Gusinde, Martin b. October 29, 1886; Breslau (Silesia), Prussia d. October 10, 1969; Modling,Austria

German ethnologist who was the first to study the indigenous tribes of Tierra del Fuego.

Martin Gusinde studied natural sciences and theology, beginning in 1905, at the St. Gabriel missionary training school near Modling in Lower Austria and was consecrated as a priest in 1911.

One year later, he was sent to Chile to take a teaching post in natural sciences at a private school, the Liceo Aleman (German Lyceum) in Santiago, run by the missionaries of Steyl (Holland). In 1916 he became a professor at the Catholic university in the Chilean capital and was named department head of the State Museum of Ethnology and Anthropology. His first interest was the Arau- canians, whose medical customs he studied on an initial trip in 1917. Four further ethnological expeditions in the southern part of Tierra del Fuego followed from 1918 until 1924. He lived there among the Tierra del Fuegan Indians (Ona, Yagan, Alakaluf), whose culture he preserved from oblivion. With great sympathy and an ability to empathize with those in the Indian culture,

Gusinde won the trust of the Indians and was the first European to witness ceremonial rites (youth dedication). On his second expedition he was accompanied by his fellow cleric, Wilhelm Koppers. When this man, contrary to an agreement with Gusinde, published a book (Unter Feuerland-Indianern [Among the Tierra del Fuegan Indians], 1924) and claimed sole authorship, Gusinde began a great dispute and a quarrel that lasted for years. It also strained Gusinde’s relationship with the St. Gabriel missionary training school. In 1925 he returned to Europe and gave reports on his ethnological and anthropological studies to astonished experts at the International Congress of Americanists in The Hague and Gothenburg. In the following year he received his doctorate at the University of Vienna for a dissertation based on the results of his Tierra del Fuego expeditions.

From 1931 until 1937 he published the first two volumes of his Feuerland-Trilogie (Tierra del Fuego Trilogy), which established his scientific reputation and garnered international recognition. Both volumes were translated into English and published under the titles Folk Literature of the Selk- nam Indians (1975) and Folk Literature of the Yamana Indians (1977). In addition, he published numerous books about his travels in Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego, which achieved wide distribution because of their clear language (e.g., Urmenschen im Feuer- land [Prehistoric Men in Tierra del Fuego], 1946; Nordwind—Sudwind: Marchen und Mythen der Feuerlandindianer [North Wind—South Wind: Fairy Tales and Myths of the Tierra del Fuegan Indians], 1966; Vom Leben und Denken der Wasser- nomaden in West-Patagonien [On the Life and Thought of the Water Nomads in Western Patagonia], 1974).

Beginning in the 1930s, Gusinde explored other continents and dedicated himself primarily to the pygmy peoples in Africa, the Philippines (1955), and New Guinea (1956). From 1949 until 1957, Gusinde was a guest professor of general ethnology at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. In the 1959—1960 academic year, he taught at the Catholic University of Nagoya in Japan. Even if his idealistic portrayals of Indian societies do not withstand criticism today, Father Gusinde is credited for having conducted the first comprehensive studies of the inhabitants of Tierra del Fuego and having preserved for posterity their rites and traditions shortly before their demise. In a small museum in Puerto Williams in Chile, Father Gusinde’s life and work have been commemorated since 1975.

Heinz Peter Brogiato

Gusinde, Martin b. October 29, 1886; Breslau (Silesia), Prussia d. October 10, 1969; Modling,Austria

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