Scientific Expeditions

Chapter 10 [in:] Treasure Hunting? The Collectors and the Collecting of Indonesian Artefacts. (Reimar Schefold and Han Vermeulen, eds.) Leiden: Research School of Asian, African, and Amerindian Studies (CNWS), University of Leiden. Mededelingen van het Rijksmuseum voor Volkenkunde, no. 30, pages 221-239.
This chapter offers one reading of the Smithsonian’s collections assembled by William Louis Abbott (1860-1936), focusing especially on Abbott’s motivation as a collector, and the dialectic that developed between the collector (Abbott) and the collecting institution (Smithsonian). By drawing upon correspondence between Abbott and museum scientists, and upon Abbott’s letters to his family, a portrait emerges of Abbott’s self-imposed mission, his methods and criteria for selection, and the extent to which they corresponded to the needs and desires of a collecting institution. By placing Abbott and his collections in the context of museum (especially Smithsonian) anthropology from the 1890s to today, we discover why Abbott’s collecting activity was so important to turn-of-the-century Smithsonian anthropologists. Yet we also find that his ethnological collections were later relatively neglected, due to the decline in the importance of material culture studies from which anthropology suffered until quite recently.

http://journals.openedition.org/nuevomundo/71471
El libro de Nancy Appelbaum, historiadora norteamericana especialista de cuestiones
raciales, analiza los trabajos de la Comisión Corografica que recurriò el país colombiano a mediados del siglo XIX. Dirigida por el geógrafo, cartógrafo y militar Agostino Codazzi
(1793 -1859) y subvencionada entonces por el gobierno del Nueva Granada, la comisión
produjo y recogió entre el 1850 y el 1859 una gran cantidad de datos sobre el país latinoamericano, que representan una de las principales fuentes del siglo XIX sobre la geografía, la etnografía, la demografía y la economía colombianas.

Este artículo discute el papel de Alexander von Humboldt entre el declinante Imperio Español y la naciente nación americana durante su visita a los Estados Unidos en la primavera de 1804. Analiza el delicado balance que el Prusiano buscaba entre sus intereses científicos y las circunstancias políticas de la época: la forma como él usó de un lado las conecciones políticas con el gabinete de Jefferson y del otro a la España monárquica, en momentos en que las dos naciones estaban ansiosas de usar su trabajo científico con objetivos estratégicos. Estando cautivo entre los intereses de los dos imperios, además de aquellos de otros gobiernos, él creó lo que hemos denominado de una manera alegórica el Imperio del Conocimiento de Humboldt, la muy extendida e influyente red por medio de la cual él controló e hizo circular libremente la información que él había adquirido.

Denmark, being the coloniser of Greenland has had many an expedition there, primarily on the East Coast. The most famous of these was the Danmark expedition of 1906-08. Two bodies that were never found and some famous last words fuel the fascination.

The purpose of the expedition was first and foremost to fill out the last blank spot on the Greenland map: the north east coast and northern tip of Greenland – or rather, what was not yet known to be the northern tip. On his prior travels in 1892-93, the American explorer Robert Peary had claimed that a channel – to be known as the Peary Channel – separated main Greenland from a large northern island – Peary Land.
Peary might have had his reason for this, because when he claimed to reach the North Pole in 1909, he also said that he placed a bottle with a document there, claiming the region “and adjacent” for the United States. If Peary Land was actually an island, it could fall under this claim.

Three men died looking for the Peary Channel, one search expedition got stranded and another search expedition went out for the search expedition.
An array of publications, led by participants’ own accounts has served to fascinate and create mythologies about the expeditions, and every so often a new book or theory about what happened resurfaces.

For all Indonesian rock art lovers, I offer the Indonesian version of the book "Borneo, Memory of the Caves". The book is still available in print, but it is expensive to send to the archipelago. Enjoy ... Please share, enjoy but not reprint ! © Kalimanthrope.com
The english and the french versions are available(see links above)

Untuk semua pecinta seni cadas Indonesia, saya menawarkan versi Indonesia dari buku "Borneo, Memory of the Caves". Buku ini masih tersedia di media cetak, tetapi mahal untuk dikirimkan ke kepulauan. Nikmati ... Silakan berbagi, nikmati tetapi tidak cetak ulang! © Kalimanthrope.com

In the nineteenth century, diverse geological, biological and anthropological features of the Island of Timor were explored and interpreted. Those explorations were often the by-product of travels with quite different goals, such as reconnaissance voyages to Australia, research in other parts of Southeast Asia, whale-hunting, or the administrative concerns of Dutch and Portuguese civil servants. In this text, which deals in particular with ethnographic details found during expeditions in Timor, three quite different study travels are outlined: the first the French multidisciplinary expedition led by Nicolas Baudin, at the beginning of the century; the second the round trips by the Scottish naturalist Henry Forbes and his wife Anna, in the 1880s; and in the third place the digressions of the Dutch civil servant J.G.F. Riedel, during the final decades of the century. Recurring characteristics of these expeditions are the interests in the physical side of anthropology and the capacity or willingness of an explorer to adapt to customs and respect beliefs of the local population.

