Koch-Grunberg, Christian T heodor b.April 9, 1872; Grunberg, Hesse d. October 8, 1924;Vista Allegre, Brazil
German ethnologist who is considered one of the most outstanding explorers of the Amazon. Koch-Grunberg studied classical philology, history, and geography at the University of Tubingen.
Upon completing his university education, he worked as a high school teacher until Herrmann Meyer invited him to join his second Xingu expedition in Brazil. Koch-Grunberg readily agreed and afterward published his first book reflecting his experiences in Brazil under the title Zum Animismus su- damerikanischer Indianer (On the Animism of South American Indians, 1900). When he returned from Brazil, Koch-Grunberg decided not to go back to his teaching position, but instead to engage in future ethnographic explorations. In 1900, he was appointed assistant at the Berlin Ethnological Museum by its director, Adolf Bastian. After he had defended his linguistic dissertation on Die Guaikuru-Gruppe (The Guaikuru Group) at the University of Wurzburg in 1902, Koch-Grunberg was put in charge of an expedition to South America the next year. He led his team into the border regions of northwestern Brazil and southeastern Colombia and to the source of the upper Rio Negro and Rio Japura. Using Sao Filippe on the Rio Negro as his base, he embarked on four expeditions into territory that Europeans had not explored. He visited the Siusι, the Tukano, and the Kobeua and studied their languages, living conditions, economic systems, and rites (mask dances). At the end of a two-year stay, he had collected about1,300 ethnographic artifacts, about 1,000 photographs, and abundant linguistic materials. Based on this material, Koch-Grun- berg wrote several books, among them his main work, the two-volume Zwei Jahre unter den Indianern (Two Years among the Indians, 1909—1911), and Anfange der Kunst im Urwald (The Beginning of Art in the Jungle, 1905), Indianertypen aus dem Amazonasgebiet (Indian Types from the Amazon, 1906—1911), and Sudamerikanis- che Felszeichnungen (South American Petrographs, 1907).
In spite of his scholarly success, he was prevented from establishing a career at the Berlin Ethnological Museum. In 1909, he cancelled his contract with that institution and defended his second doctoral dissertation (Habilitation) at the University of Freiburg im Breisgau. From 1911 to 1913 he embarked on his second expedition to South America. His new goal was the still-unexplored border regions between Brazil, Venezuela, and British Guyana. As one of the first explorers, Koch-Grunberg filmed parts of his expedition. The results of this expedition were published in the five-volume work Vom Roroima zum Orinoko (From Roroima to the Orinoco, 1916-1928). The first volume contains the description of the travel, the second the myths and legends of the Taulipang and Arekuna tribes, the third is dedicated to ethnography, the fourth to the languages spoken by the native tribes, and the fifth contains 180 anthropological tables. In 1913 Koch-Grunberg accepted an extraordinary professorship at the University of Freiburg. In 1915 he was appointed director at the Linden Museum in Stuttgart, which he transformed into one of the most important European ethnological collections. Due to severe funding
Christian Theodor Koch-Grunberg listening to a member of the Mayuluaipu, ca. 1916. (Koch- Grunberg, Christian Theodor. Vom Roroima zum Orinoko, vol. 2, 1916; frontispiece)
problems at the museum, Koch-Grunberg cancelled his contract with that institution in April 1924 and left Germany in June of the same year. He participated in the Orinoco expedition of the American explorer A. Hamilton Rice. However, only a few weeks after his arrival in Brazil, Koch- Grunberg died of malaria.
Heinz Peter Brogiato See also Brazil; Meyer, Herrmann
References and Further Reading
Faber, Gustav. Komm zuruck, weiβer Bruder. Leben und Fahrten des Amazonasforschers Koch-Grunberg. Hannover: Oppermann, 1962.
Hartmann, Gunther. Zwischen Amazonas und Orinoko. Zum 100. Geburtstag von Theodor Koch-Grunberg. Berlin: Museum fur Volkerkunde, 1972.
Kraus, Michael....und wann ich endlich weiterkomme, das wissen die Gotter.’ Theodor Koch-Grunberg und die Erforschung des oberen Rio Negro.” In Amazonas-Indianer. Lebensrdume, Lebensrituale, Lebensrechte. Eds. Doris Kurella and Dietmar Neitzke. Stuttgart: Linden-Museum; Berlin: Reimer, 2002, pp. 113-128.