![XRF-Hainuwele](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/82/XRF-Hainuwele.jpg)
Adolf Ellegard Jensen (1 January 1899 – 20 May 1965) was one of the most important
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
** Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
ethnologist
Ethnology (from the grc-gre, ἔθνος, meaning 'nation') is an academic field that compares and analyzes the characteristics of different peoples and the relationships between them (compare cultural, social, or sociocultural anthropology) ...
s of the first half of the 20th century.
Jensen's main research interests were
myth
Myth is a folklore genre consisting of Narrative, narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or Origin myth, origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not Objectivity (philosophy), ...
,
ritual
A ritual is a sequence of activities involving gestures, words, actions, or objects, performed according to a set sequence. Rituals may be prescribed by the traditions of a community, including a religious community. Rituals are characterized, b ...
and
cult
In modern English, ''cult'' is usually a pejorative term for a social group that is defined by its unusual religious, spiritual, or philosophical beliefs and rituals, or its common interest in a particular personality, object, or goal. This ...
. He furthered the theory of Cultural Morphology founded by
Leo Frobenius
Leo Viktor Frobenius (29 June 1873 – 9 August 1938) was a German self-taught ethnologist and archaeologist and a major figure in German ethnography.
Life
He was born in Berlin as the son of a Prussian officer and died in Biganzolo, Lago ...
. Jensen is mostly known for his research on
religious sacrifice that led him to the introduction of the concept of
Dema Deity
Dema Deity is a concept introduced by Adolf Ellegard Jensen following his research on religious sacrifice. Jensen was a German ethnologist who furthered the theory of Cultural Morphology founded by Leo Frobenius.
Description
The term dema comes f ...
. His best-known work is 'Myth and Cult Among Primitive Peoples', published in 1951.
Life
Jensen studied physics in Kiel and in
Bonn
The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr r ...
, concluding his studies with a dissertation on
Max Planck
Max Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck (, ; 23 April 1858 – 4 October 1947) was a German theoretical physicist whose discovery of energy quanta won him the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1918.
Planck made many substantial contributions to theoretical p ...
and
Ernst Mach
Ernst Waldfried Josef Wenzel Mach ( , ; 18 February 1838 – 19 February 1916) was a Moravian-born Austrian physicist and philosopher, who contributed to the physics of shock waves. The ratio of one's speed to that of sound is named the Mach ...
in 1922. One year later he became acquainted with
Leo Frobenius
Leo Viktor Frobenius (29 June 1873 – 9 August 1938) was a German self-taught ethnologist and archaeologist and a major figure in German ethnography.
Life
He was born in Berlin as the son of a Prussian officer and died in Biganzolo, Lago ...
and became his faithful disciple. As a member of the Institute for Cultural Morphology founded by Frobenius and known today as Frobenius Institute, Jensen took part in research journeys to
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...
,
Libya
Libya (; ar, ليبيا, Lībiyā), officially the State of Libya ( ar, دولة ليبيا, Dawlat Lībiyā), is a country in the Maghreb region in North Africa. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to Egypt–Libya bo ...
, Southern
Ethiopia
Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...
and
Seram
Seram (formerly spelled Ceram; also Seran or Serang) is the largest and main island of Maluku province of Indonesia, despite Ambon Island's historical importance. It is located just north of the smaller Ambon Island and a few other adjacent is ...
Island in the
Moluccas
The Maluku Islands (; Indonesian: ''Kepulauan Maluku'') or the Moluccas () are an archipelago in the east of Indonesia. Tectonically they are located on the Halmahera Plate within the Molucca Sea Collision Zone. Geographically they are located eas ...
. He became a full-time ethnologist after publishing a paper on
circumcision
Circumcision is a surgical procedure, procedure that removes the foreskin from the human penis. In the most common form of the operation, the foreskin is extended with forceps, then a circumcision device may be placed, after which the foreskin ...
and
rite of passage
A rite of passage is a ceremony or ritual of the passage which occurs when an individual leaves one group to enter another. It involves a significant change of status in society. In cultural anthropology the term is the Anglicisation of ''rite ...
ceremonies. He held a teaching position at the
University of Frankfurt beginning in 1925.
