Robert

Freiherr (; male, abbreviated as ), (; his wife, abbreviated as , literally "free lord" or "free lady") and (, his unmarried daughters and maiden aunts) are designations used as titles of nobility in the German-speaking areas of the Holy Roman Empire ...

von Heine-Geldern (16 July 1885 - 25/26 May 1968), known after 1919 as Robert Heine-Geldern, was a noted

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

n ethnologist, ancient historian, and archaeologist, and a grandnephew of poet

Heinrich Heine Christian Johann Heinrich Heine (; born Harry Heine; 13 December 1797 – 17 February 1856) was a German poet, writer and literary critic. He is best known outside Germany for his early lyric poetry, which was set to music in the form of '' Lied ...

Biography

Heine-Geldern was born in

Grub Grub can refer to Grub (larva), of the beetle superfamily Scarabaeoidea, or as a slang term for food. It can also refer to: Places * Grub, Appenzell Ausserrhoden, Switzerland * Grub, St. Gallen, Switzerland * Grub (Amerang), a hamlet in Bavaria, ...

, and was a descendant of Gustav Heine von Geldern. He studied first at the

University of Munich The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich or LMU; german: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München) is a public research university in Munich, Germany. It is Germany's List of universities in Germany, sixth-oldest u ...

, then

art history Art history is the study of aesthetic objects and visual expression in historical and stylistic context. Traditionally, the discipline of art history emphasized painting, drawing, sculpture, architecture, ceramics and decorative arts; yet today ...

and

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 ...

under Father Wilhelm Schmidt (1868-1954) at the

University of Vienna The University of Vienna (german: Universität Wien) is a public research university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world. With its long and rich histor ...

. In 1910 he traveled to the

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

boundary to study local populations, completing his thesis in 1914 on ''The Mountain Tribes of Northeastern Burma''. Heine-Geldern performed military service during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, then worked at the

Naturhistorisches Museum The Natural History Museum Vienna (german: Naturhistorisches Museum Wien) is a large natural history museum located in Vienna, Austria. It is one of the most important natural history museums worldwide. The NHM Vienna is one of the largest museum ...

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

. His research combined ethnological, pre-historical and archaeological concepts, and in 1923 pioneered the field of

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...

n anthropology with his chapter "Sϋdostasien" in G. Buschan's ''Illustrierte Völkerkunde''. He began teaching at the

in 1927, where he became Professor in 1931. From 1938 through

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, he lived as a refugee in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, where he worked at the

American Museum of Natural History The American Museum of Natural History (abbreviated as AMNH) is a natural history museum on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. In Theodore Roosevelt Park, across the street from Central Park, the museum complex comprises 26 inter ...

. At this time he was instrumental in creation of the

Southeast Asia Institute The Southeast Asia Institute was an early academic institute devoted to Southeast Asian studies. It is said to be the first United States institution employing the term "Southeast Asia". History The Institute was originally organized as the East In ...

in the United States (1941). He returned to Vienna in 1950 where he joined the Ethnology Institute. He died in Vienna. Heine-Geldern was active in starting

Southeast Asian studies Southeast Asian studies (SEAS) refers to research and education on the language, culture, and history of the different states and ethnic groups of Southeast Asia. Some institutions refer to this discipline as ASEAN Studies since most of the countr ...

as an academic field, and his essay on "Conceptions of State and Kingship in Southeast Asia," (1942) is now classic. He was awarded a medal by the

Viking Fund Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and s ...

, and was a member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences,

Royal Asiatic Society The Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, commonly known as the Royal Asiatic Society (RAS), was established, according to its royal charter of 11 August 1824, to further "the investigation of subjects connected with and for the en ...

Royal Anthropological Institute The Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland (RAI) is a long-established anthropological organisation, and Learned Society, with a global membership. Its remit includes all the component fields of anthropology, such as biolo ...

, and the

École française d'Extrême-Orient The French School of the Far East (french: École française d'Extrême-Orient, ), abbreviated EFEO, is an associated college of PSL University dedicated to the study of Asian societies. It was founded in 1900 with headquarters in Hanoi in wh ...