During his expedition to the rivers Rio Negro and Japurá between 1903 and 1905, the German ethnologist Theodor Koch-Grünberg amassed an ethnographic collection. Part of it he sold to the Royal Museum of Ethnology in Berlin and a smaller part was purchased by the Swiss naturalist Emílio Goeldi for the Museu Paraense in Belém, in northern Brazil. A number of aspects arise from this singular transaction: research funding (including institutional and personal relations) at the beginning of the institutionalisation of anthropology; the importance of German speaking intellectuals to the development of natural sciences and ethnography of Brazil; the social and economic importance of collecting and the complexity of local political relations. The aim of this article is to analyze the social context in which this collection was formed, with special attention to the indigenous agency and social relations around material culture. It seeks to contribute to the history of collections, the history of science in Brazil and of the transatlantic relations between Brazilian museums and German ethnology.

The German ethnologist Theodor Koch-Grünberg (1872-1924) became one of the world’s leading Americanists of his era after having successfully concluded two expeditions to Amazonia. Between 1903 and 1905 he studied indigenous peoples inhabiting the regions of the rivers Rio Negro, Vaupés, and Japurá in northwestern Brazil; between 1911 and 1913 he traveled through northern Brazil and Venezuela investigating local Amerindian communities. He contacted dozens of indigenous peoples, studied their mythology, material culture, and languages. Koch-Grünberg maintained a scientific correspondence with some of the best-informed anthropologists of his time, including Adolf Bastian, Franz Boas, Arnold van Gennep and Paul Rivet. He also exchanged letters with Brazilian colleagues such as João Capistrano de Abreu (1853-1927), Teodoro Sampaio (1855-1937), and Affonso d’Escragnolle Taunay (1876-1958). Through an analysis of primary sources – the correspondence held at the Theodor Koch-Grünberg Archive of the Philipps-Universität Marburg in Germany – this article aims at contributing both to the history of Brazilian social thought and the history of German ethnology by contextualizing these relations within the broader context of social exchanges. Therefore, the history of anthropology should be written in the same way as Koch-Grünberg imagined ethnology: as an international science, based on humanistic principles and grounded on social relations.

An interpretive bibliography involving works on the activities of the Russian empire and of Russian colonization in North America and the Pacific (1741-1867) -- but for the specific genre of Atlantic history, which privileges the early modern period.

This paper studies the role Alexander von Hum-boldt played as forerunner of an iconographic representation of the New World. Humboldt's aim was to provide a new image of America, based on actual facts, found in situ, and not coming out of the European imagination. This representation lies somewhere between his rigorous scientific vision and its combination with his elaborate artistic sensibility, therefore using both textual and visual elements to convey the knowledge produced. In this work, the sources that inspired Humboldt to develop what today is known as "scientific art" as well as the criteria that should be applied to this genre, are analyzed. Starting with the relevance of travel painting for his great American project, the study of its interaction with the incipient photographic technology is of particular interest, as well as the benefits he identified on the utilization of this innovation.

RESUMEN: Este artículo estudia el papel de Alexander von Humboldt como promotor de una representación iconográfica del Nuevo Mundo. El objetivo de Hum-boldt era proporcionar una nueva imagen de Amé-rica, basada en hechos reales, encontrados in situ, y no en la fantasía europea. Esta representación se sitúa entre su estricta visión científica, y su com-binación con su elaborada sensibilidad artística, y, por lo tanto, utiliza tanto elementos textuales como visuales para transportar el conocimiento producido. En este trabajo se analizan las fuen-tes que inspiraron a Humboldt para desarrollar lo que hoy entendemos por "arte científico" así como los criterios que deberían aplicarse a este género. Partiendo de la importancia que tuvo la pintura de viaje para su gran proyecto americano, interesa de particular manera su interacción con los inicios del nuevo medio de la fotografía y las ventajas que él vio en este importante avance tecnológico.

