Theodor Koch-Grünberg (April 9, 1872, in

Grünberg, Hesse Grünberg () is a town in the district of Gießen, in Hessen, Germany. In 1980, the town hosted the 20th ''Hessentag'' state festival. Geography Grünberg is situated east of Gießen. Neighbouring communities To the north Grünberg borders ...

German Empire The German Empire (),Herbert Tuttle wrote in September 1881 that the term "Reich" does not literally connote an empire as has been commonly assumed by English-speaking people. The term literally denotes an empire – particularly a hereditary ...

– October 8, 1924, in

Caracaraí Caracaraí () is a municipality located in the state of Roraima in Brazil. Its population is 22,283 and its area is , making it the largest municipality in Roraima state. Caracaraí is located on the Branco River. Overview Caracaraí was found ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

) was a German ethnologist and explorer who made a valuable contribution to the study of the

Indigenous peoples in South America The Indigenous peoples of South America or South American Indigenous peoples, are the pre-Colombian peoples of South America and their descendants. These peoples contrast with South Americans of European ancestry and those of African descent. ...

, in particular the

Pemon The Pemon or Pemón (Pemong) are indigenous people living in areas of Venezuela, Brazil, and Guyana.See pp.112,113 and 178 of ''Venezuela: the Pemon'', in ''Condé Nast Traveler'', December 2008. They are also known as Arecuna, Aricuna Jaricuna, ...

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

and other indigenous peoples in the

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon (company), an American multinational technology c ...

region extending South-Western Brazil and a large part of the Vaupés region in Colombia.Kraus, M. (2010). De la teoría al indio. Experiencias de investigación de Theodor Koch-Grünberg. Maguaré, (24), 13. The 2015 film ''El abrazo de la serpiente'' ('' Embrace of the Serpent'') fictionalizes his illness and final days based on his journals. He was played by actor .

Profiles

Early life

Following his studying

humanities Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture. In the Renaissance, the term contrasted with divinity and referred to what is now called classics, the main area of secular study in universities at the t ...

at the

University of Tübingen The University of Tübingen, officially the Eberhard Karl University of Tübingen (german: Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen; la, Universitas Eberhardina Carolina), is a public research university located in the city of Tübingen, Baden-Wü ...

, Koch-Grünberg obtained a doctorate in philosophy at

Würzburg Würzburg (; Main-Franconian: ) is a city in the region of Franconia in the north of the German state of Bavaria. Würzburg is the administrative seat of the ''Regierungsbezirk'' Lower Franconia. It spans the banks of the Main River. Würzburg is ...

with a thesis on the

Guaicuruan languages Guaicuruan (Guaykuruan, Waikurúan, Guaycuruano, Guaikurú, Guaicuru, Guaycuruana) is a language family spoken in northern Argentina, western Paraguay, and Brazil (Mato Grosso do Sul). The speakers of the languages are often collectively called ...

. In 1896, he travelled to Brazil for the first time as a member of an expedition led by Hermann Meyer in search of the source of the

Xingu River The Xingu River ( ; pt, Rio Xingu, ; Mẽbêngôkre: ''Byti'', ) is a river in north Brazil. It is a southeast tributary of the Amazon River and one of the largest clearwater rivers in the Amazon basin, accounting for about 5% of its water. ...

, a tributary of the

Amazon River The Amazon River (, ; es, Río Amazonas, pt, Rio Amazonas) in South America is the largest river by discharge volume of water in the world, and the disputed longest river system in the world in comparison to the Nile. The headwaters of t ...

First expedition

From 1903–1905, Koch-Grünberg explored the Yapura River and the Rio Negro up to the border of

. In 1906, he published photogravures of a number of natives he encountered on the expedition in his monumental "Indianertypen aus dem Amazonasgebiet nach eigenen Aufnahmen während seiner Reise in Brasilien" (1906). A written account of Koch-Grünberg's trip, which included his study of the

Baniwa Baniwa (also known with local variants as Baniva, Baniua, Curipaco, Vaniva, Walimanai, Wakuenai) are indigenous South Americans, who speak the Baniwa language belonging to the Maipurean (Arawak) language family. They live in the Amazon Region, ...

