrating the centrality of these islands for trade networks. The settlement history of Tikopia alone stretches back 3,000 years attesting to the outlier societies’ inherent complexities; see for instance Patrick Kirch, ‘The Polynesian Outliers’, Journal of Pacific History, 19 (1984), 224–38.

⁵² Georg Thilenius, Ethnologische Ergebnisse aus Melanesien, vol. 1, (Halle 1902).

⁵³ Thilenius's scientific project is best explained in Hans Fischer, Die Hamburger Südsee Expedition: Über Ethnographie und Kolonialismus (Frankfurt 1981), ch. 2. See also Georg Thilenius, ‘Ethnographische Quellen und ihre Sammlung in Ozeanien’, and ‘Die Hamburgische Schiffsexpedition’ in Thilenius (ed.), Ergebnisse der Südsee Expedition, 1908–1910, I (Hamburg 1927), 1–40.

⁵⁴ Heinrich Schnee, Deutsches Koloniallexikon (Leipzig 1920), s.v. ‘Kolonialmuseen’.

⁵⁵ Thilenius, ‘Ethnographische Quellen’, 6.

⁵⁶ The above rendering is a condensed version of Rainer Buschmann, ‘Colonizing anthropology: Albert Hahl and the ethnographic frontier in German New Guinea’, in Penny and Bunzl, Worldly Provincialism, 235–55.

⁵⁷ See for instance, Hahl's exchanges with Karl von Linden (Stuttgart) 9 Sept. 1900, LiMSt, Hahl file; with Felix von Luschan (Berlin) 10 Mar. 1900, SB-PK, LuP, Hahl file; with Karl Weule (Leipzig) 1 Nov. 1907, Museum für Völkerkunde Leipzig, Acquisition file 1907/113.

⁵⁸ Albert Hahl to Emil Stephan, 26 Jan. 1908, SB-PK, LuP, Hahl file.

⁵⁹ Wilhelm Müller to Georg Thilenius 9 Oct. 1908, MfVH, Südsee Expedition 6,6.

⁶⁰ Hermann Hiery, The Neglected War: the German South Pacific and the impact of World War I (Honolulu 1995).