ZUSAMMENFASSUNG: Dieser Artikel untersucht die Rolle Alexander von Humboldts als Förderer einer ikonographischen Repräsentation der Neuen Welt. Humboldts Ziel war es, ein neues Bild von Amerika zu liefern, basierend auf realen Ereignissen, die in situ und nicht in der europäischen Fantasie stattfanden. Diese Darstellung verbindet seine strenge wissen-schaftliche Vision mit seiner ausgeprägten künst-lerischen Sensibilität und verwendet sowohl text-liche als auch visuelle Elemente, um das erzeugte Wissen zu transportieren. In diesem Beitrag wer-den die Quellen analysiert, die Humboldt dazu in-spirierten, das zu entwickeln, was wir heute unter "wissenschaftlicher Kunst" verstehen, sowie die Kriterien, die für dieses Genre gelten sollten. Aus-gehend von der Bedeutung, die die Reisemalerei für sein großes amerikanisches Projekt hatte, ist auch seine Interaktion mit den Anfängen des neu-en Mediums Fotografie und die Vorteile, die er in diesem wichtigen technologischen Fortschritt sah, von besonderem Interesse.

Anlässlich des 250. Geburtstags des Forschungsreisenden Alexander von Humboldt findet 2019 eine vom Auswärtigen Amt initiierte Humboldtsaison in Lateinamerika statt. Ziel der Studie ist es, die Chancen und Herausforderungen dieses Themenjahres darzustellen, sowie die länderspezifischen Wahrnehmungen Humboldts zu thematisieren, die es bei der Umsetzung der Initiative zu beachten gilt. Gleichzeitig erfolgt eine Einordnung und kritische Würdigung von Humboldts Werk in seinem historischen Kontext sowie eine Diskussion hinsichtlich der Aktualität seines Denkens, seiner Weltsicht und seiner Me- thodik. Der Blick auf die Rahmenbedingungen der Forschungsreise Humboldts soll so- wohl dazu beitragen diese in ihrem zeitgenössischen und politischen Kontext besser zu verstehen, als auch auf die Ursachen für einige der regionalen Rezeptionsmodi hinzuwei- sen. Schließlich gibt die Studie auch konkrete Anregungen und Empfehlungen, die zu einer erfolgreichen Gestaltung des Themenjahres beitragen können, sowie auch über diese Initiative hinaus eine Perspektive aufzeigen sollen.

Con motivo del 250 aniversario del nacimiento del explorador Alexander von Humboldt, en 2019 tiene lugar en Iberoamérica una temporada temática sobre Humboldt promovida por el Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores de la República Federal Alemana. El objetivo del estudio es presentar las oportunidades y los desafíos de esta temporada temática, así como abordar las percepciones de Humboldt específicas de cada país, las cuales deben tenerse en cuenta al llevar a cabo la iniciativa. Al mismo tiempo, el trabajo de Humboldt es clasificado y evaluado críticamente en su contexto histórico, junto con una discusión sobre la actualidad de su pensamiento, su visión del mundo y su metodología. La mirada al marco histórico del viaje de investigación de Humboldt ayuda a comprenderlo mejor en su contexto político y contemporáneo, así como a señalar las causas de algunos de los modos particulares de recepción regional. Finalmente, el estudio ofrece ideas y recomend- aciones concretas que conduzcan a una gestión exitosa del año temático, e indica el camino a seguir, más allá de esta iniciativa.

I am contributing this preliminary assessment of an under-utilized research resource in the study of Indonesian material culture in order to encourage readers, who may be familiar with particular areas where Abbott worked, to consider taking up part of the task of publishing the extensive notes, photographs, and collections that remain from Abbott 's over-romantic but ploddingly documented search for the "primitive" in Indonesia. The potential value of Abbott ' s collection today lies not only in the artifacts themselves , but especially in the photographs and detailed field notes Abbott kept about the places he visited, and in his precise documentation of every object collected. Though Abbott considered himself a poor observer of human cultures, he carefully tried to document each kind of collection in the ways specialists of the time required. Otis T. Mason, Head Curator of the Department of Anthropology at the U.S. National Museum during Abbott 's Indonesian collecting period, wrote that "[t]he Abbott collections are of greatest scientific value as types, because after studying the wants of the Museum he labeled each specimen carefully according to the latest requirements" (Mason 1908:1).
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Citation: Taylor, Paul Michael. 1985. The Indonesian Collections of William Louis Abbott (1860-1936):  Invitation to a Research Resource at the Smithsonian Institution.  Council for Museum Anthropology Newsletter 9(2):5-14.

