Steinen, Karl von den b. March 7, 1855; Mulheim an der Ruhr (Rheinland ), Prussia d. November 4, 1929; Kronberg, Hesse
German ethnologist and explorer in Xingu in Central Brazil. Von den Steinen studied medicine at the universities of Zurich, Bonn, and Straβburg (Dr. med. in 1875)
and first worked as a doctor and psychiatrist in the Charite hospital in Berlin.
On a voyage around the world (1878—1881) he became acquainted by chance with Adolf Bastian in Honolulu, and Bastian awakened his ethnological interest in “primitive peoples.” When von den Steinen resumed his journey, he spent a long time in the Samoan Islands and collected ethnographical material for the Museum of Ethnology in Berlin. Probably on Bastian’s recommendation, von den Steinen was appointed doctor and zoologist to the German expedition to South Georgia in 1882 and 1883 in the First International Polar Year.Von den Steinen had already decided before departure not to return to Germany on the expedition ship, but to travel to South America. Together with the physicist Otto Clauss (1858—?) he left the ship in Montevideo, where his cousin, the artist Wilhelm von den Steinen, awaited him. On May 26, 1884, the group left Cuiaba, the capital of Mato Grosso, to search for the source of the Rio Xingu. Traveling via Rosario and accompanied by a Brazilian military escort of thirty-two men, they explored areas as yet unknown. They traveled a tributary arm of the Xingu in canoes that were repeatedly dashed to pieces on the rocks, and von den Steinen named this tributary Rio Batovy after the president of Mato Grosso. On August 30 they were finally able to prove that the Rio Xingu originated at the confluence of three tributary rivers. The most important geographical product of the expedition was a map of the rivers prepared by Clauss. The expedition group then traveled along the Amazon to Para (Belem), and after a stay in Rio de Janeiro, where they were welcomed with a festive banquet attended by Emperor Dom Pedro I, the three explorers returned to Germany in January 1885.
The expedition was a great success from an ethnological point of view, as von den Steinen had made contact with Indian tribes who had never before been seen by white men. The sale of their collections to the Museum of Ethnology in Berlin enabled the men to pay off the costs incurred during the expedition. Von den Steinen’s account of his travels (Durch Central-Brasilien. Expedition zur Erforschung des Schingu im Jahre 1884 [Through Central Brazil. An Expedition along the Xingu], 1886) was an important starting point for further ethnological exploration of Central Brazil.Von den Steinen made a second expedition along the Xingu in 1887 to settle many open questions, with the financial support of the Alexander-von-Humboldt- Foundation. His cousin Wilhelm accompanied him again, as well as Peter Vogel, who had been in South Georgia in 1882, and the doctor and anthropologist Paul Ehrenreich. The emphasis this time was on a cartographic survey of the eastern tributary river, the Rio Kuluene. Together with the German Brazilian Carlos Dhein, who later also supported Hermann Meyer, Karl von den Steinen stayed among the Bakairi people, studied their everyday life and their language, and bartered for ethnographical objects. After a period of recuperation in Cuyaba, the explorers traveled into the territory of the Bororo, who had only recently become sedentary. Thereafter the group separated; Karl and Wilhelm von den Steinen visited German settlements in Rio Grande do Sul and then returned to Germany. Karl von den Steinen collected great quantities of ethnological material on both expeditions, almost 2,000 objects during the Xingu trip alone, from Bakairi, Kuste- nau, Yuruna, Nahuqua, Mehinaku, Aueto, Yaualapiti, Trumai, and Kamayura peoples. He summarized his impressions of this trip in Unter den Naturvolkern Zentral- Brasiliens. Reiseschilderung und Ergebnisse der Zweiten Schingu-Expedition 1887— 1888 (Among the Primitive Peoples of Central Brazil. An Account of the Second Xingu Expedition, 1894).
In 1889 he qualified to assume a professorship in ethnology (Habilitation) at the University of Berlin and two years later became associate professor in Marburg. In 1893 he took up an appointment at the Museum of Ethnology in Berlin, traveling to the Marquesas Islands in 1897 and 1898 to collect material for the museum (Die Marquesaner und ihre Kunst [The Mar- quesians and their Art], 3 vols. 1925—1928). In 1904 he became head of the American section of the museum. But in 1906 he retired from all academic offices to devote himself to his studies as a private scholar.
Karl von den Steinen brought a significant impetus to the study of ethnology. He vigorously rejected the then-usual stereotype of the uncultured “wild man” and openly admired Indian cultures. In contrast to the usual Eurocentric perspective, he strove for an objective evaluation of the Indians and used his intensive knowledge of the customs of the Bakairi to question European moral values.
Heinz Peter Brogiato
See also Brazil; Ehrenreich, Paul Max Alexander; Humboldt, Alexander von; Meyer, Hermann
References and Further Reading
Coelho, Vera Penteado, ed. Karl von den Steinen, um secolo de antropologia no Xingu. Sao Paulo: Universidad, 1993.
Hartmann, Gunther. “Karl von den Steinen und seine Xingu-Expeditionen 1884/87.” Staden-Jahrbuch 36 (1988): 197—215.
Henze, Dietmar. Enzyklopadie der Entdecker und Erforscher der Erde. Vol V. Graz: Akademische Druck- und Verlagsanstalt, 2004, pp. 227-228.
Hermannstadter, Anita. “Abenteuer Ethnologie. Karl von den Steinen und die Xingu-Expeditionen.” In Deutsche am Amazonas. Forscher oder Abenteurer? Expeditionen in Brasilien 1800 bis 1914. Begleitbuch zur Ausstellung. Berlin: Staatl. Museen-Preuβ. Kulturbesitz, 2002, pp. 66-85.