, was published in two volumes in 1910-11 under the title of ''Zwei Jahre Unter Den Indianern. Reisen in Nord West Brasilien, 1903-1905'' (''Two Years Among the Indians. Travels in North-West Brazil''). He illustrated his account with photographs and his descriptions of Brazilian tribes are still used by anthropologists and ethnologists to this day.

Second expedition and later career

Koch-Grünberg's second major expedition started in 1911. It took him from

Manaus Manaus () is the capital and largest city of the Brazilian state of Amazonas. It is the seventh-largest city in Brazil, with an estimated 2020 population of 2,219,580 distributed over a land area of about . Located at the east center of the s ...

, up the Rio Branco to Mount Roraima in

, where he documented the myths and legends of the

and took many photographs. He incorrectly used the local names Arekuna and Taulipang to describe the indigenous groups he studied, but these are local names for the

. He then explored the Sierra Parima, the Caura River and the

Ventuari River The Ventuari River is the largest tributary of the Orinoco in southern Venezuela. The Ventuari flows from south-central Venezuela in the Guiana Highlands southwest into the Orinoco River. It is long and its major tributary is the Manapiare River. ...

, before reaching the

Orinoco River The Orinoco () is one of the longest rivers in South America at . Its drainage basin, sometimes known as the Orinoquia, covers , with 76.3 percent of it in Venezuela and the remainder in Colombia. It is the fourth largest river in the wor ...

on January 1, 1913. After spending a short time in

San Fernando de Atabapo San Fernando de Atabapo is a town in southern Venezuela on the border with Colombia. It was the capital city of the Amazonas state until the early 1900s. The population in 1997 was approximately 5,000. In the early twentieth century it was ru ...

, at that time the capital of Amazonas Federal Territory, Koch-Grunberg continued his journey along the

Casiquiare The Casiquiare river () is a distributary of the upper Orinoco flowing southward into the Rio Negro, in Venezuela, South America. As such, it forms a unique natural canal between the Orinoco and Amazon river systems. It is the world's largest ...

canal, which links the

system with the Amazon, via the Rio Negro. He then returned to Manaus, before returning to Germany to produce his most important work, ''Vom Roraima Zum Orinoco'' (''From Roraima to the Orinoco''), published in 1917.

Later career and death

Koch-Grünberg does not, in his writing, often complain about privations regarding food and shelter. Based on his account ''Two Years Among the Indians...'' he appeared not to have taken precautions against

malaria Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects humans and other animals. Malaria causes symptoms that typically include fever, tiredness, vomiting, and headaches. In severe cases, it can cause jaundice, seizures, coma, or death. S ...

, but in ''From Roraima to the Orinoco'' (page 88, German edition), he describes how he protected himself with

quinine Quinine is a medication used to treat malaria and babesiosis. This includes the treatment of malaria due to ''Plasmodium falciparum'' that is resistant to chloroquine when artesunate is not available. While sometimes used for nocturnal leg cr ...

, following a German tropical medicine handbook for non-doctors (A. Plehn: ''Kurzgefasste Vorschriften zur Verhütung und Behandlung der wichtigsten tropischen Krankheiten bei Europäern und Eingeborenen für Nichtärzt''e). He was the director of

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

's Ethnographic Museum, where many of the items he collected on his travels are stored. Koch-Grünberg died suddenly in Brazil in 1924 after contracting malaria on an expedition with the American explorer, geographer, and physician

Alexander H. Rice, Jr. Alexander Hamilton Rice Jr. (August 29, 1875July 23, 1956) was an American physician, geographer, geologist and explorer especially noted for his expeditions to the Amazon Basin. He was professor of geography at Harvard University from 1929 to ...

and the Portuguese-Brazilian cinematographer

Silvino Santos Silvino Simões Santos Silva (1886, in Cernache do Bonjardim, Portugal – 14 May 1970, in Manaus, Brazil) was a Portuguese-born cinematographer and photographer who emigrated and worked in Brazil. He is known for his role as director of the 1922 ...

to map the upper reaches of the Rio Branco. The film of the expedition was entitled ''The Trail of El Dorado''.

References

External links

*
Researchproject Koch-Grünberg papers, publications by Michael Kraus at Marburg University (German site)
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Koch-Grunberg, Theodor 1872 births 1924 deaths People from Grünberg, Hesse