The abstract is not part of the thesis, but rather work in progress.

In this paper, I compare two theories regarding natural language. One theory has been proposed by David Lewis, the other by Noam Chomsky. Lewis's theory consists of two parts, one part explains how a language is sustained within a population by means of convention. The other part concerns languages as abstract semantic systems. Chomsky proposes a theory where language is an internal biological property of an organism. The capacity to use language is based on an a physically realized procedure within the mind/brain of an individual. I first show that Lewis and Chomsky regard there respective theories as conflicting. While Lewis's is sceptical about the possibility to determine properties of the physically realized procedure and regards conventions as necessary, Chomsky argues that Lewis's account is fundamentally flawed. He argues that Lewis cannot possible explain essential properties of language. Thus, his theory cannot be adequate. I evaluate the controversy within a strict empirical framework. I argue that Chomsky's theory is strongly confirmed by empirical evidence. Thus, his theory describes the linguistic structure of natural language. The part of Lewis's theory that deals with the social and psychological facts is inadequate. Furthermore, a core concept of his metasemantic theory, the part that deals with languages as abstract semantic systems, is falsified by empirical evidence. On the other hand, while the metasemantic part is not justified, it's application to the analysis of the logical structure of natural language yields robust results. This fact is best explained by assuming that natural language has logical structure. If this is so, then Chomsky's theory cannot explain the logical structure, because his theory does not contain the necessary concepts, truth conditions and entailment, to describe the logical structure. Thus, I defend the following thesis: Neither Lewis's nor Chomsky's theory can fully explain what language is, how it works and why things are the way there are and not elsewise. I argue that if we want to find a unifying theory, we should follow the model of theoretical linguistics and try to find simple underlying principles that allows for the derivation of both the linguistic and logical structure of natural language. I do not try to find such a principle in this paper, instead I show that my thesis follows form my argument. To do this, I adopt a strictly empirical framework where the concepts and principles of a given theory must yield consequences that correspond exactly to the facts as they are. Such a theory can be found by reducing the complex visible phenomena to simple underlying principles. This program has lead Chomsky to the claim that language consists of an optimally designed core system that interacts with the thought systems. The externalisation utilises an ancillary system and the complexities of the different languages is due to this secondary system. The core system is extremely simple and apparently uniform across the human population. I then turn to Lewis's theory and show that he cannot explain linguistic competence and the infinity of language, because his account presupposes detectable regularities that sustain a set of sound meaning pairs. Since this set has to be infinite and any individual can grasp any expression within that set without prior exposure, Lewis's account that this set is somehow sustained by a mutual interest in communication, based on a finite number of interactions is inadequate. I then show that a fundamental concept of Lewis's metasemantic theory allows for the consequence that there has to be a one-to-one relation between linguistic entities and aspects of the physical world. I show that this relation does not exists (contrary to wide spread belief). I then proceed to argue that although the metasemantic part of his theory is not justified, the application of similar theories shows robust results. The best explanation for this is to assume that language has logical structure. Since the analysis of the logical structure requires at least the concept of truth conditions and entailment, I argue that Chomsky's theory does not contain the relevant concepts. Hence, the theory cannot be used to explain the logical structure. Thus, my claim is established. I then provide a brief outlook, indicating that we might find a unifying theory if we look at the cores system and ask if we can find the relation between words and the world by looking at so-called third property factors, i. e. laws of nature that directly determine properties of the core system.

Finnish-Mongolian Archaeological and Anthropological Expedition to Mongolia in 2019!

Our expedition will be re-tracing in the summer 2019 the trail of the 1909 Finnish Mongolia expedition, 110 years after the original expedition by Finnish linguist G.J. Ramstedt and archaeologist Sakari Pälsi.

Researchers: Jamsranjav Bayarsaikhan (National Museum of Mongolia) and Oula Seitsonen (University of Helsinki / University of Oulu, Finland).

The expedition is generously funded by the Nordenskiöld-samfundet (Finland).

In the second half of the 19th century, the world is explored and mapped by European colonial powers bent on expanding their political and economic influence overseas. At the heart of such "geographical" activities there are geographical societies, also known as private clubs, where businessmen, politicians, military officers and intellectuals get together to discuss official or unofficial possibilities for national expansion. Despite the lack of a colonial empire, Switzerland is among the first countries in the world to found geographical societies. In what ways do these societies allow us to identify the presence of Swiss imperialism? This issue is discussed in this article – in french.