During the
Third Reich
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
Jensen was chosen to be appointed to lead the
Frobenius Institute
The Frobenius Institute (Frobenius-Institut; originally: Forschungsinstitut fur Kulturmorphologie) is Germany's oldest anthropological research institute. Founded in 1925, it is named after Leo Frobenius. The institution is located at Gruneburgp ...
, also known as Institute for Cultural Morphology, as well as
Frankfurt's Museum of Ethnology ''(Museum für Völkerkunde)'' after Frobenius' death in 1938. However, his appointment fell through owing to the opposition of the
Nazi
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...
authorities, who also withdrew his
Venia legendi
Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in many European countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excellence in research, teaching and further education, usually including a ...
in the University of Frankfurt, for Jensen had not divorced his Jewish wife.
Finally in 1945, after Nazi Germany's
defeat in World War II, Jensen was appointed Director of the Frobenius Institute, as well as Director of Frankfurt's Museum of Ethnology. He would keep both posts until his death.
Together with fellow ethnologist Franz Termer, Jensen reestablished the German Anthropological Association (''Deutsche Gesellschaft für Völkerkunde'') which he led between 1947 and 1954. This organization had to be established anew during the
postwar reconstruction
The Marshall Plan (officially the European Recovery Program, ERP) was an American initiative enacted in 1948 to provide foreign aid to Western Europe. The United States transferred over $13 billion (equivalent of about $ in ) in economic re ...
of
West Germany
West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...
Along with Frobenius himself, Jensen is one of the most important representatives of the Cultural Morphology viewpoint. At the center of his theoretical work stood the concepts of 'emotion' ''(Ergriffenheit)'', 'expression' ''(Ausdruck)'' and 'application' ''(Anwendung)'', which he sought to identify in the religious manifestations of indigenous people groups. His criticism was directed mainly against
cultural evolution
Cultural evolution is an evolutionary theory of social change. It follows from the definition of culture as "information capable of affecting individuals' behavior that they acquire from other members of their species through teaching, imitation a ...
ism, as well as some other theories in ethnology and
anthropology
Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of behavi ...
. He argued against those scholars who sustained that there is a "primitive mentality" distinct from modern methods of thought.
Jensen is renowned for having introduced the concept of 'Dema deity', a term that he took from the language of the
Marind-anim
The Marind or Marind-Anim are an ethnic group of New Guinea, residing in the province of South Papua, Indonesia.
Geography
The Marind-anim live in South Papua, Indonesia.
They occupy a vast territory, which is situated on either side of the Bi ...
people of
New Guinea
New Guinea (; Hiri Motu
Hiri Motu, also known as Police Motu, Pidgin Motu, or just Hiri, is a language of Papua New Guinea, which is spoken in surrounding areas of Port Moresby (Capital of Papua New Guinea).
It is a simplified version of ...
, in ethnology. According to Jensen the belief in a Dema deity is typical of cultures based on basic plant cultivation as opposed to cultures of
hunter-gatherer
A traditional hunter-gatherer or forager is a human living an ancestrally derived lifestyle in which most or all food is obtained by foraging, that is, by gathering food from local sources, especially edible wild plants but also insects, fungi, ...
s, as well as complex agricultural cultures such as those based on the cultivation of
grain
A grain is a small, hard, dry fruit (caryopsis) – with or without an attached hull layer – harvested for human or animal consumption. A grain crop is a grain-producing plant. The two main types of commercial grain crops are cereals and legum ...
. Jensen identifies the veneration of Dema deities in the context of many different cultures worldwide. He assumes that it dates back to the
Neolithic revolution
The Neolithic Revolution, or the (First) Agricultural Revolution, was the wide-scale transition of many human cultures during the Neolithic period from a lifestyle of hunting and gathering to one of agriculture and settlement, making an incre ...
in the early history of mankind. One of the main characteristics of Dema deities is that they are killed by the men of their community and hacked to pieces which are strewn about or buried: from their dismembered bodies the staple agricultural products grow forth.