Selected works

* "Gibt es eine austroasiatische Rasse?", Archiv für Anthropologie (XLVI), 1921, pp. 79–99. * "Südostasien," in G. Buschan (ed.), Illustrierte Völkerkunde, (Stuttgart: Strecker und Schröder, 1923), II, i, pp. 689–968. * ''Altjavanische Bronzen aus dem Besitz der Ethnographischen Sammlung des Naturhistorischen Museums in Wien'', (Wien: C. W.Stern,1925), Artis Thesaurus I. * "Eine Szene aus dem Sutasoma - Jataka auf hinterindischen und indonesischen Schwertgriffen," IPEK, ''Jahrbuch für Prahistorische und Ethnographische Kunst'' (1), 1925, pp. 198–238. * "Die Steinzeit Südostasiens," ''Mitteilungen der Anthropologischen Gesellschaft in Wien'' (LVII), 1927, pp. 47–54. * "Ein Beitrag zur Chronologic des Neolithikums in Südostasien," in W. Koppers (ed.), ''Publication d'Hommage Offerte au P. W. Schmidt'' (Wien: Mechithaπsten-Congregations-Buchdruckerei, 1928), pp. 809–843. * "Die Megalithen Südostasiens und ihre Bedeutung für die Klärung der Megalithenfrage in Europa und Polynesien," Anthropos (XXIII), 1928, pp. 276–315. * "Weltbild und Bauform in Südostasien," ''Wiener Beiträge zur Kunst und Kultur Asiens'' (IV), 1928-1929, pp. 28–78. * "Urheimat und früheste Wanderungen der Austronesier," Anthropos (XXVII), 1932, pp. 543–619. * "Vorgeschichtliche Grundlagen der kolonialindischen Kunst," ''Wiener Beiträge zur Kunst- und Kulturgeschichte'' (VIII), 1934, pp. 5–4θ. * "The Archeology and Art of Sumatra," in E. M. Loeb (ed.), ''Sumatra: Its History and People'' (Vienna: University of Vienna, 1935), pp. 305–331. * "L'art prébouddhique de la Chine et de l'Asie du Sud-Est et son influence en Océanie," ''Revue des Arts Asiatiques'' (XI), 1937, pp. 177–206. * "Conceptions of State and Kingship in Southeast Asia," Far Eastern Quarterly (II), 1942, pp. 15–30. Revised version: Ithaca: Southeast Asia Program Data Paper #18, Cornell University, 1956. * ''A Survey of Studies on Southeast Asia at American Universities and Colleges'' (New York: East Indies Institute of America, 1943). * "Prehistoric Research in the Netherlands Indies," in P. Honig and F. Verdoorn (eds.), ''Science and Scientists in the Netherlands Indies'' (New York: Board for the Netherlands Indies, Surinam and Curaçao, 1945). Reprint: (New York: Southeast Asia Institute, 1945), pp. 129–167. * "Research on Southeast Asia: Problems and Suggestions," American Anthropologist (XLVIII), 1946, pp. 149–174. * "The Drum named Makalamau," in ''India Antigua. A Volume of Oriental Studies Presented to J. P. Vogel'' (Leyden: E. J. Brill, 1947), pp. 167–179. * "Indonesian Art," United Asia (I), 1949, pp. 402–411. * ''Significant parallels in the symbolic arts of Southern Asia and Middle America'', 1951. * "Bronzegeräte auf Flores," Anthropos (XLIX), 1954, pp. 683–685. * "Herkunft und Ausbreitung der Hochkulturen," Almanach der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1955, p. 105. * "The Coming of the Aryans and the End of the Harappa Civilization," Man, Vol 56, pp136–140, October 1956. * "Zwei alte Weltanschauungen und ihre kulturgeschichΐliche Bedeutung," Anzeiger der phil.- hist. Klasse der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften (No. 17), 1957, pp. 251–262. * "Steinurnen- und Tonurnenbestattung in Südostasien," Der Schlern (No. 32), 1958, pp. 135–138.

References

* Gérald Gaillard, ''The Routledge Dictionary of Anthropologists'', translated by Peter James Bowman and James Bowman, Routledge, 2004, p. 223. . * Vinigi L. Grottanelli, "Robert Heine-Geldern's Contribution to Historical Ethnology", Current Anthropology, Vol. 10, No. 4 (Oct., 1969), pp. 374–376. * Claire Holt, "In Memoriam: Robert Heine-Geldern", Indonesia 6 (October 1968), 188-192. * Verena Neller: ''Robert Heine-Gelderns Exilzeit in den USA 1938–1949'' in: Andre Gingrich; Peter Rohrbacher (Hg.), Völkerkunde zur NS-Zeit aus Wien (1938–1945): Institutionen, Biographien und Praktiken in Netzwerken (Phil.-hist. Kl., Sitzungsberichte 913; Veröffentlichungen zur Sozialanthropologie 27/3). Wien: Verlag der ÖAW 2021, S. 1529–1652. doi:10.1553/978OEAW86700

External links

Heine-Geldern, Robert Freiherr von
on Austria-Forum.

Biography

Selected works

References

External links

See also