Augustin Friedrich Kraemer or Krämer (27 August 1865 – 11 November 1941) was a

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 **Ger ...

naturalist and

ethnographer 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 ...

. Kraemer was a navy surgeon who worked in the

Polynesia Polynesia () "many" and νῆσος () "island"), to, Polinisia; mi, Porinihia; haw, Polenekia; fj, Polinisia; sm, Polenisia; rar, Porinetia; ty, Pōrīnetia; tvl, Polenisia; tkl, Polenihia (, ) is a subregion of Oceania, made up of ...

in 1893–95 and 1897–99.

Research

Kraemer wrote the

Palau Palau,, officially the Republic of Palau and historically ''Belau'', ''Palaos'' or ''Pelew'', is an island country and microstate in the western Pacific. The nation has approximately 340 islands and connects the western chain of the Caro ...

sections of

Georg Thilenius Georg Christian Thilenius (4 October 1868 – 28 December 1937) was a German physician and anthropologist who was a native of Soden am Taunus. He studied medicine in Bonn and Berlin, and in 1896 was habilitated as an anatomist at the University ...

five-volume ethnographic documentation of the Hamburg Südsee Expedition, which sailed through

Micronesia Micronesia (, ) is a subregion of Oceania, consisting of about 2,000 small islands in the western Pacific Ocean. It has a close shared cultural history with three other island regions: the Philippines to the west, Polynesia to the east, and ...

to record the island peoples and their way of life during the early 1900s (''Palau, Ergebnissse der Südsee-Expedition, herausgegeben von Dr G. Thilenius'' 1926, Hamburg). His second voyage is described in ''Hawaii, Ostmikronesien und Samoa. Meine zweite Südseereise'' (1897–1899) ''zum Studium der Atolle und ihrer Bewohner'' published in Stuttgart by Strecker & Schröder, 1906. His extensive study of Samoan culture contained in ''Die Samoa Inseln'' (1903) is revered by the modern Samoans because of the detailed genealogies, village honorifics (fa'alupega), and details of chiefly rhetoric he included. However, linguistic analysis of his diaries indicates that he had extensive assistance of a Samoan chief, Tofā Sauni. The depth of this involvement by Tofā Sauni in Krämer's study should have led to him being a co-author of the volume by modern ethical standard in ethnography.

Personal life

Kraemer married Elisabeth Bannow (1874-1945) in 1904. She accompanied her husband on three of his expeditions in the German colonial areas of the Pacific: 1906/07 through the Bismarck archipelago to the Palau Islands, 1908 to New Ireland and 1909/10 as members of the Hamburg South Sea expedition, which her husband led. She was the only female member of all three trips. Krämer-Bannow worked, often under difficult conditions, as a painter and photographer. The couple later utilised their works in his publications. Their observations about women's lives contributed significantly to the research. In 1916, she published a book ''Bei kunstsinnigen kannibalen der Südsee, wanderungen auf Neu-Mecklenburg 1908-1909'' (''Among Art-Loving Cannibals of the South Seas).''

References

External links

The Samoa Islands, Vol. 1, Constitution, Pedigrees, and Traditions, Augustin Kramer, English translation by Theodore Verhaaren. University of Hawaii Press.

The Samoa Islands, Vol. 2, Material Culture, Augustin Kramer, English translation by Theodore Verhaaren. University of Hawaii Press.

BHL Über den Bau der Korallenriffe

Research

Personal life

References

External links

Further reading