Jensen developed this concept through the
Hainuwele legend, an important
origin myth
An origin myth is a myth that describes the origin of some feature of the natural or social world. One type of origin myth is the creation or cosmogonic myth, a story that describes the creation of the world. However, many cultures have stor ...
from the folklore of the
Wemale people
The Wemale people are an ethnic group of Seram Island, Indonesia. They number over 7,500 and live in 39 villages of the central area of the island. Like the Alune people in the west, the Wemale people originate from a common ancestral group call ...
in
Seram
Seram (formerly spelled Ceram; also Seran or Serang) is the largest and main island of Maluku province of Indonesia, despite Ambon Island's historical importance. It is located just north of the smaller Ambon Island and a few other adjacent is ...
that he himself recorded. This myth was recorded by Jensen along with many other myths of the
oral tradition
Oral tradition, or oral lore, is a form of human communication wherein knowledge, art, ideas and cultural material is received, preserved, and transmitted orally from one generation to another. Vansina, Jan: ''Oral Tradition as History'' (1985 ...
of the
Maluku Islands
The Maluku Islands (; Indonesian: ''Kepulauan Maluku'') or the Moluccas () are an archipelago in the east of Indonesia. Tectonically they are located on the Halmahera Plate within the Molucca Sea Collision Zone. Geographically they are located eas ...
during a 1937–8 Frobenius Institute expedition.
[Adolf Ellegard Jensen: '' Hainuwele. Volkserzählungen von der Molukken-Insel Ceram''. Vittorio Klostermann, Frankfurt am Main, 1939.]
Jensen also made important contributions to the
ethnography
Ethnography (from Greek ''ethnos'' "folk, people, nation" and ''grapho'' "I write") is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. Ethnography explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject o ...
of Southern Ethiopia during his travels in 1951 and 1955. He died shortly after he retired in 1965.
Work
*''Beschneidung und Reifezeremonien bei Naturvölkern.'' Strecker & Schröder, Stuttgart 1933
*''Im Lande des Gada. Wanderungen zwischen Volkstrümmern Südabessiniens. ''Strecker & Schröder, Stuttgart 1936
*''
Hainuwele. Volkserzählungen von der Molukken-Insel Ceram. Klostermann, Frankfurt 1939
*''Die drei Ströme. Züge aus dem geistigen und religiösen Leben der Wemale, einem Primitiv-Volk in den Molukken.'' Harrassowitz, Leipzig 1948
*''Das religiöse Weltbild einer frühen Kultur''. Schröder, Stuttgart 1948. Newly edited as: ''Die getötete Gottheit. Weltbild einer frühen Kultur.''
Kohlhammer Verlag
W. Kohlhammer Verlag GmbH, or Kohlhammer Verlag, is a German publishing house headquartered in Stuttgart.
History
Kohlhammer Verlag was founded in Stuttgart on 30 April 1866 by . Kohlhammer had taken over the businesses of his late father-in-law ...
, Stuttgart 1966
*''Mythos und Kult bei Naturvölkern. Religionswissenschaftliche Betrachtungen.'' Steiner, Wiesbaden 1951, NA 1960, 1991
*As editor: ''Altvölker Süd-Äthiopiens.'' Kohlhammer Verlag, Stuttgart 1959
Bibliography
*Hans Fuchs: ''Die Religions-und Kulturtheorie Ad.E. Jensens und ihre geistesgeschichtlichen Wurzeln unter besonderer Berücksichtigung des Opferrituals. Eine geistesgeschichtliche Studie.'' Aachen 1999
*Jeffrey Carter (editor), ''Understanding Religious Sacrifice: A Reader. (Controversies in the Study of Religion)''. Continuum, 2003,
See also
*
Cult (religious practice)
Cult is the care (Latin: ''cultus'') owed to deities and temples, shrines, or churches. Cult is embodied in ritual and ceremony. Its present or former presence is made concrete in temples, shrines and churches, and cult images, including voti ...
References
External links
Documents on Adolf Ellegard Jensenin the
German National Library
The German National Library (DNB; german: Deutsche Nationalbibliothek) is the central archival library and national bibliographic centre for the Federal Republic of Germany. It is one of the largest libraries in the world. Its task is to colle ...
Catalogue
German Anthropological Association (GAA)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jensen, Adolf Ellegard
German ethnologists
1899 births
1965 deaths