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Paul Kirchhoff (17 August, 1900 – 1972) was a German anthropologist, most noted for his seminal work in defining and elaborating the culture area of Mesoamerica, a term he coined.
Paul Kirchhoff was born at the turn of the twentieth century in the German locality of Horst in the region of Westphalia. He commenced his undergraduate studies in Protestant theology and comparative religion at the University of Berlin, moving later to Albert Ludwigs University of Freiburg. In the mid-1920s he undertook further studies at the University of Leipzig in ethnology and psychology, where he first developed his abiding interest in the indigenous cultures of the Americas,1 completing his studies in 1927.2
He was the co-founder of the National School of Anthropology and History in 1938, and held a research position at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma in Mexico.
Kirchhoff was instrumental in defining the concept of Mesoamerica, a cultural region sharing a number of common characteristics throughout most of pre-Columbian history, geographically defined as central and southern Mexico and much of Central America.
Also, Kirchhoff was a left communist who was a militant of a group called the Grupo de Trabajadores in Mexico. Kirchoff had formerly been a member of the KAPD in Germany, then a Trotskyist in the USA but his tiny group which he led would seem to have disappeared at the outbreak of war in 1939.
He died resident in Mexico City, 1972.
Notes
- ^ Reisse (1991), see also citation in Gray (2006)
- ^ Biblioteca Paul Kirchhoff (n.d.) names only his studies in Berlin ("Estudió filosofía y letras en la Universidad de Berlín, especializándose en etnología americana (1927)"), although Reisse details his attendance at the other institutions mentioned for his degrees.
References
- Biblioteca Paul Kirchhoff (n.d.). "Paul Kirchhoff". Programa de Investigaciones Multidisciplinarias sobre Mesoamérica y el Sureste (PROIMMSE), UNAM. Retrieved on 2007-01-15. (Spanish)
- Gaillard, Gérald (2004). The Routledge Dictionary of Anthropologists, Peter James Bowman (trans.), English translation of Dictionnaire des ethnologues et des anthropologues [1997], London and New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-22825-5. OCLC 52288643.
- Gray, Geoffrey (2006). "The "ANRC has Withdrawn its Offer": Paul Kirchhoff, Academic Freedom and the Australian Academic Establishment". Australian Journal of Politics & History 52 (3): 362–377. doi:.
- Reisse, Frauke Johanna (1991). "Paul Kirchhoff (1900-1972)", in Christopher Winters (ed.): International Dictionary of Anthropologists. New York: Garland, pp.348–349. ISBN 0-824-05094-0. OCLC 23462648.
External links
- Brief biography, Programa de Investigaciones Multidisciplinarias sobre Mesoamérica y el Sureste (PROIMMSE) (Spanish)
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